Newly installed UA Opera Theater director Beth Greenberg is introducing herself to Tucson this weekend with Gilbert & Sullivan’s operetta “Mikado.”
It stars a cast of University of Arizona students and the Arizona Symphony Orchestra. And expect special “appearances” by presidential hopefuls Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton.
“It’s a very different take on the ‘Mikado’,” said Greenberg, who took the reins of the UA Opera Theater at the Fred Fox School of Music in August. “I used that as a taking off point of this absurd kind of humor and sort of Monty Python came in the mix.”
She won’t tip her hand too much; she doesn’t want to spoil the surprises. But her reimagination includes sets that are fluid and moving, keeping the action going.
“I think it just felt right to have things moving rather quickly,” explained the former City Opera stage director, who worked for the New York City company for 23 years and is an in-demand guest with opera companies around the country. “Also it feels very young that way. Shake the dust off the Victorian masterpiece and give it a fresh look.”
Greenberg knows a thing or two about keeping masterpiece operas fresh. She earned a reputation during her lengthy New York run as a inventive director who thinks outside the box. Her innovative stagings have included producing Puccini’s one-act opera “Il Tabarro” aboard a retired oil tanker moored in Red Hook, Brooklyn. It garnered rave reviews and an international spotlight.
“It’s very interesting for me to take opera out of its natural habitat and take it to places you would never expect it,” said the 61-year-old director, who would love to stage cabaret-style operas at a club downtown.
Greenberg said “Mikado” is a great piece for her young singers as well as audiences.
“It’s a wonderful piece,” she said. “It has some of the greatest music and lyrics you could ever imagine. It’s a scathing satire on British politics and law.”
But in Greenberg’s hands, expect “Mikado” to have some contemporary references from Tucson and beyond.
Here are few things you should know about Greenberg before the curtain rises Thursday, Nov. 12:
She is enamored by her UA students: “The students here are quite good. They have this wonderful sense of collegiality and they are wonderfully nice to their colleagues.”
And she is enamored by our wide-open spaces: “I remember looking at the map back home and judging where the university was. One block in Tucson is like four New York City blocks.”
She’s amazed by her Catalina Mountains view: The mountains “take my breath away. The sky has these lights that I’ve never seen. The colors. The things that just blow me away are the things I don’t have on the East Coast, which is sky and mountains. ... It’s spectacular.”
She loves our bus system, even though it was on strike when she arrived: “I don’t drive really; I have a license, a real authentic license. I can show it to you. I’ve driven twice in my entire life. I come here and guess what? The buses were on strike. But I’ve got to (brag) on the bus system here. The one I take is within one minute of on-time every time.”
