Friday, May 14, 2010

Isaac Mizrahi to Discuss A Little Night Music at Ethical Society on Monday, May 17


Join Isaac Mizrahi, director and designer, and Stephen Lord, Opera Theatre of St. Louis music director, "Spotlight on Opera Series: Sondheim Goes to the Opera," a discussion of A Little Night Music, at the Ethical Society, 9001 Clayton Road, on Monday, May 17, at 7:30 p.m. Moderated by general director Timothy O'Leary.

General admission is $10; students with valid i.d. may purchase tickets for $5. Tickets are available by calling the box office at (314) 961-0644.

Derek Blasberg of the Style File Blog reports that
Directing was the next logical step for the full-time fashion designer, who has already designed sets and costumes for other productions and even performed a one-man show Off Broadway in 2000. "This is my first time directing, but it feels like something I've been doing forever," Mizrahi explained, adding that his fashion gigs aren’t too dissimilar to what he does backstage. "There are surely some similarities: sticking to your guns, learning how to listen to people -— but then you just have to make it happen!" While he's mum on the specifics he's been working on for the past two years, he did offer up some sketches [click link to view] and some projections. He’s envisioning some elements out of A Midsummer Night’s Dream: the woods, the color green, and the whimsy of characters like Shakespeare’s Mustard Seed and Pease Blossom, all of which seems appropriate for Sondheim’s fairy-tale Sweden, where, as the lyrics have it, the sun doesn’t set.

In an interview with St. Louis Magazine's Stefene Rusell, Mizrahi explained why he made his directorial debut in St. Louis:
"It’s like this cozy kind of opera hamlet," Mizrahi says of Opera Theatre. "Last year, I worked at the Met with [mezzo-soprano] Stephanie Blythe. She was waiting to go onstage during dress rehearsal, and I was talking to Tom Watson, who is the wig master there, and also at Opera Theatre. I was telling him I was hoping he was doing the wigs. Stephanie turned to me and said, 'Are you working at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis?' And I said yes, and she said, 'God, like everyone in the world works at that damn thing!' So you see, everyone in the world will see this -- yet it's such a wonderful, nurturing environment. It's experimental enough, it's polished enough, it's homey enough, and international enough -- it just feels right for me to be working there first."

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