Those of you who have any familiarity with director David Cronenberg's work will doubtless remember his 1986 classic The Fly. I don't usually use the word classic when describing a remake, but when Cronenberg updated the 1958 Vincent Price horror film, he was able to use updated special effects and modern questions of genetics to make the material ten times creepier. Can't get enough of this story? Neither can Cronenberg, apparently, because he's gone and teamed up with Howard Shore and turned the whole disgusting story into an opera. That's right, an opera. Becky and I have been lucky enough to attend the LA Opera a few times over the past year with her parents, and today's matinee peformance of The Fly is one I won't soon forget. The results are far from perfect, as film composer Shore's music never really achieves the high drama required for this medium, and the libretto sometimes stumbles under the weight of the story's exposition, but for those who are looking for something out of the ordinary, this production is well worth checking out. The Fly costume and makeup is impressively grotesque, and there's even a few brief moments of male frontal nudity, if you're into that sort of thing. Oh, and for those of you who've watched both major party conventions and still haven't gotten your fill, there's the aria called "Insect Politics", where you can reconsider the whole thing from the winged, six-legged point of view. It'a almost enough to make you swallow your Netflix pride and queue up The Fly II.
www.laopera.com/productions/0809/thefly/index.htm
No comments:
Post a Comment