Cedar Rapids Opera staging 2 comic works outdoors at Brucemore

CEDAR RAPIDS — Daniel Kleinknecht is ready for some fun, so the Cedar Rapids Opera founder and maestro decided to step outside the norm to present a pair of one-act operatic comedies outdoors.

Puccini’s “Gianni Schicchi” is up first, and after intermission, Robert Lindsey-Nassif’s “American Gothical” takes the stage at Brucemore’s Peggy Boyle Whitworth Amphitheatre from June 22 to 24, 2023.

Audience members are welcome to bring picnics, beverages, wine and beer to the evening performances. And don’t forget to pack the bug spray, along with a lawn chair or blanket.

If you go

What: Cedar Rapids Opera presents Puccini’s “Gianni Schicchi” and Robert Lindsey-Nassif’s “American Gothical”

Where: Peggy Boyle Whitworth Amphitheatre, outdoors at Brucemore, 2160 Linden Dr. SE, Cedar Rapids

When: 7:30 p.m. June 22 to 24; rain date 7:30 p.m. June 25

Tickets: $30 adults, $15 students; cropera.org/gianni-schicchi-america-gothical

Extras: Site opens at 6:30 p.m., enter through the Linden Drive gates; bring picnics, beverages, wine, beer, blankets or lawn chairs, and bug spray

The timing was right to lighten up.

“I realized that after COVID, things have changed, and my appreciation for humor on the stage has increased,” Kleinknecht said, deciding he “would love to do two things with comedy and heart. And both of these pieces have comedy, and they have heart.

“They balance one another really well. They’re two individuals. Gianni Schicchi was a character bigger than life. He possessed vision and he had a good brain. He had the fates of his daughter and her boyfriend in his possession — he was able to make that happen. Same way that Grant Wood was able to create his own reality and to paint. …

“I always kind of steered away from opera outside at Brucemore, and I thought, ‘Why am I doing that?’ I just had to reevaluate.

“I can’t underestimate the Brucemore audience, and these two pieces are just spectacular. … There’s something that any audience member can embrace.”

He also loves the setting behind the stately mansion — an oasis within the city.

“Brucemore is sort of geographically the center,” he said, “and it's kind of an emotional center of the community, too. I think people take pride in it. And it's just an honor for us to be a part of that.”

Synopses

Cedar Rapids Opera describes “Gianni Schicchi” — pronounced “Johnny SKI-key” — as a farce full of “fiscal fortune, fickle family, and falsifying wills.”

As he lay dying, the family of wealthy Buoso Donati gathers at his bedside in Florence, Italy. Distraught to hear that he has left his entire fortune to a group of monks, the relatives go searching for the will, which the young Rinuccio finds. He refuses to hand it over until his Aunt Zita agrees to let him marry Gianni Schicchi’s daughter, Lauretta.

Rinuccio convinces the relatives that Schicchi is the only person clever enough to change the will so the estate will stay in the family. But Schicchi adds his own twists to the plot.

Disguises and hilarity ensue — along with one of Puccini’s most famous and instantly recognizable arias, “o mio babbino caro,” which daughter Lauretta sings to her father, to try to convince him to help in the scheme.

American Gothical

“American Gothical,” by Robert Lindsey-Nassif of Cedar Rapids, looks at the history and path leading Grant Wood to create his masterpiece, “American Gothic.” Along the way audiences will see the artist’s sparks of inspiration, from his dentist’s picture-perfect hands, to a trip to Eldon where Wood finds a captivating farmhouse Gothic-style window, to his efforts to coax his reluctant models to pose for him, and finally, to the image seared in minds the world over.

Guest director returns

When choosing a stage director for this pairing, Kleinknecht turned to Brian Luedloff, director of Opera Theatre at University of Northern Colorado, who came to Cedar Rapids Opera to direct “The Mikado” in 2014 and “Brigadoon” in 2018 at Brucemore.

“He has a way of just bringing a naturalness and a precision to the stage, and I love him for that. I love his work,” Kleinknecht said. " … It's really nice to have someone who knows the space, who knows the program and who is excellent at his craft — and that’s Brian.

“And Brian was willing to make an English translation (of ‘Gianni Schicchi’), and that's important,” Kleinknecht added. “I never do Italian opera in anything other than the original language, except outside. I think it’s OK to make the exception, especially because we’re premiering this new English translation. I think it’s appropriate, and he’s done a lovely job making the story speak in a second tongue.”

Luedloff, who lives in Greeley, Colo., and teaches full time, spent about six months working on the translation.

