Karen O shares new details of her “psycho-opera”

August 24, 2011 by Alan Pedder in Blog

Though the October premiere of Karen O’s “psycho-opera” was announced over a month ago, a more detailed description of the production has been kept under wraps until today when a tantalising press release was finally circulated. We were previously told that playwright/director Adam Rapp was involved in the Creators Project production, and now we can add co-creator KK Barrett and costume designer Christian Joy into the mix and, at last, a title: ‘Stop The Virgens’ (sic).

The opera features new songs by Karen, with long-time partners-in-art Sam Spiegel (aka Squeak E. Clean) and Yeah Yeah Yeahs guitarist Nick Zinner lending a hand with musical direction. Other contributors and performers include Yeah Yeah Yeahs drummer Brian Chase, Money Mark, members of The Raconteurs/Greenhornes and actress Lili Taylor (‘Mystic Pizza’, ‘I Shot Andy Warhol’, ‘Six Feet Under’).

“I have a pretty good idea of what the psycho opera is about but I wouldn’t dare try and put it into my clumsy words,” writes Karen in the press release. “I’m hoping to create an original live experience, it should feel like a psychedelic ride laced with catharsis. There is emotional cost to our narrative so we’re aiming to engage the audience, this piece isn’t aiming to be all about spectacle or abstraction though there is good helping of both in the production. It’s aiming to have all the good stuff of escapist entertainment with a few sucker punches to the gut along the way. I’m in the camp that needs to discover and take risks, sometimes it’s with the promise of something special and new, sometimes it’s to stay awake, either way it’s much more stressful with all the uncertainty but worth the pain in the end.”

‘Stop The Virgens’ runs for eight performances at St. Ann’s Warehouse in Brooklyn between October 12 and October 22. Keep an eye on The Creators Project website for ticket details.