The Fly at the Dorothy Chandler Pavillion

Daniel Okulitch as Brundle (right) and Ruxandra Donose as Veronica in the dress-rehearsal of the opera “The Fly.” Cronenberg has taken pains to explain that he wanted to create an opera that was distinct from his film. He left it to David Henry Hwang, who wrote the librettoto, to graft elements from the original George Langelaan story that appeared in Playboy . Unlike the film, the opera is constructed as a flashback.  (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

Daniel Okulitch as Brundle (right) and Ruxandra Donose as Veronica in the dress-rehearsal of the opera “The Fly.” Brundle, a scientist, discovers a way to decompose and recompose matter through teleporters that look like big refrigerators.  (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

Daniel Okulitch as Brundle (right) and Ruxandra Donose as Veronica in the dress-rehearsal of “The Fly,” directed by David Cronenberg.  (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

Daniel Okulitch as Brundle (right) and Ruxandra Donose as Veronica in the dress-rehearsal of “The Fly.”  (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

Brundle’s experiment goes awry when a fly accidentally joins him in the teleporter; man and insect fuse at the genetic level. The fly’s DNA first gives the awkward Brundle increased strength, agility and sexual prowess, to say nothing of a superhuman appetite for candy bars. But ...  (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

But eventually Brundle’s skin peels away. He oozes fluids and becomes generally disgusting.  (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

Hwang emphasizes the superman element in the opera -- turning Brundle into a messianic figure who proclaims his fusion as the beginning of “the new flesh” -- and even gives him an aria about insect politics. Veronica, a science reporter who falls for Brundle and is impregnated by Brundlefly, sings an abortion aria.  (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

The film’s famous line, “Be afraid, be very afraid,” is heard, and more than once.  (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)