"Pickup Truck Opera Volume 5: The Return of King Idomeneo" by Mixed Precipitation at Silverwood Park

It's time for one of my favorite #TCTheater summer traditions - Mixed Precipitation's Pickup Truck Opera! It's exactly what it sounds like - opera that operates out of a pickup truck. Well, sort of. Since the pandemic they've moved away from their "picnic operetta" with passed trays of food into this more portable show, driving all around the state in a 2011 Blue Ford pickup truck loaded with sets and props and instruments, bringing their unique brand of accessible and fun opera / pop music mashups to communities around Minnesota. In this year's Volume 5, they're mashing up Mozart's Idomeneo, about the aftermath of the Trojan War, with pop music from '50s and '60s. And they also modernize the story and make it more modern and relevant. The result is pure joy, and just an absolute delight to experience! As one audience member described it, "it's part opera, part silly play." If that sounds appealing to you, click here to find an outdoor location near you (continuing through September 14).

""Pickup Truck Opera Volume 4: Faust" by Mixed Precipitation at Silverwood Park

Mixed Precipitation's Pickup Truck Opera is back for the fourth year. Their unique mashing up of a classic opera with a particular genre of pop music, performed outside in parks all around the state of Minnesota, is a delightful #TCTheater summer tradition. They make opera accessible and fun. With a modern adaptation of the story, the opera bits are performed in the original language (in Charles Gounod's Faust - French) with surtitles charmingly displayed on scrolls manually revealed. And the pop songs (here the songs of '80s British band Depeche Mode) are well chosen to fit into the story. It all adds up to a lot of fun, especially when you have a perfect late summer evening. The Pickup Truck Opera (yes, there is an actual pickup truck) continues it's journey around Minnesota through September 15 - click here to find a location near you.

"Pickup Truck Opera Volume 3: Romeo and Juliet" by Mixed Precipitation at Loppet Trailhead

One of #TCTheater's favorite summer traditions is here! After years of presenting a "picnic operetta," Mixed Precipitation has switched to the "pickup truck opera" format, which is basically the same except for no passed snacks, and there's a pickup truck. A 2011 blue Ford pickup truck to be exact. Previously they've performed in and around the pickup, in addition to using it to haul the show around the Twin Cities and Greater Minnesota, but this year it sits on the sidelines (although it does enter the show at one point). What's consistent through the years of outdoor performances is a fun and accessible production of a classic opera mashed up with pop songs, retold in a playful and modern way. So pack a picnic, grab a lawn chair, and find a performance of Romeo and Juliet (a mashup of Bellini and Fleetwood Mac) close to you! Even if you live in northern MN, the Pickup Truck Opera is coming for you! (Click here for schedule and to make reservations.)

"Pickup Truck Opera Volume 2: The Magic Flute" by Mixed Precipitation at Dodge Nature Center

Mixed Precipitation's "Picnic Operetta" has been a staple of summer outdoor #TCTheater since 2009, combining classic opera, pop music, and passed bites of delicious food. In 2020, rather than letting a global pandemic shut them down entirely, they transitioned to the "Pickup Truck Opera" format, a similar opera/pop music mash-up performed out of a 2011 Ford Pickup that they drove around to local parks. They expanded on this idea in 2021, and return with Volume 2 this year, performed at parks and gardens not just in the Twin Cities but around the state. This year's mash-up features Mozart's The Magic Flute and "groovy beats from the 90s discotheque." As expected from this troupe of traveling artists, this Pickup Truck Opera is a super fun, silly, sweet, and accessible experience of music, theater, and community. You can see it at various locations in the Twin Cities Metro Area, plus Hastings, through September 11 (click here for dates, locations, details, and free reservations).

"A Pickup Truck Opera; Volume One: The Odyssey" by Mixed Precipitation at Various Outdoor Locations

While Mixed Precipitation's annual tradition of the "picnic operetta" is on hold due to the pandemic, last year they premiered a new fun and accessible opera mash-up experience - the Pickup Truck Opera. Driving a 2011 royal blue Ford pickup to parks around and outside of the Twin Cities, and performing out of the bed of the truck (have opera - will travel), they mash up Monteverdi's 17th Century opera The Return of Ulysses to his Homeland with the songs of Dolly Parton. Last year they teased us with Episode 3, but this year they're presenting the full three-episode saga, and as always with this troupe, it's sheer delight. I caught them near the end of their two-month run in a nearby park, but you can still see them today at Cedar Lake, next weekend in Hastings, or their closing weekend September 11-12 in St. Paul and Minneapolis (see details and schedule here).

"A Pickup Truck Opera; Volume One: The Odyssey; Episode Three, The Song of Telemaco" by Mixed Precipitation at Various Outdoor Locations

One of my favorite summer #TCTheater traditions is Mixed Precipitation's delightfully playful mash-up of classic opera and pop music, performed outdoors with passed small bites of delicious food. While the "Picnic Operetta" (which I've attended for the last six years) is on hiatus this year due to the pandemic, Mixed Precipitation is still bringing us fun and and accessible outdoor opera in the form of what they're calling "Pickup Truck Opera." In a 2011 royal blue Ford pickup, they've been "popping up" all over the Twin Cities with their 25-minute performance of yet another opera/pop mash-up. I was lucky enough to catch one of their 11 performances, at a little not-park in St. Paul on a perfectly gorgeous fall afternoon. Their final two performances will be as part of Park Square Theatre and Steppingstone Theatre's "Family Day Out" event on October 25.

"Dr. Falstaff and the Working Wives of Lake County: A Picnic Operetta" by Mixed Precipitation at the Dodge Nature Center

Cooler weather, back to school sales, and the Minnesota State Fair may signal the end of summer, but one of #TCTheater's summer highlights is in full swing. This is my 5th year attending Mixed Precipitation's annual picnic operetta (now celebrating their 10th anniversary), and if you haven't seen them yet you're missing out on a unique delight. Mixing classic opera, pop music, and Minnesota's bountiful harvest, they perform a charming show outdoors while feeding the audience throughout the show. What's better than that?! For this year's opera, Artistic Director Scotty Reynolds has adapted German composer Otto Nicolai's 1849 opera Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor (based on Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor), setting it on the Iron Range in the '70s at the time of the foundation of the EPA, adding in songs by Bruce Springsteen. The result is exactly as weird and wonderful as that sounds. It's playful, fun, outdoors, and did I mention they feed you?! Playing in gardens and parks around the state, from Lake County to Winona (including several locations in the Twin Cities area), you're not going to want to miss this unique theatrical and culinary delight.

"Philemon and Baucis: Planet in Peril" by Mixed Precipitation at Dodge Nature Center

One of my favorite summer #TCTheater traditions is Mixed Precipitation's annual picnic operetta, in which one can enjoy classic opera, pop songs, the great outdoors, and delicious food. For their ninth summer operetta (the fourth I've attended), Mixed Precipitation has chosen Austrian composer Joseph Haydn's Philemon and Baucis, a piece so rare it doesn't even have a Wikipedia page. Written and directed by Scotty Reynolds, this timely treatise on a Planet in Peril is a delightful mash-up of beautiful German-language opera and the songs of Queen, with five delicious courses of small bites passed throughout the 70-minute show. Playing at parks and gardens throughout the Twin Cities and beyond, it's a unique opportunity to enjoy all that late summer in Minnesota has to offer (click here to find a location near you).