Regina

About

Utah Opera’s 2009 production of Marc Blitzstein’s Regina reflected director Michael Scarola’s drive to return the piece to the taut intimacy of Lillian Hellman’s original play The Little Foxes. Working with artistic director Christopher McBeth and conductor Keith Lockhart, Scarola removed the prologue, several jazz inflections, and minor characters not present in the play to sharpen the dramatic arc. A turntable set by Pam Johnson enabled tightly paced staging and fluid scene changes. Utah Symphony played in the pit, with the Utah Opera Chorus appearing in the party sequence and as an offstage church choir. The hybrid score’s mix of spoken dialogue and sung music was amplified, and some reviews noted occasional balance issues when the orchestra overpowered spoken lines. Overall, the staging emphasized clarity, propulsion, and the story’s moral tension between ambition and compassion.