CIn recent years, debates about opera have become an increasingly awkward merry-go-round, centering less on art and imagination than on money, elitism, and whether the repertoire is updated at a rate that contributes significantly to society. . modern creative environment. Much of the recent complaints have centered on the forced relocation of English National Opera (ENO) from its London base, the Colosseum, to Manchester, where it will tour existing venues until a new home is built. become.
So to see Welsh National Opera (WNO) stage a revival that looks at many of the resulting anxieties while reframing the underlying debate in a way that detractors of the art form should take heed. It’s refreshing to find. After opening the new season with the old repertoire staple “Così fan tutte,” the band is now touring with Benjamin Britten’s more challenging “Death in Venice.” This is a work that depicts an old writer’s obsession with a beautiful boy he finds in Venice during a cholera epidemic. . Opera itself is obviously not new. Adapted from Thomas Mann’s novella, the film premiered just two years after Visconti’s famous 1971 film. But half a century later, society’s attitudes toward the work’s themes have changed, including homosexuality, obsessive desire, and the morally ambiguous relationship between artist and muse, giving the meditation new resonance. .
Britten did not give Tadzio, the object of Aschenbach’s desire, a voice and portrayed him as belonging to a family of dancers. In Olivia Fuchs’ collaboration with Cardiff-based Nofit State Circus, the boy speaks with his body, delivering a performance that literally transports 21-year-old performer Anthony Cesar to another dimension.
Fifty years ago, when Britten was looking for a medium to express this imaginary figure, the circus was an entirely different art form, more focused on derring-do feats than on leaps of imagination. Ballet was a more poetic discipline. This is no longer the case. WNO is not the first company to discover potential synergies with Britten’s music. Back in 2016, Snape Maltings asked director Struan Leslie to create a new rendition of his song series Illuminations for an aerialist ensemble. Singer Sarah Tynan said, “The grotesquery, the extremes of what the performer’s body can do, seemed to fit perfectly with the image of the poem.”
The circus is an irresistible populist art form that can teach opera a thing or two about reshaping itself to meet the challenges of changing times and priorities without diminishing itself. be. The two disciplines may seem different, but both have a gravity-defying grandeur that makes their fusion in Death in Venice more than just a design gimmick. . It shows that sophistication doesn’t have to be scary, that clarity comes in many forms, and that familiar repertoire doesn’t have to be stale.
The road ahead is definitely difficult for Opera, at a time when its very existence seems to be under threat at times. But let’s put aside our gloom for a moment and think about the innovations and advances that some companies are making. First, regarding availability, £13 ticket For the deaths of Venice in Oxford and Bristol this week undermine the charge of elitism. The ENO may discover new highs and lows for itself as you drive along the motorways and byways of Greater Manchester.
