There’s a storm, a character representing madness (“la Folie”) and the two gods just might have something going for each other. Mercury plays his traditional role of messenger. The plot pits two gods fighting for the love of a mortal nymph, the titular Io. The work is a hilarious one-act opera-ballet. They were divertissements, but often concealing a sharp political message. Substance was not the point of these evening entertainments at Versailles. For an all too brief evening we were translated to the era of 18 th century. Here, in an intimate, uptown Fifth Avenue 572-seater theater, Brown was giving his audience the same experience of novelty that had made Pompadour’s salon the most sought-after ticket in Versailles. That’s exactly the impact Dazzle’s costumes sought to achieve – and did.īy cloaking the cast in the cutting edge of 21 st century fashion, instead of 18 th century Fragonard, Brown achieved the same wow factor for the audience that Pompadour’s then outrageous salon get-ups would have had on her select Versailles aristo guests. The dress transformed Yende into an angel singing from the heights of Westminster Abbey.
DAZZLE UP ST LOUIS HOW TO
How to describe the indescribable? Coronation watchers will have been bowled over by South African soprano, Pretty Yende, in that spectacular yellow dress, singing Sacred Fire by British composer, Sarah Class. His show was Fragonard on steroids – in motion. But he shocks with shimmering beauty, absurd exaggeration and sheer brass neck. I was witnessing a 21 st century Rococo makeover for a previously unknown Rameau opera, Io, never performed in the composer’s lifetime, exhumed from score remnants by the editors of Rameau’s Opera Omnia, given the breath of life by Ryan Brown, Opera Lafayette’s indomitable founder and Artistic Director for twenty-eight years, and clothed by the unlikely Dazzle before being let loose on an unsuspecting public. He exploded onstage, as spectacularly dressed in person as his outrageous characters, visible from the George Washington Bridge. The costume maestro is at least eight feet tall and had affected a hair style much like a Type 1 super nova. Sparkle, shimmer, illuminesce, Mr Brown and Mr Dazzle had brought true opera shock and awe to the heart of Manhattan.įlower Dazzle was in the audience, Pity the folk in the row behind, If the cast’s flying saucer from a Betelgeuse exoplanet, had landed in Central Park, avoiding Joe Biden’s annoying motorcade which clogged the upper east side mercilessly, and discharged the most exaggerated 1950’s AAARGH! HORROR! alien crew to cross Fifth Avenue, commandeering the stage, the impact on the audience would have been slight, compared with what Machine Dazzle brought us.
The costumes for the Rameau opera Io on the first night of the three-day Pompadour fest mounted by Washington’s Opera Lafayette Company in Manhattan’s East Harlem Museo de Barrio, were the most spectacular outfits to grace any opera stage on planet earth.Ĭorrection.
The former Matthew Flower – was the name change really necessary? – designs outrageous clothes.
0 kommentar(er)
