Patrick Charles Kinmonth (born 27 August 1957) is an Anglo-Irish opera director and designer, filmmaker, writer, painter, interior designer, art editor, creative director and curator. He is known for his many stage, costume, interior and architectural designs.Cannatà, Teresa (31 March 2010), "Writer, art editor, set and costume designer, painter, opera director. Patrick Kinmonth is a rare and modern example of Renaissance man, who puts his creativity in service of art" [www.vogue.it/en/vogue-starscelebsmodels/vogue-masters/2010/04/patrick-kinmonth]. Vogue Italia. Retrieved 20 January 2013.Wall Street Journal Magazine (25 October 2012), online video introduction to WSJ 2012 Innovator Awards: Design [live.wsj.com/video/wsj-2012-innovator-awards-design/5AAA79CA-2B0E-427D-A8B5-84A15DB6C1EF.html?KEYWORDS=Patrick+Kinmonth#!5AAA79CA-2B0E-427D-A8B5-84A15DB6C1EF]. Retrieved 20 January 2013. Kinmonth works principally as an opera director, and has been awarded for his work as exhibition curator and designer.
Early life
Patrick Charles Kinmonth is the youngest of four children. His father, Maurice Kinmonth (1917–2009), was a consultant plastic surgeon, who encouraged Patrick's talent for drawing. He attended Uppingham School and later, in 1977, studied English Language and Literature at Mansfield College, University of Oxford He also enrolled as an associate student at The Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art.
During his undergraduate years at Oxford, he regularly participated in theatre productions at the Oxford Playhouse and elsewhere as director, designer and actor. He also became the art director of The Isis (the Oxford University magazine). After graduating with a first-class degree in 1979,Wall Street Journal Magazine (25 October 2012), online video introduction to WSJ 2012 Innovator Awards: Design [live.wsj.com/video/wsj-2012-innovator-awards-design/5AAA79CA-2B0E-427D-A8B5-84A15DB6C1EF.html?KEYWORDS=Patrick+Kinmonth#!5AAA79CA-2B0E-427D-A8B5-84A15DB6C1EF]. Retrieved 20 January 2013. Kinmonth moved to Venice to continue his work as a painter and lecturer on modern art and poetry. In 1981, Patrick returned to the UK and won the British Vogue's Talent Competition.Kinmonth, Patrick, "Recalling the Legacy of Beatrix Miller, Longtime Editor of British Vogue" . Vogue.com. Retrieved 4 August 2014 He was appointed as arts editor of Vogue and has since contributed articles on emerging artists, designers, architects, and directors to various publications including British Vogue, Vogue Italia, American Vogue and Vanity Fair.Wall Street Journal Magazine (25 October 2012), online video introduction to WSJ 2012 Innovator Awards: Design [live.wsj.com/video/wsj-2012-innovator-awards-design/5AAA79CA-2B0E-427D-A8B5-84A15DB6C1EF.html?KEYWORDS=Patrick+Kinmonth#!5AAA79CA-2B0E-427D-A8B5-84A15DB6C1EF]. Retrieved 20 January 2013.
Career
Vogue and beyond
Kinmonth's role at British Vogue included creative direction for fashion and portraiture shoots. He commissioned work from, and collaborated with, many renowned photographers, ranging from André Kertész, Jacques Henri Lartigue and Horst to David Bailey, Mario Testino, Tessa Traeger and Bruce Weber. Kinmonth established working relationships with Testino and Traeger for Vogue. In 2003 Kinmonth curated A Gardener's Labyrinth: Portraits of People, Plants and Places, an exhibition of Traeger's photography for the National Portrait Gallery, and wrote the text for the eponymous book, translated into Dutch and German.
Towards the end of the 1980s, Kinmonth returned to painting. His canvasses were exhibited by Richard Demarco Gallery at the International Contemporary Art Fair at Olympia and were used by Jasper Conran as scenic backdrops to complement his costume designs for David Bintley's one-act ballet Tombeaux for The Royal Ballet (1993).
