SALT LAKE CITY — "Man of La Mancha" first premiered on Broadway in 1965 and won five Tony Awards, including "Best Musical," according to a news release from the Utah Opera.
This month, Utah Opera will be reviving the musical that was written during the time of the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War. The story takes place during the Spanish Inquisition, and director Paul Curran said it is a relevant allegory of modern society.
"There's an enormous resonance as to where the world is going today," Curran said in an interview with the Deseret News. "What I think this piece does for me and I think it does for audiences is it asks many big questions of society, of humanity, and it doesn't lay down all the answers. It lets you think about how you feel about where society it going today."
According to the news release, the musical is "a play within a play" that centers around Miguel de Cervantes, who in real life was the author of the classic novel "Don Quixote." In the play, he is imprisoned by the Spanish Inquisition and convinces his fellow prisoners to put on an impromptu performance of his unfinished manuscript of "Don Quixote."
Court Watson, the costume and set designer, said the play is traditionally staged in late Renaissance Spain and then the prisoners proceed to put on costumes set in the same time period.
"That's not a clear way to tell the story," Watson said. "We stripped a layer of that artifice away."
Instead, at the beginning of the Utah Opera production, the characters are wearing modern, everyday clothes and later take on the elements of a costume.
"The crux of the look of the show is that it feels that this is happening for the first time and things are being discovered as they go," Watson explained.
Otherwise, Curran said he would have to ask if all these prisoners went to Juilliard. It was important to him to include a "spirit of inventing in the moment," and part of that is that no one gets a full costume. Cervantes, for example, turns into Don Quixote only by donning a breastplate.
"The cleverness of the show is that you're actively engaged as an audience member in the same way that the prisoners onstage who are telling the story are actively engaged," Watson said.
Another unique aspect of this performance, said conductor Hal France, is the orchestra has pared down its string section to a double bass and a pair of flamenco guitars. There is also a drum kit and some Spanish percussion complementing the rhythm section, along with brass and woodwinds.
Curran, along with other members of the cast and crew, were aware that "Man of La Mancha" would seem like a departure from the traditional operas usually performed by Utah Opera.
"One thing I would like to do with this production is break the mentality that it's different from opera or that musicals are lesser," he said.
He pointed out that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Giacomo Puccini were writing the popular music of their time and whether theater is considered good or serious should not be based on its style.
In keeping with the opera tradition, the Utah Opera singers will not be miked; however, there will not be supertitles of the lyrics for these performances.
Though it might not be traditional, many of the members of the cast and crew felt that "Man of La Mancha" is a piece that is important for audiences right now.
"It brings the necessity for finding hope to survive," said Audrey Babcock, who plays Aldonza. She referenced the refugee crisis in Syria as an example of how humans are fighting for survival today. "We keep going, and we hold on to our ideals and we fight. There's something better that we can all strive to do and we have to do it together and we have to trust other people."
David Pittsinger, who plays Cervantes, agreed that the show is about hope and the power of art.
"The transformative effects of art in a prison in a society oppressed by a theocracy is so relevant to where we are today," he said. "We need art and beauty to take us out of the mundane, dull routine of life. It reminds us that life is beautiful."
If you go …
What: Utah Opera's "Man of La Mancha"
Where: Capitol Theatre, 500 W. 200 South
When: Jan. 21, 23, 25, 27, 7:30 p.m.; Jan. 29, 2 p.m.
How much: $21-$110
Web: utahopera.org
Phone: 801-355-2787
Email: mbulsiewicz@deseretnews.com
Twitter: mgarrett589