DATE: Thursday, November 13, 1997           TAG: 9711130233

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY CRAIG SHAPIRO, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   89 lines

STRIVING FOR ORIGINALITY SET DESIGNER PROVIDES FRAMEWORK FOR ``ELIXIR OF LOVE''

EDUARDO SICANGCO does not normally find himself at a loss for ideas.

He's designed sets and costumes for New York City Opera and Houston Grand Opera and has worked on Broadway, off-Broadway and with Radio City Music Hall. Projects this year alone include a world premiere musical, a new play and, most recently, a production in the Philippines of the ballet ``Romeo and Juliet.''

Soon, he'll be in Las Vegas to collaborate with spangly magicians Siegfried and Roy, and then he'll be off to Irvine, Calif., for Opera Pacific's ``The Daughter of the Regiment'' by Gaetano Donizetti.

That brings up ``The Elixir of Love.''

Sicangco didn't exactly leap at the offer when Virginia Opera recruited him to create sets and costumes for Donizetti's opera buffa, which opens Friday at the Harrison Opera House.

``I don't want them to see another tired production of happy peasants in dirndl skirts,'' he said. ``It's what happened when I was offered this opera. I said, `Oh my God, another happy-peasant opera with the grapes and trellises.' You know what I'm saying?''

Repetition is a designer's second-biggest sin, and Sicangco spelled that out when he and Worth Gardner, who is directing ``Elixir,'' met in New York.

``I said, `My God, Worth, I don't want to do anymore of this pictorial, picturesque countryside,' '' Sicangco said. ``It's been done and it's been done very well. I didn't want to repeat that. Worth was actually instrumental in the concept. He said, `Hey, listen. It is pictorial, so why not be blatantly picturesque? Wink at the audience. What about a giant gilded frame?'

``That phrase clicked in my mind, and I said, `Oh my God, you're absolutely right.' That gave me my out. Then I could bring in the trellises, bring in the grapevines. So, in effect, this opera, as we're doing it, is a series of staged pictures - hopefully, gorgeous staged pictures.''

Sicangco, who is working with Virginia Opera for the fifth time, used 6,000 sheets of gold leaf to create the frame, besting his personal record of 4,500 for the company's 1988 production of ``Manon.'' ``The neutral in this production is gold, believe it or not,'' he said.

Blatant + gold (EQ) easy call. But before he set about designing sets and costumes (the latter with Lars Andersen), Sicangco went through the same process he does whenever he works on an opera or ballet.

He listens to the music. Then he listens again. And again.

What he hears, and sees, is the full palette: colors, textures, finishes.

``It's hard to explain,'' said Sicangco, a native of the Philippines. ``When you listen to `Rhapsody in Blue,' don't you see blue? When I hear Stravinsky, I see reds and brilliant colors and metallics. There's a sweetness to `Elixir' that I found very affecting. I think the music gets richer and richer as the opera progresses, and you will see that.

``In plays, you are supposed to be subservient. You know, you're supposed to just take a back seat and let the play breathe, which is good. The opera experience, to me, is about people not only wanting to hear glorious music and glorious singing, but also wanting to be dazzled.

``So it's a visual experience as well as an aural experience - as well as an intellectual experience, hopefully. So that is my role as designer. People expect to see . . . I don't want to say opulence, but something their eyes can feast on.''

The role also requires something of a high-wire act. Sicangco doesn't want audiences to be so awed by his creations that they aren't paying attention to what is transpiring on stage.

He also realizes that some purists will be put off because he's tampered with tradition.

``You can't try and please everybody,'' Sicangco said. ``Ultimately, I think, you have to please the artist in you and, hopefully, opt for always doing something, if not new, that is at least fresh. That's the word I like to use in my work. I strive for it, anyway. I don't always succeed.

``But the purists will probably gawk and say, `Oh my God, what have they done to this piece?' To the purists, I say, `Yes, we are being fresh; however, we are also respecting the music of Donizetti. We're just reflecting it in a not quite so literal way.' ''

Besides, Sicangco wouldn't have it any other way.

``Why do it if you can't take any risks?'' he said. ``There will be people who love this and there will be people who will be offended. But they're reacting.

``The biggest sin you can commit in the theater is to have someone fall asleep on your production. You know what I mean? I do not like to design for tired businessmen in the audience. And if I do, I want them to wake up.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

IAN MARTIN/The Virginian-Pilot

Eduardo Sicangco at first was reluctant to design...

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