The Kansas-born mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato, who has won multiple Grammy Awards and received the 2018 Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Opera, has commissioned Bulgarian designer Veselina Svilarska to create costumes for her latest project, her team has announced.

Regarded as one of the most gifted and imaginative artists of her generation, DiDonato has received standing ovations at some of the world's most prestigious venues, including Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, the Berlin State Opera, the Metropolitan Opera, and La Scala.

“When Joyce’s team approached me to work on her stage costumes for the tour, I was surprised and deeply honoured,” said Svilarska, founder and chief designer of the Bulgarian avant-garde fashion house Metamorphoza. The opera star said she was already familiar with the label’s work and believed its distinctive style would enhance her stage presence.

The large-scale production, Emily – No Prisoner Be, is inspired by the life and work of American poet Emily Dickinson. Svilarska said she drew on the inner world of the so-called “White Lady” – a poet of silence and depth whose words continue to resonate.

“In the design, I merged the Victorian restraint of Dickinson’s era with the asymmetrical shapes and lengths that characterise my work,” she explained.