SADO OPERA | INTERVIEW

 

Formerly direct from St. Petersburg, now via Berlin, Sado Opera are bringing their own raw, racy brand of humour and electro-funk disco sound. Fervent LBGTQ+ activists, Sado Opera have campaigned for human rights even in Russia, but that hasn’t stopped the queer crew in their quest for acceptance for all. For their debut in Wales, they’ll be performing on the 50th anniversary of NYC’s Stonewall riots  andare excited to see and get to know the Cardiff community. Rhonda Lee Reali spoke to the band via email.

 

How does your example and activism support other LGBTQ in Russia?

Actually, we are quite impressed that despite all the restrictions and hate and homophobia in the background of everyday life of queer people in Russia, in the past couple of years more and more wonderful things are happening. We won’t dare to say that we are ‘an example’, we feel ourselves as a part of a big community of many different people working together in the name of love and equality. 

Of course you’ve heard of the Russian federal law for the Purpose of Protecting Children from Information Advocating for a Denial of Traditional Family Values. Introduced in 2013, this federal “gay propaganda” law effectively prohibits any positive information about “non-traditional sexual relations” from public discussion and basically prohibits any public demonstration of LGBTQ in a positive context. But have you heard of O-zine​ – the new internet magazine for Russia’s LGBTQ+ youth? And sure, we want to mention wonderful activists like Lolja Nordi​c,​ Bella Rapopor​t,​ Boris Konako​v and ​Nika Vodvud​ t​o name a few. 

Here is an article we recently made for Kaltblut. magazine where we talked with them about the contemporary queer feminist activism in Russia for example. There are also several new queer events like Popoff Kitche​n ​and ГРАНЬ. You can read more about it her​e.​

 

Obviously besides family and friends, who/what do you miss there?

Пышки – the Russian donuts. And maybe couple of the clubs of the past like Solyanka and 69. But they were shut down some time ago anyway, so yeah it is what it is. We try to create the possibilities for our friends and colleagues to visit us in Berlin. We host a monthly party at Berlin cruising bar Ficken3000 and​ every once in a while at our residence club Wilde Renate.​ Whenever there is an opportunity we are gladly booking Russian queer acts to perform.

We also started to throw the evening “pre-party” workshops. We had already two amazing guests: Sash​a Kazantseva –​ sex blogger from St. Petersburg was presenting a worksho​p on safer queer sex. And just recently another blogger and artist Nik​a Vodvud h​ad a lecture and was sharing her experience in activism.

 

What would typically happen to someone LGBTQ expressing affection to a partner, for example, on the street there?

It may be a bit unfair to just generalize like that. Russia is very big and there are very different circumstances in different regions. In Chechnya, for example, it is beyond any possible understanding. And in Moscow/St.Petersburg it really depends on one’s luck. The level of aggression, homophobia and misogyny in the society are unfortunately in average still pretty high. Here we’d really love to make a shout out to a non-governmental inter-regional LGBT rights organization – the Russia​n LGBT Network, led by Russian activist Igor Kochetkov.​ The​ network was created to rally public support for the elimination of discrimination based on s​exual​ orientation and gender identity, to spread the idea of tolerance in Russian society and to help LGBT people lead public lives. 

We encourage you to go to their webpage and, if you have such possibility, to make a donation online and support their brave and important work. Or just spread the word about them and their activities. Each and every way of support matters indeed.

 

When do you have an album coming out and will your previous/current singles be on it?

The new releases are planned for autumn 2019. There will be a lot of new music. Some of the songs we will play for the very first time live in Cardiff this Friday.

 

Are there any artists/singers/musicians you would like to collaborate with in any sense of the word?

We are open for collaborations and are always excited about meeting new colleagues. Often some of them become members of the family. And we believe in the power of a chosen family a lot. You probably expect us to drop some celebrity names, like “oh my god I dream to see this and that person”. But honestly, it doesn’t matter much for us.

We made a collaborative project recently – a music vide​o for our track Patriarchs. We made an open call on our Instagram and found lots of really amazing artists thanks to that. The video is a ‘stronger together’ collaboration with feminist and pro-feminist activist artists that takes in stop-frame animation, bold CGI, plasticine and zines. Directors, the production duo Kling​i, developed “the idea of art as protest and action, and the desire to change the narrative of reality. Therefore, unfriendly objects and sculptures representing the older patriarchal presence in the clip are transformed into new contemporary art installations”.

By the way, if someone who is reading this now wishes to collaborate with us – drop us a line, we’d love to talk.

 

Do you feel it’s important to mix the serious activism with fun?

It is important for us personally so that we can deliver the message there where we are most active – clubs, parties, events, shows.

 

Do you have any fantasies or wishes that you would like to experience in Cardiff?

We’ve heard about the ‘cwtch’ – the very special way to hug a dear person. So yeah… we are all curious. Let’s all cwtch together after the show!

Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff, Fri 28 June. Tickets: £15. Info: 029 2030 4400 / www.chapter.org