AIDA OPERA LIVE

PIA NORBERG

mask design

MANGEMENT

Concept

I work closely with directors, costume designers, producers and actors/singers/dancers to conceptualize and define the desired look for each character.

My team and I need to be able to apply different make-up and hair techniques on this basis to achieve the desired look.

Organization

I am responsible for the budget and personnel management of the make-up team.

I ensure that resources and budgets are used effectively and monitor the quality and working hours of the team.

I also ensure compliance with the safety and hygiene regulations for the use of make-up artist products.

Personnel

Make-up artists and actors have to harmonize well with each other personally. The right composition of the team inspires the preparation and application of make-up and hair.

Craft

MASK DESIGN

From the artistic concept to the final realization, I create masks and mask parts that are perfectly tailored to the respective requirements.

Hair & make-up

I design and realize make-up and hairstyles that emphasize the personality and features of the character and have the best possible effect, especially on stage.

Wig Design

I design and create perfectly coordinated wigs and hairpieces using my extensive knowledge of styles and styles.

Musicians:inside

Dancers

Choir

Extras:inside

Children's ballet

Head Make-up Artist - Hair & Make-up Design
2022-2024

Opera in XXL format

As head make-up artist for AIDA: The Arena Opera Spectacle, I have been part of an extraordinary total work of art from the very beginning. What we have created here is far more than just an opera production. It is a sensual experience, an immersion in ancient Egypt with all its visual power, drama and beauty.

Even before the large Hanseatic Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Michael Ellis Ingram plays the first notes, the journey of the audience and for my team and me often begins many hours earlier. The audience enters the arena and seems to be standing at the foot of an Egyptian temple. They smell lotus, spices, pine resin and the water of the Nile, an atmosphere that we also take up in the make-up concept with great attention to detail.

The entire arena is our stage. Performers appear from all directions, moving through the middle of the audience. A special challenge for the make-up artists – every hairstyle and every make-up must not only look good from a distance, but also stand up to close-up: Sweat, wind, strong stage lighting, quick costume changes.

Radames’ aria is sung in the middle of the audience, exactly where make-up artists can no longer intervene spontaneously.

Soldiers, priests, courtiers – up to 250 participants on a stage measuring 800 square meters. My job is not only to create authentic and characterful looks, but also to create a make-up system that works on this scale: efficient, reliable and artistically convincing.

And then there are those special moments: When Aida and Radames – two figures in the middle of a monumental spectacle – suddenly bring everything to a standstill with their love. In these moments, fireworks, video walls and temple backdrops almost disappear behind a glance, a song, a tear – and I know that our work has helped to make this magic possible.