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IPFS News Link • Entertainment: Music

Think opera peaked 200 years ago? These artists want to change your mind.

• arclein

Onstage, the casual vibe persisted. Both musically and in its staging, …(Iphigenia) ?" the styling of the title was changed for subsequent performances ?" casts a critical eye on the Wagnerian-style retellings of ancient myths, foundational to many of the best-known opera works. In this version of the story ?" based on the Greek myth in which the title character is sacrificed to the gods by her father, Agamemnon, to improve his chances in a military campaign ?" the Greek soldiers are brutes swilling from red Solo cups. Helen of Troy appears, briefly, in the form of a blow-up doll. Six different actresses play versions of Iphigenia ?" capped off by Spalding, clad in an iridescent jumpsuit. An opera-standard pit orchestra gives way to a jazz trio at key dramatic moments; Spalding's singing vacillates between the two styles. Whether or not the whole thing fully hangs together is an open question. "I can't say we figured out how to do it," Spalding said in a panel discussion


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