Mythology of Naked Flesh

'Mythology' is a collection of foundational tales, usually designed to help us navigate our humanity. To explore a mythology of naked flesh, you might first turn to the visual arts. In music, a lexicon might exist in rock music and, even though much classical music is sensual, the genre is probably not going to be your first port of call. Likewise, in dance, opera, dramatic and musical theatre, nudity on stage is nothing new, but it is quite unexpected in the classical music scene. In Mythology of Naked Flesh, Brisbane Music Festival (BMF) Creative Director, Alex Raineri introduces a 90-minute programme exploring whether classical music can be "cheeky, flirty and sexy" and explore that part of human nature just as other art forms regularly do. During this strange pandemic era, BMF has also been using the digital space to release new works. With the help of Jai Farrell on image and sound, this is a digital-only piece featuring pre-filmed video and visual art. The programme of five works starts out innocently, with Cabaret Songs by English composer, Benjamin Britten, a song cycle collaboration with his contemporary WH Auden, a 15-minute or so series of light and breezy pieces featuring Alex Raineri on piano and soprano Katie Stenzel on vocals. The green-screen technique allows a series of backdrops to take the duo from a coffee house setting for 'Tell Me the Truth About Love' to the Eiffel Tower for 'Johnny', and a graveyard for the jazzily upbeat 'Funeral Blues'. It's a fun start. 

The next short piece by 19th century Russian composer and pianist, Alexander Scriabin, Towards the Flame, takes things further with a 5-minute crescendo about an all-consuming flame that Alex describes as "a complex musical language with crunchy chords imbued with an amazing crazy tension, resolving in a final moment of climatic context." It is pretty clear what Scriabin was attempting to describe aurally, and its an effective piece, starting extremely quiet and building in tension and volume. But the image of the burning flame – so evocatively shown in a montage by visual artist and BMF collaborator, Eljo Agenbach – could also foreshadow Scriabin's life, as he died quite young and was quickly forgotten after his death. There's something of the Romantic poet in this piece.

The programme becomes more cinematic with the next piece for soprano and piano written in the mid-1970s by Transylvanian-born, Hungarian-Austrian composer György Ligeti. Mysteries of the Macabre is an absolute hoot, with Alex and Kate in a sort of "aria mash-up" dressed in colourful costumes: Kate as DC Comics character Harley Quinn and Alex as a Punk Boy, courtesy of some excellent make-up by Nicola Gangemi (and 'Babs' the wig from the Opera Queensland collection). It's fitting that this piece was written at the height of pop music's Punk phase: it is absolutely mad, using vocal gasps, whispers, laughter and syncopated words – including 'Loch Ness Monster' – as percussion. I'm not sure how Ligeti's work relates to a mythology of the flesh, but his music is so charismatic that it has been featured in film soundtracks by the likes of Kubrick and Scorsese and moves us into an edgier space.

This sets the scene for the world premiere of Piano Flesh XXX, a specially commissioned work by Alex Turley for actor and piano, which Alex Raineri describes as "a bold and daring new work – based on internet-based relationships" – a remote collaboration with actor Matthew Connell, filmed in Melbourne and pieced together in a split-screen performance with Raineri on the piano. The 20-minute piece in four parts features Alex and Matthew playing characters in a remote relationship, its phases illustrated by the interplay of Alex with the piano and Matthew in his bedroom alone. It's a really interesting piece musically, with Alex plucking the strings of the piano's open top and snapping at them with a rubber band, and then pouring marbles onto the strings, evoking a strangely Eastern meditative music, beautiful in its looseness and liberation. Meanwhile the androgenous character played by Matthew starts to disrobe from what appears to be a bunny costume.

There is deep 'in-camera' flirting and jealousy, and the interplay builds to a gentle connection, hovering pleasantly in the erogenous zone around arousal rather than fulfilment. With Matthew's character complicit and happily seen filming himself, it's like Sex, Lies and Videotape territory, except less dark and with a willing participant. It's an intriguing and unique piece, sexy and innocent at the same time, like someone dipping their toes in the water to explore their sexuality. Alex Turley is the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra’s 2022 Young Composer in Residence and it will be fascinating to watch what all these three players collaborate on in the future.  

In the final piece, Richard Strauss's 'Dance of the Seven Veils' from his opera Salome, Alex has a lot of fun making his "super camp act of feminism" by performing in a specially designed costume by Joel Dunkley. His point is that some sopranos who perform the piece are expected to get naked on stage, whereas this would never be expected of their male counterparts. It's a great piece of music, superbly played by Alex who admits to being very nervous about the whole thing. As he takes off piece after piece from his all-black costume, I can almost envisage this as a camp classic for future daring soloists – but I can't see Lang Lang embracing the style too soon. But, Alex bravely and cheekily makes his point about the gender imbalance in performers' expectations of nudity. And does the seventh veil come off? You'll have to tune in to find out.

In a world where we can't always see live music, BMF has had fun looking at the digital space between us and Mythology of Naked Flesh is a great way to meet some new musical characters, and this programme has introduced me to some intriguing and fascinating composers who will be joining my pop music playlist favourites on Spotify from now on.

Mythology of Naked Flesh premiered online on Sunday 3 October at 10am (for overseas viewers too), with a repeat screening at 7pm. It will also be available to view on demand until the Brisbane Music Festival ends in December 2021.

Beth Keehn

Photographer: Jai Farrell

Find out more about BMF: https://brismusicfestival.com/

Read our interview with Alex Raineri:

https://www.stagewhispers.com.au/news/mythology-naked-flesh