Grand Opéra de trash  in 27 acts and entr’actes


Virtual and real space, act and entr’acte, fictional and factual identity all clash at the ‘Place de l’opéra aperta’. Voices, resonances, sounds, screams, orders, murmur and singing spring from the noise of technology and ecology, dictatorship and democracy. These concepts are what Hold Your Horses builds upon: the brutal confrontation with a fragmentary world that balances between reality and virtual reality. In the libretto, loosely bases on Gene Sharp’s 198 Methods of Nonviolent Action, assemblies of nature and culture flirt with diva’s and avatars. ‘A HORSE! A HORSE! MY KINGDOM FOR A HORSE!’, King Richard III yells hopelessly. ‘KIFAYA!’ (ENOUGH!) is the (provisional) answer of the Arab Spring, spread by cellphone recordings. Great idols and narratives tragically end up in flash news, while the common man assembles himself into a DIY-hero and adores virtual stars. The moral of the story? Vulnerability prevails when the antagonisms of life break through the art of code in opera. ChampdAction’s Grand Opera is doomed to be an Opera Aperta, with a lot of … DISOBEDIENCE!