“It’s like a stunt movie,” says Operamania creator and director Andrew Botha, speaking at a rather frenetic cast rehearsal. ‘A fun show — vicious, young and energetic.”
The flailing foot of a headspinning breakdancer connects squarely with my knee, as if to drive the point home.
‘So it’s not a pop opera?”
‘Not a pop opera,” Botha assures me.
You might be forgiven for thinking otherwise. The first thing observed from the advertising is that Operamania carries an age restriction for nudity and boasts a cast of very attractive men and women. “Is it necessary for the opera singers to be naked?” you ask.
‘The catchphrase in this production,” says Botha, ‘is, ‘Yes, it is necessary.’”
Deon Opperman, show producer, says millions went into the production and Botha says the Johannesburg Civic Theatre will come to life like never before. ‘There’s nothing in the world like this. We’ve got all the hydraulics going and the stage is shifting. Then there are the sets,” he says.
Indeed, the sets. If pre-production shots are anything to go by, Operamania will be a visual extravaganza. The backdrop hasdigital flat sceens with fantastical images, lighting the stage. The themes range from Roman-Gothic to a 21st-century trance party. Besides the pretty lights and pretty people there is popular music. Operamania is a musical compilation show with vague threads of plot ‘to keep the audience guessing”.
The musical ensemble comprises ‘recognisable [operatic] melodies, all the famous pieces we now do with a jump to the left”, says Botha. The thought of which makes you shudder. Could this be a collection of ice-cream van jingles? Not so, says Botha. While Carmen’s Habanera, Turandot’s Nessun Dorma and Meat Loaf’s Anything for Love will no doubt be familiar tunes, the musical arrangement uses some genuine ingenuity. For example, Operamania‘s take on Madame Butterfly’s One Fine Day makes use of Japanese instrumental harmony to sound refreshingly novel.
Musical director Charl-Johan Lingenfelder says: ‘We wanted to take some chances with conventions, turning them on their heads.” Lingenfelder believes, however, that the ‘musical integrity remains intact”.
It might not quite be ‘popera” — a title Botha once considered for the show — but between the beautiful people, special effects, breakdancers and popular music, he does not mince words about making a more ‘accessible” show. ‘What we want to do is get people who would not normally go to an opera to go. That’s who this is for. This is entertainment with a capital E.”
‘This is geared for a bigger audience but I think that real opera buffs, if they are out there, will find it interesting as well,” he says, conceding that there might be a few who will object to the popularisation of opera. ‘It’s rubbish; you can do anything to anything.”
It should be noted that Botha was the mind behind the hugely successful Queen at the Opera and worked as a set designer for several operas, including Tosca and The Marriage of Figaro. He describes himself as an opera buff. ‘That’s where Operamania comes from. I love the opera.”
A diva sniffs an imaginary line of cocaine in the rehearsal and one thing seems certain, Operamania will draw in and be appreciated by a larger crowd — just what they will be appreciating is up in the air at this stage.
Operamania runs at the Nelson Mandela Theatre in Braamfontein from April 19. Book at Computicket