Why Petite Opera's #metoo Don Giovanni can make a difference

Despicable and Applicable, Donny G has always been around

Don Juan premiered as a fictional/legendary character in 1630, and Mozart’s opera, Don Giovanni premiered in 1787. Then, it was appalling, but accepted, that noblemen—men of power and influence—exerted their power over women, those less affluent, or more helpless. Unfortunately, those behaviors never seem to go out of style. We still see it today, and most tend to turn a blind eye, or toss it off as “just part of the life”.

Tarana Burke started the “Me Too movement” as a way to raise awareness and intolerance of sexual violence and give the victims a voice. Hollywood actresses used it as a platform to speak out against the casting couch and perpetual abusers like Harvey Weinstein and former “America’s dad” and Jello spokesman Bill Cosby.

This is a social justice issue, and people are starting to take note. In fact, in 2017, the “Silence Breakers” were even given the “Person of the Year” award from Time Magazine.

Preying on others, abusing power, sexual misconduct and violence must stop. But it will only become a priority when we all make it so.

Don Giovanni was an opera we always wanted to produce, and its timely perspectives on the present #metoo movement is something that hits us all right between the eyes. People always say “times have changed”, but have they? In reality, the Don Juan story plays itself out in real life over and over again — 200 years ago, and today.

Why have we romanticized the Don Juan legend for so long? Even in the original literature, he isn’t some charismatic, sexually magnetic suave male from the cover of a romance novel, but a narcissistic sexual predator. We enable him by remaining silent.

Dimitri German portrays
"Donny G" in Petite Opera's
Production of Don Giovanni

The #metoo movement has really raised its hand, pointed its collective finger, and said “enough!”. We put that power in the hands of our characters in Don Giovanni to turn the tides of our times, and give victims their voices through music.

As artists, we must not only master our art, but change the world. As artists, we have a responsibility to be a mirror, reflecting back the social issues of our society so we can help the world heal, and make it a better place. 

Let’s get there together.

--Susan Baushke, Executive Director 

--Cathy Dunn, Stage Director

Buy tickets online to Petite Opera's #metoo Don Giovanni at www.petiteopera.tix.com

or call 847.553.4442 to reserve them for pickup and payment at Will Call.

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To better understand the #metoo movement, check out these amazing timelines compiled by The Chicago Tribune:
https://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/ct-me-too-timeline-20171208-htmlstory.html
https://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/ct-me-too-20171030-storygallery.html

PetiteOpera's #DonGiovanni fights off his #metoo accusers through Nov 18

See what patrons are buzzing about.

Learn what is happening in these photos by attending one of the three remaining performances:

Friday, November 16, 7:30 PM

Saturday, November 17, 7:30 PM

Sunday, November 18, 4:00 PM

MaryWilson House Beyer Auditorium

306 S Prospect Ave at Crescent Ave

Park Ridge, IL 60068

 

 

 

Why Petite Opera's Despicable #metoo Don Giovanni is So Applicable

"Don Giovanni is much more despicable and evil in this version", which makes him more relevant

In this patron review, Petite Opera's modernized #metoo version of Don Giovanni" gets a thumbs up. "Don Giovanni, in this version, is despicable and evil" and so, very applicable to current events. Set on a Hollywood film lot, with modern takes on the characters, this update shows how scary it is that times haven't changed since Mozart's day, yet the characters’ reactions are so relevant for today’s audiences. The opera opened Nov 3, and runs through November 18. 

Only 4 performances left!

Sunday, November 11 at 4:00 PM

Friday, November 16 at 7:30 PM

Saturday, November 17 at 7:30 PM

Sunday, November 18 at 4:00 PM

Tickets: www.petiteopera.tix.com.

