Opiume, produced by Singapore’s critically acclaimed Checkpoint Theatre, is a chamber opera with a 21st Century twist. It features an instantly accessible score and libretto, plus digital art, videos and motion graphics that redefine theatre space.
Created by composer/librettist Mark Chan and director/digital video artist Casey Lim, the work takes the Opium War, the “first drug war” in history, as its backdrop. But this is no history lesson or morality. What really stands out here — kaleidoscopic visuals aside — is the alluringly romantic music.
With the focus on East-West fusion, the music calls to the emotions with its re-inventions of melodic and harmonic forms drawn from different cultures. Performers are also diverse but with a strong Asian presence: the T’ang Quartet from Singapore; Chinese instrumentalists and percussionist from Hong Kong; and opera singers from Australia.
Free of Asian Musical clichés, and any political/historical rhetoric, this cross-media masterpiece reinvigorates a Western art form to give a voice to new generations throughout the region.
