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In Robert Tannenbaum’s Fairyland, the fairies don’t fly, they ride scooters. They don’t wear forest greenery, but they might have hot pink or blond hair. And they certainly don’t bear any resemblance to Tinkerbell – unless she was secretly an erotic lesbian.

“It’s always interesting to see a new interpretation of a piece of work that you are already familiar with and take for granted,” said Karenssa LeGear, a fourth-year transfer vocal performance student who plays Puck. “And this production has a lot of different little quirks.”

From Feb. 2 to Feb. 11, Opera UCLA and the UCLA Philharmonia will be performing Benjamin Britten’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” in Schoenberg Hall. One of the most successful adaptations of Shakespeare’s work into opera, Britten’s version was written in 1960 and, aside from some reduced scenes, faithfully transformed the play into opera.

SLIDESHOW Click here to see a slideshow of photos from the dress rehearsal.

“Britten took Shakespeare’s original play and without changing any of the words, made a version that was suitable for his vision of what the opera could be like on stage,” said conductor Neal Stulberg, UCLA’s visiting director of orchestral studies. “One major difference is that the opera takes place mainly in the world of the fairies and the woods, emphasizing the powers of nature in the story – the mysterious, erotic forces that compel the characters to act the way they do.”

This production will be directed by Tannenbaum, an American director who has been working in Germany for the past 20 years. His background gives the opera an international perspective that may surprise those used to American opera.

“I think doing an opera is like buying bread,” he said. “If you buy Wonderbread, everyone will eat it and everyone will like it mildly enough, but you won’t offend anyone. I see my operas as dark pumpernickel bread with lots of caraway seeds. Some people love that stuff; some people find it distasteful; for some people it’s just sort of unusual. Whether that unusualness disturbs them or not depends on the person.”

Peabody Southwell, an opera performance graduate student, sees this production as a way for UCLA students to expand their perceptions of opera.

“This is a window for UCLA to see art production in other places, and Germany has one of the premiere opera productions,” Southwell said. “In American productions, the fairies are wearing sticks and feathers and walk around, whereas in Germany they’ll take a lot more risks. And I think if people don’t get too pissed off at us for it, it will make the play a lot more accessible to college students.”

Whether these risks pay off depends on the audience’s perceptions, Tannenbaum said.

“The play is filled with lots of bawdy, sexy situations, and opera in America tends to sanitize everything. I get accused a lot of making things weird and different, but I just see myself as taking away the old varnish and getting back to what’s there,” he said. “So it just depends on people’s attitudes on the sexy and erotic side of life.”

Two major changes made by Tannenbaum were the move to an all-female cast and shifting the setting from a European forest to Thailand.

“The fairies are supposed to be choir boys, but we don’t have choir boys, so we have girls,” said Southwell, who plays Oberon. “So we’re Thai lesbians, which is very cool.”

The fairies in this show aren’t going to be found in Hallmark cards or Disney movies, Tannenbaum emphasizes.

“It’s a fairly racy show, but there’s no nudity, no foul language, no violence – but there’s lots of seduction and eroticism on stage,” Tannenbaum said. “It’s a lot more interesting to be erotic clothed than to be erotic naked.”

Southwell also took note of the sexual nature of Tannenbaum’s production.

“One of the things he wanted to bring out in the fairy world was that there are no sexual boundaries, so we’re all very touchy-feely and make out with each other,” she said. “The opera is very funny, and I think audiences will be able to appreciate it as long as they are prepared for girls to kiss.”

Tannenbaum’s production also changes the amount of energy on stage, leading to a more lively production than opera patrons may be used to.

“This production is especially theatrical. It’s not just people standing and singing – there’s lots of movement and people singing from very uncomfortable positions,” LeGear said.

Despite these changes, Tannenbaum insists his interpretation stays true to Shakespeare’s vision, which wasn’t exactly a sanitized one.

“It is a piece about sex, love, jealousy, revenge, all the things that happen when people have a summer fling,” he said. “I don’t think I’ve done anything other than stick to the themes that Shakespeare wrote about anyhow, which were young people getting crazy.”

The orchestration of the opera, however, doesn’t involve any changes to Britten’s original work.

“We are just trying to present the genius of this score as beautifully as we can,” Stulberg said.

He noted that one aspect of the orchestration that makes it interesting is the unusual instrumentation, specifically the use of two harps, one player to play harpsichord and celesta, and unusual percussion, including vibraphone and cymbals.

“The piece is an absolute miracle in terms of the sounds that come out of the orchestra, the different moods that are created onstage and the whole atmosphere of the story,” Stulberg said.

While cast members said they hope students will attend this production because it offers a distinct challenge to the stereotype of opera as boring, inaccessible and outdated, Stulberg also sees this production as an opportunity for audiences to experience Shakespeare in a new way.

“‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ is an opera that has not been seen very often in Los Angeles, so this is a rare opportunity to hear a contemporary take on a classic Shakespeare play,” Stulberg said. “And I hope that the audience will be engaged by the costumes, the scenery, the energy coming off the stage and the drama.”

Tannenbaum also hopes the audience is engaged by the opera, but for a different reason.

“I want them to have a good time, because that is what Shakespeare wanted,” he said. “I want the audience to come in and have a good time, laugh, enjoy what they see, and go out feeling good about the evening.”