You have to see this. You actually do.

Even in the event you suppose you’re allergic to trendy opera.

The manufacturing of English composer Jonathan Dove’s Flight that opened Friday night time on the Winspear Opera Home is without doubt one of the most interesting issues the Dallas Opera has completed in recent times. Set in an airport, the 1998 opera mixes laugh-out-loud humor and sheer silliness, even some naughtiness, with touching interactions and emotional musings. (What number of of life’s charged experiences — partings and reunions, desires and disappointments — occur in airports.)

Flight can be a vocal showcase of rapid-fire dialogues and ensembles, hovering arias and virtuoso solo fireworks. Each vocally and dramatically, a powerhouse forged actually delivers the products.

The orchestra is a driving pressure, pulsing and glittering in minimalist urgency — and fiendishly difficult rhythms — however typically supporting with glowing clouds of sound. Don’t be shocked to listen to a sly trace of Wagner right here, or Benjamin Britten there.

Primarily based on a real story of a refugee who lived for years in Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport, librettist April de Angelis introduces a mixture of folks in a departure lounge. In an expertise all too acquainted round right here, a thunderstorm cancels all flights, leaving everybody to make the very best of an in a single day keep within the airport.

“Flight incorporates mature themes, sexually suggestive staging and delicate language,” the Dallas Opera web site cautions. However that is fairly tame stuff in comparison with what you’ll be able to see in motion pictures.

In enforced intimacy, these characters reveal their hopes and fears, their aspirations and insecurities. Misplaced flirtations and a shock tryst yield awkwardness and anger — and a humorous mixup of garments. Stage director Kristine McIntyre balances madcap motion and introspection, actually bringing the characters and interactions to life.

Invoice and Tina hope to rekindle marital fires on a trip. Minskman and his very pregnant spouse, Minskwoman, are off to his new ambassadorial put up in Belarus, however, fearing a really totally different life, she backs out on the final minute. A Steward and Stewardess show as libidinous as they’re formally perky.

However three characters are on their very own. Caught on the airport, with out papers or cash, the Refugee asks others for assist, but in addition distracts and cheers them. An Older Lady waits for a a lot youthful heartthrob who by no means arrives. Overlooking all, the Controller relishes her energy — corresponding to it’s: asserting flights, reporting on the climate and sneering on the superficial vacationers.

Abigail Rethwisch is alternately authoritative and ethereal because the Controller, her attractive soprano dispatching bel canto prospers and hovering into vocal stratospheres. Emphasizing the Refugee’s “otherness,” he’s portrayed by a countertenor, right here the amazingly highly effective and finely targeted John Vacation.

Andrew Stenson’s Invoice delivers a sublime tenor you’d love to listen to in any variety of Britten works. Elena Villalón’s shiny soprano definitely fits the stressed Tina. Catherine Martin provides the Minskwoman an enormous, lustrous mezzo-soprano, paired with the aptly blustery bass-baritone of Seth Carico’s Minskman.

Kristen Choi, with one other appealingly shiny soprano, portrays the Stewardess, properly matched with the crisp baritone of Will Liverman’s Steward. Deanne Meek’s mezzo is a dimension smaller than the opposite voices, however she makes an endearing case for the Older Lady. Zachary James’ rough-edged bass suits the Immigration Officer.

Designer R. Keith Brumley creates a contemporary airport departure lounge with crisp steel grids, white panels and wall of home windows, the Controller on a neon-framed aerie. Barry Steele provides dramatic lighting and, outdoors the home windows, dramatic projections of clouds, torrential rain and lightning.

A few the difficult vocal ensembles early within the first and third acts weren’t fairly collectively Friday, comprehensible on opening night time and certain to enhance in subsequent performances. However Dallas Opera music director Emmanuel Villaume managed the proceedings with spectacular aplomb. Beforehand, he drew loud applause with an onstage assertion towards the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The orchestra provided brightly coloured drive but in addition delicate atmospheres.

In sound and setting, Flight could be very a lot an opera of our instances. However its themes of alienation and frustration, of constructing do at the same time as we fantasize about higher issues past the rainbow (or thunderstorm) are timeless. In the long run, there’s a literal new beginning, even because the characters start to appreciate the assets inside themselves.

Particulars

Repeats at 2 p.m. March 6 and at 7:30 p.m. March 9 and 12 at Winspear Opera Home, 2403 Flora St. $15 to $411. 214-443-1000, dallasopera.org.