"Thrilling opera takes over the Grand Théâtre"
Cordula Schnuer | Wort.lu, 02.02.14
Contemporary opera THE HOUSE TAKEN OVER by Portuguese composer Vasco Mendonça is coming to Luxembourg's Grand Théâtre. Wort.lu/en spoke with the artist (...) THE HOUSE TAKEN OVER is based on a 1946 novella of the same name by Argentinian writer Julio Cortázar. It explores the lives of a brother and sister, both adults, who live together in the same house. When they start hearing strange noises in the house they are forced to leave one room after the other behind and confine themselves to an ever smaller space in their home. Composer Vasco Mendonça first stated developing the opera in 2011 in a series of workshops held at the Aix-en-Provence Festival. Last year, the opera premiered at the festival. “I knew the novella for quite a while,” explained Mendonça, explaining that the strangeness of the story attracted him to the project. With a narrator who cannot always be judged reliable, the story is both an “intimate drama” and a “thriller,” according to the composer. It also asks some pertinent questions. If the house is indeed haunted, why don't its inhabitants simply leave. Something even more terrifying must be waiting for them outside, Mendonça said. With the original text ambiguous on what it actually is that takes the house over, there is a lot of room for psychological drama. It could be a “projection of their own anxieties,” Mendonça argued. At the same time, for a stage production, the audience needs to be able to see something, he added. However, “there are no closed answers.”
Relentless opera in English
With a libretto by British playwright Sam Holcroft, whose Edgar and Annabel was produced by the National Theatre in London in 2011, the opera is in English, an unusual language for the genre. “I wanted it to be in English,” Mendonça explained, adding that he needed to compose for a language he is fluent in. “Portugese is a very tricky language to put into music,” he added, saying that he had struggled with his mother-tongue before. English with its ability to “say a lot in a few words” and the possibility for “fast, direct” exchanges fitted perfectly, Mendonça said. “There is a drive going through the piece, a certain relentlessness.” The hour-long show is, however, not only suitable for opera connoisseurs. Its different layers offer different points of entry for the audience, Mendonça said, whether it is the story itself or the musical language. “We've had wonderful responses from people of all ages and backgrounds who were touched by different things,” he said of the opera, which travels to Bruges and Lisbon after its Luxembourg run.