bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

sponsorType

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

Opera fans may recoil in horror  at the idea and pop fans might be left  bemused, but both are sure to get something from Max Sharam's 'p'opera', Butterfly Suicide. 'I don't like mindless pop music, per se, and love opera, but don't like operas,' says Sharam. 'So, if I take the best of the two and add some comedy, you've got something of a pop opera.'

Butterfly Suicide, which fuses music, comedy and stagecraft, will be performed over four nights next week as part of the City Fringe festival.

'I invented it,  to suit my needs,' says Sharam. 'It's still  an undeveloped medium - and may not be one to take all that seriously, but who knows?

'Essentially it's about morphing different arts together and utilising all of my talents  to provide me with an opportunity  to do all the things  I love in one forum. One of those things  is to entertain and make people feel.

'I think anyone  who loves  a good aria will jump at the opportunity to see and hear it  in a completely unconventional manner. It also makes a new world available to people who are otherwise unfamiliar with or unexposed to it.'

Sharam, who was born in Australia but is now a naturalised American based in New York,  has always tried to transcend traditional genre divisions.

A brief list of her credits includes her award-winning, platinum-selling debut album, A Million-Year Girl,  a stint studying taiko   drumming in Japan, fronting a band in Hiroshima, and travelling through Switzerland, France and Italy with a group of madonnaro artists singing and painting on the streets.

While in Italy, Sharam landed lead stage roles, alongside some  of the country's finest talents.  She had toured Europe twice with different theatre companies by  the time she was 19.  Her theatre credits include Forza Venite  Gente, Jesus Christ Superstar  and Mademoiselle Max, which  she wrote, directed and performed at  international comedy festivals.

'Overall, I could be considered an 'artist',' says Sharam. 'I'm at my best when I'm conceptualising and creating. My whole essence is about challenge and change.

'I'm driven by justice and  love to provide a voice for the underdog or minority. I love to throw those questions out there that people are too afraid to ask.  It gets me into a lot of trouble - which I also like to write about.'

Sharam's first self-published book, Snakes Live Under My Bed, Allegory for Immature Adults - a collection of illustrated prose - was released last year.

Now an independent  producer for the Manhattan Neighbourhood Network television channel, Sharam is working  with other emerging artists while  developing her own television show.  In Butterfly Suicide,  she presents the nocturnal misadventures of  'ill Soprano', a highly strung opera diva who develops a mania for butterflies.

'I'm still formatting it,' she says. 'I'll be using projections -  of videos I've shot and edited, and little animations from my drawings - combined with poems and songs that I've written. A harp player will join me. There'll also be some narrative.

'Metaphorically it's a kind of female skeleton with chunks of raw meat laced onto random sections of it,' says Sharam.  'I don't know if I can call it a  play yet, though it does involve  a lot of 'play'. I'm like a kid in a sandpit when I'm doing this kind of thing.'

Sharam  says Butterfly Suicide isn't a reference to Madam Butterfly. 'That's purely incidental. Accidental. A coincidence,' she says. 'I really didn't realise until I'd written the first piece - which stemmed from one of my drawings of a neurotic soprano choking on butterflies.  I realised her death reflected a kind of romantic tragedy and later realised in some way it resembled Madam Butterfly.

'They're just symbols. Timeless universal symbols. Who knows, maybe [Madame Butterfly character] Cho-Cho San will  make a guest appearance - after all, we'll be in Asia.

Sharam's appearance at the City Fringe festival won't be the first time she's performed in  Hong Kong.

'I was there before to show-case my album many years  ago, although I don't know  what to expect. People don't have to laugh, but I want them to feel a rush of blood.'

Sharam says the show is 'just  a toddler at the moment.  But I hope to raise it to Dame Edna Everage status before I'm 60 and run it on Broadway.'

Butterfly Suicide, Tues, Wed, 8pm, Thu, Fri, 9.30pm, Fringe Club,  $99 (members), $130. Inquiries: 2521 7251



A night at the p'opera