Nowadays it appears that any subject can be adapted into a story for the opera. The Los Angeles Opera production of the “The Fly” proves that there is an exception to every rule. Where the music and the singing should be of paramount importance, here the emphasis is placed on special effects and an imposing set. The sci-fi aspect is impressive. The scientist’s laboratory features two intricate machines that look like, as the heroine declares, “decorator refrigerators.” Since they light up and talk and make eerie noises, they make the first act interesting.
The work of a mad/brilliant scientist in the Vincent Price tradition, these two “telepods” can move inanimate objects back and forth. However, our hero is hoping for higher things. Can he disintegrate a living thing in one telepod and restore it in the other? He tries it with a baboon and when he opens the door, the poor thing is, literally, toast. Try, try again.
In a drunken stupor he enters the telepod himself and is successfully transported into the second machine. Alas, a fly had inadvertently entered the telepod with him and the results are hairy in every way. Our hero can now perform Herculean sex acts, graphically depicted. After 14 hours, his partner complains about not stopping for something to eat.
How does this translate into an opera? Well, it doesn’t. The libretto by David Henry Wang consists mostly of dialogue; any arias, duets, etc., are lost in the monotony of the creepy musical score by Howard Shore. The second act is simply tedious because the fun is squeezed out of the premise. The sci-fi fantasy takes itself very seriously with warnings of the “new flesh” to come. The old flesh we see is that of the hero emerging naked from the telepod. (Imagine a Pavarotti in the role.)
Is there a moral? Can scientific research go too far? Well, the heroine has become pregnant with man-fly and who knows what will emerge. Fortunately, the opera ends at this point.
What is sad is the fact that so many talented people are involved. In addition to Hwang and Shore, we have David Cronenberg as the director and Dante Ferretti as the set designer, both leading Hollywood lights in their fields. Even Placido Domingo has lent himself to the proceedings, leading the excellent Los Angeles Opera Orchestra.
The two leading roles are tackled by Daniel Okulitch as the scientist, Seth Brundle, and Ruxandra Donose, as Veronica, the journalist/love interest. They make a very handsome pair and their undressing causes no pain. The two are excellent singers and do all that is required of them. The third major role, that of Veronica’s ex-lover, is played and sung well by Gary Lehman.
The gradual transformation of the scientist into a huge ugly fly is ingeniously accomplished through the efforts of Stephan L. Depuis. However, The telepods are the stars and attention-grabbers of the production. One can’t help feeling this would make a good movie. Oh, it was?