Musetta visits New York, Vienna, Zurich
We live in a world obsessed with exterior beauty and youth. Advertising, TV shows and movies dictate the way a beautiful woman should look like, causing anxieties and feelings of inadequacy amongst many women. What would you wish for, if you had the power to change things? Looking at the oversize billboards that hover above Times Square, where I first staged this performance, tells me that big breasts are especially appreciated, along with a small waist. And we want to look like 18 forever. We want eternal youth! My diva as well, she wants it all! Her breasts are so big that they almost touch the ground and her cleavage is armored with teeth. She wants to eat every man in sight. What an utterly sexual superwoman has this society created! And when she turns around, out of her back there is a gigantic hand protruding, a hand with long red fingernails which drags along the ground. She is not aware of this extra limb, as it is a manifestation of her wish for control, her desire to slow down the passage of time, to stay young forever and own everyone!
On her walk through the streets the Muse sings the aria from Puccini’s opera La Boheme Quando men vo soletta per la via, (when I walk alone through the streets). She approaches every man and sings to him. The aria is enhancing how we experience her: She is an utterly dangerous man-eating woman monster who is bathing in her sexuality.
Video of the Performance on Times Square, New York, 2011
The utterly dangerous man-eating diva in Times Square, New York. She is so irresistible, any man who comes too close to her runs the danger of being seduced and finally even devoured alive. Her appetite is insatiable, but, oh, she is so beautiful and she sings so, so lovely!
The Muse in depth:
