A Sexy Romance and a Secret Mission

Oberon
by Carl Maria von Weber
Flanders Opera (Belgium)
Flanders Opera Orchestra;
Marc Minkowski, conductor.Performers listed below.

Let’s say someone took a 90’s-style battle of the sexes and combined it with a pair of steamy, illicit love affairs. Then, they took the resulting story and divided the up the action between three different locales: a couple of exotic, foreign kingdoms and a sort of cosmic fairyland. And to top it off, they gave the whole shebang a plot that mixes “Mission Impossible” with the perilous, princess-rescue story of “Star Wars.” What would you get? Maybe an extravagantly sexy, romantic farce. Perhaps a sumptious period piece, with lavish costumes and spectacular production numbers. Or better yet, a farflung action-adventure blockbuster, with the all the latest special effects.

This week on NPR WORLD OF OPERA, we’ve got all of that and more in the somewhat unlikely vehicle of a German Romantic Opera: OBERON, by Carl Maria von Weber.

The story gives us a “foreign agent” with a “Mission Impossible” that would do Tom Cruise proud. He’s ordered to abduct the daughter of a powerful and ruthless third-world dictator, get her to fall in love with him, and then bring her back to “civilization” so they can be married. All the while he has to fend off meddling super-beings, a murderous criminal element, and a second deadly potentate intent on burning both the agent and his new girlfriend at the stake. And if he’s caught, of course, his superiors will disavow all knowledge …

So, can our hero survive the travails, despite a scandalous lack of official support from the intelligence community? Find out on NPR WORLD OF OPERA, in a production of OBERON from the Flanders Opera in Antwerp.

And for more on OBERON, tune in before and after the show for NPR’s AT THE OPERA, with Lou Santacroce.

Performers:
Steven Cole, tenor (Oberon); Maria-Jose Trullu, mezzo-soprano (Puck); Glenn Winslade, tenor (Sir Huon); Michael Kraus, baritone (Sherasmin); Patricia Schuman, soprano (Reiza); Charlotte Hellekant, mezzo-soprano (Fatima)


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