Tyranny of Style: Everest at The Dallas Opera is a masterful new work produced to full breathtaking effect for its World Premiere. In an age of closing opera houses, Dallas Opera showcases the type of work that is injecting an exciting bolt of energy to a classical art form. Taking full advantage of what opera does best, Everest tells a gut-wrenching story through a soaring score by Joby Talbot (his opera debut), captivating libretto by Gene Scheer, incredibly talented cast, and powerfully moving design by the entire creative team.
2 comments:
I would love to see this show. I really respect Opera as an art form, but often find it stifled by the overbearing traditions that normally accompany it. As with all theatre, what is the point of doing something that has been done before? Too many Operas are rendered tedious, not because of the singing, which is stunning, but because so few operas take theatrical risks, relying on the classic styles and the singing rather than taking a single step into the next century.
This opera excites me because it takes this stunning medium, and utilizes modern costume, more relevant subject matter, an innovative set, and the new frontier of media design. I am dazzled by the complex simplicity of the costumes, stripped away from the frivolity normally associated with opera, combined with the intricacy of texture and the variance in eras of the ensemble, which could easily have been ignored. I would even be willing to go to Texas to see this. That is impressive.
I quite like opera, and these costumes are incredible! They work so closely with scenic and media; it’s an example of where theatrical collaboration really worked and you can see it. The aesthetic of the production is very much in line with the abstract aesthetic of CMU drama, which I love to see. People often question why we are learning how to make abstract art, and then I see productions like this, and I know exactly why: they are the most memorable and exciting to see.
The costume research is utterly incredible. I’m sure that besides the designers, there were a slew of workers who spent hours trying to get those grays to match up. Dying fabric is one of the hardest things to match when all of your fabrics take dye in a different way. The use of primary colors to make other characters pop is also a bold choice. Colors like red are often not used because of lighting issues, but I think that it was extremely successful in this case. I really wish I could see this production because the technical side is so well done.
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