From What's On When
7 January 2002

Who says opera can't comment on contemporary issues, this proving its worth in an all-too sceptical modern society? You only have to look at the amazing success of Battersea Arts Centre's Jerry Springer The Opera since its first workshop performances in August and September 2001. For those lucky enough to catch it there could be only one conclusion: this is the funniest night at the opera, ever!

Written by Stewart Lee (of TV's Lee & Herring fame) and composed by the indefatigable Richard Thomas, Jerry Springer The Opera is back for just two-and-a-half weeks, and is promised to be wilder than ever before.

The premise is simple: the opera audience finds itself part of the Jerry Springer TV show experience, with the chorus (ideally, but not necessarily) spread out in the real audience, chanting the expected "Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!" and ever-lewder comments while guests come on to the show to tell their loved ones - in song - their personal secrets. Arias, recitatives, duets and choruses there are (should you wish to call them that), otherwise you are swept away with the sheer audacity of the libretto.

Yes, there is a transvestite ("chick with a dick"), a guy whose fantasy is to wear diapers while having sex (and more) and many more of life's most weird and wonderful characters (normal opera plots seem quite restrained compared to Jerry Springer!). But there are also moments of utmost poignancy, where simple wishes for a good life, or the desire to lose oneself in dancing, are brought into clear focus. What better indication could there be of the unique power of opera?

Having said that (if it isn't already obvious), this is not a show for the faint-hearted; the swearword quotient is high (indeed whole choruses are made up of just such words), and there are those that may find the content unpalatable. Then again, Verdi and Mozart et al often faced the censors for the audacious political plotting, so we kid ourselves that opera has always been a genteel art.

Anyone interested in how opera can conquer in the 21st century should not miss this production!