Terry Gilliam: opera director?

Those words were not really matching together in my mind when I saw the ads for the Damnation of Faust in the London underground – yes, I mean when you have to keep your right on the escalator, especially when you are from the Continent, unless you want to die assassinated by a Londoner in a hurry. Surprisingly - or not - Terry Gilliam did it and ENO let it happen.

The Damnation of Faust is surely not the most popular opera but Gilliam gave it another dimension by transposing the play to the post WWI Germany. I am not a good opera critic and will not try to become one this time but I will definitely advise you to watch it when the BBC will have it on air in a few months time. Gilliam is a genius and he combined both the solemnity and grandeur of an opera with the countless ideas the cinema world can offer and on top of it an inch of craziness which so characterizes Gilliam.

A first try indeed but thank you, Terry, it was an opera as I have never seen one before. A real and intense experiment...