Three Tenors? No, It’s the Three Little Pigs by OPERA Iowa at Willard
OPERA Iowa performs to a packed house, err gym, at Willard Elementary School.
Willard Elementary School doesn’t dismiss by buzzer or bell. The schoolday’s not over ‘til Despina and her dimwitted brothers sing. That’s the drill on days when The Three Little Pigs are in the house, anyway. And Friday they were.
Everyone knows the storyline. But how many have seen it set to the music of Mozart and performed as an operetta live in a school gym/opera house? There’s an old cartoon that casts the porky trio as a jazz combo the big bad wolf badly wants to join. But it’s nothing compared to the interpretation staged by OPERA Iowa, a troupe that tours under the auspices of the Des Moines Metro Opera and is a past recipient of the Iowa Arts Council’s Arts Build Communities “Arts in Education” Award.
It’s time for a sister and her two brother pigs to leave home. Despina Pig is far wiser than Don Giovanni and Cherubino, her lazy brothers. She goes to the library to learn about house construction. Sticks and Straw, however, are too busy playing games like Super Mario and whistling past statuary of the dreaded Wolfgang Bigbad.
John Davies adapted this classic, ahem, pig tale to the music of Mozart during his term as Education Director of Syracuse Opera. He’s composed several other works aimed at schoolchildren.
Opera crowds are usually stereotyped as being dignified and haughty. But when there are baskets hanging from the walls, a free throw line running through the stage and the audience is dressed in jeans and tennis shoes the vibe is considerably livelier, more like you’d expect at, well, a basketball game. And wisely, Davies’ adaptation calls for the audience to participate, boisterously singing the chorus midway through when the piggy siblings receive their diplomas from Sir Francis Bacon School and get the boot from their momma out into the big, bad world to make homes of their own.
No spoiler alert’s necessary before revealing that, in the end, Wolfgang outsmarts himself by tumbling down Despina’s chimney like a Santa Claus with bad intentions. At his demise Don Giovanni and Cherubino share a celebratory chest bump.
The show received a rousing ovation from the K-5 crowd packed like sophisticated sardines onto a gym floor that also served as an impromptu green room when the cast and crew hung around after their curtain calls to take questions. They were bombarded with more than they probably bargained for:
- Where was the pigs’ mom?
- How does it feel when you’re onstage?
- How old are you?
One critic in the throng, disguised as “you, in the yellow t-shirt,” offered this rave, concise review: “That was a great performance!”
The Q&A could have gone on and on. But it’s always a good idea to leave ‘em with some hands still raised.
