SATO, The COC (And The Fly!)

If you missed the news earlier this week -- you heard it here first. The Canadian Opera Company is expanding its broadcast base, recording all seven main-stage productions in the '09-'10 season with us. Us as in CBC/Radio-Canada.

General Director Alexander Neef told the press earlier this week that "Extending the COC's reach to areas of the country not presently served by opera is one of my main goals at the Canadian Opera Company. The COC has been so successful in getting people into the opera house, that now it's time for us to go to those who can't come to us."

Also in the excellent news dep't., the operas will be live streamed on the Radio 2 website, as per usual, but also go up at Concerts On Demand for a year after their first broadcast.

The first opera will be the current production of Madama Butterfly, broadcast on SATO November 28th. (Blogger/fan aside: the day I went it was terrific, although it was not the performance recorded for the broadcast. Still, I'm sure that show was at least as good...)

As for today, as befits Halloween, it's The Fly! Yes, that The Fly, David Cronenberg's spooky movie turned opera. Much written about, The Fly The Opera stars Canadian bass baritone Daniel Okulitch.

THE FLY: A SCI-FI LOVE STORY

The Fly is an engrossing exploration of the physical and psychological transformation in which a brilliant scientist begins to mutate into a hybrid of man and fly after one of his experiments goes horribly wrong.

Researcher Seth Brundle makes a stunning breakthrough in the field of matter transportation when he successfully teleports a living creature. Frustrated in his budding romance with a scientific journalist, and in need of a human subject, he recklessly attempts to teleport himself. An unseen fly enters the transmission booth as well, however, and Brundle soon realizes that his experiment has had "mixed" results.

Canadian bass baritone Daniel Okulitch bared his soul in the world premiere productions, first in Paris and subsequently with LA Opera. Two fellow Canadians, composer Howard Shore (of Lord of the Rings fame) and director David Cronenburg, are the creative team behind the operatic adaptation of the story. Perfect listening for a Hallowe'en edition of Saturday Afternoon at the Opera.

Also today we excerpt spooky scenes from several other operas, and we celebrate the 50th anniversary of Opera Canada magazine, along with editor Wayne Gooding

The Fly, The Opera

Music by Howard Shore
Libretto by David Henry Huang, based upon a short story from Mouvelles de l'Anti-Monde by George Langelaan, also based on the motion picture The Fly, Screenplay by David Cronenburg and Charles Eduard Pogue

World Premiere: July 2, 2008 Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris
U.S. Premiere: Los Angeles Opera, September 07, 2008
This Production: Los Angeles Opera September 27, 2008

Cast & Characters

Daniel Okulitch, Bass-baritone - SETH BRUNDLE

Ruxandra Donose, Mezzo-soprano - VERONICA QUAIFE

Gary Lehman, Tenor - STATHIS BORANS

Beth Clayton, Mezzo-soprano - OFFICER/MEDICAL ANALYST/CHEEVERS

Jay Hunter Morris, Tenor - MARKY

Ashlyn Rust, soprano - TAWNY PERKINS

Silvia Vasquez, Mezzo-Soprano - SCIENTIST #1

Nicholas Hartley, Baritone - SCIENTIST #2

Anna Jablonski, Mezzo-Soprano - SCIENTIST #3

Matthew Moore, Baritone - SCIENTIST #4

Andrew Wilkowske, Baritone - SCIENTIST #5

Performers for the entire concert:
Los Angeles Opera Chorus & Orchestra
Placido Domingo, conductor

SYNOPSIS
THE FLY: THE STORY

Act I
A crime scene in a strange laboratory: Veronica Quaife tells her story to a police officer. In flashback, Veronica attends a reception sponsored by Particle Magazine, a scientific journal for which she writes. There, she meets Seth Brundle, a deeply eccentric scientist - either madman or genius - who claims to be working on an invention that will "change the world as we know it." Though skeptical, she follows him back to his laboratory, where she witnesses a demonstration of the teleportation pods which are his life's work: he transports her stockings from one pod to the other.

Shocked to discover that she is a reporter for a science journal, Brundle tries to talk her out of writing about his discovery, to no avail. She takes the story to her editor and ex-lover, Stathis Borans, who dismisses Brundle's feat as a trick. Brundle shows up at Veronica's office and they strike a deal: she will hold off writing an article in order to document his research for a future book. Consulting with scientists, Stathis learns that Brundle is a legendary genius. Suddenly, Veronica's scoop seems a lot more interesting to him.

Brundle tries to transport a baboon, but his machines turn the animal literally inside out. Though his telepods work on inanimate objects, they are still incapable of transporting living things; they have not learned to understand the flesh. When he and Veronica fall into an affair, Brundle discovers new appreciation for the flesh, which he begins to teach to his computers. Soon, he makes his first successful teleportation of a baboon. Forced to deal with Stathis' jealousy, Veronica can't make Brundle's celebration. Drunk and angry, Brundle attempts his ultimate feat alone: to teleport himself. A fly buzzes around one of the pods as he enters it. The experiment succeeds: Brundle emerges from the other pod whole. The New Flesh has come.

Act II
Veronica continues to tell her story to the officer: When she returns to the laboratory, Brundle elatedly reports on his teleportation. He seems oddly changed, however: frenetic, physically powerful, his appetites insatiable, including for sex. She also finds strange-looking hairs growing on his back. With Messianic fervor, Brundle insists that Veronica go through the telepods, so her flesh can be purified like his. When she refuses, he abandons her and heads to a dive bar, where he arm-wrestles a cowboy, Marky, for the right to take his girlfriend, Tawny, home. Veronica takes the hairs from Brundle's back to a lab for analysis. She learns that they came from a fly. Brundle spends the night with Tawny, and then tries to force her through the telepods. Veronica interrupts them: "Be afraid. Be very afraid." Veronica tells him something went terribly wrong during his teleportation. Brundle rejects her claims as jealousy, and tosses her out of his lab.

Over the next few weeks, Brundle's body starts to deteriorate. Fearing that he is dying, he asks the computer for answers: a fly had entered the telepod during his teleportation, which fused his DNA with that of the insect. Veronica receives a phone call from Brundle, imploring "help me." She returns to his lab to find him grotesquely transformed, his human body changing into that of a fly. A distraught Veronica takes Stathis to Brundle's lab while he's sleeping. She tells Stathis she is pregnant with Brundle's baby, and had a dream where she gave birth to a giant maggot. Stathis says he will arrange for her to have an abortion.

When Veronica returns to the lab, Brundle warns her that as he continues to transform into a fly, he will be increasingly unable to protect her from himself. Stathis takes Veronica to abort the fetus. Brundle bursts in and carries her off. Now more fly than ever, he will not allow anyone to destroy his offspring. Brundle plans to fuse the DNA of Veronica and the fetus with his own. He forces her into one pod, gets into another, and commences the teleportation sequence.

Entering with a gun, Stathis frees Veronica, who tries to stop the computers. Instead, their efforts confuse the equipment, which turns Brundle inside out, as it did the baboon. Barely alive, he mutters "Help me." Grabbing Stathis' gun, Veronica puts an end to her lover's suffering. Veronica finishes telling the officer her story. She has made a decision: she will not allow Brundle to die completely, and will bear his child into the world. The New Flesh has come.

Synopsis by David Henry Hwang