Michael Opperman
Michael J. Opperman is a writer based in the Twin Cities. His poetry, fiction and reviews have appeared in the New Hampshire Review, Coe Review, MARGIE Review, and Rain Taxi. During the day, he works in the interactive space at Clockwork Active Media Systems.
"Faust" at the Minnesota Opera
Though Gounod’s Faust is one of the 20 most performed operas in the United States, a full production of the work is not often staged. With elaborate sets and costuming and the ballet of Act V, houses often truncate the opera or stage minimalist productions to manage expenses. We have the enormous pleasure of the Minnesota Opera’s full staging of Faust and the breathtaking choreography of Doug Varone. MORE »
Scandals, greed, and hypocrisy
Mixed Blood Theatre’s final play of the 2007-8 season is Uruguayan playwright Jacobo Langsner’s Esperando la Carroza. The satirical play, performed in Spanish with English supertitles, is Mixed Blood’s 10th annual bilingual production. These annual productions bring in approximately 5,000 Spanish-learning students from around Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Iowa each year. MORE »
Theater note: Startling "Love Person"
Mixed Blood’s Love Person is startling and evocative—but when the play began, I was skeptical. Several flat panel television screens hung above the stage. A man was reading a poem in Sanskrit, while what I presumed to be the original written Sanskrit trailed across the screens in lovely, impenetrable, script. Three women listened with varying attentiveness (two conversing in ASL) as techno music vibrated softly in the background. At first blush, the play seemed an ambitious and well-meaning mess. MORE »
The Pillowman: Review
Martin’s McDonagh’s The Pillowman is a blend of anti-totalitarian agitprop, surreal Kafkaesque narrative, and ripped-from-the-headlines crime story. Thematically and structurally, the play is a challenge to stage. Wendy Knox and Frank Theater’s production at the Guthrie is both compelling and uneven. MORE »
Private Lives: Review
Noel Coward’s comedy of conflict skewers the decadence of the upper class. MORE »
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