SINGAPORE — The Singapore International Festival Of Arts is finally underway. And if there was an opening production that screams “And now for something completely different”, then you can’t go wrong with a time-travelling, operatic show about a cloned artist—which has a “cameo” by Adolf Hitler!

Fest director Ong Keng Sen has taken it upon himself to restage Facing Goya, the 2000 pop-opera by acclaimed British composer Michael Nyman and librettist Victoria Hardie. After debuting at the Spoleto Festival in May, it now makes its way here as both fest opener and the first public show at the revamped Victoria Theatre.

Here you meet the character of an Art Banker who’s on the hunt for the missing skull of the artist Francisco Goya. Story goes, prior to his death, he had instructions to stash it away somewhere far from scientists who wanted to study it and know what makes him tick as an artist.

And so begins the Art Banker’s (and the audience’s) weird field trip through time. We meet winged “craniometrists” from the 18th century, Aryan supremacists from the mid-20th century and 21st century biotechnologists — all of whom expound on various theories about science, aesthetics and genetics, namedropping the likes of Paul Broca and Paul Shultze-Naumberg — before coming face to face with Goya’s clone.

Pretty crazy cool stuff right? Well, that depends. What do you think of the idea of The Three Tenors belting out a lecture on Post-Newtonian Physics?

Because that’s what it is — an opera-styled lecture performance about art and science. While I’m not about to call it “intellectual claptrap”, like what a recent New York Times review did (what’s wrong with an opera about a brain that wants you to work yours, anyway?), it certainly isn’t for everyone. And even coming in with a “let’s see where they’re going with this” attitude, it was quite a challenge for me.

I initially thought it was because this whole art/science/lecture-meets-opera was a bad fit (for now, I hastily add because you never really know right?). But then again, you’ve seen similar things brought to the stage and it’s all good (top of my head, Everything But The Brain had its physics concepts while Red was a dense essay on art masquerading as a Mark Rothko docudrama).

The difference perhaps was that, in both, something propelled it forward—a narrative that grabbed you. Facing Goya had none. Barring some inspired, quirky elements such as an ongoing gag about Goya and his love for chocolate (random fun fact: did you know there’s a Goya chocolate brand?) and a punchline about making love the old-fashioned way, it felt as if Hardie couldn’t care less about these “human” elements. And instead, was more concerned with patching together concepts and ideas, leaving it all to Nyman’s excellent, varied score (conducted by John Kennedy and performed admirably by the SSO) and the performers’ wonderful voices to propel the piece forward emotionally.

Aside from the score, are imagery and idea enough to sustain one’s interest? To a certain extent. Visually, Facing Goya is a stunner, with its clean, clinical aesthetics, the use of light projections and a video camera, the quirky props of huge dazzling skulls (and a diamond-encrusted small one that tips its hat to Damien Hirst’s crass money-meets-art work).

But I was also confused as to whether it takes itself seriously or not. The heavy exposition of the first half slightly gave way to something lighter post-intermission, where the humour and human elements were upped (although perhaps that was a bit too little too late for some, going by the number of empty seats).

The thing is, it felt like it swerved from one to the other. Also, I’m not really sure if, even as it critiques the racist theories of the past, it is also playing on the irony of Western performing art forms themselves built on certain biases (certain body types for ballet, glass ceilings for certain ethnicities in theatre, etc).

And where *was* Goya’s art anyway? Barring references to The Nude Maja and The Dog (“dogs drowning in sand…”), I didn’t catch a glimpse of the works of this so-called genius whose missing skull is causing much hoopla. Surely, if he was chosen as the epitome of a genius artist, we need proof right? Granted the Goya anecdote did inspire this entire show, but is there more to it than just a device? Because, having not seen any Goya paintings or drawings onstage, I can’t help but ask why not Caravaggio? Or Dali? (Now that’s a brain we’d like to pick).

And isn’t Einstein’s brain already dissected to death?

Anyways, one final thing: Not quite convinced with the Victoria Theatre space especially when the orchestra pit’s used. I can’t remember watching a show at Drama Centre (which is roughly the same size) where there was an orchestra pit (does it even have that function?) but here, it just eats into the audience space, making VT look even smaller.

Anyways, SIFA 2014 has begun and there’s more to come. Let the marathon begin! Follow our coverage here on For Art’s Sake! or over at our microsite Artlanders (http://tdy.sg/artlanders) where we gather all SIFA-related posts on Twitter and Instagram. For your posts to be picked up, use either of these hashtags: #artlanders, #sifasg.

Facing Goya runs until Aug 16, 8pm, at Victoria Theatre. Tickets from S$40 to S$120 at SISTIC. For more info on the festival, visit https://www.sifa.sg/