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SOMETHING
SPECIALOpera duration: approximately 50 minutes
Dirty Tim and Gentleman Jim Corlette: Lead (baritone-tenor)
The Frotheringslosh Brothers: Tenor, Lead, Baritone and Bass
Baddy Ryan: Speaker
The Newspaper Reporter: Speaker
Mens' Chorus: TTBB
The first set should depict the basement of the Frotheringslosh Tavern.
The second set should depict the interior of the Frotheringslosh Tavern.
WWW address: http://mustec.bgsu.edu/~wallace
E-mail address: wallace@bgnet.bgsu.edu
There is a color VCR recording of the entire opera available for perusal. The musical score and libretto are available through Wallace De Pue.
The four Frotheringslosh brothers, owners of the tavern in the town, experimented with a secret beer formula that was concocted by their great-grandfather. When they first realized the formula, they were aided by a friend named Jack. Although the directions stipulated that the color must possess a golden hue, that the bubbles create a tinkling sound, and that the foam be on the bottom; Jack had imbibed the brew before all things were in effect and had begun to shrink in size. The brothers, determined to save their friend from shrinking to nothing, reconstructed the formula hoping another drink would restore Jack to his former self. The notes left by their ancestor stated that the brew was "something special" and that remarkable things would happen to all consumers.
Before the brothers offered another drink to Jack, they tested the formula on animals. They were certain that the mixture was correct after an alley cat drank some of it and began to roar like a lion. It leaped through a twelve-foot-high window to make good an escape from the tavern basement. Still, the brothers felt compelled to make at least one test on a human being before approaching Jack with the revised formula.
"Dirty Tim Corlette" was an unattached derelict who frequently amused the tavern customers in his attempts to freeload. He was chosen as the ideal subject for the brew's "human test." The Frotheringslosh brothers enticed Tim to drink their sinister beverage and were utterly amazed at the results. The anemic hobo turned from "Dirty Tim" into "Gentleman Jim" Corlette, the man who eventually wrested the title of Heavyweight Boxing Champion of the World from the almost invincible John L. Gullivan. An even more amazing thing happened to Jack after his second experience with the "something special" brew.
Click here for a newspaper review of this opera.