Only heard about this recently. Would have gone, if I'd known about it. An opera score has been written to accompany in concert the visuals of the film.
Sounds like an intriguing idea. Read an interview with the composer in L.A. WEEKLY, where he discusses the challenges, and points out areas that seem to have been intentionally funny.
This was fascinating. I thought the composer Patrick Morganelli came from opera but, no, he comes from film scoring. He gave a full lecture upstairs at the Dorothy Chandler Pavillion at the LA Music Center explaining the genesis of the project. The Portland Oregon opera commissioned the piece and picked the film. Indeed the challenge of distilling dialogue while still matching lip mouthing was challenging and , damn, I was surprised how effective this was. God bless Trovajoli but he probably was given little time and money for this and wasn't quite up to Bava's ability of making a silk purse out of a sow's ear. Patrick Morganelli took 6 months to come up with his score and took it totally seriously since the basic elements here were the same that made a good opera. He further worked on it for this LA performance and I have to admit he outdid Trovajoli, even in the purely cinematic parts. It all came together surprisingly well and the audience (equal parts opera and Bava buffs) responded with bursts of applause. I wonder if they will repeat this fascinating experiment in media cross pollination? Thumbs up!
Damn. I had tickets and was supposed to go but couldn't make it. sounds like it was a blast.
MV
You honestly didn't miss much. Music was ok in pseudo, slight-Wagnerian mode with only very few instances of the score coming to some kind of life. Opera sounded essentially the same. Movie was cut by 15 minutes, so it made even less sense. But worse off, we're actually talking about a movie that is pretty good in its way, certainly the best of the peplum movies made with Bava's direction. What's worse about this whole endeavor is the enormous amount of "movie bullying" from the audience, who treated the whole thing with a hip sense of condescension - pretty much in the same way that Cinefamily has their hipster "bad movies we pretend to love" nights. From the atrocious Fly opera to the almost-as-bad "live" performance of X-The Man with the X-Ray Eyes, I have NEVER seen any of these kind of events pulled off.
Obviously I had a really good audience. We even shushed a constant laugher in back of us. So when the composer said he was bothered by the reaction to this before the show started, it was based on one (or both) of the other performances. We had a large group totally supporting this piece, even cheering every time our hero triumphed. Yes, there was sporadic laughter but mostly in the right places. The love and respect came over much more powerfully. I must point out this article is directed totally toward the audience and not the production. Thank god I went to the right performance.
Obviously I had a really good audience. We even shushed a constant laugher in back of us. So when the composer said he was bothered by the reaction to this before the show started, it was based on one (or both) of the other performances. We had a large group totally supporting this piece, even cheering every time our hero triumphed. Yes, there was sporadic laughter but mostly in the right places. The love and respect came over much more powerfully. I must point out this article is directed totally toward the audience and not the production. Thank god I went to the right performance.
I think you're misreading Henry. It is directed AT the lackluster production as well. The composer (with scant "real" credits to his name at that) thinking his satirical work wouldn't elicit the action is playing dumb in the extreme. It's done as camp, appealing to audiences who've come to chortle. It's simply put, an artsy hipster douchebag insult of the kind of "come celebrate this 'good'" movie crap that infests the Cinefamily. What's there to "cheer," other than to celebrate in the camp? it certainly ain't about the music in this case
Obviously I had a really good audience. We even shushed a constant laugher in back of us. So when the composer said he was bothered by the reaction to this before the show started, it was based on one (or both) of the other performances. We had a large group totally supporting this piece, even cheering every time our hero triumphed. Yes, there was sporadic laughter but mostly in the right places. The love and respect came over much more powerfully. I must point out this article is directed totally toward the audience and not the production. Thank god I went to the right performance.
I think you're misreading Henry. It is directed AT the lackluster production as well. The composer (with scant "real" credits at that) thinking his satirical work wouldn't elicit the action is playing dumb in the extreme. It's done as camp, appealing to audiences who've come to chortle. It's simply put, an artsy hipster douchebag insult of the kind of "come celebrate this 'good'" movie crap that infests the Cinefamily. What's there to "cheer," other than to celebrate in the camp?