Meet Otto Gruselig from the #metoo Don Giovanni by Petite Opera

Meet film star agent, Otto Gruselig

Meet Otto - The Hollywood film agent (and modern day version of Don Ottavio) from Petite Opera's #metoo Don Giovanni. Learn why he is much creepier than Mozart and DaPonte's original character, and is potentially more dangerous than Don Giovanni. See this insightful look into the original romantic character turned "romantic wannabe" that is so relevant today.

Featured: Nathan Oakes as Otto (right), and his co-stars, Lani Stait (far left) and Megan Rose Hendrickson (center), who portray Anna Pritchard.

The production opened November 3 and runs through November 18.

For ticket credit card orders: www.petiteopera.tix.org.
To reserve and pay cash or check at the Box office on show date, call 847.553.4442.

Meet Donny G from the #metoo Don Giovanni by Petite Opera

Meet Donny G - The man everyone loves to hate Don Giovanni -- or "Donny G" as he likes to be called in the modern world -- is the man everyone loves to hate. See this insightful look into the character featuring Wesly Anthony Clerge, who portrays the lead character in Petite Opera's new #metoo version of Mozart's "Don Giovanni".
Featured:  Wesly Anthony Clerge at Donny G (Don Giovanni) and Kate Sikora as Ellie Crystal (Donna Elvira).

The production opened November 3 and runs through November 18.

For ticket credit card orders: www.petiteopera.tix.org.
To reserve and pay cash or check at the Box office on show date, call 847.553.4442.

Petite Opera Releases #metoo Don Giovanni Video Trailer

Get Caught Up in The Story

Ripped from the headlines, Mozart's Don Giovanni takes on new dimension in this #metoo English translation by Petite Opera. Accused of murder and sexual misconduct, modern day Hollywood film producer "Donny G" finds his victims fighting back. Click to watch!

Performances

7:30 PM Fridays, November 9, 16

7:30 PM Saturdays, November 3, 10, 17

4:00 PM Sundays, November 4, 11, 18

Purchase tickets now

New Petite Opera #metoo DON GIOVANNI is ripped straight from the headlines

Petite Opera announces its latest ambitious work, and incredible cast for upcoming Don Giovanni November 3-18, 2018

Petite Opera, making a name for itself with its updated translations and productions that connect with modern-day audiences, is proud to announce its upcoming #metoo Don Giovanni.  

In this world premier of Petite Opera's new English translation and setting, the seducer, Don Giovanni (Italian for “Don Juan”) is transported into modern day, and patterned after several unscrupulous characters in the news associated with the #metoo movement.  

Set on a present day Hollywood film lot, the action, seduction and struggles are told from the perspectives of the actresses, film crew, and associates of the Hollywood film producer “Donny G” as he abuses his power.  The story culminates in a powerful message that reflects our modern day intolerances and historical willingness to look the other way. 

CAST

Donny G (Don Giovanni):  Wesly Anthony Clerge, Dimitri German

Leo Porello (Leporello): Ivo Suarez, Artega Wright

Anna Pritchard (Donna Anna): Megan Hendrickson, Lani Stait
Ellie Crystal (Donna Elvira): Kate Sikora, Kelsea Webb

Zerlina Wilder (Zerlina): Liana Gineitis, Morgan Whitney
Otto Gruselig (Don Ottavio): Max Hosmer, Nathan Oakes

Masetto Convinto (Masetto): Samuel Cotten, Brandon Sokol

Conor DaTore (il Commendatore):  Lakotah Terrace

Members of the Film Crew:
Phoeobe Marsten: Susan Baushke
Rebecca Nance: Meg Huskin
Logan Hammond: Austin Illenberg
Jessica Sprock: Rachel Mast
Candy Landers: Kellie Springfield
Sam Mahone: Nicole Verive

