Operaporno

Distribution

Written and directed by: 
Pierre Guillois

Composer: 
Nicolas Ducloux

Performers/singers: 
Jean-Paul Muel
Lara Neumann
Flannan Obé
François-Michel Van Der Rest

Musicians:
Nicolas Ducloux, piano
Jérôme Huille/Grégoire Korniluk, cello

Opera?

It’s really more of an opera buffa or operetta, or a musical. In any case, the combined effect of opera and porno is irresistible and gives a better idea of the sphere of profanity in which we propose to be entertained by the singers. Light music has always had a bawdy side; we just push the limits a little further to suit the times. Under the slick surface of licentiousness lies a colossal challenge: to present a lyrical work that plumbs the most depraved sexual depths while achieving dramatic success combined with music bound to stir up emotions.

Porn?

Our operetta (for such it is, then) is more filthy turn-off than erotic turn-on. So does it still qualify as pornography? Probably not. Scandalous, yes; sexual, absolutely. Family life is pulverised, its moral fibre shattered by blows of sodomy, incest, scatological acts and other particularly foul perversions. The performers are not on full X-rated display, but rather must make use of their sensuality to bring to life these complex and lascivious characters, who find themselves in unbearable and terrifying situations.

Comedy?

The only way to salvation is through humour: only laughter can save us from total outrage. But this doesn’t mean we should take all this lightly. By playing on our deepest taboos and darkest fears, this work seeks to provoke a ferocious humour. Our laughter, dredged up from the most profound and intimate places, is all the more liberating and intense for our having forgotten that all these things were possible, and just how forbidden they were!

 

The plot

A family weekend in the country at a little lakeside house. Grandmother is locked in the car; a young man is quite taken with his stepmother, and his father foolishly severs a finger while trying to keep an eye on his young and nubile new wife. The father’s finger is in the fridge. The lecherous son is lost in the forest. Grandmother is freed, only to lose her lunch in the bushes. The stepmother twiddles her thumbs in the toilets. Everything goes downhill from here: misunderstandings multiply, monstrosities are magnified and the farce builds with one insufferable erotic act after another until the climax is reached. In the same vein as Le Gros, la vache et le mainate, Opéraporno seeks to shock and aims to provoke the ecstasy of laughter, horror at having laughed, and greater laughter still at having been horrified.