Le Grand Macabre - opera review, The Coliseum
Rating: 3/5. Catalan collective La Fura dels Baus take on this 1978 work by avant-garde composer György Ligeti for the ENO in this visually stunning production
18 September 2009
Rating: 3/5
Colourful Catalan collective La Fura dels Baus take on this 1978 work by avant-garde composer György Ligeti - a surrealist, satirical take on traditional librettos.
Most of the action takes place either on top of or inside a giant fibreglass sculpture of a decaying naked woman, whose sagging bosoms are sunk on the stage. A cast of strange, sex-obsessed characters parade across her curves and orifices, engaging in increasingly twisted behaviour.
The basic concept is that we live our lives in fear of impending doom. We all need to lighten up, cut loose and head to Prince Go Go’s disco party.
It’s a solid theory, but it gets a bit much – the sight of the astrologer’s wife’s bulbous boobs bouncing while she whips her dragged-up hubby is just disturbing. As are the frenzied sexual shenanigans of the bald couple who look like they’ve escaped from Gunther Von Hagen’s Body World.
Stunning audio-visual effects, which see the centrepiece transformed into a skeleton, go up in flames and split apart, set this production apart but at times it feels like it's trying a little too hard to be genuinely macabre.
Le Grand Macabre , London Coliseum, St Martin's Lane, London, WC2N 4ES, 0871 911 0200
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