What happens if you combine an operatic version of the Cardi B song “WAP” with the original, then perform “Habanera,” the famed aria from Bizet’s opera “Carmen,” all back to back? Where might your mind wander if, in the middle of “Je Ne T’aime Pas” from “Marie Galante,” Raheem DeVaughn’s “Anytime,” played? If you’re trembling with suspense, fear not—answers can be found in “Selections from Arias of Seduction,” the solo performance combining opera, burlesque and pole dance created by performer and content creator, Khadija Mbowe.
Officially presented by Operatika, a performance collective founded by Mbowe, “Arias of Seduction” made its world premiere on Sept. 15 in Montreal, Canada, where Mbowe is based. Now, the production—a self-funded project, with its future performances dependent on Kickstarter contributions—is making its United States debut at the VCU Institute for Contemporary Art on Sept. 25, this time as a solo performance of selections that will put Mbowe front and center (their hope is to be able to bring their full cast with them for future performances, once they have the financial backing to compensate performers and pay for necessities like travel and insurance).
Through a combination of vocal and physical feats that Mbowe describes as “Cirque du Soleil meets a night at the strip club, meets a night at the opera,” the show aims to turn the often austere art form of opera on its head (sometimes literally, via an inverted singer on a stripper pole). It explores the theme of desire across different modalities of performance, pairing the beauty and timelessness of beloved arias with a more raw element of physicality. All of the operatic pieces in “Arias of Seduction” performed live center on the themes of desire, seduction, and unrequited love, which serve as a throughline between the recital’s acts.
“Opera is very proper,” Mbowe says. “There are a lot of rules and regulations, yet the industry wants to appeal not just to younger audiences, but wider audiences. In my head, when people have a problem, I think about coming up with an actual solution. But sometimes I realize people don’t want an actual solution, because solutions require really shaking shit up.”
“Arias of Seduction” was born, in part, out of frustration—not only with rigid guidelines for how an operatic performance should be enjoyed, but also with what identities and practices are typically allowed to exist in the same space, both in a physical and psychic sense. Mbowe, who graduated from a classical voice program in 2020, recalls an education that taught them that subduing parts of themself would be necessary in order to achieve traditional success.
“When you finish school, it feels like you’re just beholden to all of these gatekeepers and these people who are going to make or break your career,” Mbowe says.
With a sense of disharmony between expectations and their aspirations as a performer already growing, the arrival of the pandemic—and subsequent shutdown of live performing arts—moved them to take a break from singing altogether. But after starting to pole dance in 2022, Mbowe began experimenting with incorporating singing into their act. After giving an operatic pole performance at a local studio, brainstorming for a full-fledged recital began.
“There are definitely other people that do aerial arts and sing opera, but because I’m an extra person, I wanted to do a whole show,” Mbowe explains. “I’ve had an admiration for strippers, and I love singing opera. Sometimes when people ask, ‘why those two,’ I’m like, ‘why not?’ Those two opposites live inside of my body; if they can both coexist in me as a person, then why can’t the desire to see them coexist exist in other people? I try to tell myself I’m not so unique, somebody else has to be interested.”
After two sold-out Canadian performances, Mbowe’s hope is to continue to tour “Arias of Seduction” in the U.S., Canada, and Europe, inviting guest artists and local dancers to integrate work into each performance.
“The point is to have people that have never experienced opera or classical music, that would never go out of their way to see a recital or a concert, come enjoy it,” Mbowe says. “And to also have the people that would go to see an opera or recital, let down their guard a little bit and watch some people shaking ass. It’s not necessarily exactly how Mozart might have pictured it being performed, but the joy, the visceral reaction from the audience—you can’t make that up.”
“Selections from Arias of Seduction,” a performance by Operatika, takes place on Wednesday, Sept. 25 from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University, 601 W. Broad St., with support from Caitlin Cherry, Nia Burks, and Colleen Jolly.