Stage designs
Kinmonth began working with Robert Carsen in 1993. They first met in the mid-1980s during Carsen's time as a student actor at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. Carsen invited Kinmonth to design sets and costumes for his new production of Janáček's Káťa Kabanová for the Canadian Opera Company. Their collaboration evolved over the next decade to deliver critically acclaimed stagings of, among others, Handel's Semele (co-produced by Vlaamse Opera and English National Opera),Wright, Helen (November 2004), "Semele" [online review of English National Opera's revival of Semele]. http://www.musicomh.com/opera/semele.htm; Seckerson, Edward (24 November 2004), “Semele, Coliseum, London”. Independent. Retrieved 18 January 2013. Wagner's Ring des Nibelungen (Cologne Opera),RING@EXPO official website page [www.ringatexpo.de/english.html] and a notable series of operas by Janáček (Vlaamse Opera).
The Carsen-Kinmonth vision of Wagner's tetralogy, presented as a complete cycle in Cologne in 2004, became the first Ring to be staged in Shanghai, presented twice by Cologne Opera at the Shanghai Grand Theatre in September 2010.Cologne Opera EXPO2010 tour press release (undated) [info.germancentreshanghai.com/user/eesy.de/germancentreshanghai.com/info/dwn/dwn_COlogne_Opera_China_Tour.pdf] It has been called the "Green Ring" to reflect the staging's attention to ecological and environmental concerns. Kát'a Kabanová, conceived for Vlaamse Opera, has traveled extensively and was chosen to introduce the work to the Teatro alla Scala in 2006. It has also reached audiences in Tokyo, Strasbourg, Cologne and Madrid. The latter staging, filmed and subsequently released on DVD, was shortlisted for a Gramophone Award in 2009.
Kinmonth's set and costume designs for Carsen's staging of La Traviata were commissioned by La Fenice for the Venetian theatre's post-fire reopening in 2004. The production was presented in Tokyo (2005) and in Beijing (2006) and has become established as the traditional season opener at La Fenice: the Carsen-Kinmonth production of La traviata was revived at the beginning of 2007/08, 2009/10, 2010/11, 2011/12 and 2012/13 seasons.
In 2000, Kinmonth worked for the first time with the director Pierre Audi. Their production was Handel's Tamerlano for the Slottsteater. Baroque repertoire has occupied the center ground of Kinmonth's collaborations with Audi. They presented Handel's Alcina (2003) and Rameau's Zoroastre (2005) at Drottningholm in productions which, together with Tamerlano, have since been revived at De Nederlandse Opera. Kinmonth joined forces with fellow designers Chloe Obolensky and Jannis Kounellis in 2007 to work with Pierre Audi for De Nederlandse Opera's 'Monteverdi Evening', comprising Lamento d'Arianna, Il ballo della ingrate and Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda. Audi and Kinmonth created a production of Handel's Partenope for Theater an der Wien in 2009 and in 2011 staged Vivaldi's Orlando furioso at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris as well as in Nice and Nancy.
Kinmonth's experience of creative partnerships have underpinned recent collaborations with the Flemish opera director Guy Joosten (Richard Strauss's Elektra, co-produced by Gran Teatre del Liceu and La Monnaie) and Brazilian dancer and choreographer Fernando Melo. He has designed sets and costumes for three of Melo's original dance works: A Guest House, created for and first staged by Göteborgsoperans Danskompani (2010); Fountain, a 20-minute dance theatre work produced at the Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz (2011), and Tending to Fall, also conceived for GöteborgsOperans (2012).
Opera direction
Whilst Intendant of Cologne Opera, Christoph Dammann invited Kinmonth to make his directorial debut with Puccini's Madama Butterfly for the German company's 2008/09 season. Kinmonth designed the production's sets and costumes (in collaboration with Darko Petrovic).
