Someone made an opera out of The Fly? And not just any version of The Fly but the Cronenberg version --- you know, David "never-met-an-object-that-couldn't-be-transformed-into-an-analogue-of-a-body-part-and-then-push-you-to-the-limits-of-disgust" Cronenberg. Existenz Cronenberg. (ok, my experience of that movie is deeply colored by the fact that one roommate was watching it early one Saturday morning and the other roommate came out with an enormous hangover right at a pivotally disgusting scene and just lost it all over the living room, but still.) Opera, huh.
It's playing down in LA, I see. And then they made an Amy Tan novel into an opera that's playing in San Francisco. And another opera is coming out based on Oppenheimer and the Manhattan Project and that's coming out to CA soon too. What the hell is up with turning to opera at this moment? Why is it the go-to venue for thinking through contemporary things right now? And why do I feel the sudden urge to actually go watch all these operas ---- a need to catch them while they're still new and here? What the hell is going on with that?
PS --- what if Cronenberg were to direct a version of Grad School, the Musical? I shudder to think. Well, I alternate between being fascinated and shuddering. But mostly shuddering.
6 comments:
SWEET. Grad School: Cronenberg edition. I think it would involve the mutant gynecological instruments from Dead Ringers. Except for the brain.
Haha, grad school the musical, complete with sadistic tenured folks, desperate untenured folks... and bodies strewn across the job market at the end. A comedy, for sure.
It seems (from reviews at least) like the music's not supposed to be great for The Fly. But I am psyched to see Doctor Atomic this fall -- that's what you're referring to, right? I think they're broadcasting the Met production in movie theaters, which is my preferred option. John Adams has been writing operas about contemporary stuff for a while -- Nixon in China, Death of Klinghoffer... I like his vocal stuff a lot.
Oh, also? There was an opera of Lost Highway put on last year (I missed that too). It's not really a film I think of as particularly operatic in scale - can't really picture the principal characters singing The Surveillance Duet, for example...
And if Cronenberg's Grad School Musical starred Viggo Mortensen as the advisor? That'd be hot.
Hmm, comedy, yes ... like A Philosophy Job Market Blog says "It'd be funny if it were happening to someone else."
And Viggo Mortensen as the advisor? Please. This is a hard-hitting reality musical, not a wish-fulfillment fantasy. Think more John C Reilly. Or, you know, Gary Oldman from the '92 Dracula, but when he was in his dessicated, blood-spewing form. Or, if you prefer classical references, maybe the Jabba-the-Hut/Princess Leia scene. Yeah, that sounds closer to it.
C'mon... can't I at least (sticking with the Cronenberg theme) get Jeff Goldblum?
Which brings us, full circle, back to mutation, at least.
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