Help Rita Libretto SAVE OPERA
“Do opera but make it funny.” This was the prompt I got from the producer of a variety show in February of 2020. Through an act of sheer will, I condensed Wagner’s Ring Cycle, over 15 hours of music, down to 12 minutes. It was a sensational experience I had to do again. Then, the Pandemic.
Here we are, 6 years later, with a premiere of a full 75-minute show co-produced by Towson University’s Summer at the Center and River City Opera on June 20th in Baltimore, MD.
Rita Libretto is: The Ring Cycle is an opera comedy show set in a first grade classroom where Rita reenacts the four operas that make up Wagner’s Ring Cycle, in an effort to inspire the next generation and save opera from an imminent demise. The audience, as first graders, are encouraged to interact and even a few lucky talents are cast in the show. The story is told with sock puppets and leitmotifs, interspersed with wisdom and opera gossip from our leading lady, Rita Libretto.
I have been obsessed with this show, quietly and weirdly on my own with nothing making me do it other than the joy it brings me to play. Like many creatives who are birthing a large output, sometimes it feels like this show was gifted to me and I feel a responsibility to, in turn, gift it to the world. Next week will be filled with rehearsals, and much content recording, all culminating in a one night show of Rita Libretto is: The Ring Cycle. But this is not the end for this show. My next goal is to further the Ritamania with a New York premiere and a Midwest tour so I can show my family, friends, and fans what I’ve cooked up. Opera is an art form I’ve dedicated much of my life to and with this character and new show, I get to turn it on its head and satirize the pomp and circumstance surrounding something as epic as The Ring Cycle, and bring a goofy and acceptable adaptation to the masses. Rita isn’t just for opera fans, in fact, I hope it attracts people who never even thought it possible that they would like opera.
I’ve set up this gofundme to help support Rita in this next stage of development. Any amount of money is helpful, and will further the capabilities of the show to tour. This has been an ambitious undertaking since the beginning and I am so proud to invest so much of myself into this project and I’m equally proud to ask others to be a part of realizing it. If you can’t give money but want to help, please follow Rita on instagram, please spread the word to any new potential fans, and send me all the good thoughts to help Rita Libretto save opera. Don’t let Timothee be right, show me you care. Yes, it is absolutely that serious.
