Opera Ain't Dying in NYC this Summer

The NYC and surroundings summer opera scene has so much going on this year that we can barely keep up. So far in the next three months we counted twenty-five different full operas (and some exciting recitals). That’s pretty much the same number of works that the Met offers over its eight-month season. Is someone out there still saying opera is a dying art form?

Met Summer Recital Series in Brooklyn Bridge Park

Chelsea Opera is staging a concert version of Puccini’s Tosca in a church, which is very site-specific of them (at least for Act I).Thursday June 4 at 7:00pm and Saturday June 6 at 4:00pm - St. Peter's Church in Chelsea 346 W 20th St (Btwn 8th/9th Ave).

Speaking of site-specific, OnSite Opera (that has a mission statement to produce operas in non-traditional venues) will kick off its 3-year “Figaro Project” of  lesser-known operatic adaptations of French playwright Pierre Beaumarchais. First up is Paisiello’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia in the garden and courtyard of the charming UES Fabbri Mansion. June 9, 11, 12 and 13, 2015 07:30pm - Fabbri Mansion (House of the Redeemer) 7 East 95th Street. 

OnSite Opera's Barbiere at Fabbri Mansion
Photo credit: Rebecca Fay

Pierre Beaumarchais

Beaumarchais must be hot this summer as the always musically and theatrically excellent Dell’Arte Opera Ensemble is also offering a full Beaumarchais festival, including staged performances of Paisiello’s Barbiere (1792), Mozart’s Nozze (1786) and  Hiram Titus’ Rosina (1980), as well as a concert featuring excerpts of other settings of the Rosina/Figaro trilogy, including music of Rossini, Massenet, Milhaud, Corigliano, Wikstrom and Pecou. We are particularly looking forward to this festival as Dell’Arte’s artistic director Christopher Fecteau has a proven track record of doing wonders with rising young singers and bringing opera back to the intimacy of a chamber setting. All Performances in August 2015.  7:30 evening performances and 2 p.m. matinees - The Rose Nagelberg Theater in the Baruch Performing Arts Center Entrance and Box Office on E. 25th St. bet. Lexington and 3rd Aves. 

Martina Arroyo as Butterfly

Another program that has a focus on promising young performers is Martina Arroyo’s Prelude to Performance, this year producing fully staged versions of Puccini’s Madama Butterfly (July 9 and 11) and Donizetti’s La Fille du Regiment (July 10 and 12) - Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College which is on 68th St. between Lexington & Park Avenues. 

Just one block away, the indie and hyper-productive Utopia Opera led by William Remmers is performing Strauss’ comic opera “about comedy and opera” Ariadne auf Naxos. June 5, 6, 12 and 13 Lang Recital Hall, Hunter College (East 69th St between Park/Lex).

Opera Company of Brooklyn’s BYOB Opera Series (operas performed in an Inwood private residence with drinks on the side)  this summer offers Rossini’s Barbiere (June 6), Strauss’ Salome (June 20), Verdi’s Trovatore (July 11) and Traviata (August 22), Donizetti’s Elisir (July 25) and Mozart’s Nozze (August 8).  OperaRox Presents, recently founded by young singers Kimberly Feltkamp and Jaimie Appleton, will produce its first full length opera, Mozart’s Nozze, on August 21 and 23 at Opera America. 

And for something a little bit outside the canon, Morningside Opera, Harlem Opera Theater, and The Harlem Chamber Players join forces to present a semi-staged concert production of the Harlem Renaissance opera VOODOO by Harry Lawrence Freeman, that will be performed for the first time since its 1928 premiere. Friday, June 26th & Saturday, June 27th, 2015 - Miller Theatre/Columbia University-  2950 Broadway @ 116 St. 

Caramoor gardens

Now, for more institutional (but no less exciting) summer festivals... the Caramoor Music Festival this summer offers two operas on the collision of church and state: Donizetti’s La Favorite (July 11) and Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmelites (July 25) - who does not want to drive up to Katonah, have a picnic in idyllic gardens and enjoy a performance masterfully lead by Will Crutchfield in an open air Venetian theater?  

