What would opera be like if it appeared in the 21st century?? What would she tell us about?? One possible answer was given to us by Darren Smith and Terrance Zdunich. It was they who created the rock opera “Genetic Opera”, which formed the basis of the musical film “Repo! "The Genetic Opera". The director was Darren Lynn Bousman, who became famous thanks to the Saw film series. This choice seems strange, but it was made for a reason.
The world of the future, in the vision of Smith and Zdunich, is a terrible place. An epidemic of a disease that causes organ failure has led to the death of millions, chaos reigned in the streets, and people despaired of finding salvation. But salvation was found – the company GeneCo. It was she who offered the suffering a solution to their problems, she invited them to deceive Death. Organ transplantation is what will give a reprieve to those who do not want to go to the grave. The only problem was the enormous cost of this procedure – not everyone was able to pay for salvation. Therefore, the company offered everyone to take out a loan, a deferred payment, and, therefore, Life. And it’s not particularly surprising that such simple conditions for obtaining new insides became favorable for creating a new fashion. People are seized with a thirst to become genetically Perfect. To help its patients endure the pain of a huge number of operations, GeneCo invents Zydrate, a highly addictive painkiller. It seems that everything is wonderful, people were saved from the disease, and new organs made them even better, isn’t this happiness?? No, this turned the lives of many into a nightmare, because those unable to pay on time faced Confiscation (Repossession), a very unpleasant procedure. It is carried out by RepoMan (Repo Man), who, like Jack the Ripper, using his scalpel, cuts out the entrails, the cost of which was not reimbursed by GeneCo, from still living debtors. It is in this realm of cruelty, despair and fear that our opera takes place.
Many of you can say that https://sbobet-casino.co.uk/games/ the story about the Confiscation and the Confiscators is familiar to them, and they will not be mistaken. The 2010 film RepoMen starring Jude Law and Forrest Whitaker has a number of similarities to the musical The Genetic Opera. Both take place in the near future and feature organ confiscators as the main characters. But the world and storytelling methods are different, and the plots do not intersect in any way.
Let me mention the visual style. The naked eye can see that he was influenced by gothic and industrial styles. And they fit perfectly into the post-apocalyptic world of the musical, dark and dangerous. There is not a lot of computer graphics in the film, but it is well done, and the beautiful comics add zest. All this plays into the hands of the atmosphere and does not harm the monolithic nature of the world. Therefore, I will rate the picture excellent.
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One of the characters and also the narrator is Terrence Zdunich himself, his role is that of a grave robber who extracts the drug Zydrate from the dead. This character is the most interesting, almost nothing is known about him, his goals are a mystery, and the reasons why he helps Shylo (Shiloh, more on her later) are not clear. But our key character is still different. The entire musical revolves around the life of RepoMan himself. His real name is Nathan Wallace, and the role is played by Anthony Head (Anthony Head, you may remember from the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer). This character masterfully leads a double life – in one he is a ruthless ripper, and in the other he is a doctor and a loving single father who has lost his beloved wife and is trying to find a cure for his terminally ill daughter Shiloh. Alexa Vega (Alexa Vega, the actress who became famous thanks to the films "Spy Kids") played this role, she very well showed a girl who spent most of her life locked up due to her illness, her character is both afraid to explore the world around her – and strives to know it, miraculously avoiding trouble several times. She often comes into conflict with her father, which is not surprising, because she is 17 years old and is tired of Nathan’s guardianship and constant control. It is Shiloh who will be the main character of the musical – we will comprehend this strange world together with her. The role of the main villain – Rotti Largo is performed by Paul Sorvino (Paul Sorvino). Rotti is the founder of GeneCo, he has achieved everything – and will soon lose everything, all his power is nothing in the face of an incurable disease that will soon kill him. But choosing an heir who will take possession of the entire Largo empire is not so easy, Rotti hates his children – they are dirty, vicious and narcissistic so much that they disgust even such a scoundrel. The eldest son is an aggressive sociopath Luigi Largo, obsessed with a sense of his own greatness, his brother Pavi Largo, a favorite of women, a narcissist, wears masks made from women’s faces, and finally, Amber Sweet – Rotti’s daughter, is addicted to Zydrate and buys it from a grave robber, she is also “addicted to the knife” and constantly performs plastic surgery on herself, the results of which are terrible. They are the true embodiment of the world their father created. This trinity is performed by Bill Moseley (Bill Mosley), vocalist of the group Skinny Puppy – Ogre (Nivek Ogre) and Paris Hillton (Paris Hilton), respectively. The Largo family owns a singer – Blind Mag (played by famous singer Sarah Brightman), who signed a contract with GeneCo in exchange for prosthetic eyes. She is an Opera star, everyone’s favorite and the face of the Rotti company. Meg dreams of breaking out of her slavery, but if the terms of the contract are violated, RepoMan will be sent for her.
What’s important in a musical?? That’s right, music. And here everything is great at Repo. Heavy guitars alternate with keyboard plucking, in the songs you can hear anger, sadness, hope and love, the lyrics are not faceless, you can understand why Meg advises Shiloh “Chase the morning”, or, for example, try to answer the robber’s question “And what if you could have genetic perfection Willl you change who you are if you could?». For this and for the feeling with which the actors performed their parts, we can also give an excellent rating.
In conclusion, I’ll say that there are very few such projects coming out – and you shouldn’t miss them. Yes, the actors are not the most famous, and the plot will not be a revelation for you, but the unique visual style (a sort of industrial gothic), good acting and great songs outweigh such disadvantages. I strongly recommend!