Handel opera gets an Asian makeover at BAM
What do you get when you mix an 18th century opera by George Frideric Handel, a 450-year-old Chinese temple and a pair of sumo wrestlers? The Canadian Opera Company took a stab at solving the riddle with a presentation earlier this month of Handel’s “Semele” at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM).
Zhang Huan — a Chinese performance artist known for sitting on a toilet, naked and covered with honey, while insects crawled all over his flesh — made his initial foray into opera with the piece. And, he said in an interview with The New York Times, his last.
At the time of its London premiere in 1744, “Semele,” a sexually-charged story based upon Greek mythology, came as a bit of a shock to a public that was more attuned to prim Christian themes. Today’s audience is undoubtedly pre-seasoned to be more accepting of racy content, although a few elements of its most recent interpretation may have caused a few in the audience to blush or, at least, to giggle bashfully. Most notable among these were a colorful horse — made from a suit worn by two people — sporting a more or less anatomically correct, bright pink erection and a monk orgy.