Word: opera
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...this sounds unbelievable, it is. Imagine a combination of Back to the Future, The Truman Show and Phantom of the Opera, set in Spain and you'll have some idea of the complex and quick moving Open Your Eyes (Abre Los Ojos). The movie opens with Cesar, a millionaire playboy played by Eduardo Noriega, finding relief from a seductress Nuria by meeting the beautiful girl next door type Sofia (played by Penelope Cruz). Cesar spends the night at Sofia's apartment in what seems to be the match made in heaven, but as he walks to his car the next...
...face is hideously disfigured. What was a straight-forward storyline before the accident now becomes hopelessly entangled, as Cesar's dreams, nightmares and fantasies are showed as if they were real. Unable to cope with his face, he tries wearing a mask and calls himself the "Phantom of the Opera...
Directed by visiting artist Diane Paulus of the Project 400 Theater Group, a New York-based theater company whose stated mission is to redefine what people think theater is, King Kong is a show that is as challenging as it is engaging. Loosely based on Richard Wagner's 1848 opera Lohengrin, which in turn was based on a German version of an Arthurian legend, Paulus's multimedia production tells the story of the virtuous knight Lohengrin and his efforts to save and marry Elsa, a princess unjustly accused of murder...
Anyone who tells you that they watch opera for the plot is lying. The attraction of opera is in the experience of beautiful music, elaborate costumes and massive sets. The actual content of the opera is secondary at best. Perhaps the most impressive aspect of King Kong is that it is able to take this emphasis on theatrical experience over story-line--the essence of opera--and make it relevant to audiences today. (The type that wouldn't enjoy Wagner's original score, at least...
Though it would seem to have little in common with bellowing Italian tenors and symphony orchestras, King Kong is, at heart, an opera. A hip-hop opera. An opera for modern audiences. Or should I say postmodern audiences...