Some people can't simply design with Doric columns or ancient tile floors; there has to be a flat-screen television embedded in the column, and the tile floor has to glow green around the edges. Likewise, fashionistas who pair a vintage muff with a plastic pantsuit are going the same, weird/wonderful, backwards-and-forwards route.
Embracing a past-future aesthetic is something The Wooster Group does with ease. The company's "La Didone," a blending of old opera with a space-y cult film, received great notices in New York and is now at REDCAT through June 21.
Francesco Cavalli's opera "La Didone" first bowed in 1641 while Mario Bava's undead extravaganza "Planet of the Vampires" ("Terrore nello spazio") hit movie screens in the middle of the turbulent 1960s. Works of the stage and screen created more than three centuries apart rarely meet, and when they do, they rarely meet so fancifully.
If you're a classic opera fan needing to learn to love the drive-in vibe of a good zombie flick, or, the reverse, a space movie buff with little knowledge of operatic rhythms and cadences, we're loving that "La Didone" is here to educate and entertain.
