Here are one hundred and twenty songs of profanity. One hundred and twenty aspects of humanity. One hundred and twenty portraits of how we behave. The rakes and whores, the pious and the mad, The rich and poor, the evil and the bad. One hundred and twenty songs of desire, Writ for the Marquis de Sade. Song One, 120 Songs for the Marquis de Sade The Marquis de Sade is legendary for a multitude of irascible traits, perversions and subversive ideas. Modesty, however, was never one of his strong points. Remaining true to the unbridled spirit of its subject, 120 Songs for the Marquis de Sade doesn't waste any time stripping right down to the naughty bits.
When the curtain is raised on this new opera tonight at the Vancouver East Cultural Centre, a shepherd steps into the very first scene, completely naked, save for two red ribbons tied around his thighs, and launches straight into Song One (the cleaner parts of which are excerpted above). And judging by last week's rehearsal, there will be much more full-frontal nudity -- and a lot more besides -- to follow in this 3½-hour production.
Needless to say, it would be impossible to avoid the subject of sexual debauchery in any work exploring the life of the 18th-century rake who gave his name to sadism. And the creative team behind this $200,000 co-production of the Modern Baroque Opera and Vancouver New Music seem willing to push the moral boundaries of artistic taste further than most. But when asked to discuss the delicacy of staging such explicit acts, composer Peter Hannan becomes inexplicably coy.
"We don't want to give too much away," he demurs.
Librettist and co-director Peter Hinton is equally vague. "The portrayal of sexual acts on stage is an often debated point. How explicit do we need to be to be Sadean? How theatrical do we need to be so people can follow a narrative and stay with characters? It's not pornography we're interested in creating, but there are many scenes where genitals are exposed and sexual acts are depicted. There have been no general rules in the staging of the piece, some scenes are very explicit and some scenes are quite stylized." Kate Hutchinson, artistic director of the MBO, who co-directs with Hinton, attempts to explain their collective reticence.
"Of course sex is a huge element. It's just that we've done so many interviews and it's always the first question we're asked. If people do stick around, acts two and three go into very different territory. I don't think anyone will walk out thinking they've just seen a sex romp." Indeed, there is much more to this opera than just sex and nudity. From its episodic form of 120 songs (some of them less than a minute long, several sung simultaneously) to Hannon's "chamber metal" score (which calls for a 10-piece string section from the Pacific Baroque Orchestra, electronic keyboards and an electric guitar), everything about this production is bold and experimental.
The cast of 12, performing more than 60 roles, combines a staggering diversity of musical backgrounds, including classical (New York bass Michael Douglas Jones takes the lead role), rock (former metal queen Lee Aaron lends a rough-and-ready attitude to four servant girls), jazz (Christine Duncan sings her gospel-inspired soprano in at least five roles) and theatre (contralto Karin Konoval gives Sade's mother-in-law a Kurt Weill quality).
While the raw depictions of Sade's sexual transgressions might startle, Hutchinson insists that it is his ideas, still relevant and difficult to digest 200 years later, that will prove even more shocking.
"If anything's going to be offensive or scary for the audience, it's going to be the language, as opposed to what they're seeing."
Hannan, Hinton and Hutchinson appear much more relaxed when this discussion about Sade is lifted from the stage to the intellectual rafters. "He's asking us to come face to face with human nature and the things that we don't like to visit about ourselves, the animal nature," says Hutchinson.
"The enemy in his pornography is modesty and shame," Hinton concurs. "The restraint of the imagination that is imposed by cultural and social norms. In Sade's work, people are rarely, if ever, inebriated. There is no substance abuse going on. They are conscious, heightened acts of sensation. What he believed was that humans needed to be restored to his or her pain. And that our society has prevented pain as an experience."
But what if those sensitive nerves have already been lacerated? One can only wonder how Sade's extreme doctrines of individual liberty invoked to rationalize his violence toward prostitutes and his sexual "education" of children will resonate in Vancouver, where the gruesome details in the case of the 50 women missing from the downtown east side are now being unearthed, and the recent trial of accused child pornographer John Robin Sharpe has fanned a hotly contested debate over free expression. Some would argue there's never been a better time or place to discuss Sade's revolutionary views of the human psyche. Hinton, Hutchinson and Hannan merely "hmm" in unison, evading any comment on current events. Yet when the rehearsal resumes, one can't help but notice that a particularly disturbing song from the original libretto -- in which Sade engages his young pupils in an orgy -- has been changed.
"We didn't want to get arrested," Hannan huffs with obvious irritation.
Combine the touchy subject matter with an extremely hectic production period, and you can understand why everyone appears slightly frazzled one week before opening night. As the winner of last year's $50,000 Alcan Performing Arts Award, the largest corporate initiative of its kind in Canada, the entire project -- from composition to costumes -- had to be pulled together in less than 12 months. With only 3½ weeks of rehearsal time, the task of mounting this production has been a tortuous, almost Sadean experience for everyone involved.
The casting was completed before the score was composed, allowing Hannan to write specifically for each singer. "That doesn't make it easy," counters Duncan, a Toronto-based Vancouver native, who says it's been a struggle juggling several soprano characters with one who is decidedly contralto. "He will push you as far as you can [go]"
In addition, says Duncan, there are some tricky costuming issues. "It's kind of interesting to be in a position, a week before the show opens, and still not be really sure of what you're wearing."
Or not wearing? No, says Duncan. That's a given. "There is skin in this opera. There's no way you can get away without it, not in a show like this about the Marquis de Sade. So, you just do what you got to do."
Some have had an easier time than others. "Modesty is a personal thing," says Lee Aaron, the former rock star who has reinvented herself as a jazz singer in recent years. Aaron, however, will not be doing the Full Monty herself, Hutchinson confirms.
Still, Aaron has to contend with one of the most sacrilegious scenes in the opera. "The first time we rehearsed, I felt sickened. Personally, it goes against almost everything I believe in. I constantly have to step outside myself and remember I'm just an actor."
Michael Douglas Jones, who plays Sade and appears in all but maybe 10 scenes, says the task of tracking through 120 songs that charge forward at the frantic pace of a rock-music video can be maddening.
"The whole process of doing a new work is extremely complicated. There have been word changes and new choreography in the last few days. Yes, I'm going crazy. But I guess that's the way I'm supposed to be feeling."
Whether the audience will find 120 Songs just as challenging remains to be seen.
"I think we know all the places they might walk out," says Hannan. But Hutchinson believes the rewards of staying will be worth any painful squirming. At least, that's been her experience. "You see an image that may be very difficult or surprising to experience, but always hand-in-hand with that goes a liberation in having witnessed it. I know that in rehearsals there have been some scenes that are just really, really difficult. But once we get through them, there's an amazing sense of liberation because we've stepped over a line that we're not supposed to step over as human beings or artists."
And if the public disagrees? Hutchinson shrugs. "If the organization dies a death as a result of this, the risk will still be worth it." Mighty bold words, indeed. The Marquis would be proud. Marquis de Sade runs tonight, tomorrow, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and March 12, 14, 15 and 16 at 8 p.m. at the Vancouver East Cultural Centre, 1895 Venables St., Vancouver. Tickets: 604-280-3311.
Alexandra Gill