ANDREW LOREN WEHLING
Costume Design & Technology
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If I Were You

BU Opera Institute — Joan & Edgar Booth Theater

Music by Jake Heggie — Libretto by Gene Scheer

Conductor: William Lumpkin — Director: Jim Petosa — Scenic Designer: Adam Hawkins — Costume Designer: Andrew Loren Wehling — Assistant Costume Design: Dante Gonzalez — Lighting Designer: Max Wallace — Photographer: Annie Kao

If I Were You (2019) is an opera in two acts loosely based on the 1947 novel Si j’étais vous… by Julien Green. In this modern telling of the Faust story, the Devil (Brittomara) makes a bargain with a dispirited writer named Fabian Hart.

He is given the supernatural power to move his soul and identity from person to person for as long as he likes; but, if he ever returns to his original body, he will die and the Devil will collect his soul. On his precarious journey to win the heart of his beloved Diana, he leaves a trail of human wreckage and hallow shells. In the end, will he choose to live forever as someone else, or die for love as himself?

When I dreamed of a world in which a man would covet the appearance of others to the point of losing his physical body I thought of the high fashion world and the aspirational illusions it sells. Inspiration for many characters came from real people seen loitering the streets during cosmopolitan fashion weeks.

Addison Pattillo (Diana) & Ryan Lustgarten (Fabian)

Addison Pattillo (Diana) & Ryan Lustgarten (Fabian)

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Gabrielle Barkidjija (Brittomara) & Jangho Lee (Fabian)

Gabrielle Barkidjija (Brittomara) & Jangho Lee (Fabian)

Hyungjin Son (Putnam)

Hyungjin Son (Putnam)

Carli Mazich-Addice (Rachel)

Carli Mazich-Addice (Rachel)

Yunus Akbas (Paul)

Yunus Akbas (Paul)

William Benoit (David)

William Benoit (David)

Allison Holloway, Margaret Matejcek (Two Women)

Allison Holloway, Margaret Matejcek (Two Women)

Alexis Peart (Brittomara as Britni)

Alexis Peart (Brittomara as Britni)

Ryan Lustgarten (Fabian), Addison Pattillo (Diana), Alexis Peart (Brittomara)

Ryan Lustgarten (Fabian), Addison Pattillo (Diana), Alexis Peart (Brittomara)

Ryan Lustgarten (Fabian), Addison Pattillo (Diana), Hyungjin Son (Putnam), Chorus

Ryan Lustgarten (Fabian), Addison Pattillo (Diana), Hyungjin Son (Putnam), Chorus

Chorus

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Addison Pattillo (Diana) & Ryan Lustgarten (Fabian)
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Gabrielle Barkidjija (Brittomara) & Jangho Lee (Fabian)
Hyungjin Son (Putnam)
Carli Mazich-Addice (Rachel)
Yunus Akbas (Paul)
William Benoit (David)
Allison Holloway, Margaret Matejcek (Two Women)
Alexis Peart (Brittomara as Britni)
Ryan Lustgarten (Fabian), Addison Pattillo (Diana), Alexis Peart (Brittomara)
Ryan Lustgarten (Fabian), Addison Pattillo (Diana), Hyungjin Son (Putnam), Chorus
Chorus