by Kitty Felde

In the latest iteration of Star Trek, “Star Fleet Academy,” the loveable 900 year old holographic doctor played by actor Robert Picardo has returned and his love of opera has spilled out across the universe. It’s great fun, but can’t compete with the full-length Star Trek opera I was lucky enough to witness earlier this month.

The Pacific Opera Project, a plucky little company founded in 2011 by Josh Shaw, has a mission as clear as boldly going where no theatre company has gone before: “To reimagine opera as an affordable adventure, by making unforgettable, entertaining performances accessible for all.” And indeed, their production of Mozart’s “Abduction from the Seraglio” fulfilled that mission. And it didn’t take five years.

The plot of the original opera is pretty dumb: the hero, a Spanish nobleman, is out to rescue his love interest from a Turkish harem. In the POP revival of its 2015 production, the Turkish bad guys have been transformed into Klingons (Andrew Potter, with a voice as deep as deep space who must be at least seven feet tall!) and our Spanish nobleman hero has been reborn as Captain James T. Belmonte (played by Brian Cheney) who channels his best WIlliam Shatner, complete with manly poses and staccato dialogue. The women, alas, are stuck in “Barbarella” era outfits – at least until the plucky Lt. Uhuru knockoff (Shawnette Sulker) changes into her velour mini skirted uniform. The libretto was written by Josh and Kelsey Shaw and conducted by Caleb Glickman.

The audience could be described as opera fans at a Star Trek convention. There was even an award for the best costume.

There were tribbles, sword fights (using the curved edge Klingon bat’leth) and even a hilarious boulder tossing tussle with the giant lizard Gorn – one of the dumbest scenes from the original Star Trek series.

I confess: I am not a huge opera fan. And I’ve seen so much bad theatre in my time that I was prepared for the worst.

It was wonderful. THIS was theatre at its finest – smart, silly, touching, terrific performances by the leads sprinkled with scene stealing chorus members from Occidental College. It reminded me of the glory days of the 1980’s when small theatres popped up all over Los Angeles, the days when even “Time” magazine named L.A. the genesis of innovative theatre. Sigh.

The run has ended. Alas. But you can still see the production on YouTube. No pointy ears required.

Kitty Felde is the author of The Fina Mendoza Mysteries series of books and podcasts, a middle grade book series designed to introduce civics to kids.