Review: THE OPERA LOCOS, Sadler's Wells

If you have ever suspected that opera might benefit from fewer Valkyries and more vaudeville, The Opera Locos is here to confirm your prejudice and then sing it at you in Italian.

Yllana’s The Opera Locos has landed at Sadler’s Wells more by luck than design; while the Peacock Theatre undergoes unexpected maintenance (I blame Flipper, its resident ghost dolphin), its shows are being staged here in the Islington HQ or in its East London hub. For those who keep one ear cocked for historical echoes, this is a serendipitous shift of location: it was in this venue that famed composer Benjamin Britten set up his own company before it upped sticks for West London’s Coliseum and changed its name to the English National Opera.

Created and co-directed by Joseph O’Curneen and David Ottone with musical direction by Marc Alvarez and Manuel Coves, this magnificent blend of high art and low art sees the cast sing out stone cold classic arias interspersed with more modern fare from Frank Sinatra, Elton John and Beyonce.

There is a plot of sorts here, but barely. Stern maestro Enrique (Enrique Sánchez-Ramos) is attempting (and failing) to teach his distracted pop-loving pupil, Franelli (Michaël Koné). The lovelorn Maria (María Rey-Joly) only has eyes for faded star Alfredo (Jesús Álvarez). Carmen (Mayca Teba), meanwhile, is carving her way through the hits and the audience with considerable swagger. As seen in last year’s Trash, Yllana’s stroke of genius is to not lean too hard in any one dramatic direction but to instead swirl elements of comedy, tragedy and romance into a story that never takes itself too seriously. 

That’s not to say this all lacks emotional underpinnings. Quite the opposite: while the singing is not always immaculate, the acting superbly conveys the soulful depths of each aria. A few top notes may fray at the edges but the performances are committed to the hilt, each one wringing every ounce of feeling from the material. When “Nessun dorma” from perennial favourite Turandot swells, it is delivered not as a tenor’s ego trip but as a plea that lands squarely with the audience. The Barber of Seville’s “Largo al factotum”  becomes less a vocal obstacle course and more a comic manifesto. Even “La donna è mobile” from Rigoletto is reframed as a knowingly cheeky aside.

The clowning is the real revelation and one explanation why London can’t seem to get enough of this six-year-old show. This is not the feeble flailing frequently seen at Cirque du Soleil but something far subtler, more refined and genuinely joyful. Koné, flapping around in his deep purple tails and white face paint, looks like he should be terrorising Gotham City rather than trilling Mika in Islington. Meanwhile, Teba’s manic Carmen fondly abuses those who have forgotten or are oblivious to the first rule of cabaret. Tiny pauses, sidelong glances, mimes so precise they could be measured with calipers. The late Philippe Gaulier would have approved of the economy. There is more comedy in a perfectly timed eyebrow than in a barrel of custard.

This is not opera as marble bust. It is opera as playground. And that feels truer to the form’s beginnings than purists might like to admit. The earliest composers were not erecting monuments to high culture. They were devising a sideshow entertainment for courts already stocked with curiosities, mechanical beasts and performers hired to astonish at a moment’s notice. Spectacle and song have always shared a bed.

Indeed, one leaves thinking that Cirque du Soleil could do worse than build an entire show around this idea. Take these five singers, amplify their commendable clowning, add the usual international coterie of aerialists and contortionists, and you would have something genuinely fresh. Opera has always had the lungs. In a billionaire’s big top, it will find fresh legs.

Loco as it sounds, this highly accessible show could be the way forward for not just opera but the classical arts in general. For all those looking to steer opera into the future, it is a must-see. Venue owners and artistic directors should pull up a pew and take a gander to experience one way in which this venerable art form can bring in new audiences and bring fresh relevance to works which grow ever older by the year. 

The Opera Locos continues until 28 February at Sadler’s Wells.