UBC Opera has outdone themselves again with their new production “Mercurii, ante temptandum est debitum” (in English: “Wednesday, before the essay is due”), which focuses on the lives of students as they bear the weight of fixing society.
The avant-garde piece quickly establishes its socio-econo-political themes as it opens on our unnamed and relatable student protagonist singing a grief-laden aria over their unstarted paper that is due in five hours. In fact, this modernist approach to “the Student” highlights the tone of desperation that’s embedded within the opera, particularly at the climax where our protagonist and their anxiety-ridden, relatable friends drunkenly stumble away from their responsibilities and an old, yet relatable, nudist on Wreck Beach, all while belting beautiful coloraturas.
The minimalist set, consisting of an unpainted backdrop, perfectly displays the anguish of not being able to afford a one-bedroom apartment but being expected to solve the climate crisis and the economy. Student 4 puts it best during their cadenza in Act 2: “Iesu accipe rota.”
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