New production opening tomorrow!

Philip Langridge, acclaimed for his portrayals of such diverse characters as Tito, Loge, Peter Grimes, or Tom Rakewell, takes on a new challenge when he makes his role debut as the Witch in the Met’s new Hansel and Gretel. To successfully transform the British tenor into the Brothers Grimm fairy-tale character, the Met hired make-up artist Louie Zakarian. “When they asked me if I was interested, I said of course,” he said during a rehearsal on Tuesday. “I thought it would be a fun opportunity to work at the Met. I’d never done it before so I was more than thrilled to be here.” Even though this is his first opera, Zakarian is a veteran of stage and screen. “I did some Broadway, and I do a lot of television. I designed Saturday Night Live, I’ve been doing that for 13 years. And then I do a lot of movies.” Most recently, he built 30 identical soldier’s heads for a scene in Across the Universe, the Julie Taymor film that came out this fall.

Creating the look of the Witch took a lot of careful preparation. “They took a cast of Philip’s face in London,” Zakarian explains. “They use a special material that covers the entire face and then put plaster over it. It takes about 25 minutes, then you pop it off and fill it with plaster, and once it sets and you peel it all off you’re left with this.” He holds up what looks like a sand-colored, three-dimensional mask. “It’s an exact copy of Philip’s face, with every line, every pore on it.” It’s what Zakarian needs as the basis for his own work. “What I do on top of this,” he continues, “is sculpting the prosthetic appliance. I take clay and just sculpt what I want it to look like. Once I’ve got all the sculpture done I take more plaster and build that up on top of it.” After it sets, he opens up the two halves, getting a negative impression of the Witch’s face. “Then there’s a material called foam latex that I whip in a big whipper. It’s like the one Philip has on stage to make whipped cream, it’s the same exact thing, it looks like whipped cream. I pour that into the mould, and the cast of Philip’s face is pressed into the mould. Then I put it in the oven for three hours, it bakes—I have a big bakery—then I open up the two pieces and I’m left with the prosthetic.” Each one of the foam latex pieces can only be used once. “I glue it onto Philip’s face,” Zakarian says, “blending off all the edges and then painting it.” The process takes about an hour and a half. “Well, we’ve been doing it in about an hour,” he adds. “And then another 20 minutes to get out of it at the end of the day.” Zakarian will be spending a lot of time at the Met during the next couple of weeks, and he’s not the only one enjoying it. “My wife loves opera, and when I told her about it, she said, Great, now we’ll finally get to go. She’s been dying for me to take her to the opera, and now we’re here!”



Tenor Philip Langridge…



…becomes the Witch!


Photo: Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera

This entry was posted by Philipp Brieler on Sunday, December 23rd, 2007 at 8:33 am and is filed under Hansel and Gretel, New Production Countdown. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.