Nobody Tell Clark Kent …

The paper-thin disguise is one of the most trotted-out tropes in all of story-telling. You know the routine: Somebody throws on a wig or a pair of glasses and close family members and friends no longer recognize them. Hilarity ensues. Take, for example, Mrs. Doubtfire, wherein a working mom fails to recognize that her nanny is her ex-husband despite the fact that she’s been sleeping with him for 20 years. This phenomenon isn’t limited to movies and television, though. Apparently, it reaches back into the heyday of opera, serving as the basis of the plot for Dr. Miracle, a one-act opera in which a couple is forbidden from seeing each other by the woman’s father and her suitor goes all Mrs. Doubtfire. He shows up in her home unrecognized first as a traveling salesman selling potions, and then as a servant who supposedly poisons the family. The only antidote is, obviously, sold by the traveling salesman who curries favor with the family, wins the woman’s hand in marriage and unmasks himself to reveal … a dude who couldn’t just suck it up and have a man-to-man talk with the dad from the get-go. The Dallas Opera, in partnership with the SMU Vocal Department and UNT Opera Program, dares you to suspend disbelief and take the whole family to Dr. Miracle at the Dallas Children’s Theater, 5938 Skillman St., 3 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $5 and may be purchased at tickets.dallasopera.org.
Sun., June 10, 2012