The most gothic and thrilling Lady Gaga kicks off a new tour in Las Vegas, turning her life into an opera

Lady Gaga seems to have deeply internalized Socrates’ maxim of “Know thyself.” Because there’s nothing better than looking inward and seeing her strengths, and taking a stroll through the past, for the singer to present a well-rounded project. The eponymous tour for her album Mayhem, released last March, kicked off on Wednesday, July 16, in Las Vegas, and on that hot desert night, attendees quickly understood the reasons why the immense, operatic show concocted by the New York singer is selling out in the blink of an eye: because she herself enjoys it, and she knows her fans will too. And because it’s an immense show, one that keeps the audience on its feet and is curated down to the last millimeter by the mind of someone who has been in the entertainment industry for two decades and is very clear about who she is and what role she plays in it.

Three years after her last tour, Lady Gaga — the name chosen for fame by 39-year-old Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta — goes all out. The singer takes the reins of the artistic direction of a show that, in just two hours, covers a good part of her new album; from the new classic that is Abracadabra to How Bad Do You Want Me, including Perfect Celebrity, Garden of Eden, Zombieboy, Shadow of a Man and Vanish into You, where she takes to the dance floor and mingles with the audience. Also included are those unmissable hits that have propelled her to fame over these nearly 20 years of career and never fail to impress: Bad Romance, Paparazzi, Judas, Just Dance, Million Reasons and Shallow (inexplicably missing is the catchy Telephone).

But she also revisits herself: she confronts her past selves, in different versions, she fights with the old Gaga, she even sends her, temporarily, to the cemetery, or beyond, walking along the Styx.

The show isn’t entirely new, as part of the premise was already showcased at the Coachella festival in Indio, California, in mid-April. However, it’s much more refined and complete than that one, or its counterpart on the packed Copacabana stage in Brazil. If that was already a huge spectacle, it now takes on a bigger dimension, with its 30 dancers, its elaborate costumes, and its half-dozen wigs. It maintains its structure in acts (four, plus a grand finale), and although it doesn’t last much longer (around two hours and 10 minutes), it has a clearer central thread and a few more songs. The singer is also more vocally fulfilled, with fewer choked moments than those evident at the festival. The months of rehearsal are noticeable.

Her hand and vision are evident behind everything. From the moment the audience enters the venue, as if it were an opera (titled The Art of Personal Chaos), there is a palace of music on the stage. Before the concert begins, a video of Gaga, dressed in red, with a ruff, gloves, and immense puff sleeves while writing on parchment with an enormous quill pen, is repeated for almost 40 minutes, while arias from operas such as Carmen and La Traviata are played. All of this helps set the tone for what she is aiming for.

And she succeeds: in the end, rather than a collection of songs, Gaga theatricalizes her artistic journey, turning it into a romantic, dark 19th-century opera, with costume changes, feathers, flowers, veils, smoke, and fire on stage, but also through a struggle against herself. This Lady Gaga confronts the Lady Gaga of the past, played by another woman, her face covered but widely recognizable, with some of the famous looks the singer once wore. Sometimes, the fight comes to blows. The current Gaga comes and goes during the acts of her opera in different versions of herself, until she manages to accept herself and see that it is not necessary to die or kill, but to look forward.

It may sound cheesy, but that’s the message and what she’s aiming for: with her staging, with her selection of songs (each one tailored to a moment in that life’s journey), and with the messages she conveys to her fans. During the two hours, immersed in her role — let’s not forget that, after all, she’s also an actress, and a fan of drama — she barely addresses the audience. She only does so to ask for applause, dancing, or raised hands. But when she sits down at the piano to perform Die With A Smile (without Bruno Mars, despite him being her neighbor, as he has a residency at MGM Park, across the street from her stadium), she’s on the verge of breaking down. “Thank you all for the ways you’ve made me strong. Thank you for being a fabulous community, thank you for showing me so much love and affection. Before I went on stage, I couldn’t believe you were here, that this was my show,” she told her fans through tears.

The evening is full of memorable moments: from the very long white veil she wears in Paparazzi, which ends up transformed into a rainbow flag amid applause, to a giant skull, or the cage from which she climbs out at the beginning. That operatic theater that underpins the set design is also used conscientiously, growing, shrinking, and crumbling. And so is the arrow-shaped catwalk, which of course becomes a dance floor, with the impeccable corps of dancers, who manage to capture the moments of pause or costume change without losing the audience’s attention, but there is also a chessboard and a river, complete with a boat.

In the end credits (as if it were a movie), Gaga appears as director, and also as head of creative direction. A couple of regular collaborators appear, such as her choreographer, Parris Goebel.

For more than six months and 60 concerts, the Mayhem tour will travel the world, from London to Barcelona (in October, after a seven-year absence), Sydney, and Tokyo. Instead of large stadiums, like those of Taylor Swift or Beyoncé (who left some tickets unsold on the first nights in Los Angeles), the artist has opted for medium-sized venues, with an average of 20,000 people, like those that filled the T-Mobile in Las Vegas (she has two more to go in the city). This has ensured a sellout. On Wednesday morning, only resale tickets remained on the official website, priced between $300 and $2,000. On the streets of Las Vegas, resale booths advertised tickets for just under $300, but they were as high as $4,000, the vendors rubbing their hands together. “It’s Lady Gaga!” they smiled. Indeed, she is Lady Gaga and she has come to prove it.

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