Well let's start off by pointing out what part of the article directs itself to the "lackluster production". I missed that.
Then I will address one item I do know about, the intentions of the Opera Theater Oregon who chose the film because, as mentioned above, it has many of the elements that make a good opera including mythic themes, over-the-top emotions, lust, death and tragic consequences. They are known as one of the most innovative groups in the US and take their work very seriously. As to Patrick Morganelli, you are telling me that his hour long breakdown of how he approached his work is all an act. Well he is quite an actor. He sold me. He took the assignment because he was a hardcore Mario Bava fan. Explaining his technical approach to many of the scenes, he avoided any approach of lampooning. He even quoted Elmer Bernstein about if you approach a scene absolutely seriously then any humor inherit in the scene will come out naturally.
And finally "camp". Let's just go from the Wikipedia definition "Camp is a social, cultural, and aesthetic style and sensibility based on deliberate and self-acknowledged theatricality." Based on that definition every opera, musical, Ferderico Fellini film, Tim Burton film and certainly Mario Bava film is camp. Now there is a large crowd that considers those all as "bad". Then there are those, like me, that considers it "art". A stylized way of expressing oneself. I think the audience I was with felt the same way.
Obviously I had a really good audience. We even shushed a constant laugher in back of us. So when the composer said he was bothered by the reaction to this before the show started, it was based on one (or both) of the other performances. We had a large group totally supporting this piece, even cheering every time our hero triumphed. Yes, there was sporadic laughter but mostly in the right places. The love and respect came over much more powerfully. I must point out this article is directed totally toward the audience and not the production. Thank god I went to the right performance.
I think you're misreading Henry. It is directed AT the lackluster production as well. The composer (with scant "real" credits at that) thinking his satirical work wouldn't elicit the action is playing dumb in the extreme. It's done as camp, appealing to audiences who've come to chortle. It's simply put, an artsy hipster douchebag insult of the kind of "come celebrate this 'good'" movie crap that infests the Cinefamily. What's there to "cheer," other than to celebrate in the camp?
Well let's start off by pointing out what part of the article directs itself to the "lackluster production". I missed that.
Then I will address one item I do know about, the intentions of the Opera Theater Oregon who chose the film because, as mentioned above, it has many of the elements that make a good opera including mythic themes, over-the-top emotions, lust, death and tragic consequences. They are known as one of the most innovative groups in the US and take their work very seriously. As to Patrick Morganelli, you are telling me that his hour long breakdown of how he approached his work is all an act. Well he is quite an actor. He sold me. He took the assignment because he was a hardcore Mario Bava fan. Explaining his technical approach to many of the scenes, he avoided any approach of lampooning. He even quoted Elmer Bernstein about if you approach a scene absolutely seriously then any humor inherit in the scene will come out naturally.
And finally "camp". Let's just go from the Wikipedia definition "Camp is a social, cultural, and aesthetic style and sensibility based on deliberate and self-acknowledged theatricality." Based on that definition every opera, musical, Ferderico Fellini film, Tim Burton film and certainly Mario Bava film is camp. Now there is a large crowd that considers those all as "bad". Then there are those, like me, that considers it "art". A stylized way of expressing oneself. I think the audience I was with felt the same way.
He can lecture all he wants to, and I heard his lecture too. But it reminds me of the story Jerry Goldsmith told about a musician telling him at extreme length about an awesome piece of music he wrote. And when Goldsmith attended, he thought it was the biggest piece of crap he'd ever heard. This is somewhat better than crap, to be granted. But not in the realm of the what actually accompanied this movie.
His Opera company can be innovative. But this came across as pretty much of a stunt. And while he no doubt loves Bava, what came across was the work of someone who didn't very much. And if you don't call what he wrote for the guy in the monster costume "lampooning," then he must be a naturally funny rock monster indeed.
I'm glad you felt what you were watching was art. About 90% of the sniggering hipsters at my performance thought they were watching Mystery Science Theater set to "opera"
As Barbara Steele said when watching this thoroughly intentional camp attempt to show "low art" as being even lower by making it "highfalutin'" - "I hope they don't do this to 'Black Sunday'"
sounds like it was a blast.