Porn Comes to the Opera
Porn has crossed over into mainstream cinema (Boogie Nights, Don Jon), literature (Asa Akira‘s recent Insatiable: Porn – A Love Story) and more, but who ever heard of a porn opera? Believe it or not, it’s now a reality. Composer Gordan Beeferman (yes, Beeferman – we did not make that up) has mounted the first full-fledged XXX-themed opera with The Enchanted Organ: A Porn Opera, an in-progress work that presented select scenes to audiences last Thursday in New York.
The opera’s plot, which mirrors the rags-to-riches trajectory of the main character of Boogie Nights, follows Avery Dick, a fresh-faced new star who tries to make his way in the wild and weird world of adult entertainment. Along the way, audiences are treated to scenes at a porn awards ceremony and a scene where a porn-movie vet challenges upstart Avery to see (quite literally) how he measures up. Let’s just say that we don’t think Mozart ever had this much bawdy fun, even in Don Giovanni.
Just where did this idea come from? In a blog post on the opera’s official website, the show’s creators noted that “it just seemed so ludicrous and twisted (in a good way) that we couldn’t resist.” They also found the artform itself appropriate for a porn-related story: “Opera as an art form is just… hot. There’s something incredibly erotic about human voices sublimating passion into song, displaying their beauty and flexibility in a wanton, exhibitionist display, or weaving an illusion of intimacy between performer and the masses in a darkened theater.”
The unusual concept has generated buzz in the theatre community. Critic George Grella singled the not-yet-completed work out for praise in his review in the New York Classical Review, noting “There is never enough irreverence in opera, so works like Gordon Beeferman’s The Enchanted Organ: A Porn Opera are always welcome. Couple that with, as the title indicates, a mockery of the inherent absurdities of pornography, and integrate burlesque into the concept and staging, and most everyone is guaranteed to enjoy a happy ending.”
At this point, we have to wonder: could The Magic Skinflute be far behind?
If you’re in the mood for porn with a spectacular sweep of style and story but can’t make it to New York for The Enchanted Organ, check out these critically acclaimed epics instead . . .
