Kristine Pasternaka
Guest of the OperaBiography
Kristīne Pasternaka, costume designer, was born in Latvia. She graduated from the Riga Art School as a painter and from the Latvian Academy of the Art as a textile artist. After her studies she freelanced and took part in exhibitions as a textile artist. Her first production was James Goldman'sThe Lion in Winter at the Latvian National Theatre, later followed by one hundred drama and opera productions, among them Strindberg's The Dance of Death, Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, Williams's The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore, Handel's Alcina, Verdi's Macbeth, Nabucco and Il trovatore, Wagner's Der fliegende Holländer, Lohengrin and Tannhäuser, Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Spades, Mozart's Don Giovanni, Puccini's Manon Lescaut and many others. She has been working as a costume designer in drama theatres and opera houses in Latvia, Estonia, Germany, Hungary, Austria, Croatia, Russia, Slovakia, Iceland, and Israel. Today she is a Head Costume Designer of the Latvian National Opera and a lecturer at the Latvian Academy of Arts, Department of Stage Design/Theatre Costume. Kristīne Pasternaka was three times awarded as the Best Costume Designer of the season in Latvia; two times she was a laureate of the Great Music Award as a costume designer for opera productions. In 2006, she was nominated for the Best Costume Designer in the International Critics' Survey of Opernwelt magazine.
Update: August 2013