Courtesy of the Overdressed Duo
Lots of interesting projects have come from the brainstorming sessions of two best friends: Matt Damon and Ben Affleck’s “Good Will Hunting;” John Lennon and Paul McCartney’s musical achievements; Tina Fey and Amy Poehler’s comedy universe; Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker’s Sleater-Kinney punk juggernaut.
But how about opera?
Carole Schultz and Elizabeth Chua are best friends—and Minnesotans—who are bringing opera into the 21st century with pared down, accessible, and fun (yes!) performances. Schultz, a soprano, and Chua, a pianist, spent their graduate school years half-joking about creating an opera duo that they’d call “Overdressed.” “We liked wearing the beautiful recital dresses almost as much as we loved performing opera,” Schultz says.
During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, they, like many artists, found themselves with too much time on their hands and a desire to share their music. “We told one neighbor and started performing weekly concerts on [Chua’s] front lawn” in Minneapolis, Schultz says. Soon, their front-lawn recitals were drawing more and more folks from around the neighborhood. The Overdressed Duo was officially born.
Now, Schultz and Chua program three different concert series in the Twin Cities. For Opera Under the Stars, they offer free performances in Minneapolis parks, with friends and colleagues making guest appearances. Simply Overdressed is just Schultz and Chua, performing a variety of numbers that include not just opera but musical theater, jazz, folk songs, and even some beloved Disney hits. And their popular Storyteller series focuses on one classic opera work, “but all the pomp and circumstance is stripped away,” Schultz says. They reduce the cast to just three or four characters, streamline the plot, and add a narrator to guide the audience through the story—in English—so audience members don’t have to read subtitles or check translations to follow along. “The result is something much more cinematic, fast-paced, and succinct,” says Schultz. “It’s the perfect avenue for people who are curious about opera but hesitant to pay expensive ticket prices and commit [to] over two hours in a traditional theater, before knowing if they even like the genre.”
Courtesy of the Overdressed Duo
This February, the Overdressed Duo will perform Puccini’s “Tosca” in a contemporary, film-noir style, with a narrator serving as detective, figuring out—along with the audience—what really happened on the night of Baron Scarpia’s murder. Schultz and Chua will bring “Tosca” to the Hive Collaborative’s black box theater, which “will enhance that noir feeling and let audiences really be immersed in the story and the music,” Schultz says.
“Tosca” runs Feb. 5 at 7 p.m., Feb. 6 at 7 p.m., and Feb. 8 at 1 p.m. at the Hive Collaborative, 677 Hamline Ave. N., St. Paul. Tickets start at $15. overdressedduo.com