Kinmonth's production of Saint-Saëns's Samson et Dalila, created for the Deutsche Oper Berlin, opened in May 2011. He returned to the staging the following year, making revisions and overseeing its revival at the Grand Théâtre de Genève in November 2012. His new production of Don Giovanni ran from September 2012 to January 2013 at Theater Augsburg. The production was described as "a pleasure for the senses and the intellect" (Donau Kurier) and as "living, exciting musical theater" (Süddeutsche Zeitung).Digest of media reviews (October 2012), "Patrick Kinmonth – Press reviews Don Giovanni in Augsburg". [www.maestroarts.com/pdfs/press_report_DonGiovanni_Patrick_Kinmonth_Sept2012.pdf]. Compiled by Maestro Arts. Retrieved 14 January 2013.
Kinmonth was engaged by Cologne Opera to direct and design Franz Schreker's Die Gezeichneten. The production combined ideas inspired by film noir and Scandinavian detective series with artworks and visual imagery from the time of Rubens.Press release (September 2012), "Creative Direction" [www.vbpr.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/Patrick-Kinmonth-Press-Release-FINAL1.pdf]. Valerie Barber Public Relations. Retrieved 14 January 2013. In a survey by critics in North Rhine Westphalia, Die Gezeichneten was nominated by both Ulrike Gondorf (WDR/DLF/SWR) and Christian Wildhagen (FAZ) as 'Best Production' of the 2012/13 season.Welt am Sonntag nr. 30 28 Juli 2013
Selected productions
As director and designer
2008 Madama Butterfly (co-designer with Darko Petrovic): Cologne Opera 2011 Samson et Dalila: Deutsche Oper Berlin; revived Grand Théâtre de Genève (2012); St Matthew Passion: Vocal Futures 2012 Don Giovanni: Theater Augsburg 2013 Die Gezeichneten: Cologne Opera; Rigoletto: Theater Augsburg; The Creation: Vocal Futures, London
As designer – sets and costumes (unless otherwise specified)
1994 Die Zauberflöte (dir. Robert Carsen): Aix-en-Provence Festival and Opéra de Lyon (1996) 1998 Semele (dir. Carsen): Vlaamse Opera; revived Aix Festival (1998) and English National Opera (1999). Revised production presented at Zurich Opera (2007). English National Opera's staging was broadcast on BBC2 and nominated for an Olivier Award. 1999 Die Zauberflöte (new production; dir. Carsen): Vienna Volksoper; Jenůfa (dir. Carsen): Vlaamse Opera 2000 Tamerlano (dir. Pierre Audi): Drottningholm Palace Theatre; Das Rheingold (dir. Carsen): Cologne Opera 2001 The Cunning Little Vixen (dir. Carsen): Vlaamse Opera; Die Walküre (dir. Carsen): Cologne Opera 2002 Siegfried (dir. Carsen): Cologne Opera; La clemenza di Tito (dir. Audi; costumes only): De Nederlandse Opera 2003 Alcina (dir. Audi): Drottningholm Palace Theatre; Götterdämmerung (dir. Carsen): Cologne Opera 2004 Der Ring des Nibelungen (dir. Carsen): Cologne Opera; La traviata (dir. Carsen): La Fenice; Kát'a Kabanová (dir. Carsen): Vlaamse Opera and Teatro alla Scala (2006) 2005 Zoroastre (dir. Audi): Drottningholm Palace Theatre 2007 Lamento d'Arianna, Il ballo delle ingrate and Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda (dir. Audi; set co-designer with Chloe Obolensky, Jannis Kounellis, costume co-designer with Obolensky): De Nederlandse Opera 2008 Castor et Pollux (dir. Audi): De Nederlandse Opera; Elektra (dir. Guy Joosten): Gran Teatre del Liceu; Pelléas et Mélisande (dir. Audi; costumes only): La Monnaie 2009 Partenope (dir. Audi): Theater an der Wien 2010 A Guest House (choreographer, Fernando Melo): GöteborgsOperans Danskompani 2010 Orlando Furioso (dir. Audi): Théâtre des Champs-Élysées 2011 Fountain (choreographer, Fernando Melo): Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz 2012 Tending to Fall (choreographer, Fernando Melo): GöteborgsOperans Danskompani
Exhibitions and creative direction