IndyCar driver Zach Veach will be in an opera with a vintage car. Here's what you'll see.

IndyCar driver Zach Veach has never been to an opera, and he's never been cast as a performer. For his stage debut, though, he certainly landed in a hilarious one. In the comic opera "Elixir of Love," an awkwardly shy farmer tries to win over an educated land-owning woman using, yes, a love potion he bought from a quack. 

In Indianapolis Opera's production this weekend, Veach will play a walk-on character named Mario. The name nods to the champion race car driver Mario Andretti, and the opera's setting — Lucca, Italy — references a key place in his upbringing. To top it off, Veach will roll on stage with an early 1900s roadster that Tony Hulman purchased decades ago.

IndyCar driver Zach Veach as Mario makes an appearance in the Indianapolis Opera production of Gaetano Donizetti's Elixir of Love.

The opera is staging "Elixir of Love" on Friday, Saturday and Sunday in what promises to be a memorable experience. It's an original production of a work that has been performed since 1832. Coming up with productions that are fresh and appeal to contemporary audiences is always a goal and challenge for opera companies that deal in repertoire dating back hundreds of years. 

Only in Indianapolis can an IndyCar driver and a vintage ride fit this well into an Italian opera. 

Why Indy Opera incorporated IndyCar

The plot of "Elixir of Love" plays out like a Hallmark Channel romance with gorgeous melodies that heighten every emotion. Nemorino, the farmer, falls in love with Adina. He has trouble expressing how he feels, and she's not sold on giving him a chance. Enter army sergeant Belcore, who comes into the village with his men and woos her. 

Nemorino thanks the heavens when Dulcamara, a salesman who peddles faulty remedies, sells him a "love potion" that's actually low-quality wine. As the farmer becomes drunk, his confidence, and indifference to Adina, grows. Irked, she agrees to marry Belcore but later figures out what she truly desires.

The plot offers a lot of room for imagination on set designs. A lush 1991 production at New York's Metropolitan Opera happens in an opulent set in a late 18th-century Basque village. A recent Met synopsis places it in 1830s Italy.

In the early 2000s, the Bastille Opera in Paris gave the story a "neo-realist 1940s film look with a huge automated hayloft, trucks, and motorbikes," according to a 2007 issue of American Record Guide. Around the same time, the publication noted that the New York City Opera offered up a pit-stop restaurant and 1950s rockers who danced at Lincoln Center.

When Indy Opera's General Director David Starkey sought to freshen the production for the city's audiences, he decided to place it in 1910 in Lucca, which is in Tuscany. That way, it could tie into the early automotive industry — a favorite Hoosier topic — and the Italian city where the Andretti family took refuge after World War II. 

The cast of "Elixir of Love" by the Indianapolis Opera during a dress rehearsal at the Tarkington in the Center for the Performing Arts in Carmel on Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2019.

The opera already had a connection to Indianapolis Motor Speedway thanks to Matt Mindrum, the president of the opera's board and vice president of marketing and communications for the speedway. Mindrum studied voice at Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music before working in marketing. 

Starkey, a longtime racing fan, had learned more about Andretti's backstory when he saw the documentary "Drive Like Andretti," including how he grew to love opera as a teenager, in May on the 50th anniversary of the driver's Indianapolis 500 victory.

So the general director wondered: What if the quack doctor Dulcamara was a car hobbyist who ran out of fuel? What if he stopped in Lucca and conned the villagers into buying love potion and other fake remedies? And what if Andretti played the walk-on role as his assistant?

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Zach Veach: 'Opera is way more terrifying'

Asking the racing legend to sing wasn't far-fetched. To make money in Lucca, Andretti's father worked as an extra at the theater, and his family received free tickets. Mario has admitted to regularly belting out arias.

"Opera and racing (are) synonymous in the Andretti family," Starkey said. "It's the culture."

But he wasn't available for the "Elixir of Love" dates, Starkey said.

Enter Veach, the 24-year-old who drives the No. 26 Gainbridge Car for Andretti Autosport. After 40 minutes of Starkey explaining — and assuring the driver that he wouldn't have to sing or speak — Veach enthusiastically said "yes" to the gig. He'll be part of an Act I scene where he pushes the vintage Maxwell car on stage and helps Dulcamara sell the elixir.

Zach Veach (26) of Andretti Autosport is on the inside of Row 10 for the Indy 500.

Veach has a reputation as a rising IndyCar star, but he still says he's out of his element on stage. "Elixir" will be the driver's first opera.

"The opera is way more terrifying than qualifying in Indy for me," said Veach, who lives in Zionsville. "When you're in the car and you're going that fast, you don't have a sense that there's anyone else, you know, that's just your time."

Being in an opera is "going to be something I've really never done before. But one of my favorite things I always keep in mind, that anything that makes you uncomfortable you should do because it's an experience that's going to help you grow. I'm nervous, but I'm excited just as much." 

Veach will be surrounded by Ashley Fabian as Adina, Jesus Garcia as Nemorino, Ethan Vincent as Belcore, Gary Simpson as Dulcamara and Katherine Fili as Giannetta. They'll deliver the devilishly challenging melodies with the embellishment and vocal detail that the composer, Gaetano Donizetti, is known for.

A vintage Maxwell car on stage

Considering that Donizetti died in 1848 and librettist Felice Romani in 1865, they likely never dreamed of a car. Instead, Dulcamara traditionally rolls up in a cart or on a horse and buggy.

This time, thanks to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum, Dulcamara and Mario will roll a Maxwell Model AA, which was made around 1910, into Lucca. It's a two-seat roadster with wooden running boards, leather seats and brass trim, said Jason Vansickle, the museum's curator of vehicles. Because few roads were paved during the Maxwell's heyday, it sits high off the ground.

"Elixir of Love" by the Indianapolis Opera at the Tarkington in the Center for the Performing Arts in Carmel is an adaptation of Gaetano Donizetti's "Elixer of Love."

Hulman, the longtime owner of the speedway, bought the car from a Carmel seller in the 1960s, Vansickle said. The acquisition, along with others from Hulman, became part of the museum's collection. Around 1910, the curator said a two-seat roadster was about $750, which equals roughly $20,000 today.

The Maxwell company made cars until the mid-1920s, when Walter P. Chrysler bought it and began his own company, Vansickle said. Comedian Jack Benny helped keep the old company's moniker as part of popular culture by making Maxwell models part of his skits.  

The car that the opera will use shows signs of an early restoration, and Vansickle estimated it could be worth around $20,000 to $25,000 today.

"Out of antique cars, it's still a pretty attainable price," he said.

The Maxwell normally lives in storage, so the opera will give people the opportunity to see it. Starkey said it will be visible through much of Act I.

"It gives it a little different life," Vansickle said.

If you go 

What: "Elixir of Love." Singing in Italian with supertitles. Directed by Scott Parry and conducted by Alfred Savia.

When: 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday. 3 p.m. Sunday.

Where: The Tarkington at the Center for the Performing Arts, 1 Center Green in Carmel

Tickets: $35-$86.

More information: Visit indyopera.org or call  317-660-3373.

Contact IndyStar reporter Domenica Bongiovanni at 317-444-7339 or d.bongiovanni@indystar.com. Follow her on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter: @domenicareports.