The great Broadway composer and lyricist, Stephen Sondheim, has died aged 91.
Mark Dorrell, currently Head of Music at NZ Opera, was a friend and collaborator of Sondheim's. Mark's first West End job in 1991 was Assistant Conductor for the European premiere of Sondheim’s Into the Woods. And he was conductor for the first London revival of Sweeney Todd at the National Theatre in 1993.
Mark pays tribute to his musical hero:
Stephen Sondheim Photo: Public Domain
Growing up in the backwater of rural England that is beautiful Worcestershire, little did I think that my dream of working with my musical idol - the great composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim - would become a reality as it did in the 1990s in London.
I count myself beyond blessed to have worked closely with Mr Sondheim, as I used to call him (much to his amusement). He would always retort, "Mark, please call me Steve" - but I could never bring myself to, other than in our emails over the decades.
'What was it like working with the great man?' is a question I’ve often been asked, and the simple answer is that it was simple. He was the greatest of collaborators - open and receptive and respectful.
Warm, generous, supportive, appreciative, with his wry dry wicked sense of humour, with his razor sharp mind and intellect, and yet in many ways deeply insecure and self deprecating.
I have many cherished memories of working with him and visiting him in New York, and in his usual open-hearted way our most recent communication was a good luck message to the cast of the recent Sweeney Todd production I was working on here in Wellington.
In true fashion, he thanked us for doing the piece.
Thank YOU, Mr Sondheim, and may you rest in peace.