“The challenge (was) lining the words up rhythmically and finding the right word. We have all these tools, especially now online with the thesaurus and a rhyming dictionary, to help,” Luedloff said.

“The hardest part, though, was trying to decide when to honor the rhyme scheme of the original Italian libretto — when it was important in the Italian and when it was not so important, where I could change how the rhyme scheme worked.

“In the Puccini tragedies, there’s not always a rhyme scheme in the text, but in comedy, it depends on that. For me, that was the really hard part — trying to decide how the rhymes work, when the rhymes worked, and making sure we honored the text.”

Luedloff was pleased to return to a city where his history stretches back 40 years.

“I love coming back to Cedar Rapids,” he said. “I love what Daniel’s built here in the last 25 years. It’s a remarkable little opera company. I’ve run a small regional opera company — I know what work that is. He’s done an amazing job.”

During a rehearsal break at Coe College’s Dows Fine Arts Center on June 14, he noted: “I first came to Cedar Rapids in 1981 as an actor on this very stage, when Coe used to do summer theater.” Luedloff appeared there in the musical “Canterbury Tales” and in Agatha Christie’s classic murder mystery, “The Mousetrap.”

“So the first time (Kleinknecht) invited me to come for ‘The Mikado,’ it just felt like coming home.”

Luedloff also enjoys working with the Smith Young Artists who star in the summer shows.

“It’s why I teach,” he said. “I love working with young artists. I’ve done a lot of work with the crusty old professionals in Chicago, in San Francisco, in Dallas and Boston — all over North America. But I love young artists who are still discovering their process and putting it together and are unafraid to try things.

“So often when you work with a professional who has been in the business for a while, especially if it's a role they've done before, they may be set in their ways about how they want to do it. And young artists, even if they've done the role before, I find they're just braver and willing to take risks, and go out there and try things.”

Lead actors

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This marks baritone Steven Warnock’s second time appearing in “Gianni Schicchi,” but his first time in the title role. The experience feels new on another level, too, because during his turn as Marco, the show was performed in Italian.

That previous production also was the Glasgow, Scotland, native’s first role in America, and this is his second summer with Cedar Rapids Opera, having appeared last year as Samuel, The Pirate King’s sidekick, in “The Pirates of Penzance.”

He said relearning “Gianni Schicchi” in English “was fun.”

“For me, it’s always easier to learn — it’s quicker. It's fun doing it in English. It’s definitely more relatable, especially if we don't have super titles or subtitles. It’s easier for people to engage with, especially for people who aren't opera fans — or opera fans yet. And ‘Schicchi’ is such a good first opera. It’s sharp, it’s funny, especially if it's in English. It’s so engaging.”

But that doesn’t mean the role is easy to sing — especially when Warnock has to disguise himself as the dying Buoso to fool authorities into changing the will.

“Apart from the vocal challenges, it's a tough thing,” said Warnock, 29, of Bloomington, Ind., a May graduate of the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. “The other challenge is switching between (Schicchi’s) voice and Buoso’s voice. The other character’s voice is really difficult.

“And just staying powerful. I don't know if that’s the right word, but staying in control of everything, because Schicchi is in control as soon as he arrives. He is in control of the room. Everyone’s listening. Everyone’s paying attention. Everyone’s doing what you’re saying. So that’s one of the big challenges.”

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Tenor Evan Mitchell, 31, who is finishing his doctoral degree in vocal performance at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, is relishing his chance to step into the role of Grant Wood in “American Gothical.”

“There are many things to like about Grant. I appreciate his arts, his mind’s eye as a visual artist,” he said.

“The character, as it's written, that Robert Lindsey-Nassif really does very well, is combining this almost childlike innocence and a certain altruism of the art and the world that he sees, combined with this really passionate, worldly perspective.”

The entire cast took a deep dive into Wood, his life and art, during a guided tour of the Wood galleries, led by Sean Ulmer, executive director at the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art.

“ (Wood) had a lot of things on his mind and a lot of avenues to express his thoughts, whether it was with glasswork, whether it was with arts and crafts,” Mitchell said.

“But then also getting into the painting with which he is most famous, and getting to dramatize that in a story as straightforward as this is, or as singular as this is, still allows me to get to be very expressive … (and) bring out a couple of different colors and a different expressive personality that I think Grant had.”

All of that comes through in the music and dialogue, he said.

“It really speaks to the pace of how someone thinks, and it really is a great thing to listen to, and a great thing to follow.”

Comments: (319) 368-8508; diana.nollen@thegazette.com