UN BALLO IN MASCHERA, 2013
Opera by G. Verdi
Sydney Opera House, Australia, 2013
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The first Verdi stage direction of Àlex Ollé is set in the near future. Inspired by George Orwell’s 1984, one can imagine the worst possible landscapes. The current economic crisis has caused the collapse of society we know it today. Power has closed in itself, in a form of a new absolutism or refunded totalitarianism, but apparently in a democratic system. The power, bureaucrats, financers, politicians, who have survived the crisis, will live hidden from the world. Around them, like shadows, The Protester, the indignation of the world. A political vision of Un ballo in maschera, where all the characters wear their mask all the time, an alienation symbol, because in this society nobody says the true.
During the Prelude, images were projected onto the front screen, with scenes from nature and humanity visible on a naked male figure. As the music pressed towards the climax, these cinematic scenes turned to images of 20th-century conflict – wars, violence, and the Guy Fawkes mask that has come to symbolise today’s anarchic opposition – and finished with a silver mask growing ever larger in front us, a symbol of totalitarian authority.
Stage Director: Àlex Ollé (La Fura dels Baus)
Video: Emmanuel Carlier
(more credits) : http://www.alexolle.com/work.php?id=55#
Un ballo in maschera / Verdi from Emmanuel Carlier on Vimeo.
