The director describes Bjornson as 'a consummate storyteller who was never afraid of great beauty,' dubbing the designer 'traditionalist and conservative' in the aesthetic sense. 'There are some designers who will not spend hours in the paint and costume shops, but Maria would not leave people alone until everything was right.'

'She was relentless in getting it right,' Zambello recalls. Well received at its premiere in Houston in 2003 and in New York last year, the opera was especially lauded for Bjornson's whimsical set and costume designs - a world away from what she had wrought for 'Phantom.'įrancesa Zambello, who first worked with Bjornson at London's Covent Garden in 1999, directed that production and says that although the designer didn't live to see her work executed, she had built all the set models and painted the costumes designs. At the time, she was working on the inaugural production of Rachel Portman's opera 'The Little Prince,' based on the beloved book by Saint-Exupery. The tragedy is that her credit list, though substantial, would be larger still had she not died in 2002 of natural causes at the unnaturally early age of 53. Above, Bjomsons illustration for 'Hannibal,' the opera within the opera known as 'Phantom.'ījornson's list of credits may always be headed by 'Phantom,' but her work in theater was varied and, ironically, includes far more operas and plays than musicals.

Her illustrious career was cut short in 2002 when she died at age 53. LOOK OF LOVE: Maria Bjornson designed the sets and costumes for 'The Phantom of the Opera,' her first of only three Broadway credits.

Phantom of the opera costume christine