La Didone Monday, June 1, 2009
In an effort to make opera more exciting than it already is (wouldn't take much), experimental performance ensemble the Wooster Group has mashed up Francesco Cavalli's 1641 opera Didone with Mario Bava's 1965 sci-fi zombie flick Planet of the Vampires (Terrore Nello Spazio). The result is a bipolar, leather-uniformed musical opus in which the fat lady not only sings, she eats brains. The plot concerns twin shipwrecks: the crash of Trojan war hero Aeneas at Carthage and unlucky space pilots stranded on a planet of the undead. Though La Didone still comes complete with Italian Baroque singing, the mixing in of wooden B-movie dialogue should provide sufficient relief. La Didone marks the debut of a four-year annual partnership between the Wooster Group and REDCAT, and while they've already announced next year's adaptation of Tennessee Williams' Vieux Carré I'm holding out hope for Plan 9 From Götterdämmerung. REDCAT, 631 W. Second St., L.A.; opens June 11; Tues.-Sat., 8:30 p.m.; Sun., 7 p.m.; thru June 21. (No perfs June 15 & 18.) (213) 237-2800. (Originally published on LAWeekly.com, June 5, 2009.)
posted by Derek Thomas @ 2:41 AM,
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