Photo Credit: Craig T. Mathew & Greg Grudt/Mathew Imaging

Editors' Notes

Costumes by Azzedine Alaïa and sets by Jean Nouvel for the LA Phil's production of Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro at Walt Disney Concert Hall led by Gustavo Dudamel, in collaboration with director Christopher Alden.

Photo Credit: Craig T. Mathew & Greg Grudt/Mathew Imaging

Editors' Notes

Costumes by Azzedine Alaïa and sets by Jean Nouvel for the LA Phil's production of Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro at Walt Disney Concert Hall led by Gustavo Dudamel, in collaboration with director Christopher Alden.

Photo Credit: Craig T. Mathew & Greg Grudt/Mathew Imaging

Editors' Notes

Costumes by Azzedine Alaïa and sets by Jean Nouvel for the LA Phil's production of Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro at Walt Disney Concert Hall led by Gustavo Dudamel, in collaboration with director Christopher Alden.

Photo Credit: Craig T. Mathew & Greg Grudt/Mathew Imaging

Editors' Notes

Costumes by Azzedine Alaïa and sets by Jean Nouvel for the LA Phil's production of Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro at Walt Disney Concert Hall led by Gustavo Dudamel, in collaboration with director Christopher Alden.

Photo Credit: Craig T. Mathew & Greg Grudt/Mathew Imaging

Editors' Notes

Costumes by Azzedine Alaïa and sets by Jean Nouvel for the LA Phil's production of Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro at Walt Disney Concert Hall led by Gustavo Dudamel, in collaboration with director Christopher Alden.

Editors' Notes

Costumes by Azzedine Alaïa and sets by Jean Nouvel for the LA Phil's production of Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro at Walt Disney Concert Hall led by Gustavo Dudamel, in collaboration with director Christopher Alden.

Photo Credit: Craig T. Mathew & Greg Grudt/Mathew Imaging

Editors' Notes

Costumes by Azzedine Alaïa and sets by Jean Nouvel for the LA Phil's production of Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro at Walt Disney Concert Hall led by Gustavo Dudamel, in collaboration with director Christopher Alden.

Photo Credit: Craig T. Mathew & Greg Grudt/Mathew Imaging

Editors' Notes

Costumes by Azzedine Alaïa and sets by Jean Nouvel for the LA Phil's production of Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro at Walt Disney Concert Hall led by Gustavo Dudamel, in collaboration with director Christopher Alden.

A closet filled with racks of striking Azzedine Alaïa clothes greeted guests who took their seats at Walt Disney Hall this May for the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s production of The Marriage of Figaro. Music director Gustavo Dudamel and director Christopher Alden gathered what L.A. Phil president Deborah Borda called “the Paris team” of both the Tunisian-born couturier and the architect Jean Nouvel who designed costumes and sets, respectively, for this year’s staging of the amorous Mozart opera. The two worked in Alaïa’s Paris kitchen over meals cooked by the couturier who is famous for regaling guests with his cuisine (in addition to his trademark dresses with fitted bodices and skirts that instantly create impossibly-nipped waists). The cast flew to Paris for fittings and also worked with both Alaïa and Nouvel during dress rehearsals in downtown L.A. at Walt Disney Hall. Here the two famed creatives, who are also longtime friends, discuss the innovative ideas behind this year’s sold-out second opera in the trilogy of Mozart compositions that will conclude in 2014 with Così fan tutte.

Do you have a favorite character in The Marriage of Figaro?

Alaïa: I like all of them. I give the same attention and equal interest to each of the characters. Everything happens in the space of a day, that’s what I like about it.

For last year’s Don Giovanni production, the Mulleavy sisters who design Rodarte talked of long discussions about characters and motivations and how that affected the clothes they created. How will your interpretation of Susanna’s character influence your designs for her or for Figaro?

Alaïa: I didn’t want to do period costumes. What I have tried to do is respect Mozart’s opera and respect each of the performers; I have tried to put every singer on the same level.

Do you think about the costumes and sets as one coherent piece of the opera or are they independent components?

Nouvel: We tried to have the context of the sets and costumes compliment each other. To me Azzedine Alaia is one of the most architectural costume designers. He works with patterns and geometry.

Photo by Craig T. Mathew & Greg Grudt/Mathew Imaging 

Pictured: Costumes by Azzedine Alaïa and sets by Jean Nouvel for the LA Phil’s production of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro at Walt Disney Concert Hall led by Gustavo Dudamel, in collaboration with director Christopher Alden.