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After opening its season with "Carmen," Utah Opera returns to Spain for its next production.

Well, sort of. "Man of La Mancha" — the 1964 musical inspired by the quintessential Spanish novel, Miguel de Cervantes' "Don Quixote" — includes a framing story in which Cervantes persuades his fellow inmates to act out his famous tale while imprisoned by the Spanish Inquisition. The Utah Opera production, which opens Saturday, Jan. 21, at the Capitol Theatre, places that prison in the present day. "We've stripped a layer of artifice," set and costume designer Court Watson explained; stage director Paul Curran added that the clearer delineation between reality and fantasy is meant to underscore "that spirit of invention in the moment." The players will take the stage in modern dress and will add costume pieces or props, rather than full costume, to illustrate the essence of their characters in the play-within-the-play.

"If you set something long ago and far away, you can indict your own culture in a safe and distant way," Watson said. Bringing it into the present, he noted wryly, is one way to challenge the notion of the theater as a "safe space."

Curran first directed the show 15 years ago in England and was startled to find it "as viable and deep a drama as Chekhov, Ibsen, Sam Shepard, any of those. Having done so much Wagner, Britten and Strauss, I found the same resonance, humanity and questioning of society [in 'La Mancha']. … It asks many, many big questions."

But isn't "Man of La Mancha" a Broadway musical? What's it doing on an opera stage?

"Opera, musical — it makes no difference," said Curran, noting that "La Mancha" occupies that spot in the repertoire — think "Carmen," "The Magic Flute" or "Sweeney Todd" — where the lines between genres blur. "It gives you a different perspective than staying in one silo in the entertainment business," said conductor Hal France, who will lead the singers and a chamber-sized Utah Symphony in which Spanish guitars fill the role of the string section. As in traditional opera performance, the singers will not use microphones.

"The idea that the operatic form is something that's superlative to what we call American musical theater — it's all material for the stage," said David Pittsinger, who will portray Cervantes and Quixote. Nowadays, he said, opera singers "have to assimilate every style."

Audrey Babcock, who will portray Aldonza/Dulcinea, put it succinctly: "If the music is good, who cares?"

The show's journey to the Capitol Theatre stage represents an improbable, if not impossible, dream. Artistic director Christopher McBeth had already announced the 2016-17 season, with Jake Heggie's "Moby-Dick" in the January spot, when he said it became apparent that the operatic adaptation of Herman Melville's epic tale would be a better fit for the company's 40th-anniversary celebration next year. His mind sprang back a few months to a production of "Man of La Mancha" he'd seen in Colorado, directed by Curran, that had left him "gobsmacked." Curran and several key singers happened to be available for the Utah dates. "Talk about hope," McBeth said. Another wrinkle arose a couple of weeks before rehearsals began, when Robert Orth, who had been cast in the title role, withdrew for health reasons. Once again, luck was on McBeth's side: Pittsinger, who had just finished an extremely well-received run in the role in Connecticut — and who had commented to Babcock, while they were co-starring in another opera, that it would be fun to perform "La Mancha" together — also had this month free and was eager to have another shot at Quixote.

"It's the sole reason I went into the business," the baritone said of the show. As a high-school student in Connecticut, he organized a community "field trip" to see the Broadway revival starring Richard Kiley. "I was transfixed, transformed, completely moved by this play," he said. "The character was always one I believed in." Since then, Pittsinger has played Don Quixote in operatic settings by Manuel de Falla and Jules Massenet, but hadn't sung the title role in this version until last fall. "It's 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." —

Living the dream

Utah Opera presents "Man of La Mancha," with music by Mitch Leigh, lyrics by Joe Darion and book by Dale Wasserman. Singing and spoken dialogue are in English.

When • Opens Saturday, Jan. 21, 7:30 p.m.; evening performances continue Jan. 23, 25 and 27, with a 2 p.m. matinee Jan. 29

Where • Capitol Theatre, 50 W. 200 South, Salt Lake City

Running time • About 2 hours and 30 minutes, including intermission

In a nutshell • In a Spanish prison, Miguel de Cervantes enlists his fellow inmates in enacting the story of his most famous creation: Don Quixote de La Mancha.

Tickets • $21-$110; utahopera.org

Learn more • Lectures by principal coach Carol Anderson an hour before curtain and Q&A led by artistic director Christopher McBeth after each performance, all in the Capitol Room on the theater's west side; background materials (with musical excerpts) at utahopera.org/onlinelearning