Opera Piccolais taking opera here where it's never before gone.
"I would describe Mozart's opera as the ultimate rescue story, and who are the ultimate rescuers but Kirk and Spock?" asks Opera Piccola's Music Director Kristin Roach.
Yes, she said Kirk and Spock. You know, Star Trek.
"We've tried to have the best marriage of real faithfulness to Mozart's score...but also the modern twist marrying it with the Star Trek themes and characters."
I tried to play devil's advocate by suggesting that Spock might say combining Mozart and Star Trek is not logical. The writer and director of the production, Josh Shaw, disagreed.
"Oh, I think he might say it's very logical. If you take one of the most popular TV series, probably the most popular composers of all time, and combine 'em, you're going to get a pretty good result."
I couldn't argue with that. Shaw says taking opera to new places is huge fun. And not just for him.
"Audiences are going to have more fun at the opera than they ever thought they could. And so many times opera is this museum piece, and it really wasn't meant to be that, and shouldn't be that."
So what can you expect to see?
"You can expect to see transporters and phasers and disrupters, and Klingons and aliens. And we have fabulous costumes."
Speaking of costumes, you can also enter an opening night costume contest. And then there's this:
"The Star of the Next Generation (a Star Trek spinoff), John de Lancie, who played Q will be our guest."
The production opens Saturday night and ends Sunday at the Empire Theater.
For more on Opera Piccola go here.
