The first time soprano Jennifer Black saw the film ‘Breaking The Waves’, it was on her phone while flying from her Sydney home to Melbourne.
“I had to turn my phone away from my fellow passengers,” she laughs.
‘Breaking The Waves’ is the confronting 1996 film from Danish provocateur Lars Von Trier. Set in a Calvinist community on the Isle Of Skye in the '70s, the film follows newlywed Bess, whose husband Jan has just suffered catastrophic injuries while working on an oil rig. At his request, Bess sleeps with other men and describes the encounters to her husband.
It’s a graphic film. Originally set to star Helena Bonham Carter, she pulled out of the film due to its graphic depictions of sex and nudity. Eventual star Emily Watson was nominated for Best Actress at that year’s Academy Awards for what was her film debut, but was also expelled from the School Of Philosophy And Economic Science for her performance.
Not exactly appropriate airplane viewing, and as the star of its upcoming opera adaptation, Jennifer agrees. “I was like to my partner, ‘I don’t know if I want you to come and see this’. My daughter is definitely not going to see this,” she says.
‘Breaking The Waves’ is composed by Missy Mazzoli, ‘Brooklyn’s post-millennial Mozart’. Since its 2016 debut, the critically acclaimed opera has been staged across the world, including the Fringe Festivals in Edinburgh and Adelaide.
Now, the opera returns to Australia for a one-night-only performance in Melbourne, presented by Opera Australia.
While initially unfamiliar with the film, Jennifer was attracted to the adaptation when she read the score by Missy, a fellow graduate of Yale’s School Of Music.
“I looked at it and thought, ‘Wow! This is amazing!’” she says. “What strikes me about [Missy’s] writing is that everyone has their motif or melodic theme. There’s a point where Bess, her mother, Dr Richardson, and Dodo, are on stage, and she incorporates everyone’s theme in this quartet, and she manages to do it cohesively where it all fits together.
“I think it expresses everyone’s belief that they’re doing the right thing and they’re trying to do the right thing at the same time. They’re all speaking over each other and trying to get through to Bess, and then she comes out soaring over the top of it with her reasoning and her logic for what she’s doing. It is very confronting, but Missy Mazzoli achieves that cacophony of conflict from four people in a room shouting over the top of each other and three people are targeting one person. She really captures that musically and I think it’s amazing.”
Jennifer almost seems too sunny in disposition compared to the harrow of ‘Breaking The Waves’. She laughs as she describes hiring a zookeeper to bring reptiles to her daughter's eighth birthday. But the opera has provided the soprano a challenge as a performer.
“It’s been a labour of love, and Bess has broken me in all the right ways,” she says. “It’s one of those things where you look at the score and the libretto and you think, ‘Okay, how am I going to do this?’
“The thing about Bess is that she’s absolutely convinced that she’s doing the right thing and it’s said many times that she has a golden heart – she’s good, too good. She loves God, she believes in God wholeheartedly, but of course these actions – going out and sleeping with other men – is frowned upon. However, it is what her husband has asked of her, and she’s been taught in the church that you obey your husband, you do your husband’s bidding, you don’t make waves.
“It’s going to be really intense. I don’t think people will leave the theatre unmoved or unaffected.”
'Breaking The Waves' plays Arts Centre Melbourne 26 July.
