The somber dark three-piece suits with shirts with high collars worn by the men in charge of the girls were appropriate expression of a society that turned a blind eye on the factory-owner’s son-in-law with the predilection for sex with teenage girls.
The severe black uniforms that young women working in the mills were forced to wear symbolized the hardship of their lives spent in back-breaking work. Tattered clothing worn by poverty stricken farmers in Maine clearly demonstrated the bleak condition of their lives. When I met with director Francesca Zambello, we both agreed that little needed to be invented in designing the costumes. I found documentation about young women who worked in fabric mills in Maine, Vermont, and Massachusetts. Although photography had only just been invented in 1830s, I found good amount of photographic material, not only from the period but specifically from the North East of United States. I began the design by doing research into the period and place of the true story. I have always been interested in working on new plays and operas, and Emmeline promised to be a very special project.
Tobias Picker, then a young American composer made the story into an opera with the help of poet J.D. This powerful story attracted writer Judith Rossner, who turned the true story into a novel. Eventually it was discovered that the man she married was her son. She did not marry for many years until she fell in love with a man years younger than she, newcomer in town. Her family was never told what had happened. Her aunt helped to hide her secret by putting her child up for adoption. There she was made pregnant by the mill supervisor. When she was 13 years old, in order to help her impoverished parents and siblings, she was sent to work in a factory that manufactured cloth.
The Santa Fe Opera performance in 1996 marked the world premiere of this operaĮMMELINE was televised on PBS Great Performances in April 1997Įmmeline is an opera based on true story of the tragic fate of a young woman who grew up on a farm in Maine in the late 1830’s.
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