The Composer, The Singer, The Cook and the Sinner King's Theatre, Edinburgh
Spitting, swallowing, urinating, kissing - there's no denying the visceral power of Carles Santos's new show celebrating the life of Rossini. Who would have thought the 19th-century Italian composer, best known for The Barber of Seville and several louche farces, would turn out to provide such provocative source material?
People often regard Rossini as a joke, but Santos reminds us that his work has grandeur and a strain of dark cruelty. The 75-minute piece is a fusion of theatre, music and performance. There are voluptuous divas, men in dresses and some great music jokes: human bodies are plonked full-length to play the piano (Santos is a classically trained pianist). Set pieces include a chef self-incinerating and a row of giant pasta pans on a cooker, set to Rossini's Stabat Mater .
Body fluids are high on the agenda, but it's water that most fascinates the Catalan director. It rushes and drips on stage, as single notes or a musical flash- flood. A baby grand springs a leak; grainy footage of a body in the shower - the torso a wild landscape of flesh and fur - is dazzling.
Sex is never far away: a white-and-a-black-clad couple copulate on a moving bed; a man looks up a woman's skirt while ejaculating water from a giant phallus. But inured to the shock antics of the main Festival, Edinburgh's blue-rinsed audience emerged unscathed. The image of tenor Antoni Comas performing a solo requiem as water streams into his mouth will remain forever.
