![]() ![]() Costanzo is the one who nudged his co-star to reach out to Anderson, with whom Bond has a long-standing collaborative relationship. Costanzo added: “All the high culture opera stuff is all about sex, drugs, and rock and roll anyway.”īond, Costanzo and Winokur have all known each other for more than a decade, intermingling at various performances over the years. “I think we’re showing that the high culture really is just as low. ![]() This opened up a whole new thing for me.” And even though I'm out and queer and gay, it's not expressed through the art. Normally I'm portraying another character. ![]() “But then what I discovered when I was doing it, which was surprising to me, is that it changed how I feel about classical music, because all of a sudden I was using my technique and my repertoire to express who I truly was. “And those things that it says feel really important to me right now.”Īnother intention going into the production was to try and make different aspects of so-called “high culture” feel more accessible to those who might not be able to find a point of entry to them: “As Viv says, there's a bulwark, this foreboding sense around classical music,” Costanzo noted. “The combination of us says a lot without us saying it,” Costanzo added. I’m the first person to critique society and culture in my shows, but this one is about joyful self-expression, and reflecting that within the confines of a relationship with somebody you care about.” “And now, all of a sudden we're renegotiating being around other people and re-entry into society. Because who are we if we're not presenting ourselves to people?” Bond said. “I can say that as a trans person, all that time alone in my house really messed with my head. Speaking with Costanzo and Bond via Zoom the week of the premiere, I asked them why a show like this spoke to the current moment, as the city stutters into reawakening. It also feels like what I most want opera to be, which is real and beautiful.” “And it also has the energy of an old fashioned Carol Burnett and Julie Andrews review. The show’s director, Zack Winokur, described the effect as having “the energy of one of Viv’s Joe’s Pub shows, but exploded,” he said. (The songs from Octave will be turned into an album, released early next year.) But throughout a series of medleys and mashups that includes “Deh! Placatevi Con Me,” from Orpheus and Eurydice, paired with Peter Gabriel’s “Don’t Give Up” and Philip Glass’s “Akhnaten” with the Bangles’s “Walk Like an Egyptian,” any lingering doubt is replaced with a complete rethinking of the purpose of genre.Ī handful of solos, which make excellent use of the layers of sheer and shimmering curtains that make up the set, designed by Carlos Soto, with lighting by John Torres, ground the performance in emotion, while the often improvised banter between them toggles between tossed-off jokes and moments of genuine tenderness between two friends. The tension of the concept is built on the contrast between Bond and Costanzo’s voices, as well as the ostensible clash of their personas: Bond is a 58-year-old artist with a brassy voice and an unmatched mastery of camp Costanzo, 39, is a classically trained singer best known for embodying roles at the Metropolitan Opera with a haunting gravitas. What followed was a glittering, disarming, poignant, funny, occasionally fully spontaneous reminder of why theater exists at all, and in particular its ability to deliver surprise and comfort at once. Is it a cabaret? A variety show? An experimental concert? As soon as the duo appeared on stage, both dressed in velvet sheaths custom designed by Jonathan Anderson (the first in a series of four coordinating costume sets), it became clear that any attempts to apply a label to what we were about to see were beside the point. Ann’s through October 3, has been described as impossible to categorize. The eclectic crowd was there to see the opening night of an equally dichotomous performance: Only an Octave Apart, starring the downtown cabaret legend Justin Vivian Bond and the operatic countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo. It had been 18 months since the performing arts venue on the Brooklyn waterfront had been filled with a proper audience, and the first-day-of-school energy-although the seats were occupied by a mix that ranged from 20-somethings in drag to 80-somethings in Brooks Brothers blazers-was palpable. Ann’s Warehouse on a Friday night in September was giddy. ![]()
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