Score: Henry Purcell; Libretto: Culture Clash, Andreas Mitisek and Anonymous. At: Chicago Opera Theater at Studebaker Theater, 410 S. Michigan Ave. Tickets: 312-704-8414; ChicagoOperaTheater.org; $39-$125. Runs through: Nov. 13
We should be grateful that Chicago Opera Theater ( COT ) is so adventurous to stage some of the oldest works in the operatic repertoire. But it's clear that COT's efforts to update things by plonking these ancient operas into modern-day Las Vegas is a roll of the dice.
Compare and contrast COT's Vegas-styled productions of Purcell's The Fairy Queen from 1692 ( now playing the recently renovated Studebaker Theater ) and Monteverdi's The Coronation of Poppea from 1643 ( the first full opera staged at Millennium Park's Harris Theater for Music and Dance in 2004 ). The latter was a major jackpot winner while the former is just a partial payout.
COT's swinging Vegas take on The Coronation of Poppea became a juicy primetime soap opera thanks to an elegantly sparse staging by future Tony Award-winning director Diane Paulus ( Pippin, Finding Neverland ) in collaboration with Music of the Baroque artistic director Jane Glover. Paulus and company made the opera fresh and timely by refashioning the Roman emperor Nero as a casino kingpin trading out one old trophy wife for the newest title model.
The Fairy Queen is much scrappier affair as designed and directed by COT general director Andreas Mitisek. Under conductor Jory Vinikour, the Haymarket Opera Orchestra has more than its uncomfortable share of shaky musical moments, as do the cast who have to navigate between spoken dialogue and florid singing.
Purcell's Fairy Queen itself is also problematic as a "semi opera" inspired very loosely from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Since there is no definitive version, Mitisek and the comedy ensemble known as Culture Clash shouldn't be taken to task too much for junking the ancient dialogue in favor of a new script.
Hence, the comic drama is now set in a modern Las Vegas hotel/nightspot called Club HQ run by the pink-haired Puck ( Marc Malomot ). And the script comes complete with modern phenomenon like drones, smart phones and a newly married same-sex couple. Here the traditionally hetero coupling of Hermia and Lysander is now transformed into the happily homo countertenor pairing of Herman ( Darryl Taylor ) and Lysander ( Ryan Belongie ).
On one hand, it's nice to see a gay duo appearing as a matter-of-fact couple. It's also telling that the title Fairy Queen ( Kimberly E. Jones ) and her King ( Cedric Berry ) are celebrities like you'd see on hip-hop music videos and reality TV shows.
But often Purcell's Restoration-era music feels uncomfortably grafted on to the modern dialogue. The script is also full of hoary jokes, borderline offensive character stereotypes ( particularly the Latina pole dancer ) and grimacing visual jokes like the anal-penetration gag involving a chair.
In the drive to be so edgy and hip ( yes, it's great to see super-toned and physically agile baritone Zacharias Niedzwiecki in a leather harness and tight gold hot pants ), COT's The Fairy Queen can come off like a poser desperately trying to be relevant. So too bad COT's Vegas take on The Fairy Queen didn't have the same luck as its earlier Sin City spin with The Coronation of Poppea. This time the Vegas bet didn't produce a sure-fire winner.