Try grabbing her from behind to separate her from that fight. Attach Cleopatra's lumbar to your belly, to your abs. This way you will have complete control when removing her from Eros. That's it, do you see how it's easier now?
Backstage at the Liceu, intimacy director Ita O'Brien explains it to mezzo-soprano Adriana Bignagni Lesca, who plays Charmian, the servant of the Queen of Egypt. They are rehearsing the third scene of Antony's first act
Because intimacy, in a theatrical or film production, does not only refer to sex scenes, explains this British specialist: all physical contact crosses the border of intimacy, so that a dance scene or a fight also needs direction. scenic that contemplates that the participating actors feel comfortable and safe. “Furthermore, no one is born knowing how to act in these circumstances,” she says in conversation with La Vanguardia, the first privacy coordinator to participate in a Liceu production.
O'Brien was originally a choreographer and evolved into a movement director on sets. “I choreographed or helped embody physicality, and then I started choreographing intimate content,” says the pioneer of a profession that, after Me Too and Time’s Up, is presented as essential, at least in cinema. Her research into the importance of mental health on set has made her an important asset in this work in which she ended up debuting in 2018 with the Netflix series Sex Education. She has also worked for the historical drama Gentleman Jack and Watchmen.
With this European premiere today, Saturday, by Antony
“Because theater rehearsal rooms should already be listening and caring rooms that allow freedom to express oneself, and this is a task for everyone involved, with the director being the most responsible,” explains the one who was the last director. of the Teatre Lliure, Juan Carlos Martel. According to him, this specific figure of the director of intimacy can be more useful in cinema, which has dramaturgies fragmented in times, "which can demand maximum support and security for the actors."
In this sense, Calixto Bieito being a director who comes from the world of theater, it can be considered that he incorporates that approach that guarantees a greater comfort zone for actors and singers in a company.
“With it you end up going further without ever feeling uncomfortable, because it makes you participate in something very playful,” says countertenor and also actor Xavier Sabata, one of the members of the cast of Poppea. “Calixto is a great seducer, a person who takes great care of you when you work with him. And he hardly has time, but he holds your hand; “He is very intelligent and trusts the people he works with.”
Without going any further, the French soprano Julie Fuchs, the very voluptuous Poppea in that production, declared at the time that working in that production had allowed her to bring out a sensual Julie and that it had been liberating. It is an opportunity to discover yourself in situations that you do not experience in normal life.
Obviously, there is a big difference between the work dynamics of actors and singers. In opera there is little time, so a lot of importance is given to executing your role and not so much to creating a work dynamic for the company, explains Sabata. “Having a safe space so that everyone can risk more is something that I understand as a tool to get to the interpretive work itself. It is true that we singers are used to not being bothered much with this type of thing, but in the end it is that direction of intimacy that allows you to leave your egos out of the rehearsal room and give yourself away.”
O'Brien's presence at the Liceu these days is due to the fact that the leading soprano, Julia Bullock (Cleopatra), had previously worked with her and asked to be hired. Not only to feel safe about her partners in her scene, but to achieve greater naturalness and truth in intimate scenes.
Because this opera starts directly with a bed scene, in Alexandria. And his sensual and sexual dance with Antony is agreed upon in advance, with O'Brien arbitrating. “Let go, release tension,” the British director tells tenor Gerald Finley (Antony) to do some physical exercises prior to rehearsal. Immediately afterwards the sexual sequence between both lovers develops.
“In these types of situations you have to be able to anchor yourself with the body, the mind, the spirit, the nervous system. And if the choreography is absolutely clear, the artist can fly,” explains O’Brien.
Between the barbarism that Bernardo Bertolucci perpetrated with the young Maria Schneider in Last Tango in Paris and the necessary care with which today a safe space is guaranteed for all the actors in a sex scene, 45 years have passed. How could that meeting between the young actress and Marlon Brando have been if there had been a specialist coordinator?
“This is a heartbreaking story,” says O’Brien. When I had interviews to delve deeper into this work, I managed to speak with Bertolucci. And he laughed when he remembered that everyone calls that 'the butter scene'. But for me this has two sides: when Bertolucci says that this is art, he is indicating that he was not looking for the response of an actor, but that of a young girl who had that experience for the first time in his life. Now, was that art or was it real life? Because if it's art, you respect the artists. But if it's real life, then an assault has taken place. This scene was discussed by Bertolucci and Brando, leaving her out of that conversation. And my stomach turns, I find it so sad... Because it is not about giving up the scene, but about following the pattern of open communication and transparency from the beginning, seeking agreement and consent. There is always a solution: ellipses, slow rhythms..., there is so much you can do. Just as in theater we simulate a slap, sex can also be fictionalized. We must listen to the actors, their requirements and limits, and apply the creative skills within our reach,” he concludes.
