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The Year of the Monkey
PREVIEW: MONKEY" JOURNEY TO THE WEST
Royal Opera House
THERE was a time when Damon Albarn irritated people because they preferred Oasis to Blur.
These days he seems to irritate people for a whole variety of reasons, not least for just being himself in interviews.
But say what you like about the Leytonstone lad, you can’t deny his creativity and unflappable willingness to embrace new challenges.
From Gorillaz to The Good The Bad and The Queen and a whole host of solo projects in between, Albarn has proven himself to be an artist with a refreshing taste for the weird, risky and experimental side of music.
He could have sat back and watched the royalties from Blur roll in but that, it seems, would have been far too easy.
His most audacious foray into a world which cynics might yet believe is beyond him is about to make its London premiere at the Royal Opera House.
First seen at the Manchester International Festival last year, Monkey: Journey to the West is a new opera, with music by Albarn, based on the ancient Chinese legend of spiritual enlightenment. The result is a dazzling spectacle involving nearly 40 Chinese circus acrobats, martial artists and singers with an orchestra of Western and traditional Chinese instruments.
Albarn has again teamed up with Jamie Hewlett, the artist behind award-winning visuals for his virtual band, Gorillaz.
Monkey, the headstrong, self-important hero of the story, is hatched from a stone egg on the Mountain of Flower and Fruit.
After crossing the all-powerful Buddha, Monkey is given the opportunity to redeem himself by travelling to India with the young monk Tripitaka to bring the Holy Scriptures back to China.
Stranger tales may well grace the ROH stage on a weekly basis, but this unique marriage of Chinese folklore, modern composition and that dustiest of art forms, opera, makes Monkey an intriguing proposition.
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