Coming up in 2010/11: THE MAGIC FLUTE

Seattle Opera's upcoming season closes, next spring, with Mozart's beloved fantasy The Magic Flute. Seattle Opera favorite Chris Alexander (Ariadne auf Naxos, Tales of Hoffmann, Italian Girl in Algiers, Elektra) directs a new production, with scenery designed and built in-house at Seattle Opera. I got extremely excited after talking with Tech Director Robert Schaub about the scenic designs, which sound whimsical, fantastical, and striking; but no less exciting are the costumes, coming to us from San Diego Opera and marking the Seattle Opera debut of fashion diva Zandra Rhodes .

Rhodes in her La Jolla, CA studio

Rhodes, who opened her first store in London in 1967, has been called "the princess of punk" and was made a Commander of the British Empire for her contributions to fashion. Her Magic Flute costumes were her first foray into opera, created for San Diego Opera in 2001. She writes about desiging costumes for opera ON HER BLOG.

A few of her Magic Flute designs:

The Queen of the Night

Monostatos

A Slave

The "Pa-pa-pa" duet from the Act Two finale, in Dallas:

Papagena and Papageno

Costume Design for one of the deadly beasts who are charmed by the music of Tamino's Magic Flute

And here's an interview with Rhodes, made in the San Diego Opera costume shop, as her Magic Flute costumes were first being created: