The eccehomo opera “Behold the Man” opens in the town where it all began

Zaragoza, Aug 21 (EFE). —  The American comic opera “Behold the Man,” inspired by a catastrophic art restoration attempt, opened on Saturday evening in a little town in the north of Spain.

More than 400 people attended the opening night in Borja, the home of the infamous fresco of Jesus that a failed restoration turned into a gruesome mix between a nightmare and a child’s drawing.

The guest list included 80yearold Cecilia Giménez, the amateur restorer, who said she was “very happy and grateful” to see the show.

The opera is based on the story of Giménez’s disastrous attempt to restore the 1930s fresco found in her local church, and how her town turns the embarrassment of the painting being ruined and going viral on the internet into something positive.

Andrew Flack, the director of “Behold the Man,” said the opera had an important message: “the bad can be turned into good and your disaster can be your miracle.”

Flack said he thought the opera would be shown around the world as it was “a universal story, like a fairy tale that everyone can understand.”

The original fresco was painted by Elias García Martínez and was not considered a notable work of art by critics or historians.

However, the botched restoration became a worldwide internet phenomenon in 2012 and has since spawned everything from jokes to documentaries.