Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Damage, an opera in seven meals - Updated with photos


In a recent interview that composer Kharálampos Goyós gave to EF (the free-press of the Athens Festival) he used the term "necrophiliacs" to describe opera lovers.

As a pure necrophiliac myself and in the worst level of necrophilia indeed, i attended the World Premiere of his new opera "Damage, an opera in seven meals", after the novel "Damage" by Josephine Hart.

Most of you might not have read the book, but you might have seen the film by Louis Malle (Damage, with Jeremy Irons and Juliette Binoche).

Here goes the story (copied by IMDB):

A member of Parliament (Irons) falls passionately in love with his son's fiancée. They pursue their affair with obsessive abandon despite the dangers of discovery and what it would do to his complacent life and his son. Completely obsessed, he wants to give up his current lifestyle to be with her. She has no intention of allowing him to do this, preferring to have her marriage to the son as a cover. They are eventually discovered, and must deal with the damage.


The result was a complex, weird work that made justice to the novel and that caused casualties of quite a few "necrophiliacs" during the first intermission (among those were also some highly acclaimed critics of greek newspapers/radio).

My point of view: I wouldn't classify it as an opera. It is a very interesting avant-garde work, quite sarcastic and cynical, with many operatic references (the Minister in some point starts singing his words on the music of "Vi ravviso" from La Sonnambula) and for a very certain audience that enjoy musical experimentalism. Kudos to Marianna Calbari for her excellent work as stage director.

Here 're some pics from the premiere:









Curtain call for the composer


The 2 photos above -which in case you wonder were shot for the promotion of the opera and feature members of the cast-
© Stratos Vogiatzis

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Ενδιαφέρουσα φαίνεται....
θα πάω σήμερα