Kentaro Kameyama of "Project Runway" Composes Opera on Alexander McQueen
Alexander McQueen’s fashions had a flair for the theatrical. A few years after he committed suicide in 2010, a play, titled "McQueen," was produced about the lauded designer in London. Currently in development is "The Passion of McQueen." It’s a new opera recounting the final hour of the designer’s life.
Its' first performance in front of an audience will take place March 1, at the Boston Court Pasadena performing arts center in Pasadena, Calif. Like everything else McQueen, it's popular. It's already sold out, said opera producer David Castillo, who also will sing the role of McQueen.
Giving the opera added fashion cachet is "Project Runway" winner Kentaro Kameyama . He was trained as a classical pianist and he composed the opera's music. At the March 1 concert, Kameyama will be playing the piano for the opera, which he described as having a minimalist sound.
Opera director Diana Wyenn said that the 60-minute opera is a work in progress. The opera’s libretto was composed by William Nedved. It features McQueen receiving a visitation from Isabella Blow, the magazine editor who discovered McQueen, and later had a falling out with him, Castillo said. “McQueen’s world was fantasy. He brought it to reality,” he said. "The opera is a study on brilliance, depression and the nature of reality and illusion." Mezzo-soprano Peabody Southwell will sing the role of the magazine editor.
Some garments being used in the March 1 performance were exhibited earlier this month in Kameyama’s New York Fashion Week show. He’ll flex his strength in fashion for this project. He is slated to design costumes for the chamber opera. Future performances of "The Passion of McQueen" might be produced in 2020, Castillo and Wyenn said.
