A trapeze artist falls to his death, and his ghost accuses the other of murder. That's not the only bizarre element to The Flying Wallas: Opera Noir, where musical duo Sridhar/Thayil strip opera of pretensions, ditch live music for tracks on a laptop, and replace Italian with colloquial English
A trapeze artist falls to his death, and his ghost accuses the other of murder. That's not the only bizarre element to The Flying Wallas: Opera Noir, where musical duo Sridhar/Thayil strip opera of pretensions, ditch live music for tracks on a laptop, and replace Italian with colloquial English
Sridhar/Thayil, the duo known for their contemporary music, are turning the concept of an opera on its head with their maiden theatrical venture. They combine Hollywood crime drama with opera, an art form that traces its origins to the Western classical music tradition. Unlike a regular opera performance, here, there is no accompanying music ensemble.
Instead, a laptop that has "programmed music" using samples of the oboe, cello and piano will be at work. The language of the opera is not Italian, as tradition demands, but colloquial English. The result of this intermingling of genres and crashing tradition, is that for once, you can enjoy an opera without being pretentious.
The plot of this "homemade" opera follows two trapeze artists, called The Flying Wallas, one of whom turns into a ghost and the other into the soprano right at the beginning of the play. "The play begins with the man falling to his death. He falls off the trapeze, she screams, and then his ghost appears and accuses her of deliberately killing him. That's where the murder mystery begins, along with questions being hurled at God," explains Suman Sridhar, the Soprano.
The opera has been a work-in-progress for quite a while. The two first performed an 8-minute piece at a nightclub in Sri Lanka to a not-so favourable response. "We realised that this piece wasn't meant for a nightclub since people weren't really paying attention. Then we performed again at the Prithvi Festival, and the young crowd that usually comes for our gigs, loved it," says Sridhar.
Jeet Thayil, the Ghost, adds, "Even theatre audiences who were used to Hindi theatre got it. We had 16-18 year olds who only listen to Electronica at a club connect to it." The decision to use conversational English has taken the performance to another level.
The duo believe the play will apppeal to those who are willing to experiment with what they watch. "You can't come here saying you can't mix opera and noir. If you're a purist, then please don't come. Wait till the Royal Opera arrives, and then go get bored," says a straight-faced Thayil.
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On: Today, 6 pm and 9.30 pm at Prithvi Theatre, Janki Kutir, Juhu.
Call: 26149546. Tickets: Rs 200
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