Una Nit d’Ópera (Night at the Opera)

IdeaDuring the performing years of Cegada de Amor, getting in and out the screen, many people requested us to allow them to see the show from the backstage. There was so many people requesting it so, that we had to put a few chairs for them in the backstage. For the five years of Cegada de Amor running, nearly every day we had a row of people watching the goings-on from the backside. From there came to us the idea to write Una Nit d’Òpera. Same thing as always but different. As in some other shows, it is a homage to theatre, or even better, a homage to this artisanship, nearly extinguished, of the theatre making, that we had learned as children: The paper stagecrafts, the sticking, the robes, the gridiron, etcetera.

This time we used the opera for our setting, the theatre’s cathedral. When one thinks about an opera theatre, given its pomposity, one thinks about luxury, brilliance, and lavishness. In the later years, opera has become quite fashionable in our country, many opera theatres have been smartened up. Opulent temples that we all have contributed to its refurbishing and we keep contributing. What a pity though, opera is scarcely enjoyed! Or else, it is a pity that big masses know so little about it. Why would we be interested in something all we know about is that is a boring show where the singers are so fat?

That is why, an organisation called “Òpera a l’abast” (Opera reaching) established by multiple opera friend associations from all over the country, has started a campaign called Una Nit d’Òpera (One night at the Opera) to approach the genre to the masses. “Opera reaching” seize the opportunity to see an opera for a small amount of money (what a theatre ticket costs) taking the advantage that a Grand Opera Theatre is running Aída by Giuseppe Verdi.

Story lineThe audience, ticket in hands, go to the main entrance. But they are not allowed in to that doors: The ticket they are showing is “the cheap one”. They have to get in through the back door. The audience, accompanied by the “Opera Reaching” monitors, walk around the corner to get in through the back door. From then on, they will start a walk through the corridors, dressing rooms, stage… up until they get to the hypothetical unused stalls all covered in white cloth.

Someone from the audience realises that this is not the main hall of the Grand Opera Theatre and demands some explanations. They are informed that they are actually in the back hall, a place used to attend to the rehearsals only. They will be sitting there all the way through the Opera. The main hall is reserved for a “cultured” audience who understands opera and who has paid a ticket six times more expensive than theirs. The audience protests again, but all the theatre staff (stage shifters, hairdressers, tailors, ushers, stage managers, etc) advises them to stay and enjoy the show from the back, as much as they do every night. They are not only just going to learn what opera is, but having the opportunity to watch it all from the backside, they are going to be able to enjoy even a more interesting and curious show. The audience accepts it and stays.

The orchestra starts playing. Aida is about to start. At the very end, after the curtains go up, one can see what looks like the main hall. The singers start singing, but facing the audience backwards. From then on the audience is going to be watching the opera from the back, through a see-through cyclorama, by means of big screens showing what’s being seen on stage, etc. From that moment on, the audience can appreciate all the magic of the opera but backwards. As if we were watching the show through a peephole. The spectator can see the tricks of the stage, how the machinists move the stage around, how the stage technicians arrange the props, the last minute final touch of the wardrobe, the hairdressing or the make-up.

The audience realise on how much those workers love their jobs. They can also see how the struggles are dealt with. Apparently, such struggle passes by unnoticed all the way through the performance, as it is the theatre’s golden rule.

But tonight there are much more problems as the ones that they are used to deal with. So, all the staff starts asking for the audience collaboration, and they make the audience dress as soldiers, priests or even pretend they are opera singers! As a compensation to their collaboration, the staff will provide them with all sorts of accounts of the singer’s private life, gossips about their bits and pieces, and all kind of folklore of the opera world. Between gossip and gossip, and encouraging them to get into the opera world, which is everybody’s heritage, the performance reaches the end. They all together have been partaken in the ephemeral rite of a performance.

The last Aida’s note is heard and after it the clapping from the main hall. Suddenly, all the stagecraft turn around and we can see what until then was facing us backwards. What’s more, all singers turn around to join the scenery and sing to the audience, the spectators from “Opera Reaching”, the big finale. The performance is over.

You can enjoy the show in here: