Victoria & Albert Museum
Cromwell Road,
London, SW7 2RL
Exhibition runs from 30 September 2017 to 25 February 2018
Opera: Passion, Power and Politics is being held at the V&A museum with the support of the Royal Opera House. It explores the history of opera from its origins in late-Renaissance Italy to the present day. Told through the lens of seven premieres in seven European cities, this immersive exhibition takes you on a journey through nearly 400 years, culminating in the international explosion of opera in the 20th and 21st centuries.
As with some of the previous exhibitions at the V&A, there is a major auditory component to this exhibition. But this time, they have partnered with Bowers & Wilkins and the quality has improved dramatically.
Each section highlights some of the main operas of that city and goes on to describe how the politics and realities of that period influenced the opera or vice versa. From the stunning ostentatious operas of Europe to the starkness of Russian opera in the 1930's, it takes you on a whirlwind tour of history around the world.
The final audio visual amphi-theater is very good, but its difficult for any other exhibition to live up to the Pink Floyd finale section.
I'm not a huge fan of the opera, but this exhibition is amazing. The husband until now has been much more strongly set against watching opera. But after this exhibition, he says he is open to watching a live performance as long as it is in English and has subtitles and is preferably a comedy. So that's my next mission, to find a live opera in London that fulfills these criteria.
