OperaBox's 2017 production of Manon was the first time that it had been performed in Perth, Western Australia with chorus and orchestra. For their last scene in the opera I wanted to give them something more exciting than the day wear of their previous two acts.

The Male Chorus made up the Gamblers in L'hotel Transylvanie (built during the reign of Louis XIII, still standing, and referenced in the original novel), while the Female Chorus were Croupieres.

In the Libretto, De Grieux refers to Manon as a 'sphinx' in Act 4, and we took this as artistic licence to reference the Egyptomania that had swept the world of design since the opening of Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922, and turned L'hotel Transylvanie into a themed, exclusive gambling parlour.

To give the Croupieres a more formal, subservient air, their dresses were long and high cut, and wore headdresses based on the Nekhbet crown, worn by Queens of Egypt.

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Epoisen: Stephanie Cullingford