The arias of opera have met their match in a dynamic display by sculptor E. V. Day, whose deconstructed dresses threaded on taut fishing wire explode across the promenade of Lincoln Centers newly renovated David H. Koch Theater like a timpani fill.

With these suspended sculptures, based on costumes from the New York City Operas archive, Day — a Deitch Projects artist who previously installed two dueling wedding gowns, titled Bride Fight, at art-collector Aby Rosen's Lever House in 2006 — pays playful homage to the tragic and triumphant heroines of opera.

Invited by New York City Opera artistic director George Steel to comb through the company’s closets for material, Day dismantled and reimagined the dresses, relying on the character’s arc as well as the history of the role to help reveal the secrets of theatrical costuming — and to honor the performers who wore them. “Costumes have so much past," says Day. "They’re like carcasses." So she has “taken out the innards,” as she puts it, deconstructing and transforming the frilly crinolines and flowing robes into dynamic sculptures that almost still appear to be inhabited.

Many of opera's most iconic characters make appearances in the installation. The lacy dress worn by Violetta in Verdis La Traviata has been stripped to its bones and stays, a hovering testament to the heroine's strength of character. Cinderella’s dual identity is conveyed with two dresses, her ball gown shedding away to reveal her scullery-maid garb. Carmen’s dress features panels of black lace, which swirl among suspended red roses.

Two of the works riff on characters that appear in the company’s current season. Skirt Chaser is made of a multi-tiered petticoat disturbed by a pair of black fur-lined gloves — an allusion to the randy hero of Mozarts Don Giovanni — while the painted cranes that decorate the kimono worn by Cio-Cio San in Puccinis Madama Butterfly are sliced out and given flight on silvery wires.

Working with delicate lace and silk has its difficulties, but “the challenge was more about how to bring out each character’s story, to transform it and keep it intact at the same time,” says Day. Still, she couldn’t resist adding a few feminist tweaks: In her version, it is not Don José, but Carmen who wields the knife.

E. V. Day's installation is on view to ticket holders through April 18. For more information, visit nycopera.com