A diva is a diva, whether they’re belting out arias in a theater or strutting across a dance floor in a Shinjuku Ni-chome gay club. Opera and drag are not as different as some might think — larger than life personas, glamorous pageantry and over-the-top emotion underscore both of these art forms.
Singaporean arts company T:>Works blends both in a drag version of “Dido and Aeneas,” Henry Purcell’s 17th-century cult baroque opera based on Virgil’s epic poem “The Aeneid.” Starring Becca D’Bus (real name Eugene Tan), one of Singapore’s most popular drag queens, artistic director Keng Sen Ong’s production tells the ancient story of love and loss centered on Dido, the forlorn queen of Carthage, and Aeneas, prince of Troy, who ends up abandoning her. The drag opera, which premiered at the Singapore International Festival of Arts in May, played at sold-out venues there and attracted the attention of Tomoyuki Arai, curator and program officer of the Yokohama International Performing Arts Meeting (YPAM) festival. Impressed by the spectacle, Arai invited Ong to stage “Dido and Aeneas” in Japan. The show will be performed on Dec. 5, 6 and 7 as part of YPAM 2024, which runs until Dec. 15.
Ong, 61, describes the show as “a work in progress.”