In April 2001, Colder by the Lake presented an original comic opera about the life, loves, and birchbark canoe of Daniel Greysolon Sieur duLhut (the French explorer who gave the city of Duluth its name).  The show was wildly popular, with 6 sold-out performances. It was reprised due to popular demand in January 2002. If you missed it, well, no, we're not going to stage it again (unless someone gives us a million dollars and a Greyhound bus...seriously) but the memories are ours to cherish. Please enjoy this archived "Les Unc" site:

If you love opera, you'll love Les Uncomfortables. If you hate opera, you'll love Les Uncomfortables. Based on the history of Northeastern Minnesota, and with libretto by Margi Preus and Jean Sramek, musical score by Tyler Kaiser, "Les Unc" is everything you expect an opera to be (note to opera-haters: what we mean is that it's nothing you expect an opera to be). The cast includes Duluth's own Bill Bastian, plus several trained opera singers from as far away as Chicago.

You'll enjoy all your favorites: the wooden-limbed tenor; the dying singer who breathes his last, then leaps up to sing an aria; the amoeba-like chorus; the unwieldy pieces of scenery suspended from the ceiling.

All this, plus the tragic love story of Creme Brulee and Daniel Greysolon Sieur duLhut; merrily unwashed voyageurs and their brave leader Pinot Griggio, and the stand-up comedy stylings of Hennepin and Nicollet. Immigrants, emigrants, migrants, ingrates, granite, and hats for everyone!
Les Uncomfortables promises to be a feast for the senses.

Click on our faces! :

Photograph by Bruce Ojard

The original production of Les Uncomfortables was made possible in part by grants from the Arrowhead Regional Arts Council through an appropriation by the Minnesota State Arts Board, and the Duluth Superior Area Community Foundation.

For information please e-mail us at info@colderbythelake.com.
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