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What do you get when you cross opera and improv comedy?
The two mediums might seem diametrically opposed on the surface, but at Kilter Brewing on March 18, a new group of improv and opera artists known as The Operavisors will show that the blend is more natural than one might think.
“Archetypally, it’s so interesting,” says organizer and performer Christopher Dunn, “because like, improv is so associated with fluidity and opera with very much rigidity. But, even in its early stages, opera and early music was so much improvising with figured bass and all of the commedia dell’arte characters.”
“It’s just kind of bridging that gap again and helping them re-know each other.”
A recent graduate of the Desautels Faculty of Music at the University of Manitoba, Dunn tapped several other current or former students to form this opera-improv troupe. The group has been practicing together in advance of the performance, and while this might again seem like a contradiction in terms, Dunn is quick to point out the opposite.
“People ask about rehearsing for improv all the time, and I’ve got to bring it right back to sports,” Dunn explains. “Every sporting match of any kind is an improv show, and those drills and stuff that they’re doing in practices are the same ways that we’re kind of preparing.”
One of the muscles that Dunn knows will be used in the show is making fun of operatic tropes – the lovelorn tenor bound to die for his beloved, the mad soprano with Wagnerian horns on her head. “If you feel sort of tired, you have those to lean in if you don’t know where to go,” he explains. At the same time, he acknowledges the danger of making of fun of the genre in front of a generalized audience to the point where they can be discouraged from wanting to immerse themselves in opera more fully.
“I think this presents a really neat opportunity to invite people into that world who might not typically be involved in it,” says Dunn, noting that other improv comedy artists he’s talked to about The Operavisors’ vision have been genuinely interested and excited by what the group has to offer.
"It will be great to find whatever nuggets of truth that we can within these archetypes and about these characters, because it’s only really going to resonate if we go to the truest place possible. If you do go for the joke or the mockery of it... it just won’t serve the story as well.”
The Operavisors will be opening for the Outside Joke improv troupe at Kilter Brewing on March 18 at 8 p.m. at Kilter Brewing in St. Boniface. Tickets are $15.