If you know anything about Pacific Opera Project and their productions, you know this won’t be a standard production of Mozart’s opera. The title alone tells you this is being filtered through Shaw’s incredible imagination. Rather than call their production by the name Mozart gave it, it has been tweaked to be Covid fan tutte.

In the Mozart/Lorenzo da Ponte version the story is as follows:

Ferrando and Guglielmo are vacationing with their fiancées, Dorabella and Fiordiligi. They are sisters. Don Alfonso challenges the men to a bet revolving around the women and their ability to be faithful. Using disguise, deception and a wicked sense of humor, Mozart’s opera ends happily ever after for one and all.

As Shaw has reimagined the opera the story goes like this:

Rather than vacationing just anywhere, the two girls finds themselves quarantined at a golf course in Southern California. They have struck up a rather cosy (no pun intended) relationship with two caddies. One member at the club, Don Alfonso, challenges his buddies to see if the girls will remain faithful to them. Due to the Covid pandemic, the boys are “furloughed,” offering them the chance to adopt disguises and see if they can challenge their girlfriend’s fidelity without the girls realizing they are really their boyfriends. Throughout the production, all the rules of social distancing and protective gear will factor into the story.

The company includes Jamie Chamberlin, Nathan Granner, E. Scott Levin, Christina Pezzarossi, Ariel Pisturino and Colin Ramsey. Kyle Naig arranged the music and conducts. The English language libretto is by Shaw, who also directs.

There will be three performances of Covid fan tutte: November 14th, 15th and 22nd all at 5:30 PM PST. Tickets are $65-$175 per car. To purchase tickets, please go here.

Pacific Opera Project is also presenting the US staged premieres of two one-act operas by Christoph Willibald Gluck. The two operas are La Corona (“The Crown”) and Il Parnaso Confuso (“The Confusion on Parnasus”).

Both one-act operas have libretti by Pietro Metastasio.

La Corona (a rather timely title and certainly no coincidence) was meant to debut in 1765. The emperor for whom it was written died before it could be performed. The work never received a performance until 1987 on the 200th anniversary of the composer’s death.

A wild boar is causing problems for the residents of Kalydon. Princess Atalanta wants the boar killed, but isn’t comfortable with the idea of her sister and her friend joining. Prince Meleagro doesn’t want them joining either, in spite of their wanting to. How the boar gets killed, who gets to take credit for it and why are explored.

Il Parnaso Confuso had its world premiere in 1765 in Vienna.

Apollo and the muses of music, lyric poetry and tragedy are asked to sing at an emperor’s wedding. With all their squabbles amongst the muses they end up missing the celebrations.

The cast includes Tiffany Ho, Meagan Martin, Jessica Sandidge and Audrey Yoder. Once again, Naig arranged the music and will conduct. Shaw directs.

Both operas will be performed in Italian with English subtitles.

The Gluck one-acts will be performed on November 20th at 5:30 PM and November 21st at 5:30 PM. Ticket prices are the same. Tickets can be purchased here.

All performances take place at the Camarillo United Methodist Church.

Update: This post has been updated to reflect a new start time for the November 20th performance of the two Gluck one-act operas. It has been changed from 7:00 PM to 5:30 PM

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Long Beach Opera’s timing couldn’t have been better. Linda Fairstein, the attorney who prosecuted the five men, wrote an op-ed defending her actions in response to Ava DuVernay’s When They See Us on Netflix. The increased scrutiny she faced as a result of that documentary has lead to her resigning from the boards of several charities, being dropped by Dutton who published crime novels she wrote and her agency, ICM Partners, dropped her as well.

The Central Park attack on Trisha Meili occurred in 1989. Intense police interrogation by officers with the New York Police Department lead Antron McCray, 15; Kevin Richardson, 14; Yusef Salaam, 15; Raymond Santana, 14; and Korey Wise, 16 to admit to the crime. In 2002, after an admission of guilt by serial rapist Matias Reyes (plus the DNA evidence), the wrongful convictions were overturned.

Donald Trump, who is depicted in The Central Park Five, published full-page ads in several New York newspapers in 1989 calling for the death penalty for the five youths. When the City of New York settled with the five men, Trump railed against the payout as a sign of incompetence. As recently as this week he still made comments about the guilt of the five men.

Davis has written several operas and seems keenly interested in true stories. Amongst his operas are X, The Life and Times of Malcolm X, Tania (about Patty Hearst) and Amistad (about a slave uprising on board a ship.)

Derrell Acon plays Anton McCray, Bernard Holcomb plays Kevin Richardson, Cedric Berry plays Yusef Salaam, Orson Van Gay II plays Raymond Santana and Nathan Granner plays Korey Wise. The production is directed by Andreas Mitisek. The conductor is Leslie Dunner.

This is perfect story for an opera. There’s a crime, five young men are falsely accused and imprisoned, there’s the real perpetrator, a media circus and the man who would be President ignoring science and confessions to prop himself up in the public eye.

For tickets go here.

Main Image:  Nathan Granner as Khorey Wise, Cedric Berry as Yusef Salaam, Derrell Acon as Antron McCray, Orson Van Gay as Raymond Santana, and Bernard Holcomb as Kevin Richardson

All photos by Keith Ian Polakoff/Courtesy of Long Beach Opera

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