They say 'Opera is dying,' or 'The audiences are dying,' or, 'New composers are breathing new life into the art form.''

He said he had long been fascinated by the fact that 'people talk about opera in terms of death. 'So what if we did it right away and over and over again?' 'I thought it would be interesting, kind of perverse and funny, to put all these deaths together, since it's the event that people wait for in opera,' Keckler said in an interview last week in the converted church where he was rehearsing. The show is part rapid-fire compilation of some of Keckler's favorite death scenes and part whimsical philosophical inquiry into why death and dying seem central to many people's experience of opera. Then Romeo and Juliet die in each other's arms.Īnd so it goes in 'Let Me Die,' an 80-minute genre- and gender-bending work created by performance artist Joseph Keckler and having its world premiere as part of Opera Philadelphia's third annual festival. The Tomb Scene from 'Aida' segues to Rusalka giving her prince the kiss of death. PHILADELPHIA - A suicidal Madame Butterfly bids farewell to her son, who morphs into Otello and murders Desdemona twice while singing snippets of Rossini and Verdi.

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