socialmedian: Italian opera woos slasher-movie fans

User-submitted headlines for this story

Clips

Source: The Guardian

Nov 08, 2009

Summary

With opera house attendances falling alarmingly, venues such as La Scala in Milan are trying to titillate and lure the young

The image appears to come straight from a horror movie. A woman cries out in pain and anguish, her cheek streaked with blood. Behind her, figures perform an elaborate dance of death. In letters of crimson red, the tagline screams: "Two fell in love, the others massacred one another."

Welcome to opera at La Scala as it has never been presented before. As ticket sales fall at Italy's historic opera houses and government subsidies dwindle, the most respected home to Italy's most cherished art is resorting to shock tactics, risking the predictable wrath of Italy's conservative opera establishment.

The poster, featuring German mezzo-soprano Waltraud Meier in the forthcoming production of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, can be seen all over Milan, on trams and in the streets. The lurid image, and others like it, are part of a concerted drive to excite, titillate and intrigue the market on which La Scala's future survival depends: the young.

"Cruelty

...Read the full article

Comments (0)

Add Your Comment