7 Deaths of Maria Callas - an opera project by Marina Abramović, English National Opera, The Coliseum, London WC2. 3***: Clare Colvin.

7 Deaths of Maria Callas - an opera project by Marina Abramović, English National Opera, The Coliseum, London WC2.

3***: Clare Colvin.

The first female artist to achieve a major solo retrospective at the Royal Academy in London, performance artist Marina Abramović is also probably the first to lip-sync the recorded voice of Maria Callas singing “Casta Diva” on an opera stage. Her explanation is that she has been obsessed by the famous opera singer since girlhood, and sees similarities between herself and the tragic diva, not least that they were born under the same star sign.

The seven Deaths of the title mirror the fatal roles sung by Callas, which in Marina Abramović’s opera project are sung by seven leading young opera singers. The singers, who include among them Eri Nakamura as Diva 1: Violetta Valery; and Elbenita Kajtazi as Diva II: Floria Tosca; voice their individual arias to one side of the stage while a huge video screen exhibits previously filmed set pieces featuring Abramović and a series of different death dramas. The 76 year old performance artist is the central figure, filmed in cameos illustrating with actor Willem Dafoe. There is a murderous fight between the pair over a knife, with Abramović looming in scarlet matador jacket, while Diva V Carmen Aigul Akhmetshina sings the Habanera at the side of the stage. Another disturbing cameo film has Marina Abramović being crushed by a python. Accompanying the Deaths being played out on video, are florid descriptions voiced by Abramović of the heroines’ fates.

The scores of the sung arias are played by the English National Opera under conductor Yoel Gamzou. Serbian composer Marko Nikodijević supplies a succession of definitive sounds of rushing winds and clashing metallics to accompany the swirling clouds and awesome sonic sights of the videos. It’s an arguable question as to whether the show actually enhances the opera extracts, and to my mind the arias rather lose out.

The second act, which runs on from the first, transfers us to the hotel bedroom at 36 avenue Georges-Mandel where Callas died as a recluse. Abramović is lying in the large Louis V-style bed. To instructions voiced by herself, she slowly raises herself up and off the bed, wanders over to the window, picks up a vase of flowers and drops it, then walks off stage . In the next scene the seven opera singers, dressed as chamber maids, arrive to clean the room, and hang black mourning drapes over furniture and mirror. Finally it’s time for the curtain calls and Abramović returns in resplendent gold, to be greeted by what a proportion of the audience have been waiting for - the chance to take an actively voiced part in the show.

London is the final stage in a European tour that started in Munich in September 2020 and included co-productions in Greece, Berlin, Paris, Naples, Amsterdam, and Barcelona. In repertoire at the Coliseum until November 11.

Conductor Yoel Gamzou

Director, set designer and scenography Marina Abramović

Librettists Peter Skavlan and Marina Abramović

Revival director Georgina Maria-Magdalena Balk

Associate set designer Anna Schötti

Costume designer Riccardo Tisci for Burberry; Lighting designer Urs Schönebaum

Sound designer Luka Kozlovacki

Film director Nabil Elderkin

Designer of video intermezzos Marco Brambilla

Production pictures Tristram Kenton