ARTISTIC and PRODUCTION STAFF

Resident Music Director: Cody Michael Bradley

Resident Stage Director: Cathy Dunn

Assist Stage Director: Meg Huskin

Director of Production: Steven Arvanites

Resident Stage Manager: Nicole Verive

Resident Lighting Director: Elizabeth Sklena

Resident Costume Designer: Sienna Kusek

TRANSLATION WRITING TEAM

Steven Arvanites, Susan Baushke, Cody Michael Bradley, Cathy Dunn,
HRT Guillen, Austin Illenberg, Nathan Oakes, Nicole Verive, Nathan Oakes

PERFORMANCE DATES

7:30 PM Fridays, November 9, 16

7:30 PM Saturdays, November 3, 10, 17
4:00 PM Sundays, November 4, 11, 18

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Tickets are $27 for Adults (ages 18-61)
$25 for Seniors (age 62 and up)
$15 for Students* (age 16 through College)

*Not Suitable for Children under the age of 16

To reserve your tickets for payment by cash or check at Box Office on performance date:
Call 847-553-4442 or email tickets@petiteopera.org

For credit card orders, visit http://petiteopera.tix.com
Please note: reservations and Credit Card orders accepted up to 4 hours prior to show time.

A convenience fee is applied to all credit card orders at checkout.

LOCATION:
Mary Wilson House Beyer Auditorium
part of St. Mary's Episcopal church campus
306 S Prospect Avenue (at Crescent Ave)
Park Ridge, IL 60068

Patrons think Petite Opera's Sci-Fi "Magic Flute 3.0" is out of this world!

Catch the Aliens before they leave Park Ridge!

Petite Opera's
The Magic Flute 3.0 - A Space Opera  

The Queen of the Night enters via transporter beam

Only 3 performances left: Nov 20-22, 2015 

Petite Opera's new world premiere English translation and Science Fiction adaptation is a hit with Earthling audiences!

Starting with the overture (a back story to the aliens landing on Earth), audiences loved this new translation and all of its' fun cultural references.

Sci-Fi, aliens, Mozart, the North Woods and the CIA combine in this world premiere of a new Petite Opera English translation.  Sarastro and his alien community from Vekran are out in the galaxy promoting their cause.  They land on Earth to find Sarastro's exiled Rimulan wife, the Queen of the Night and her Borg-like Ladies trying to assimilate into North Woods USA, near Canada. Entitled trust-fund guy, Tamino, seeks to unite with the pair's daughter, Pamina.  Aided by simple hunter--Papageno--and Free Spirits from the intergalactic police force, they seek to find their loves, their balance, and escape evil.

"We saw Petite Opera's "Magic Flute 3.0 - A Space Opera" opening night, and it was fantastic!!!  We highly recommend everyone check it out.  The place was near capacity so I would suggest you get your tickets for the day you want to go as soon as possible!" --Don Popp






"It was just so fun!  With Star Wars coming back in a few months, this was a great way for me to get my fix of sci-fi and see an opera at the same time!"
--A New Patron
 




"Saw the production last night! Bravo! and Brava! Huge cast with huge talent. Thoroughly enjoyable evening. Costumes in this production are wonderful (is it wrong I want that silver jacket?) Hope you sell out every show!" --Roberta Meyer



"This production, with the Sci-Fi theme was really fun!  I'm sure I didn't catch all of the jokes, but my husband is a big Star Trek fan, and he got all of them!  The whole cast had tremendous voices."
--Sally Dornfeld

Don't miss it!  There are only three performances remaining!

FRIDAY November 20, 2015 at 7:30 PM

SATURDAY November 21, 2015 at 7:30 PM

SUNDAY November 22, 2015 at 4:00 PM  

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Tickets are $27 for Adults (ages 18-61), $25 for Seniors (age 62 and up), 
 $15 for Students (K-college), and $5 for Preschool Children

Call 847-553-4442 or email us at tickets@petiteopera.org to reserve your tickets for payment by cash or check at Box Office on performance date.

For credit card orders, visit our PURCHASE TICKETS page.

Please note: Reservations and Credit card orders accepted up to 4 hours prior to show time. A convenience fee is applied to all credit card orders at checkout.

