MET Opera Archive Alert: Beverly Sills Costume On the Loose

Could the costume in question be Thais?

"Like so many New Yorkers making the move from Manhattan to Queens, the Theatre Development Fund was after one thing: closet space. That's a serious concern when your wardrobe includes 75,000 outfits and accessories. You can't just call up U-Haul. 'It's like moving your apartment. But a much, much, much bigger apartment,' said Stephen Cabral, director of the Fund's costume collection, which this week opened the doors at its new 16,000 square-foot space in the Kaufman Astoria Studios. Costumers are invited to search the racks for items for their productions or they can email their requirements and measurements. The Fund will send digital photos of the potential items, and then have the costumes mailed. You never know what you might get. A few years ago, Cabral was asked to send costumes for a theater company in Chicago that was putting on Follies. He soon got

Thais costume front

an email response: One of the young actors, an aspiring opera singer, looked at her new costume's label and burst into tears. It said 'The Metropolitan Opera' and, below that, 'Beverly Sills.' 'I thought, `There's a really good example of how little things like that can change lives,'' said Cabral, who started working with the collection 18 years ago and intuitively knows how to find virtually any item, even though the collection hasn't been fully inventoried or computerized." [Source] More guesses after the jump as to which Beverly Sills costume could have ended up in Follies.

Don Pasquale?

L'assedio di Corinto?

La Traviata?

Lucia di Lammermoor?