Both events are now very much underway.<\/p>\n
The Northern Lights have been switched on and the Festival opera Le Grande Macabre, big in every sense \u2013 budget, ambition and scale \u2013 has opened. The ASO is in fine form with Ligeti\u2019s challenging but often hypnotic score and the carnivalesque nature of its boisterous storyline \u2013 part medieval morality, Spanish surrealism, Jarry\u2019s randomly absurdist Ubu and Artaud\u2019s Theatre of Cruelty, it is a stew of avant garde references and turbulent comedy, grotesquery and pathos.<\/p>\n
The central stage figure in Alfons Flores\u2019 astonishing decor \u2013 the gigantic naked woman with her often illuminated eyes and lascivious lolling tongue \u2013 is an extraordinary and relentless image. Projected upon with Bosch and Breughel-like images of figures in hell, of comet illuminations, and even, poignantly, the skeleton beneath the vast flesh, it is the constant focus of our attention. Courtesy of the revolve we are also granted every aspect (and a view of every orifice !) as this macabre opera on mortality and the body unfolds with unexpected power but also playfulness.<\/p>\n
The singers are outstanding \u2013 counter tenor Brian Asawa as Prince GoGo, Frode Olsen and Chris Merrit, as the ageing and ramshackle Astradamors and Piet the Pot, Ning Liang as (the somewhat misogynistically portrayed) Mescalina, Susanna Andersson, marvelous as Venus and the hypermanic Gepopo and Roderick Earle, as the ultimately foiled death figure Nekrotzar. The return to the Adelaide of the iconoclastic, unpredictably theatrical La Fura del Baus has created the 2010 festival\u2019s first talking point.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Both events are now very much underway. The Northern Lights have been switched on and the Festival opera Le Grande Macabre, big in every sense \u2013 budget, ambition and scale \u2013 has opened. The ASO is in fine form with Ligeti\u2019s challenging but often hypnotic score and the carnivalesque nature of its boisterous storyline \u2013 part medieval morality, Spanish surrealism, Jarry\u2019s randomly absurdist Ubu and Artaud\u2019s Theatre of Cruelty, it is a stew of avant garde references and turbulent comedy, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-7","category-archive"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=56"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1697,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56\/revisions\/1697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=56"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=56"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=56"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}