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A CurtainUp Los Angeles Review
The Fly
| Be afraid — be very afraid!— Ronnie
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Daniel Okulitch as Brundlefly and Roxandra Donose as Veronica in The Fly at L. A. Opera
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Like Dracula, The Fly is one of those works that seems to have attached itself to the creative imagination. Originally a short story published in France by George Langelaan, it became a 1958 film starring Vincent Price and, most famously, a 1986 film starring Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis and directed by David Cronenberg. Cronenberg, who also directs the opera, is one of three film directors segueing into the Los Angeles Opera this fall, joining Woody Allen and William Friedkin. He demonstrates astuteness to the challenge of a new milieu, using blocking and characterization in place of film cuts to bring excitement and suspense to the latest rendition of this sci-fi classic.
Differing from the film story, the opera uses the basic characters— scientist Seth Brundle, the woman he falls in love with and who loves him, journalist Veronica ("Ronnie") Quaife and her boss, slightly sleazy editor Stathis Borans. Hwang has added depth and complexity to the libretto, depicting Seth's search as one which frees the person from the cage of the flesh by attempting teleportation experiments. In Act I, he tries and fails to transport a baboon. He then tries again and succeeds. On the eve of this success, the shy scientist is miffed at Veronica, who feels she has to meet her editor for story confidentialty involving Seth and leaves him an enigmatic note saying she has to scrape the past from her shoes. He uses his disappointment as a reason to get drunk and teleport himself.
Act II chronicles the story we know about this experiment gone wrong when a fly inadvertently joins Seth in the machine. But Hwang brings much new material into the story. We hear about insect politics, their priority which is survival and taking back the world. Ronnie returns, she and Seth have 14-hour sex which begins to strike her as a little strange, to say nothing of tiring. When she gets pregnant and he gets 95% insect, well, you can see the problems, none of which Jeff Goldblum had in 1985. Thanks to GOP VP nominee Sarah Palin, the libretto is unexpectedly topical this week. One wishes Ronnie had heard Brundlefly's aria about taking back the world.
Composer Howard Shore, whose work includes the score for the Lord of the Rings trilogy as well as the 1986 Fly, uses none of that film score for the opera. All of the music, with its 44-member chorus, is new. It's contrapuntal, reminiscent of Eliot Goldenthal's Grendel.
Although none of the arias could be called lyrical, the music fits the strange new hybrid protagonist of this piece. There is an ancient Chinese question, "Am I a man dreaming I'm a butterfly or a butterfly dreaming I'm a man?" Perhaps the intent here is that the score could be written by a fly trying to express his inner man.
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THE FLY Based on a short story by George Langelaan and the motion picture screenplay by David Cronenberg and Charles Edward Pogue Music: Howard Shore Libretto: David Henry Hwang Director: David Cronenberg Conductor: Placido Domingo Cast: Daniel Okulitch (Seth Brundle), Veronica Quaife (Ruxandra Dunose), Gary Lehman (Stathis Borans), Beth Clayton (Female Officer), Jay Hunter Morris (Marky), Ashlyn Rust (Tawny Perkins) Set Design: Dante Ferretti Lighting Design: A.J. Weissbard Costume Design: Denise Cronenberg Fly makeup and costume deisgn: Stephen L. Dupuis Running Time: Two hours 40 minutes, one intermission Running Dates: September 7-27, 2008 Where: Los Angeles Opera, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Music Center, 135 N. Grand Ave., Los Angeles. Reservations: (213) 972-8001 Reviewed by Laura Hitchcock on September 7, 2008 |
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 South Pacific  In the Heights  Leonard Maltin's 2008 Movie Guide  Sweeney Todd DVD 
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