Four weeks ago I fell down a rabbit hole, into the Wonderland that is Folkoperan, to start rehearsals for the opera La Traviata. It's been four weeks of creativeness, craziness, sweaty hard work, and a LOT of laughter and coffee! In the middle of it all I also managed to get a flu-like cold, which kept me banned from the opera house for a few days. Last week we finally did our two premieres though, so now we can crawl out of that rabbit hole again, and only return for shows three times a week. Both premieres went really well, ending with standing ovations from the amazing audiences, so I'm really looking forward to keep doing this over and over this fall!
Photographer Markus Gårderspent two days with us during our rehearsals, to shoot some press photos. It's difficult to get a good perspective of everything going on on stage when you're actually in the middle of it all yourself. So seeing these pictures made us all aware of how beautifully staged this version of La Traviata is! Here are a few of these photos. To see more, and buy tickets, go here!
One of our two Violettas - Julia Sporsén. And yes, that's me humping one of the drag queens to the right...
Jesper Säll, one of our two Alfredos, on the horse!
On the floor - Germont, sung by Jeremy Carpenter. I feel so calm when he sings...
And this is a study in how to shake violently, while at the same time eating licorice ropes... Haha! I'm going to be SO tired of licorice after this season...
Five of the fabulous drag queens doing their thing!
Last year I told you I would be part of the opera La Traviataat Folkoperan (The People's Opera) here in Stockholm. We rehearsed for about a month. But since Folkoperan got severely water damaged and had to spend all of last fall drying up, we had to wait a whole year to actually be able to put it all on stage. Now the time has finally come though, and last week we started rehearsals again! I'm one of the nude models in act one - but clad in a transparent black dress in act two. This will be a crazy, wonderful, powerful mix of nakedness, drag queens, fabulous singers, sex, death and emotions. I can assure you La Traviata has never been done like this before... I'm really proud to be able to work with all the amazing people working so hard together to create this opera. The director, Mellika Melouani Melani'sideas are incredible, and I don't think I have ever laughed so much during the creation of anything on stage before! Like for example when Mellika told a few of us nude models to sit down on a bench, and then burst out the idea presently in her brain: "Imagine a fuck-tree. Now we're going to try to create a fuck-tree!" Haha!
As your faithful reporter I decided to sneak around the opera and take some pics to show you a bit what it looks like backstage. The bottom pic is taken by someone else though, and shows part of the second act. Last year a little trailer was also shot while we rehearsed. This one was removed from nudity-shaming Facebook though, but I've put it at the end of this post so you can see it here! The opera premieres September 16, and 17 (yes, there are TWO premieres). To read more about it, see what days it runs, and get tickets, please go here!
The stage looks really good with it's simple, yet very stylish scenery. This is the mechanical horse used in act one. Riding it naked makes me feel like Lady Godiva!
This is the hair and makeup room. We models and the drag queens do our makeup ourselves, but we get help with our hair and wigs. The pink wigs in the pick are used by the drags in the second act.
In the costume atelier you find many treasures... Here are the drag queens' shoes, and a detail of one of their costumes for act one - the white act.
After last year's water damage, the dressing rooms got a new look. The second mirror to the right is my place!
And here is a pic from the second act! The fabulous drag queens don't just entertain the audience, but also the rest of us on stage. I love this moment in the opera! And then we have the - according to Facebook - very provocative trailer... I think it's beautiful though! Enjoy...
In Paris, on 12 Rue Chabanais, close to Le Louvre, lies a very normal office building. What many people don't know though, is that this building once was Europe's most profitable maison close. or brothel, as it's called in English. It was called Le Chabanais, and was opened by Madame Kelly in 1878.
This luxurious house of erotic play was very lavishly decorated, with themed rooms such as Japanese, Moorish, Indian, Chinese etc. The Japanese Room even won the price for Best Design at the prestigious 1910 Paris World Fair!
And then there was the King's Room, that included a decadent, gilded royal bed and large mirrors placed both on the walls and the ceiling. This is where the future King of England, Edward VII, used to have some fun when he visited Le Chabanais.
Here the future King was known as Bertie though, and in "his" room, there was an ornate copper tub where he took champagne baths with the prostitutes, and a love seat, where he could enjoy two girls at the same time...
Other famous guests of Le Chabanais were Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec - who painted 16 tableaux for the house - and the poet Guy de Maupassant, Cary Grant, Humphrey Bogart, and Marlene Dietrich. Sometimes the French government included a visit to Le Chabanais as part of the program for foreign guests of state. In the official program it was disguised as visit with the President of the Senate though...
During the WWII German occupation of France, twenty top brothels in Paris, including Le Chabanais, were reserved by the Wehrmacht for German officers and collaborating Frenchmen. During this time the brothels flourished, and even Hermann Göringvisited Le Chabanais. In 1946 the legal brothels were closed by law. Their collaboration with the Germans was part of the reason...
WARNING! This post includes explicit nudity! MY nudity! So if you don't want to live the rest of your life with the image of my naked body imprinted in your brain, go do something else than read this post. Otherwise, carry on!
I have liked nude portraiture for as long as I can remember. It can be statues, paintings or photographs etc. As long as it's not done in a pornographic way that is...Or at least, that's not anything I would do myself. I don't mind if it's slightly erotic, but I think the human body can be portrayed and looked at for so many other reasons than the sexual ones. We were all born naked, so why is there still so much shame in nudity?
Among all my photographer friends there is one called Technical Boy. He specializes in art nudes and portraits. I have seen what he has done in the past, and he's really good at what he does, so I was glad to hear he wanted to shoot me too - naked...And to all you radical feminists out there; feminism is letting women do whatever they want to, without hearing people complain about it, and I wanted to get shot buck naked by this photographer, and it's my choice to show the result of the shoot here on my blog - for everyone to see! And neither me, nor the photographer got payed to do this! But now I'm going to stop rambling and let you see the pictures. Here is me - the way I was born!
After we were done shooting, I told Technical Boy I think everyone should find a good photographer and do a nude shoot at least once in their lives! If not to show the whole world on a blog, then just for themselves. This was my first complete nude shoot, and doing it felt so liberating and empowering! I do have a little dream about doing a shoot naked, wearing only lots of diamonds though. Just need to find those diamonds...
