Given the difficulty I had getting a ticket, I suppose it was destined to disappoint. It was harder to get than Bryn Terfel (the world’s greatest bass-baritone) in WNO’s Die Meistersingers or the RO’s Simon Boccanegra with Placido Domingo (the world’s greatest tenor) at the Proms – but they both had a functioning and fair booking process (and cost about the same)!
This was my 5th Punchdrunk ‘immersive’ experience but the first to disappoint. They say the first time is always the best (Firebird Ball, and it was pretty terrific) but for me it was the last (It Felt Like A Kiss at last year’s Manchester International Festival, which benefited significantly from being ‘linear’). I’m also a lover / supporter of modern opera, not a member of the ‘opera as museum’ majority. The conclusion I’ve reached is that opera just doesn’t suit the form – and the audience didn’t help.
Apparently there are nine scenes to this opera on three floors of a disused office block / warehouse in Docklands, but I think I only saw four or five complete scenes totalling less than 44 minutes in the 2.75 hours I was in the building. There was one particular scene in the atrium which was never performed in the many occasions I wandered its way. What I did see was occasionally through a wall of people or ruined by audience members who seemed to think wandering amongst the players or up close with a singer was part of the experience rather than sabotaging the atmosphere, tension and drama that had hitherto existed. When a scene finished, some audience members ran after singers actors or musicians as if their life depended on it!
It was impossible to get any sense of narrative or story – in order or not – difficult to understand the sung words and hard to access the music on first hearing. Having mugged up on the story in advance, I couldn’t even work out which characters were which! All in all it was a rather frustrating and unsatisfying experience.
An experiment worth trying, but not one to attempt again. Leave the ‘immersive’ to tales best told that way – trying to make an opera fit it makes no sense at all.
Gareth's Culture and Travel Blog 