We Went to the New Museum: Kjartansson, Oleson, and Cuoghi
by PADDY JOHNSON AND WHITNEY KIMBALL on JUNE 18, 2014
Jeanine Oleson: Rocky Horror Opera Show
What’s on view: As part of her New Museum residency “Hear, Here”, Jeanine Oleson has invited a room full of opera lovers to participate in performances of opera hits like they would at a Rocky Horror Picture Show screening, by dressing up, singing along, and throwing flowers. The video evidence is on view at the New Museum.
What’s on view: As part of her New Museum residency “Hear, Here”, Jeanine Oleson has invited a room full of opera lovers to participate in performances of opera hits like they would at a Rocky Horror Picture Show screening, by dressing up, singing along, and throwing flowers. The video evidence is on view at the New Museum.
Paddy: Think of your opera standards, and you’ll hear them belted out here by opera singers Amelia Watkins, soprano, Sarah Heltzel, mezzo-soprano, Cameron Schutza, tenor, and Robert Balonek, baritone. Eric Malson plays the pianist. Habanera and The Toreador Song from Carmen, Valentin’s Aria from Faust, etc. Even if you don’t follow opera—and I don’t—you’ll recognize the music.
The piece is presented as a two-channel video, documenting the perspective of the audience and the performers. The point here being that both the audience and the performers are active participants in the piece. That’s underscored in the footage as well, which begins with long sequences of the audience members simply getting dressed up backstage for the performance. Most of those people we knew—it was a very New York crowd.
As soon as people get settled in for the performance an audience member tries to fly a paper airplane onto the stage. There are a couple of chuckles about that mischief, which we know is only going to escalate. And sure enough, by the time we get to the end of the performance we’re looking at utter mayhem. People are madly throwing roses onto the stage while other audience members are frantically collecting them so they can be thrown again. It’s as ornate as any opera you can imagine and twice as fun.
Which is to say, the piece—Rocky Horror Picture Show—is very aptly named. So perhaps mere documentation, the set and costumes isn’t quite enough to communicate the experience? I mean can anyone truly appreciate what watching The Rocky Horror Picture Show in the theatre is like without actually being there? Watching the performance was fun, but it felt a little like listening to a “YOU HAD TO BE THERE!” story. Of course, it sounds *crazy*, but you don’t know the half of it.
Whitney: I think we both left kicking ourselves for not going to this.