LOCATION:
Mary Wilson House Beyer Auditorium
part of St. Mary's Episcopal church campus
306 S Prospect Avenue at Crescent Avenue 
Park Ridge, IL  

Petite Opera Boldly Goes Sci-Fi with Mozart MAGIC FLUTE 3.0 - A SPACE OPERA

Petite Opera Boldly Goes where no Chicago Opera Company has gone before... Landing a bunch of space-faring aliens from the planet Vekran on Earth.

Yes, Petite Opera is taking "Magic Flute" into the Science-Fiction/Fantasy realm. It may sound far-fetched, but in relating the story of "Magic Flute" to modern audiences, the Science Fiction theme makes a lot of sense.

A typical portrayal of the
dragon and Tamino in modern
productions

Case in point: In 1791, "The Magic Flute" by Mozart made its debut.  The characters were fantastical, the story written to appeal to the masses.  The story line hinted at the "secret society" of the Masons, with secret trials undertaken by Initiates. Tamino, the tenor, starts the opera by fighting a dragon.  The Queen's 3 Ladies use magic to kill the dragon. Thunder boomed to signal the beginning of the Queen of the Night's aria, and the villains, at the end, were magically "melted" in punishment of their evil ways. 

In short, the audience saw magic and magical characters. They saw things that weren't possible at their point in history.

Fast forward to the 20th century, where Arthur C. Clarke, one of the great British science fiction writers, said:

"Any technology, no matter how primitive, is magic to those who don't understand it."

In the 1960's, when "Star Trek" aired, there were no such things as "communicators".  Fast forward 30 years, and cell phones appeared, with the popular "flip phone" leading the way. All of these are highlights in the Petite Opera translation.

Central to Petite Opera's concept is the back story of the planet Vulcan, home of the character Spock on Gene Roddenberry's "Star Trek" .  All Vulcans were one people until they began to destroy each other and their planet.  That was when they divided into two peoples--the Vulcans, who endorsed following logic, reason, and emotional balance as means of enlightenment; and the Romulans, who followed a vengeful, warrior-like, emotionally-driven path. 

Vulcan, at the time of the Awakening

According to "Star Trek" legend, this occurred during the Time of the Awakening in Vulcan history. Innumerable movies have focused on the post-nuclear impacts, or devastating circumstances that changed the course of humanity, or people from other worlds.

Petite Opera's executive artistic team wanted to capture the same essence of magic and wonder for modern audiences, and focus on the tension and drama of driving our world into oblivion through out own desires.  It's world premier English translation pushes the envelope, where "Sci-Fi meets Mozart.  The team wanted an obscure setting to demonstrate the differences between aliens and humans on Earth, and the importance of learning from each other.

The setting selected: mythical North Woods USA, somewhere near the US-Canadian border. 

Susan Baushke,
Executive Director
Translation Team Member

"The greater the contrast in lifestyles, the greater the contrast in characters.  Our aliens are from a technological superior universe, while the "local yokels" in North Woods USA are used to a simple life.  The locals see that the aliens are different, but true to the "suspension of disbelief" in all theatrical performances, are amazed at--but very accepting of the alien's quirkiness," says Susan Baushke, Executive Director of Petite Opera, and a member of the translation team.

"We wanted to capture that magical essence, and pay tribute to Mozart, and all of the Science Fiction greats.  Sci-Fi has created some of the most beloved characters for current generations, and incredible creations.  They challenge us to be more than we are today," says Baushke.  "We saw the original plot of Magic Flute as taking on aspects of the team's Sci-Fi fantasy influences: Roddenberry's Star Trek universe, Lucas's Star Wars universe, a little bit of Total Recall, GalaxyQuest, and a whole host of others."

Petite Opera's translation brings
a Flute Spaceship to Earth

In this, the year of a new installment of George Lucas' Star Wars universe will air, the timing is superb to give audiences a taste of Sci-Fi once again.

