\n<\/p>\n
Mark-Anthony Turnage has a habit of provoking stuffy opera fans.<\/p>\n
The revered British composer\u2019s 1988 debut, \u201cGreek<\/a>,\u201d appalled some audiences by transposing Sophocles\u2019s \u201cOedipus Rex\u201d into to a cursing, brawling working-class London family. And some critics<\/a> hated the pole dancers onstage in \u201cAnna Nicole<\/a>,\u201d his opera about the tragic life of the Playboy model Anna Nicole Smith.<\/p>\n Now, Turnage is preparing to present \u201cFesten<\/a>,\u201d in which a patriarch\u2019s 60th birthday party descends into chaos after a speech exposes a family\u2019s deepest secrets. When \u201cFesten\u201d premieres on Tuesday at the Royal Ballet and Opera in London, the show\u2019s dark subject matter looks set to upset traditionalists, too.<\/p>\n Based on Thomas Vinterberg\u2019s cult Danish-language movie of the same name, \u201cFesten\u201d includes descriptions of child abuse and suicide. The opera\u2019s 35-strong cast will fight, engage in simulated sex and hurl racist abuse at the show\u2019s only Black character.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Yet Turnage insisted in a recent interview that he hadn\u2019t set out to challenge anyone \u2014 except himself. \u201cPart of me thinks, \u2018Why don\u2019t I just do a nice fluffy story that will be performed a lot?\u2019\u201d Turnage said. \u201cBut I know if I did, it wouldn\u2019t be any good.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI need to be provoked,\u201d Turnage added. \u201cI need an extreme or strong subject to write good music.\u201d<\/p>\n This \u201cFesten\u201d premiere comes just over 25 years after Vinterberg\u2019s movie won the jury prize at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival<\/a>. Released as \u201cThe Celebration<\/a>\u201d in the United States, \u201cFesten\u201d was created under the banner of the Dogme95 movement<\/a>, which required movie directors to follow 10 strict rules. Those included only using hand-held cameras and a ban on music, unless it occurs naturally in a scene.<\/p>\n Vinterberg said by phone that he was curious to see how the operatic adaptation would work, given that his movie was mainly about characters concealing their emotions. In opera, by contrast, \u201cYou\u2019ve got to sing out everything \u2014 there\u2019s no hiding,\u201d Vinterberg said.<\/p>\n Turnage said he came to \u201cFesten\u201d by accident. He first watched the movie in the mid-2000s, and loved its dark humor, he said, but its operatic potential didn\u2019t occur to him straight away. Then, during a binge-watch of Vinterberg films in 2019, Turnage said he realized: \u201cWow! This has got all the elements for a grand opera.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The dinner party\u2019s guests could be the opera chorus, Turnage recalled thinking, while the movie\u2019s speeches \u2014 including one in which Christian, the movie\u2019s middle-aged lead, accuses his father, Helge, of abuse \u2014 would make great arias. \u201cI could see the people singing onstage,\u201d Turnage said. \u201cI could see music in it.\u201d<\/p>\n The movie also spoke to him personally, Turnage added. While his own family gatherings had none of the horrors of \u201cFesten,\u201d he said he identified with Christian confronting his father. Turnage said his own father, who died last year, had spanked him as a child, and was \u201cquite brutal\u201d when he did. The composer said he was still angry about that. \u201cI wanted my dad to say, Sorry,\u201d Turnage said. \u201cI knew he never regretted it.\u201d<\/p>\n For the \u201cFesten\u201d libretto, Turnage turned to Lee Hall, a lyricist best known for \u201cBilly Elliot<\/a>.\u201d It was a relatively easy task, Hall said, because Vinterberg\u2019s screenplay was so dramatic and concise \u2014 all he had to do was \u201clift the movie gently into a new medium.\u201d<\/p>\n