<B>Barbara Matera dies</B> <P>BY TOM RAND in The Independent <P><BR>FOR OVER 40 years Barbara Matera brought the world of haute couture to the world of entertainment. She was probably the most eminent maker of costumes for theatre, opera, ballet, television and film in the world. The costumes that she and her large workroom in New York made were crafted with all the skill, expertise, magic and indeed love as the most glamorous and complex creations of the haute couture houses in Paris. Every costume was unique; they were as beautiful inside as out. Indeed, when in 1996 the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts had an exhibition of the work of Barbara Matera, it was entitled "Inside and Out". <P>Born Barbara Gray in Hythe, Kent, in 1929, she started working for the Ballet Rambert, the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon and the Old Vic Theatre Company. <P><BR><A HREF="http://globalarchive.ft.com/globalarchive/article.html?id=010921000616&query=ballet" TARGET=_blank><B>more....</B></A><P>****************************<P><B>In Memoriam: Barbara Matera</B><P>By David Barbour in Entertainment Design<P><BR>Barbara Matera, owner of the premier costume house serving the New York theatre, died on September 13 at NYU Medical Center in New York. She was 72. The cause of death was a cerebral hemorrhage, said her husband Arthur Matera.<BR>Born Barbara Gray in Kent, England, she began her career in London with the Adelphi Players in Covent Garden, the Ballet Romberg in Stratford-on-Avon, and the Old Vic. She eventually opened her own company, Scott/Gray, Ltd. She moved to the United States in 1960, and began working in the studio of costume designer Ray Diffen. In 1968, founded Barbara Matera Ltd., with her husband. It quickly drew the patronage of top costume designers in opera, ballet, the theatre and film.<BR> <P><BR><A HREF="http://www.industryclick.com/magnewsarticle.asp?newsarticleid=232703&magazineid=138&SiteID=15" TARGET=_blank><B>more....</B></A> <P> <P><p>[This message has been edited by Stuart Sweeney (edited September 21, 2001).]

I am deeply saddened by this news. It truly is the end of an era. However I believe her shop will continue to go strong as she surroundd herself with the industry's best and brightest. Though her legacy will live on, we will all miss her.