“Semele Walk” in Sydney: Händel Meets Westwood
Händel on the runway (Photo: Sydney Festival)
19 February 2013
Opposites attract, as we all know. So it is not rare for the arts to combine things that are apparently disparate, classical and punk for example. The blend does not always result in a convincing new whole – but it certainly did in the case of Georg-Friedrich Händel and Vivienne Westwood.
In cooperation with the Sydney Festival, the Goethe-Institut Australia recently presented Semele Walk at the Sydney Opera House. It is a project by Ludger Engels (KunstFestSpiele Herrenhausen), which unites the fashion fantasies of punk goddess Vivienne Westwood with the music of Georg-Friedrich Händel. It’s no wonder that the Financial Times described the result as “decorative, hallucinogenic and bold.” The audience was certainly thrilled.
Semele Walk depicts the heroine Semele from the third book of Ovid’s Metamorphoses as a rebellious 21st century punk. Her fall into insanity and self-destruction takes place on the catwalk – between stiletto-heeled shoes, billowing robes and Baroque music.
The piece, which premiered in the summer of 2011 at the KunstFestSpielen Herrenhausen in Hanover with couture by Vivienne Westwood and was now brought to Australia, was presented here by the Berlin Kaleidoskop ensemble together with the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs. It proves that the step from an oratorio to punk opera can be shorter than one might think.
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