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The members of the creative team attending were Director Paul Curran, Scenic and Costume Designer Gary McCann, Lighting Designer, Paul Hackenmueller, and Projection Designer Driscoll Otto. (July 11, 2017)
Director Paul Curran began the discussion by talking about the process he and his team employed to develop this version of Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera. This relatively short opera is currently very topical. The story itself is a combination of an Alexander Pushkin fairy tale, “The Golden Cock,” and Washington Irving’s “Legend of the Arabian Astrologer,” part of The Alhambra. Pushkin and Irving wrote about Nicholas I who wanted to make Russia “great again.” The original opera was banned in Russia because of its political allegory. It was performed in Paris as a ballet. Rimsky-Korsakov didn’t live to see the premier of this opera. This opera presents a world of magic that is nevertheless a moral tale. Curran hopes that audiences leave with more questions than answers. Are the Astrologer and the Queen the only real characters?
 The stage design is relatively abstract and exaggerated. The stage is elevated which helps to lift up the cast. The enormous throne is 16 feet high, making the king appear childlike. The Tsar is an inept ruler who leads his kingdom to disaster, and the two princes are complete idiots. In Act 2, the battle has taken place and the set is nest-like. The set was designed for this space, and is open at the back to feature the Santa Fe landscape. The team will rethink the design for the co-production at Dallas Opera.
The video projections are very extensive. The cockerel is a projected 3-D character, animated to reflect what the cock is singing. Six projectors are used to enhance the set design, helping the audience understand the emotional and intellectual impact of the scene. Six weeks of trial and error are needed to figure out what works technically, and what works to tell the story. But it's not until the first stage rehearsal that all the pieces come together, making a very short time frame to test and make changes. The ten minutes of cockerel movements take over 14 hours of rendering. The lighting design complements the projections  and serves as a transition to the story telling.
The fabrics for the costumes are based on authentic period fabrics used by the Ballets Russes. The bright and colorful designs have been printed on polyester twill from such high quality photographs that the original mends can be seen. The borderline kitsch costumes signify a foolish court. The bowyers clothes are full length, requiring the men to learn to move without tripping themselves.
Two dance sequences remain in the opera. Both are silly dances. The Queen’s dance with a fan is seductive, and she forces the Tsar to humiliate himself by dancing. Overall, body language can be considered choreography, each motion helps tell the story.
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