'Corto Maltese : Ballad of the Salty Sea' creation and staging of a new opera

Abstract

Corto Maltese: Ballad of the Salty Sea is an original opera based on Hugo Pratt’s comic commissioned by the Manoel Theatre in Valletta as part of the Valletta 2018 programme. It was composed by Dutch composer Monique Krüs and directed by the Dutch film and opera director Corina Van Eijk, from the company Opera Spanga in the Netherlands. Through my work I will discuss the process of its conception and translation from a comic book into a staged opera which premiered on the 20th of September 2018 and ran for two nights. At the forefront of my debate will be the staging and directorial choices made by Corina Van Eijk throughout the rehearsal process, which ran for a month prior to the premiere, and the interdisciplinary nature of the performance. There will be an in-depth analysis of her style of direction and the creation of links to practitioners like Konstantin Stanislavski and Pina Bausch. This discussion will follow a look into the process of the opera’s making before the director came to Malta in August 2018, and a historical and factual presentation of the background of the comic itself and its author.