Perhaps one of the most captivating cable shows of the last two years, Breaking Bad will again be "the one who knocks," yet this time on the operatic stage.
Certainly the series has a firm grip on supplementing art and poetry into the script.
The initials W.W. draw a comparison to Walt Whitman, a common allusion in the show, as well as the Grecian-like demise of Walter White and his descent into megalomania.
Thus, artistic director of One World Symphony--"the hippest orchestra in town"--Sung Jin Hong has transposed the television series to the stage.
And like the Breaking Bad musical before it, it's playing now.
Hong, though, paralleled the Breaking Bad saga with English lyric poet Percy Shelley's "Ozymandias," another poetic allusion in the show.
"Similar to the downfall of Ozymandias, Walt White with all his brilliance and power does not foresee his inevitable destruction and demise of all those that surround him," said Hong in an interview with The Independent.
"Shelley's 'Ozymandias' reminds us that human life and materialistic values are temporary and are bound to end. All are subject to the laws of time," he continued.
OK, why can't Breaking Bad become a canonical drama? Who knows?
Vince Gilligan's hit series can fair with contemporary drama and art, and perhaps Hong's Breaking Bad opera will consider the series a masterpiece with a magnitude the likes of Beethoven or Homer.
To wit, here is Walter White. One must never forget "the one who knocks."
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