AmericanTheaterWeb Original News & Reviews

Adelmo Guidarelli combines arias, musical instruments, magic, puppets and even a shaving-cream pie in the face in an agreeable one-man quest to prove that opera can be entertaining.

For the most part, Operation Adelmo: “Hours of Operation” succeeds as the baritone re-enacts moments from cartoons, commercials, Broadway shows and baseball to show a connection between opera and pop culture.

In a presentation that is as much vaudeville as high opera, Guidarelli mixes information with entertainment. His voice switches adeptly from opera to country twang and even to a brief falsetto in a fast-paced show written and directed by Mike Wills, who partners with musical arranger Peter Saxe on lyrics.

The show runs too long, however, especially for a younger, short-attention-span audience. Easily cut are some non-operatic songs that interrupt the harmonious flow of the production and some less tasteful and suggestive bits, the elimination of which, would boost the show’s booking appeal for school assemblies.

Operation Adelmo has the potential to educate, and even win over, the operatically uninitiated. The fat lady hasn’t sung yet.

---- Lauren Yarger

Presented by G&W, LLC as part of The New York International Fringe Festival at THE DELUXE AT SPIEGELWORLD, South Street Seaport., NYC. [remaining performances Aug. 19 7:15p.m.; Aug. 20 5:00p.m.]
866-468-7619 www.ticketweb.com