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For those who like larger ladies, meet ENO's Claudia
Miranda Bryant3 Sep 2009
She crawls, she can move through 360 degrees, and she is as tall as the stage at one of London's leading opera houses.
Meet Claudia — a giant, naked, motorised woman currently lying in pieces around the London Coliseum.
When she is put together, Claudia, who is made of fibreglass tough enough for a man to walk on, will become the centrepiece of a new production by English National Opera.
ENO has collaborated with Catalan theatre collective La Fura dels Baus for a “one-off” production of Gyorgy Ligeti's opera Le Grand Macabre.
Visuals and design are central to the work of the world-renowned group responsible for the breathtaking opening ceremony of the Barcelona Olympics.
Claudia forms the set for the modern opera, which focuses on death and decadence.
Her head is so big that the top of it touches the theatre's proscenium arch.
“Every part of her body is used,” said John Berry, ENO's artistic director.
“People come out of her eyes, her legs open up and at one point it looks like a skeleton is coming out of her body.
“The opera isn't for the faint-hearted and neither is this production. It's a one-off and we won't do it again.”
The model moves using a piece of machinery that is able to move and rotate the entire set.
But because the production is one of three showing at the same time at the Coliseum, it has to be simple enough to pull apart that it can be removed in three hours after every show.
Le Grand Macabre opens a highly anticipated season of 12 productions, which also includes Rupert Goold's debut opera Turandot and a revival of David McVicar's Turn of the Screw.
This season marks a turning point for the company after a crisis in 2005 when former chief executive and artistic director Sean Doran resigned and was replaced by Loretta Tomasi, as chief executive, and John Berry.
After restructuring two years ago, ENO announced earlier this year that it now has £5 million in reserves.
The production of Le Grande Macabre opens at the London Coliseum on 17 September.
Reader views (1)
Quick! Cover up that sculpture! Don't want Mark William-Thomas and his family to see it. He'll lodge an official complaint, like he did against the naked 4th-plinther at Trafalgar Square!!!
- Jock, London, 03/09/2009 12:53
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