So why are the aliens on Earth?  In this version, Sarastro leads a large variety of alien races on a mission to recruit more members to their cause:  providing objective, logical thinking that replaces vengeance and desires to destroy.  The alien community fled their planet, Vekran, when it was destroyed through inter-racial war.

The production has its share of drama, and of course, lots of comedy.

"Papageno is the  central character of the piece, in my opinion. He is fully present and n the now and appreciates and enjoys the simple pleasures of life.  He embodies the "everyday Joe", so the audience easily connects with him.  In our translation, we aimed to modernize his speech while staying trues to his simplicity and earnestness, " says Cathy Dunn, Stage Director for the production.  

Cathy Dunn,
Stage Director
Translation Team Member

The team also beefed up the influence of some characters, and gave the characters a more three-dimensional presence.  For instance, Sarastro (an objective, logical Vekran) and the Queen of the Night (a vengeful Rimulan) were married, and are now estranged.  Pamina is their daughter (and shows personality features of both alien races), and her inner turmoil is greater as a result.

The Queen's Three Ladies each have very distinct alien personalities, while also becoming "group/hive/herd/Borg" telepathic transmitters of the Queen's instructions.

"I find this version really fun to direct," says Cathy Dunn.  This production marks her fifth interpretation of the production and bringing it to audiences.  "It is just so much fun, and the Sci-Fi nature of it explains so many of the original plot elements... things just fall naturally into place."

Nathan Oakes,
Tamino
Translation Team Member

"Tamino is always the 'heroic tenor', but we decided to give him a bit more dimension," says Nathan Oakes, a translation team member, and professed Sci-Fi lover, who is also one of the performers playing the role.  "In this version, Tamino is an entitled, selfish, trust-fund socialite from the big city.  Women were just conquests to him before.  But he turns a major corner when he falls for Pamina.  Here is someone he can truly love."

Papageno's love interest is Papagena.  In the original, she has a small part.  Here, she has a more active role as an undercover CIA agent, in love with Papageno, and willing to make a deal with the aliens to get him.

"Oh, she's fascinated by the aliens... rather like a Skully from X-Files.  But she splits her time between trying to make Papageno notice her, and tracking activity in the alien," says Baushke.  "Papagena is the only human that knows the aliens are aliens and what's going on.  It makes it interesting to see the by-play between all of the characters, with her being "in the know" and everyone else just reacting to things as they come."

Steven Arvanites,
Director of Production
Translation Team Member

The Petite Opera translation team started by translating the original German into English,then created its modern-day character palette, setting and vocabularies of its characters.  "We then made certain that the characters' mannerisms and vocabularies matched the vocal line of the music and that all of the vowels and emphases were correctly placed," said Steven Arvanites, Director of Production, and member of the translation team. 

Homer Guillen
Speaker
Translation Team Member

"Being a writer, but not an opera singer, I found the process of creating the translation fascinating," says Homer Guillen, a translation team member.  "The nuances of how certain words must be placed to be sing-able within the performer's vocal range, and still understood and representative of the character, well, it's much more exacting that one would think.  We really agonized over some word choices. And, we also had a lot of fun pulling in a lot of popular cultural references!"

In parting, we encourage our patrons to count all of the popular sci-fi references throughout the show.  See how many you come up with! And enjoy this jewel by Mozart set with a sci-fi twist.

May the force within you allow you to live long and prosper--make it so!

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Tickets are $27 for Adults (ages 18-61), $25 for Seniors (age 62 and up), 
 $15 for Students (K-college), and $5 for Preschool Children

Call 847-553-4442 or email us at tickets@petiteopera.org to reserve your tickets for payment by cash or check at Box Office on performance date.

For credit card orders, visit our PURCHASE TICKETS page.

Please note: Reservations and Credit card orders accepted up to 4 hours prior to show time. A convenience fee is applied to all credit card orders at checkout.