Apollo’s Mission

Apollo’s Mission – an operatic satire to celebrate the moon landing of July 1969

Wednesday 7th August 2019 at 21:25

The Place Theatre London WC1H 9PY

as part of the 2019 Tête-à-Tête Festival of new opera

The Music Troupe

performing crunchy, bite-sized operas

Once upon a time, fifty years ago, Apollo (the sun-god) was President of Everything, while his dim sister (the moon-goddess) was just a cabaret artiste in a seedy nightclub. As the Americans invade the moon in July 1969, events downtown take a sinister turn and chaos ensues. Can the gods sort it out or is the “dickhead” President too dysfunctional? Adding a bonkers twist to the Apollo 11 commemorations, a talented cast presents a fun-opera that investigates our fascination for all things lunar. Apollo’s Mission confuses fact with fiction, earth with moon, god-like humans with a Trump-like god – and then with now.

Featuring newcomer Natasha Agarwal as the goddess Selena – aka cabaret artiste – who’s as fascinated by the astronauts as they are by her, but vulnerable in the face of their invasion. When President Nixon said that ‘the heavens had become part of man’s world’ Buzz Aldrin was celebrating communion on the moon. As the gods are invoked, rising young baritone Dominic Bowe plays Selena’s all-powerful brother Apollo who comes to her rescue but, disappointingly, he espouses populist attitudes unworthy of the sun-god. It takes a Rossini-like ensemble to sort out the confusion (What’s surreal and what’s true?) and a galloping finale quoting President Kennedy to assert Selena’s victory over them all. Apollo’s Mission celebrates our passion to explore, but also the politics of arriving in a new world.