Review: Le Grand Macabre – London
Opening English National Opera’s 2009/10 season is György Ligeti’s rarely staged opera Le Grand Macabre in collaboration with Catalan ‘total theatre’ group La Fura dels Baus. Based on the play by Michel de Ghelderode the opera’s central themes are of death and mortality.
What would you do if you thought the world was going to end tonight?
For fans of Ligeti this production will not disappoint musically. The orchestra, conducted by Baldur Bronnimann, is wonderfully expressive and full of flare yet consistently precise. A chorus of car horns and other unusual instruments dotted around the auditorium draws the audience into the experience. Singers running down the aisles spread the boundaries of the stage forcing us to be part of the story.
The performers not in the orchestra have a lot to deal with too, aside from the obvious difficulty of Ligeti’s score they are flying, climbing and dancing at the same time. Soprano Susanna Andersson sings beautifully while floating across the stage on a wire as a very pink Venus and manages to deliver her relentless minimalist part as Gepopo with style, whilst jumping on tables and shooting people. Amanda and Amando (Rebecca Bottone and Frances Bourne) roll and hide in the set looking for the perfect place for their debauchery while everyone else seems to have decided to get very drunk. This is true operatic farce at its best. The story is mostly devoid of any plot and once you’ve met all the characters you just spend the second half watching them run around like mad men. That is not to say it isn’t worth watching.
However the main star of the show is a great 20-foot fibreglass woman. The visual effects portray the decay and horror of death while more humorously, moveable limbs reveal gassy intestines and internal discos.
La Fura dels Baus create a spectacle like nothing else seen at ENO and it draws a much wider audience than just those who love opera. This is an elaborate joke, a mad combination of many art forms culminating in a rare extravaganza that like it or not, you will want to have seen.
Until October 9th at the London Coliseum
London Coliseum St. Martin’s Lane Trafalgar Square London WC2N 4ESGyörgy
Tags: About the Author
Irish born Ruth is a classical musician and writer living in London. A lover of travel, good wine and fine theatre she feels right at home in practically any European city. Educated at the Guildhall and London School of Journalism, Ruth hopes to combine her knowledge and write useful, informative articles about the things she loves.
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