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Master of spectacle still seeking to break new ground

03.07.2008 21:01 Arts - Source: cbc.ca

Robert Lepage, shown accepting a directing award for his film La Face cache de la lune, says he doesn't like to limit himself to theatre or just opera.(Canadian Press)

Canadian superstar director Robert Lepage has set out to tease the Hollywood roots out of The Rake's Progress in a production to debut in London next Monday.

Lepage sets the opera, written by Igor Stravinsky, in the 1950s rather than the 18th century as conceived by its creator.

Lepage, who grew up in Quebec watching Gilligan's Island and Bewitched, recognized a fascination with pop culture in Stravinsky's score, he told CBC cultural affairs show Q on Thursday.

Lepage, who says he feels "at home" in London, had to miss the ceremony for the 400th anniversary of Quebec City because of his commitments in the U.K.

But his Quebec City installation Image Mill, which will project a mosaic of images on the grain silos of Quebec's Old Port, opened June 20 and will run all summer.

"I'd like to be there and celebrating with everybody, but I did my fair share of that a few weeks ago when I launched Image Mill," he said.

When first approached to direct The Rake's Progress, Lepage said he became interested in when it had been composed.

"Stravinsky had been in Malibu in the Hollywood Hills at the end of '40s and he was very obsessed with this new invention called television," Lepage said.

"He wanted to write the first opera for television, which he didn't have time to do…. He naively thought that would be the new democratic way for getting ideas across — be the voice of truth and great art. And of course, we all know what happened."

Television takes centre stage

Television is almost a character in the production, taking centre stage in the second act as the invention that Tom Rakewell believes will make his fortune.

Lepage also takes the opportunity to inject Hollywood glitz into the opera.

"Like a lot of eastern European composers who went to America, [Stravinsky] wanted to do film scores. He was interested in Hollywood," Lepage said.

"When he wrote The Rake's Progress, although [it] was set in the 18th century …a lot of the music sounds like film scores."

The production premiered at Brussels' Thtre Royal de la Monnaie in April 2007 and played in Paris before moving on to London, where it will play at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden.

Lepage's other London-based project is creating a nine-hour version of his Lipsync to open this September at the Barbican Theatre.

Lepage, who created shows for Peter Gabriel and Cirque de Soleil and first became known internationally for his poetic plays The Dragon's Trilogy and The Far Side of the Moon, said he doesn't like to stick with one kind of theatrical event.

Instead he is always looking for the next thing that will challenge him, and that has meant taking risks.

Pushing boundaries

"How can you have order if you don't have disorder?" he said. "If you want to challenge yourself and really go up an alley you haven't explored before, you have to organize complete chaos at the beginning and eventually the show or work you're working on will tell you where to go and what to do and that's more interesting."

Lepage said he still has many things he wants to try to push the boundaries of entertainment.

He's pushing up against some of those boundaries with his extended version of Lipsynch. The earlier version that toured Montreal was five hours, but this will be a different experience, he said.

"People come to the theatre with a very different attitude when they know they're going to be sitting there for nine hours. So it's a marathon and you don't listen to the stories that are being told the same way," Lepage said.

"There's a moment when you really enter the world of the story and it allows the storytellers to take the time to tell the story in every detail. It's like taking a vacation on a weekend and reading a novel and saying 'I'm going to finish this novel.' "

Lipsynch also attempts to transcend language, with a polyglot script performed by actors and actresses from all over the world.

Lipsynch will play at the Barbican in London Sept. 6-14.

The Rake's Progress runs July 7-18 at the Royal Opera House. It is a co-production of Thtre de La Monnaie of Brussels, Opra National de Lyon, San Francisco Opera, Teatro Real of Madrid and Lepage's Ex Machina.

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