22 Opera Director Jakop Ahlbom on Cherry Town For Cherry Town, renowned theatre maker Jakop Ahlbom transforms a little-known operetta by Shostakovich into a spectacular production for audiences young and old. A modern fairy tale with powerful relevance today. Jakop Ahlbom is always searching for new forms. For twenty-five years he has been known for his distinctive theatre productions, each time employing different means to create magic on stage: mime, slapstick, music, acrobatics, dance, illusion, special effects, almost always without words. Internationally, he has enjoyed great success, with large-scale productions such as Horror, Lebensraum and Unseen touring the world. His stories are often intimate, dealing with the complex relationships between people. His first artistic involvement with opera dates back to 2013, when he was invited to create an adaptation of Offenbach’s Les contes d’Hoffmann for Deutsche Oper Berlin. “Opera is, for me, the ultimate art form. Everything comes together,” Ahlbom says. Before making his debut as an opera director, he immersed himself in the opera for an entire year. “Every morning at break- fast, I listened to the piece. I believe that before you begin directing, you must be able to dream the music. That is essential.” Polkas and waltzes He now makes his debut at Dutch National Opera with Cherry Town, or Cheryomushki, a 1959 operetta by Dmitri Shostakovich. “It is light music. Polkas and waltzes, occasionally jazzy, with a touch of Russian melancholy. Very different from the Shosta- kovich we know from operas such as The Nose and Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk.” The production will truly be for audiences of all ages, and several of Ahlbom’s signature elements — illusion, special effects, slapstick and acrobatics — will certainly be present. “There is a great deal to experience. The set consists of dilapidated apartments crammed with stuff, perfect for all sorts of hiding and disappearing tricks, and other effects. The cast features eight dancers from Marco Gerris’s ISH Dance Collective, a company that has previously collaborated with the Junior Company of Dutch National Ballet. In addition, there are eight singers and a chorus of twenty.” The original three-hour operetta has been reduced to roughly half that length. “Together with translator David Pountney, we simplified the story and reduced the spoken dialogue to a minimum. Almost everything is now sung.” The story addresses topical themes such as the housing crisis and corruption. “It centres on three couples who have pinned all their hopes on the promised land, ‘Cherry Town’: affordable apartments for ordinary people. For them, as for many today, it is like winning the lottery. We see two lovers who dream of finally being able to live together. The home of an elderly man and his adult son must be demolished to make way for the new development, leaving them on the street. The property developer makes promises he cannot keep, and one of his employees attempts to expose the deceit of his unscrupulous boss. The original story ended in a somewhat curious way, with a magical garden in which everything is resolved.” A wild chase For his own ending, Ahlbom drew inspiration from Buster Keaton. “It will be a wild chase, full of magical realism. I see this operetta as a modern fairy tale, a universal and timeless story.” “ I find opera the ultimate art form: everything comes together” Interview Shosta specia with e
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