Also in bucolic settings, right by the Ostego Lake in upstate New York, the Glimmerglass Festival celebrates its 40 years with new productions of Verdi’s Macbeth, Mozart’s Magic Flute, Gershwin’s Candide and Vivaldi’s Catone in Utica. We are particularly excited about this last one as it’s so rarely performed and it has Operalia’s superstar countertenor John Holiday in it. Various dates in July and August. 

Ostego Lake

Back in Manhattan, the Lincoln Center Festival will host the Cleveland Orchestra for a concert performance of Strauss’ Daphne. July 15 and 18 - Avery Fisher Hall. And the Mostly Mozart Festival offers the much-anticipated U.S. stage premiere of George Benjamin’s Written on Skin, hailed as “erotic and visceral”, telling the tale of a woman bound by a cruel marriage and consumed by an illicit passion. In case one needs further incentive, Alan Gilbert will be conducting the Mahler Chamber Orchestra. August 11, 13 and 15 - David H. Koch Theater. 

Apollo and Daphne

Benjamin's Written on Skin
Photo Credit: Festival d'Aix-en-Provence

LoftOpera’s Lucrezia Borgia was one of the most electrifying shows of the year, so we’re highly intrigued by this hip company’s announcement of a “Summer Series at Industry City”. While no details on dates or programming have been provided yet, the fact that LoftOpera is behind this (whatever it is), is sufficient for us to save the dates (whichever they will be). Also, the Industry City venue (a beautifully restored warehouse structure on the waterfront of Sunset Park in Brooklyn) does not hurt. Dates TBA - Industry City, 31st St, Brooklyn

Industry City

And last but not least, the Metropolitan Opera Summer Recital Series around New York City’s parks are always a good bet - just bring your picnic blanket and a bottle of rose’, the City’s lights at dusk will take care of the rest. June 15, 17, 24, 26, 28 and 30 (note June 15 and 17 Isabel Leonard and Nathan Gunn will perform) - various locations around NYC. 

- Lei & Lui

NYC Indie Opera Wintry Mix

Baby, it’s cold out there – thankfully these brave NYC indie opera companies offer plenty of shows to keep us warm and entertained over the next month:

One can never go wrong with Wolfie and the newly formed Opera Cooperative (“opera by the artists”) opens its first season with a Così Fan Tutte. In case one needed extra incentive, “cabaret table” tickets are available, with a bottle of wine included in the admission…February 17-28 at Park Avenue United Methodist Church, 106 East 86^th Street. 

Photo Credit: Opera Cooperative

We were impressed by NY Opera Exchange’s Die Fledermaus earlier this year and look forward to seeing how they tackle Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor. Seriously, who does not want to get some bel canto and a murderous bride delivering one of the most famous crazy scenes in opera? February 27-28 and March 1 at Church of the Covenant, 310 East 42 Street.

Photo Credit: NY Opera Exchange

Image Credit: Pastore Vito

For a lighter hearted Donizetti, Opera Company of Brooklyn offers a BYOB Don Pasquale, performed in a private apartment in Inwood (“exact address is given after tickets are purchased”). The whole affair feels very much like a secret musical salon, we’re intrigued. March 7 somewhere in Inwood.

Image Credit: Regina Opera

We are fans of the work of Regina Opera since discovering them with an indie Rigoletto last summer, be sure to check out their Barbiere di Siviglia. Trust us, this company’s work is worth the trip to Sunset Park. March 7-8 and 14-15 at the OLPH Catholic Academy of Brooklyn, 902 Sixth Avenue (between 59th and 60th Streets).

Image Credit: Heartbeat Opera

Heartbeat Opera (co-founded by the super talented director Louisa Proske) is offering an interesting double bill festival. First goes Kurtag’s Kafka Fragments, a 1985-6 opus where a mezzo soprano and a violin explore forty “fleeting moments” based on Kafka’s letters to Milena Jesenska, ranging from ironic observations to philosophical musings, to fantastical visions. Followed by the New York premiere of Offenbach’s operetta Daphnis & Chloé, a raunchy story of two innocent country youths who are initiated into the art of love by the lecherous God Pan and a horde of rowdy Bacchantes. March 18-22 at Sheen Center Blackbox, 18 Bleecker Street.

