[This is a guest post by Gianna Wichelow, senior communications manager, creative]

There has been a stunning group of entries for our Cinderella Outfit Challenge, which is now in its final stages of judging. While we await the outcome, here’s the story behind the COC’s Cinderella doll!

When we were preparing the Canadian Opera Company’s 2010/2011 season brochure, we took as our theme the idea of “found objects.” Each opera was represented by something that you might find in an old box in your attic, or on a shelf, something with a personal touch that would resonate with a theme from the opera.

The creative team consisted of Mark Olson, photographer; Rita Poole, producer; Jeffrey Halcro, creative director at Endeavour Marketing (the COC’s agency of record); and Genevieve Wiseman, props stylist. The COC team consisted of Jeremy Elbourne, director of marketing, and me, senior communications manager, creative.

As we saw in the previous blog post about the costumes in Ariadne auf Naxos, many of the characters are seen in two modes: "backstage," waiting to perform their roles, and "onstage," in the context of the play-within-a-play. The Prologue of the opera (which takes place backstage at a theatre) is set in the present day, while the opera proper is set in a theatrical dream world. In these photos we can see how that contrast plays out for the character of one of the opera's comic performers, Scaramuccio. Scaramuccio will be played by Ensemble Studio member Christopher Enns, who most recently performed the role of Tamino in our Ensemble Studio special performance of The Magic Flute. The sketch for one of Scaramuccio's costumes is at the top left. All designs here were created by Ariadne's set and costume designer, Dale Ferguson.

Director Neil Armfield imagined the troupe of comic performers as having met and gotten their start performing at University. Here's Scaramuccio's "backstage" outfit, which wouldn't be out of place for a University student.