Stravinsky, then Cocteau and now ... Sting is opera house star

The Théâtre du Châtelet, a Palladian opera house on the banks of the River Seine, has witnessed its fair share of grand opening nights since Baron Haussmann ordered its construction nearly 150 years ago.

It was here that Igor Stravinsky chose to premiere his groundbreaking ballet Petrushka with Nijinsky in the starring role. Six years later, the world first witnessed Jean Cocteau’s Parade, produced by Diaghilev and designed by Pablo Picasso, at the Châtelet.

Last night, it fell to two veterans of British new wave music, Sting and Elvis Costello, to make their debuts as opera stars at the historic Paris theatre on the first night of their collaboration, Welcome To The Voice. The piece, which was performed in workshop at the New York Jazz Festival in 2000 and recorded last year by the classical label Deutsche Grammophon, features the “Oliver’s Army” singer in billowing robes as an authoritarian police chief.

Sting, 57, plays a Greek immigrant steelworker, Dionysos, who falls in love with an opera singer played by Sylvia Schwartz. Their passion is thwarted with apparently surprisingly realistic violence by the repressive Costello.

The performance is the latest and perhaps most extraordinary departure for either star, whose careers have been characterised as much by a refusal to conform to rock norms as they have been by commercial success.

Sting, as famous for his espousal of tantric sex and the rights of Amazonian rainforest tribes as he is for his eclectic musical output, said: “It is important sometimes to get outside your comfort zone just to see what happens. Neither of us has done this out of a sense that we’re great enough to do opera now.

“We are here to learn something, but I think that about most things. We are here to learn about how we can expand what we do as rock singers.”

Costello, meanwhile, who swapped the dead end of mid-70s pub rock for new wave before heading to Nashville and becoming one of the most respected performers and producers in popular music, has already dallied with the art form. His unfinished opera, The Secret Arias, was performed by the Royal Danish Opera in 2005. Speaking before last night’s opening, the first of five shows, Costello, 54, poured scorn on the notion that opera was elitist.

“Popular media has become very judgmental about opera. No one is barring your way to listening,” he said. “Some rock and roll gigs are as expensive as the most expensive tickets in the opera house, so the idea it’s elitist is absurd. Opera recordings are not more expensive than hip-hop recordings. It’s more about whether people are tuned into that kind of vocal production.”

The music was composed by Costello’s long-serving keyboardist, Steve Nieve, whose wife, the French writer and psychoanalyst Muriel Téodori, wrote the libretto. Described as a blend of jazz, opera, rock and electronica with full orchestra, the piece is directed by Wolfgang Dörner with the Ensemble Orchestral de Paris.

High note Sting’s tale

For a man who was a teacher for two years before he found fame as a musician, Sting has not done too badly for himself – with a career spanning three decades, 50 million album sales, Elizabethan mansions and oodles of tantric sex. Born Gordon Sumner in North Tyneside in 1951, Sting began playing in jazz bands while training to be a teacher, and earned his moniker from his penchant for playing in a bee-like black and yellow sweater. Fame and success through The Police allowed him to experiment on a raft of musical projects. In 1988, he released Igor Stravinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale with the London Sinfonietta and he has collaborated with many artists. An early celebrity advocate of Amnesty International, Sting has been drawn to various forms of activism. He is also a fan of chess and yoga.