Camp, trashy, then one got mauled by a tiger. The opera writes itself

It’s got sex, money, glamour, magic and a near-fatal tiger attack. Was there ever a story better suited to being told as an opera?

The wonder is that it has taken until now for Siegfried and Roy: The Unauthorised Opera to hit the stage.

Director Constantine Costi has long been fascinated by the story of Las Vegas legends Siegfried Fischbacher and Uwe Ludwig Horn (he later adopted the name Roy), which he describes as “charming, accessible, bonkers and delicious”.

Kanen Breen: “This is a serious piece but it’s got its tongue jammed in its cheek.”Credit: Rhett Wyman

“They exist as these cultural figures, but you actually don’t know that much about them,” he says. “They were these campy German, Vegas-trashy superstars, and one of them got mauled by a tiger. That’s already great fodder for a piece. Then the discovery that they were lovers really interested me because it was like, ‘My goodness, this is a tragic love story about these two people who were so intertwined’.”

Siegfried and Roy, who were both born in Germany around the time of World War II, met on a cruise liner where Siegfried was working as a magician. The pair hit it off and teamed up, ultimately ending up as Las Vegas headliners drawing big audiences with their over-the-top magic show and trademark big cats. The double-act came to an end in 2003 when Roy was attacked on stage by his beloved white tiger, Mantacore, leaving him profoundly disabled.

Roy Horn (left) and Siegfried Fischbacher with two of their rare white tigers in 1987.Credit: AP

“They fell out of love but continued living together, and then it all came hurtling towards a violent end,” Costi says.

Operatic tenor and cabaret artist Kanen Breen plays Roy opposite Christopher Tonkin’s Siegfried.

“Their two stories intersect then become one story really,” Breen says. “Siegfried had this fastidious attraction to the technique and technical properties of magic but was potentially not quite as flamboyant as a true magic man might require. Then there was Roy’s dynamism and daring, and the recipe of the two of them coming together was fantastic for both of them.”

Alongside the glitzy showmanship there was also a titillating sense that they might be “other”, especially for mainstream audiences of the 1980s and ’90s.

“There was something a little extra about these guys, but they owned it with such joie de vivre,” says Breen. “There was a nod and a wink that there might just be more to this story.”

Siegfried and Roy: The Unauthorised Opera has been billed as taking the “capital ‘O’ out of opera”.

Kanen Green (left) plays Roy opposite Christopher Tonkin’s SiegfriedCredit:

“I feel like opera takes itself very seriously to its own detriment,” says Breen. “I think it’s very possible to take a project and a piece seriously and still have a good time. This is a serious piece but it’s got its heart in the right place and its tongue jammed in its cheek.”

Costi agrees, insisting the opera is “fundamentally not a piss-take”.

“The comedic recipe is the absurd taken very, very seriously as they took themselves very seriously in all their trashy flamboyance.”

Siegfried & Roy, The Unauthorised Opera, Wharf 1 Theatre, Walsh Bay, January 8-25.