★★★☆☆
The Opera Locos, presented by the award-winning Spanish theatre company Yllana, made its London premiere at the Peacock Theatre this week.
This campy operatic musical comedy takes classic arias and twists them into a cabaret-esque performance. A troupe of five opera singers performs a repertoire of opera classics from Mozart’s ‘Die Zauberflöte’, Verdi’s ‘La Traviata’, Puccini’s ‘La Bohème’ and ‘Madama Butterfly’, Rossini’s ‘Il Barbiere di Siviglia’, and Bizet’s ‘Carmen’.
The Opera Locos was created and co-directed by Joseph O’Curneen and David Ottone with musical direction by Marc Alvarez and Manuel Coves. Costumes and set design are by Tatiana de Sarabia, and lighting design is brought to you by Pedro Pablo Melendo.
The performers—Enrique Sánchez-Ramos, Jesús Álvarez, María Rey-Joly, Mayca Teba, and Michaël Koné—bring their seasoned voices to the stage and bring their own quirks to the operatic personas they inhabit.
To contemporize these celebrated opera symphonies, the troupe interlaces them with modern pop songs, including Mika’s ‘Grace Kelly’.
A personal highlight was Sánchez-Ramos engaging the audience in an “opera masterclass” and asking attendees to mirror his vocals, à la Freddie Mercury’s famed call-and-response gimmick at concerts.
My companion, Lisa, has vocal nodules and muttered, “This is my worst nightmare,” as she tried to keep up with the harmonizing.
I’d seen Carmen at the Royal Opera House the week prior, so I still had a Habanera earworm when mezzo Mayca Teba triumphantly channeled Bizet’s tragic heroine. Teba captured Carmen’s charm while nailing the 1875 aria.
The Opera Locos turns the opera canon on its head by not taking itself too seriously. It takes a sometimes impenetrable artform and turns it into an accessible gem, best for families and children—although opera aficionadoes and adults in the crowd delighted in it, too.
If you find the prospect of a full-length opera daunting, this is a great way to immerse yourself in some of history’s most stunning opera works.
However, the tribute to opera at times fell flat – where an opera fleshes out a rich storyline and develops complex characters, The Opera Locos struggled to weave a cohesive narrative. By taking librettos from different operas, the show’s plot faltered.
The Opera Locos’ London debut follows a successful Edinburgh fringe run last summer.
David Fry, Peacock Programmer said, “For anyone who might be intimidated by seeing a full-scale opera or indeed anyone who’s a regular operagoer then this is definitely the show for you. It’s like opera’s greatest hits performed by seasoned singers with comedy and a few surprises. One of the best shows I’ve seen in Edinburgh for a long time.”
The Opera Locos runs at the Peacock Theatre until May 11.
Photo: Photo: The Opera Locos
JADAR 