19:30-20:30, Saturday 28th June 2025
Alphabetti Theatre
Music: Sarah Li
Words: Charles Baudelaire
This event is part of Festival Shorts, also including WYRM 2.0, Acrimonia, and Escape Room Opera.
‘Opera du Mal’ is a scratch performance presenting one of the arias from this opera in development. This opera is a Queer, anti-misogynist reinterpretation of the poetry of Baudelaire, exploring themes of cruising and abandoned public space as places for Queer encounters. The aria is called ‘Le Serpent Qui Danse’ and is the moment where the character falls in lust with a woman that she meets in an abandoned space. The moment is fraught at this point in the opera because there is a risk to their being discovered and wider themes of Catholicism.
Themes explored in the wider project outside of this aria include: the concept of being ‘out’, the interplay of what may on the surface seem like the conflicting identities of Queer and Catholic and grasping moments of femme solidarity. The piece despite its darker elements is also about those moments of connection, self discovery, pleasure and joy.
Age range: All ages, but mostly adults (about cruising and sexuality)
In a festival of new work, please note that shows may overrun.
Produced by Sarah Li
Venue: Alphabetti Theatre, St James Boulevard, Newcastle Upon Tyne, United Kingdom NE1 4HP
Le Serpent qui danse
Que j’aime voir, chère indolente,
De ton corps si beau,
Comme une étoffe vacillante,
Miroiter la peau!
Sur ta chevelure profonde
Aux âcres parfums,
Mer odorante et vagabonde
Aux flots bleus et bruns,
Comme un navire qui s’éveille
Au vent du matin,
Mon âme rêveuse appareille
Pour un ciel lointain.
Tes yeux, où rien ne se révèle
De doux ni d’amer,
Sont deux bijoux froids où se mêle
L’or avec le fer.
À te voir marcher en cadence,
Belle d’abandon,
On dirait un serpent qui danse
Au bout d’un bâton.
Sous le fardeau de ta paresse
Ta tête d’enfant
Se balance avec la mollesse
D’un jeune éléphant,
Et ton corps se penche et s’allonge
Comme un fin vaisseau
Qui roule bord sur bord et plonge
Ses vergues dans l’eau.
Comme un flot grossi par la fonte
Des glaciers grondants,
Quand l’eau de ta bouche remonte
Au bord de tes dents,
Je crois boire un vin de Bohême,
Amer et vainqueur,
Un ciel liquide qui parsème
D’étoiles mon coeur!
— Charles Baudelaire
The Dancing Serpent
Indolent darling, how I love
To see the skin
Of your body so beautiful
Shimmer like silk!
Upon your heavy head of hair
With its acrid scents,
Adventurous, odorant sea
With blue and brown waves,
Like a vessel that awakens
To the morning wind,
My dreamy soul sets sail
For a distant sky.
Your eyes where nothing is revealed
Of bitter or sweet,
Are two cold jewels where are mingled
Iron and gold.
To see you walking in cadence
With fine abandon,
One would say a snake which dances
On the end of a staff.
Under the weight of indolence
Your child-like head sways
Gently to and fro like the head
Of a young elephant,
And your body stretches and leans
Like a slender ship
That rolls from side to side and dips
Its yards in the sea.
Like a stream swollen by the thaw
Of rumbling glaciers,
When the water of your mouth rises
To the edge of your teeth,
It seems I drink Bohemian wine,
Bitter and conquering,
A liquid sky that scatters
Stars in my heart!
On the same day:
Music: Sarah Li
Soprano: Katie Oswell
Bass Clarinet: Jessica Lee
Alphabetti Team
Artistic & Executive Director: Ed Cole
Executive Assistant: Clare Overton
Venue Producer: Esther Fearn
Community Engagement Coordinator: Audrey Cook
General Manager: Sam Johnson
General Supervisor: Chloe Smith
Technical Manager: Nick Tyler
Technical Assistant: Hannah Richardson
Associate Producer: Chloe Stott