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The five members of the Met's make-up department are ready, sometimes hours before each performance, with brushes, foundations, highlighters, paints and prosthetic pieces to put the faces of the artists in character. For most roles, this means emphasizing the natural bone structure or re-sculpting it with color to hide weaknesses and blemishes and make a face that will "read" in the large theater.
Character roles require more work and preparation. The make-up department created elevated polyfoam skulls with knobby foreheads and long manes of yak hair for Das Rheingold's Fafner and Fasolt. Aida's forty chorus men get bald caps, and the Hansel and Gretel Witch gets a new nose and chin, as well as a green tongue. The make-up department stockpiles beards and moustaches, and gives the chorus and ballet and supers detailed instructions for applying their own make-up. Make-up artists remain on duty during the performance, ready to retouch if necessary.
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