Blog: Creating MN Opera’s 2024-2025 Season Artwork
Meet the local designers behind the show artwork for MN Opera’s productions of Romeo and Juliet, The Snowy Day, and The Barber of Seville
Minnesota Opera announced its 2024-2025 lineup in February, sparking anticipation for a new season which features two audience favorites with Charles Gounod’s Romeo and Juliet and Gioachino Rossini’s The Barber of Seville as well as a freshly reorchestrated MN Opera premiere of Joel Thompson and Andrea Davis Pinkney’s The Snowy Day. But while the unveiling of these titles and the performers and designers who will bring them to life at the Ordway was naturally a forward-looking occasion, it was also the culmination of a months-long process for another group of creatives whose work will make an impression on audiences long before any rehearsals have been scheduled – the graphic designers responsible for creating the artwork that will represent the season.
To help create the visual identity for the 2024-2025 season, MN Opera’s Senior Designer Genie Hien Tran employed the help of two local artists – Crystal Xayana, then a Graphic Design Intern with MN Opera, and Leeya Rose Jackson, a freelance multidisciplinary artist and designer originally from Detroit but now based in Minneapolis. For Tran, the opportunity to engage these artists represented a way to enact MN Opera’s vision to sing every story. “Visuals play a big part in storytelling, obviously through costume and set design but also through the artwork,” said Tran. “‘Singing every story’ to me includes involving diverse voices and talents in the making of the artwork, hence the decision to bring in multiple designers.” Xayana would be responsible for the artwork for Romeo and Juliet, Jackson would design for The Snowy Day, and Tran would handle The Barber of Seville.
Tran was also faced with the challenge of incorporating three distinct design styles for three very distinct operas into a cohesive season package. After plenty of consideration, the team settled on an approach that would subtly emphasize the literary throughline that runs through each one – Romeo and Juliet is adapted from Shakespeare’s well-known tragedy, The Snowy Day remains to this day one of the most popular children’s books ever written, and The Barber of Seville originated as a stage play written in 1776 French playwright and sympathizer of the American Revolution, Pierre Beaumarchais. Taking inspiration from the illuminated manuscripts of the Medieval Period (and, as an added benefit, nodding briefly at the architectural elements depicted in the set designs for The Barber of Seville), Tran conceived of a dome-like figure that was eventually incorporated throughout MN Opera’s 2024-2025 season materials. From a design standpoint, this shape not only draws a line of connection between all three operas but also houses the diverse artistic approaches taken by Xayana, Jackson, and Tran.
It all began with research. For all three, it was important to first take the time to not only get a clear sense of how these works have been presented in the past but also get in the headspace of each piece. This involved reading synopses, watching performance clips, examining production photos, and searching for common themes in the artwork from previous productions of these operas.
As Tran began to create sketches for The Barber of Seville, words like “chaotic” and “messy” were top of mind, as well as “fun,” “enjoyable,” and “loving.” Xayana found, through research, that many companies have tended to feature a man and a woman in embrace to represent Romeo and Juliet and saw this as an opportunity to build on what had been done before. “Although this classic representation will never go away, I did wonder how I could portray a similar appeal without including a couple in the art.” Jackson drew inspiration from the ways in which other opera companies were able to bring to life the original book by Ezra Jack Keats, which is itself well-known for its visual imagery. “The most striking memory was of the vivid colors, like the red snowsuit and the pink bathtub. I found it intriguing that a book about a snowstorm could be so colorful. Given that my own art style also embraces vibrant colors and textures, I aimed to ensure these elements were prominent in my interpretation.”
Finally, through a process of brainstorming, sketching, and finetuning, the designs began to take shape, eventually resulting in the final products that can be seen in season brochures, across MN Opera’s website, and in the lobbies of the Ordway itself. From Xayana’s emotionally evocative smeared roses to the nostalgic yet striking color combinations featured by Jackson, to Tran’s eclectic and comic collage designs, the artwork for MN Opera’s 2024-2025 lineup are a beautiful and diverse representation of a season that does, truly, have something for everyone.
Be sure to click the photos or buttons below to learn more about each of the three designers and see their other work:
