It's been reported that this summer's Montpellier Festival will feature a unique staging of Mascagni's Iris. In keeping with the productions script, Ms. Sonya Yoncheva will sing the opera, at one point, completely nude.
The opera may have a dubious foundation, but the script requires the show's heroine to be stripped publicly by a brothel keeper. That one scene, however, is just a single detail in the, otherwise, eccentric nature of the opera.
It's a rarely performed piece, but the libretto follows Iris, a young, naïve and nymph-like daughter of an old blind man who is ultimately abducted in a forest by an obsessed Lord in search of a lover.
Confusing, sure, there is also a scene in which Iris has a Freudian dream in which she is molested by an octopus. By the end of the entire sequence, and shamed by her own father, Iris plunges to her death out of complete shame.
Sonya Yoncheva will debut in the opera as Iris, which has now caused a stir among theatergoers by announcing she will dedicate herself entirely to the scene.
Nudity in the opera, though, isn't that uncommon especially in these modern times. To wit, Karita Mattila performed in the nude at the Metropolitan Opera in 2004 in a staging of Salome.
That scene in particular, in Maria Ewing's "Dance of the Seven Veils," Ms. Mattila rips off her dress and appears confident, giving herself to the literal interpretation of the text which requires its subject to perform naked.
So, maybe Ms. Yoncheva performing as Iris won't yield as much of a reaction as the announcement has thus far.
Check out a preview of Mascagni's Iris below for the time being.
