Showing at the Arts Centre Melbourne from May 24 to June 1, the opera has never been seen in Australia before because it’s so demanding and expensive to stage.
Rossini was unabashedly showing off when he wrote this incredible work, destined to dazzle the aristocracy at the crowning of Charles X and then disappear forever.
However, Italian director Damiano Michieletto has taken the masterpiece and put a playful twist on it, in which the audience can gaze at the world’s most famous art through the magnificent (and thoroughly tongue-in-cheek) sets and costumes.
In his version, the eccentric cast of characters find themselves in a gallery filled with the master works of art history.
Velázquez’s enormous dresses jostle for space with Keith Haring’s cheerful murals, while Frida Kahlo and van Gogh compare self-portraits.
It’s a surreal world, where artworks step out of the frame and come to life the moment the lights go out.
Delightful, surprising, spectacular and frivolous, this co-production with Dutch National Opera and the Royal Danish Theatre is a perfect foil for Rossini’s jubilant score.
“I like the fact that this is an ‘opera for ensemble’,” Michieletto said.
“There isn’t a main character; they’re all mixed up together and at one point 14 people sing at once!”
Michieletto confessed that, in the beginning, it was a challenge to take this opera and turn it into his own unique production.
“I trialled many ideas that didn’t end up being interesting,” he said.
“Then one day, I saw a painting which depicted the coronation of Charles X, which was the reason Rossini made this opera.
“Using this link as a basis, I begin to imagine a whole new world inside a museum that has to be inaugurated, where the characters in the paintings are the characters in the opera.”
While Michieletto’s production is certainly nothing short of unique, the music is 100 per cent true to Rossini’s original opera.
Hailing from Venice, Michieletto studied opera and theatre production at the Paolo Grassi School of Dramatic Art in Milan and also graduated in modern literature at the university in Venice, his home town.
In the blink of an eye, he has emerged on the international scene as one of the most interesting representatives of the younger generation of Italian directors.
Michieletto is excited to bring his latest masterpiece to our shores.
“I’m thrilled that Opera Australia has produced this show,” he said.
“I hope the Melbourne audience leaves the theatre with the sensation of having experienced an electrifying performance ... I hope it awakens the child in all of us!”
