The lake: Turn of the screw

Excerpt from the technOpera Turn of the screw. An experimental workshop done in collaboration with the Opéra de Montréal and the SAT.

Coming out of the depths of her abyss, Miss Jessel sings her solitude. The cold, dark and oppressing waters of the lake slowly drowns this wandering soul and follows the rhythm of her complaint. « Here my tragedy began, here revenge begins »
Slow movements, repetitions and languorous rhythms seduce
Artistic director/arrangements: mïka
Musicians: David Lapierre (musical coordinator/piano)
Visuals: VJ Liberty (Martine Koutnouyan) and VJ jocool (Joseph Lefèvre)
Dancers/Choreographers: Marie-Ève Ouimet & Jean-Marc St-Yves
Costumes : Isabelle Ouimet
Make-up : Gabrielle Mathieu-Dupuis
Hair : Pierre Abran

Category:

Music

Tags:

• opera
• britten
• mika
• technopera

[nazfloras]

its terrifying visually...but this opera works BECAUSE of the children. take the them away and you take away the essense of the opera! I have performed flora all over the world and I can't help but think about all the wonderful moments that are lost-ensembles, the texture so very created for 6 voices. Malo malo, the lake scene, flora scene to end, the bells, the lesson? i am all for experimenting and new age opera, but this disregards all the composers intentions. Although, it is scary to watch!

[theatrePOD]

In the context of this workshop we were only to highlight a few moments with a minimum of singers available. The children were represented in very poetic ways which in any event were possibly even more representative of the children's presence. I believe we worked around a problem pretty well. This brings up another issue... casting adults to play children in any context looks and sounds strange in my opinion... I think the spectators notice that its not actually a child at some point...

[theatrePOD]

The intrusion of the toy piano symbolizes the presence of the children. Since we did not have children in the cast, the artistic director used a few elements here and there to make them more present.

[TOTSenthusiast]

Ah...then I suppose this really is the sort of version one has to see all the way through. Is this playing anywhere? I wouldn't be opposed to see it as I like to explore all versions and variations on the tale. Is this still in workshop format?

[theatrePOD]

This was only a workshop. But since there seems to be intellectual interest, we will put up more excerpts. The objective of the workshop was to fusion electronic arts with traditional opera.

[tzeqin]

@TOTSenthusiast - haha which is really the intent of this performance, tho. Question of tastes, I guess.

[tzeqin]

@theatrePOD - yes, pls do. I find this amalgamation of traditional opera + tech interesting.... altho I'm more curious how the narrative unfolds - does it follow the actual Turn of the Screw/novel closely?

[TOTSenthusiast]

That must have been my initial problem with this but as it's a workshop, maybe they'll put the children back into it. Plus I'd love to see how they handled some of the scenes with the governess.

[TOTSenthusiast]

Yes an interesting take on the opera but the added effects, flashy lights, and additional instruments kind of kill it for me.