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An all-ages mixed crowd of over sixty gathered for Saturday’s opening performance of Super Spectacular! To Opera with Love at City Stage in Union Station as part of the Kansas City Fringe Festival. Billed as the opposite of traditional opera (i.e. long, boring, unintelligible, and expensive) two members of the Donovan Ensemble strove to perform 6 operas in 7 minutes each thus making opera short, exciting, easy-to-understand, and … low rent. The duo, Joe Kolbow and Johnnie Niel, succeeded on all accounts. I had a smile plastered on my face the entire hour at their campy antics, clever song/aria mash-ups, and the spot-on skewering of all things operatic.

Merril Garrick, played by Kolbow, is a dandy, smoking-jacket wearing, Robert Goulet-meets-Errol Flynn Thespian with a capital “T.” Accompanied by his schoolboy man-servant/sidekick, Emmet (played by Niel), the two begin Garrick’s mad-cap preparations for the Lifetime channel biopic of opera legend Pavarotti. Unbeknownst to Garrick, Emmet also has designs to audition. General tomfoolery and shenanigans ensue as the pair explore the inherent ridiculousness of Carmen, La bohème, Aida, Salome, Pagliacci, and Madame Butterfly.

Carmen, La bohème, Salome, and Madame Butterfly were the most successful and uproarious. Through clever use of tacky props, outlandish accents and bargain basement costumes the twosome sang snippets of the opera—with altered lyrics to summarize the plot beyond even Cliffnotes synopses—interspersed with pop songs. Salome was entirely pop tunes though, as “Emmet wrote that section using songs he heard on the radio.” Part of the charm of the production was figuring out which pop song they were singing and how it related to the opera plot. I may never be able to listen to Madame Butterfly without hearing REM’s “Losing My Religion,” Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing,” Neil Diamond’s “Coming to America,” and Guns-n-Roses “Sweet Child of Mine” and vice versa.

Kolbow and Niel are exceptionally talented actors, singers, and quick-change artists. Their comedic timing is spot-on as is their pitch. Kolbow has perfected a constipated yell, full of righteous indignation, which is equally hilarious and smart, as it saves his voice. I wish they had kept the running gag of sing-screaming the fallen heroine’s name at the conclusion of each section though. Niel, in and out of drag, balances the mixture of foil and partner-in-crime perfectly.

Whether you’re an opera aficionado or not, Super Spectacular! is a joyous romp that will have you smiling and singing long after you leave the theatre.

REVIEW:
Kansas City Fringe Festival
Super Spectacular! To Opera with Love
July 23–30, 2011 (Reviewed Saturday, July 23, 2011)
City Stage, Union Station
30 W. Pershing Rd., Kansas City, MO
For more information visit www.kcfringe.org

By Lee Hartman

Editor-in-Chief; Traditional and New Classical Contributor

Lee Hartman holds degrees from the University of Missouri-Kansas City (D.M.A., M.M.) and the University of Delaware (B.M.). At the University of Delaware, he received a Dean's Scholar position enabling him to pursue an individually designed academic program combining music education and composition. At the University of Missouri-Kansas City he served for three years as the Assistant Director to Musica Nova, the conservatory's new music ensemble, while teaching a variety of composition classes.

In 2007 he was invited to both the Iceland Academy of the Arts in Reykjavík, Iceland and the Sichuan Conservatory in Chengdu, China to give lectures and master classes in composition. In the summer of 2009, Hartman served as an orchestra manager for the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble and Aspen Opera Theater Center for various performances. He serves on the National Executive Committee of the Society of Composers, Inc. as Submissions Coordinator. His primary composition instructors include James Mobberley, Chen Yi, Zhou Long, Paul Rudy, John Beall, and Jennifer Margaret Barker. He currently teaches music theory at the University of Central Missouri and general music classes at Park University having previously taught at UD (2007–08) and UMKC (2006–07).

His compositions can be found at http://www.leehartmanmusic.com

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