Opera of the Week: My marriage is failing, I’ve turned into a tree

Tonight’s opera, Like flesh by Israeli composer Sivan Eldar, an  Opéra de Lille production, is streamed by Slippedisc courtesy of OperaVision.

The  composer creates an intriguing sound world by combining orchestral and electro-acoustic music.  A subversion of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Like flesh is the fruit of a collaboration between a group of committed young artists.  The British playwright Cordelia Lynn is already well known in English theatre circles for, among other things, her collaboration with Katie Mitchell to re-stage The Tempest. With the Italian director and scenographer Silvia Costa, they offer a work that transcends natural and touches the supernatural. Driven by the fiery energy of the Le Balcon ensemble, this is a sensual, political, ecological opera as urgent as the climate crisis itself.  The opera is conducted by Maxime Pascal.  Helena Rasker sings the role of the Woman/the Tree, William Dazeley as the Forester and Juliette Allen as the Student.

The Plot:  Trapped in an unhappy marriage, a woman mourns the devastation of the forest around her. An unexpected affair instigates an explosive metamorphosis, and she finds perfect release as a tree. But the world is a dangerous place for trees, and deep in the forest a forester and a student lay claim to a body of wood and leaf – one for money and one for love.

Composer Sivan Eldar explains her approach to the music:

Available from 15 July 2022 at 1900 CET / 1800 London / 1300 NY