Passau Tourism
Between Fine Fabrics and Thrills
There are hundreds of costumes that bear Heidi Höller's signature. Dresses from all eras, fine suits or fantasy robes worn by actors on stage at the Landestheater Niederbayern, the state theatre of Lower Bavaria: the master tailor and her team make all of these in the studio at the Passau City Theatre. Singer Nadine Germann has just arrived for a fitting. She has put on a bright red, knee-length dress. "Let me see how this one fits," Heidi Höller says, feeling over the embroidery at the waist. Every detail is important so that Nadine Germann can twirl smoothly across the stage. "Our artists have to breathe, put power into movement and voice, have legroom," she explains.
The 56-year-old has been working in the Landestheater Niederbayern costume department in Passau for 32 years. In 1991, she started as a temporary help. Three years later, she became the director. "Over 200 productions," she estimates, Heidi Höller has supervised in three decades. She can think of countless highlights from those years. She tells of the effort required for a "disco ball costume: It was a black skin-tight full-body suit that we completely covered with mirror foil plates." She talks about the number of garments in the operetta "The White Horse Inn (originally “Im Weißen Rössl”)," in which the many choir members and extras alone change costumes three times. Sometimes traditional costumes, sometimes plate skirts, sometimes tree costumes: "That was a lot, it was quite enormous," Heidi Höller says.
And she tells of the thrill. In "The Valkyrie” (originally “Die Walküre”), part of the opera cycle "The Ring of the Nibelung" (originally “Ring der Nibelungen”), a character goes up in blazing flames. The challenge: a costume that burns and a performer who remains unharmed. "I did a lot of research about the suits, for example, that Formula One drivers wear. I talked to our pyrotechnician. And I went to the bell foundry," Heidi Höller says. There, employees are exposed to extremely high temperatures and wear special suits. "I was allowed to borrow one of those. We smeared burning paste on it and tried it out," she says. It worked. The suit burned every single performance. The wearer is fine.
www.landestheater-niederbayern.de