- Lui & Lei

Even More Indie Fall Opera!

Just when we thought that we had uncovered all indie operatic goodies for this fall and planned our calendar accordingly, new intriguing shows are popping out left and right. To those who say that opera is a dying and expensive art form for a geriatric audience: do come to NYC and experience first hand how opera is not only alive and well but also young and hip. Rossini is performed in a loft, Fidelio is a BYOB show, rare Donizetti is sung in a jewel box space in Cobble Hill and Die Fledermaus gets a commedia dell’arte spin. Also, the spirit of Halloween will be conjured with a séance-like opera and a Fairy Queen drag costume party.

Matisse,  La leçon de musique
oil on canvas, 1917

Who can resist rare bel canto arias performed by a fiery mezzo-soprano in a quirky space behind a little unassuming red door? Surely not us. As part of its recital series Miniatures Behind the Door, Vertical Player Repertory shows Stella Nemica Infausta, described as “an evening of treasures plucked from the dusty attic of Italian opera and polished to their former luster.” The program will feature works by Donizetti and Mercadante but also Nini, Pacini and Ricci. Mezzo Hayden de Witt, whom we were lucky to discover in last year’s pastiche by Opera Feroce, will perform. October 30 – 7:30PM at 219 Court Street, 
Brooklyn.

Image Credit: Heartbeat Opera

This summer we were blown away by Louisa Proske's take on Salieri’s Fasltaff. This impressive young director just founded Heartbeat Opera, a new company that has the most enticing mission statement: “What if it were possible to experience opera classics, with the singers only feet or even inches away from you, and the miracle of the operatic voice happening so close you could feel the vibrations of a great aria pulsating on your skin? What if the dramatic performance matched musical mastery, with acting that was bold, and specific and unafraid of comparison to great theatre acting? This is what we propose for our new opera company – work that is intimate, powerful, physically and emotionally committed.” To discover more about their upcoming new season (and contribute to the cause), one can go to their Halloween benefit drag extravaganza, with performances of excerpts from Purcell’s Fairy Queen, music, dancing, champagne, raffle prizes, glitter, and more. October 30 – 7:30PM and 10PM shows at the Cotton Candy Machine (235 South 1st Street, Brooklyn).

Image Credit: The Secret Opera

In a creepier Halloween fashion, Secret Opera will stage Gian Carlo Menotti’s The Medium, an opera commissioned to the Italian-American composer by Columbia University and first performed on May 8, 1946. Menotti was inspired to write and compose this work after attending a séance in the small town of St. Wolfgang (near Salzburg, Austria) in 1936 during which he was struck by the séance attendees’ powerful desire to communicate with lost loved ones. November 1 – 8PM at 353 Studios (Studio 1), 353 West 48^th Street, NYC; November 8 – 8PM at Community Congregation Church, 200 Hartshorn Drive, Short Hills, NJ.

For those who like their Beethoven with a side of booze (and, seriously, who doesn’t?), Opera Company of Brooklyn offers Fidelio as part of their BYOB Opera Series. November 8 – 7PM at 353 Studios, 353 West 48^th Street.

It looks like NY Opera Exchange is revamping its brand with an impressive display of social media savvy and a sexy new website. If their performances prove to be as hip as their online presence, we’ll sure be in for a treat. NY Opera Exchange’s season opens with an intriguing Die Fledermaus set in Venice with a commedia dell’arte twist. Strauss’ work will be sung in the original German but with dialogues in English (which seems like a very bearable and welcome compromise to us). November 7 (7:30PM), 8 (2PM and 7:30PM) and 9 (3PM) at 310 East 42^nd Street.

Image Credit: NY Opera Exchange

Loft Opera found itself in the spotlight earlier this month for its collaboration with Joyce DiDonato in the NYC launch party of the diva’s new album, Stella di Napoli. The party served also as teaser for this indie company’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia and we were told by reliable sources that Loft Opera’s performers were a very pleasant surprise (even after Joyce). We look forward to verifying this first hand. November 11, 12, 18, 19 and 21 – 8PM at The Green Building (452 Union St. Brooklyn).

- Lei & Lui

Photo Credit: Loft Opera