Tag Archives: Sadler’s Wells

THE OPERA LOCOS

★★★★

Peacock Theatre

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THE OPERA LOCOS at the Peacock Theatre

★★★★

“The show is impossible to compartmentalise – part operatic revue, part vaudeville – and total pleasure”

Five sensational opera singers share the stage in this hard-to-pigeonhole musical entertainment presented by Spanish company YLLANA (Artistic Directors David Ottone & Joe O’Curneen).

If any clue is in the title (locos = crazy), the gaudily colourful costumes confirm that this show is going to be wild. Alfredo (Jesús Álvarez, tenor) enthusiastically introduces us to the ensemble dressed in a fetching bottle green fat suit. Carmen (Mayca Teba, mezzo soprano) looks like an extra from the musical Cats, Franelli (Michaël Koné, counter tenor) is straight out of a Prince pop video. The men’s faces are painted white so that they resemble commedia dell’arte characters and all is enhanced by powerful lighting in dramatic reds and blues.

The five performers are part of an operatic troupe and we see them on stage and behind the scenes. Enrique (Enrique Sánchez-Ramos, baritone) gives singing lessons to Franelli, encouraging him to sing more manly whilst evading his amorous advances. Ditsy Maria (Maria Rey-Joly, soprano) has a crush on Alfredo and we watch their tentative steps in courtship. But Alfredo has troubles of his own, considering suicide as he acknowledges his fading talent and his enlarging waistline.

 

 

There is no dialogue at all. Intentions and feelings are portrayed through operatic aria, gesture, sighs, mime and more than a little clowning. The performers sing live to a recorded orchestral track and over the course of the show we hear hits from all the operatic greats: Mozart, Rossini, Verdi, Puccini, Bizet et al. But the gimmick here is that interspersed into the mix are bits of popular music too. Who knew that Rossini could segue so well into Mika’s Grace Kelly? Or Carmen into Whitney? One doesn’t need to know all the sources of all the tunes, but certainly it increases the fun when you’re able to recognise something and enjoy the a-ha moment.

All the singers get their moment in the spotlight and everyone nails it. Enrique’s Figaro is the highlight of the evening, although Maria’s Queen of the Night runs him close. And it’s fitting that the climax of the story should culminate in everyone’s favourite aria, Nessun Dorma from Alfredo.

Love, of course, will win out. Alfredo overcomes his inner demons with a lusty rendition of My Way and accepts the love of Maria. Enrique comes out of the closet to pair up with the pop-loving Franelli. Only Carmen remains uncoupled until she consummates her flirtation with a gentleman in the front row by bringing him onto the stage for the encores.

For me, the English language pop megamix which ends the show seems tagged on, and without the subtlety of what has gone before, but it brings the house down.

This multi-talented cast not only sing superbly but also act, mime, clown and boast expert comic timing. The show is impossible to compartmentalise – part operatic revue, part vaudeville – and total pleasure.


THE OPERA LOCOS at the Peacock Theatre

Reviewed on 8th May 2024

by Phillip Money

Photography by Lighuen De Santos

 

 

 

Previously reviewed Sadler’s Wells venues:

ASSEMBLY HALL | ★★★★★ | March 2024
AUTOBIOGRAPHY (v95 and v96) | ★★★ | March 2024
NELKEN | ★★★★★ | February 2024
LOVETRAIN2020 | ★★★★ | November 2023
MALEVO | ★★★★ | October 2023
KYIV CITY BALLET – A TRIBUTE TO PEACE | ★★★½ | September 2023
ALVIN AILEY AMERICAN DANCE THEATER AT 65 | ★★★★★ | September 2023
DANCE ME | ★★★★★ | February 2023
HOUSE OF FLAMENKA | ★★★★ | September 2022
MACHINE DE CIRQUE | ★★★★★ | June 2022

THE OPERA LOCOS

THE OPERA LOCOS

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Tango Fire
★★★★

Peacock Theatre

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Tango Fire

Tango Fire

Peacock Theatre

Reviewed – 29th January 2019

★★★★

 

“The music is more than a backdrop here; it is the living sensual pulse which beats in the dancers’ blood”

 

Tango originated in the impoverished port areas of the Argentina/Uruguay border in the 1880s; a unique and fiery blend of European ballroom traditions and dances from Africa, Cuba and Argentina itself, it is now danced throughout the world, with its performance epicentre being the great tango houses of Buenos Aires. German Cornejo – creator of the company and choreographer of the show – is native to Buenos Aires, and has been steeped in tango tradition since he began his dance studies at the age of 10. Tango Fire aims to showcase the different styles of tango, and also gives the six couples the opportunity to perform their own individual routines created for the show.

The dancers perform in front of a live tango quartet of piano, bandoneon, violin and contrabass, and there is no doubt that these four terrific young musicians are absolutely essential to this spectacle. The music is more than a backdrop here; it is the living sensual pulse which beats in the dancers’ blood, and in the audience’s too. And no recorded backing track could ever replicate the staccato of Clemente Carrascal’s fingers on the bandoneon’s buttons, or Facundo Benavidez’s rhythmic slapping of the sides of the contrabass. Although the stage does seem empty in the interludes in which the musicians play without the dancers, their moments in the sun are richly deserved.

The dancing itself is extraordinary; skilful, precise and gymnastic, and often performed at breathtaking speed. The second half, in which the couples present their own routines, sees almost unbelievable feats of technical mastery, bringing roars from the crowd and a partial standing ovation for German Cornejo himself and his long-term dance partner Gisela Galeassi. The atmosphere is akin to being rink-side at an ice-skating championships – the competition between the couples is palpable – and the show suffers from a lack of warmth as a result. Moments of emotional connection and passion between the couples are few, lost as they are in technical display, and the pure joy of dancing this extraordinary form only rarely flows out from the stage. These moments, when they do come, are pure gold. Camila Alegre seems in a higher realm of emotional being in Watashi, her duet with Ezequiel Lopez, and it feels a privilege to witness it. Similarly, the fun of the men dancing together, and the women playfully passing the fan between themselves, towards the beginning of the show, is infectious. Marcos Esteban Roberts and Louise Junqueira Malucelli also shine, oozing class and tradition, in the tango clasico Gallo Ciego.

Taken as a whole however, Tango Fire remains a whisker away from raising the roof, for whilst the costumes sparkle and the dancers impress, no souls are stirred.

 

Reviewed by Rebecca Crankshaw

Photography by Oliver Neubert

 


Tango Fire

Peacock Theatre until 16th February

 

Previously reviewed at this venue:
Cirque Berserk! | ★★★★ | February 2018
The Snowman | ★★★★★ | November 2018

 

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