"Game Changers" Redux

Reflections and Reactions on NYC's Indie Opera Scene

The August cover of Opera News features “Game Changers: Young Companies Are Redefining Opera.” With such a sexy title one would expect that the magazine would give long overdue attention to the booming phenomenon of independent operas exploding all over New York City. However, the relevant article by Matthew Sigman focused exclusively on three companies: Venture Opera, Utopia Opera and Rhymes With Opera (RWO). Which in and it of itself is a wonderful thing, if it were not for the overall vapid, condescending tone and (lack of) content of the piece. As an avid and active follower of the indie opera scene in NYC, such lack of depth and, ultimately, respect, made my blood boil many times over.

The author of the “Game Changers” article provides virtually zero specific information, appreciation or evaluation of the actual works produced by these companies. By reading his piece, all we learn about Venture Opera’s work is that it “recently presented Carmen at the Diamond Horseshoe, the showman Billy Rose’s former nightclub.” When it comes to Utopia Opera, we get more venue information, and are told that the company performs “at the Ida K. Lang Recital Hall, at Hunter College [...] without wing, fly or depth space, let alone a proscenium – but which, [the founder and director] Remmers said, can be transformed into a fully theatrical experience.” When it comes to RWO, there is a touch of detail: “productions have emphasized projections and puppetry as much as people.” That’s it. All this got me thinking that maybe the author did not actually experience any opera produced by these companies, in which case he probably should not be writing about them.

Mr. Sigman did, however, spend considerable time harping on how these organizations are Manhattan-centric and run by traditional-looking individuals. And I quote: “Artistic headquarters for these companies are in Manhattan. Whereas hipster Brooklyn, with its “lumbersexual” culture, is the incubator of the avant-garde – and home of the particularly successful LoftOpera – the artistic locus for Utopia, Venture and RWO remains the island of Manhattan. (For the record, none of these clean-shaven, well-groomed interviewees arrived on a skateboard. No tattoos or piercings were readily apparent).” For the record: in the picture on the front cover, RWO’s composer, Ms. Fulton, sports a rather large tattoo on her upper right arm. And in any event, who the hell cares where a company is based and how respectable its artists appear? Is this supposed to reassure Manhattan geriatric audiences that this sacred art form is not being taken over by a radical mob? Why don’t we focus instead on the artistic quality of the actual work product of a company and judge by its track record instead?

I have the utmost respect and admiration for each and every independent opera company out there keeping the art form alive and breaking with stuffy conventions. Their work is relevant and often high quality and thought-provoking. We know well the work of one of the companies mentioned, Venture Opera, and their inaugural production of Don Giovanni in a Lower East Side synagogue was indeed among the most exciting things we’ve seen this year. It felt like stepping into an exclusive and slightly blasphemous nightclub, á la Eyes Wide Shut, singers were top notch, the concept was sexy and irreverent (Don Giovanni as a renegade Catholic priest, surely with tattoos) and the experience felt very much immersive. Their second show, Carmen, despite having a stellar lead singer, did not come across as polished and ground-breaking as their Mozart (arguably because of some last minute venue changes) but was nevertheless successful in conveying the themes of Bizet’s blockbuster in intimate and inventive ways. Rumors are that they may be producing a Gianni Schicchi in September, which we’ll be sure to check out.

If, as the Opera News article claims, we want to talk about companies that “create innovative new works, reinvent classic repertoire, explore unusual venues and reach audiences outside the mainstream,” then many more worthy companies should also be showcased and celebrated. Regardless of where they are based, where they perform and how their founders look like, these companies have a proven track record of hip, ambitious and visionary productions.

If we’re really talking about game changing independent opera, we cannot ignore a company like LoftOpera. Yes, they’re based in Brooklyn. Yes, they may have tattoos. Yes, the public sits on the floor and drinks free beer during the show. Yes, they perform in raw lofts in the middle of nowhere. But only at their shows have I witnessed the magic of a twenty-something catching an opera for the first time and being actually transfixed and moved and enthused by it. Which, by the way, is the effect that opera, when it’s good, should have. The public here gasps when Lucrezia Borgia poisons her own son, cheers wildly when Tosca kills Scarpia, laughs out loud at the threesome in Comte Ory. With shows that are unassuming yet of outstanding artistic quality, LoftOpera is the only company out there able to plan an actual season spanning the whole year (with subscriptions) and luring a public that may not have seen an opera before, but becomes hooked and keeps coming back since 2013. And, by the way, none of their shows so far was “avant garde” or had any hints of “regietheatre” for that matter. Other than updating a bit the costumes, all their productions have been pretty straight and respectful of the librettos. Still, they manage to lure hundreds of under-thirty, so they must be doing something right. Next up is their take of Mozart’s Cosí Fan Tutte in September. 

Heartbeat Opera is a younger company yet with an exquisite directorial take and utmost respect for musical values. Founded by two Yale School of Drama alumns, Louisa Proske and Ethan Heard, Heartbeat’s register runs the gamut, from baroque recitals in drag (in Brooklyn!) to bel canto masterpieces to Kurtag’s one-act operas. Equally comfortable with comic mischief and the deeply dramatic, Heartbeat Opera recently gambled and won by producing a chamber version of Lucia di Lammermoor, with only 6 singers and 6 musicians (and yes, at some point a toy piano was played). It may sound sacrilegious, but it was the most mesmerizing, thought provoking and intense Lucia I’ve ever seen, with Heartbeat really distilling the Donizetti staple to its most visceral and powerful essence. Next up are a renegade opera-cabaret show on the High Line on September 22 and drag benefit by the intriguing name of “Queens of the Night: Mozart in Space” (maybe aerialists will be involved?) on October 31. 

OnSite Opera is another innovative and creative company out there. Every one of their shows is produced in a site-specific spectacular venue. From a mansion in the Upper East Side (Paisiello’s Barbiere) to Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum (Rameau’s Pygmalion) to a West Village hidden villa (Portugal’s Figaro), OnSite strives to use unconventional spaces to curate intimate and high quality operatic experiences. Next up is a double bill on September 29-30: Argento’s Miss Havisham and Berlioz’s La Mort de Cléopâtre. 

Loft, Heartbeat and Onsite, though, are just the tip of the iceberg. Let us not forget the myriad other companies bursting into the NYC indie scene. To name a few:

• Jennifer Peterson’s Opera Mission has the noble purpose of producing all thirty-nine of Handel’s Italian operas (and their latest was #9, Rinaldo – pretty spectacular).
• Vertical Player Repertory organizes musical salons in Cobble Hill but also most recently unearthed the magnificent bel canto gem Malvina di Scozia (Pacini). They also often cooperate with the fierce misfits of Opera Feroce  who make baroque sexy, excessive and hilarious.  
• Bare Opera has produced Ravel’s L’Enfant and Granados’ Goyescas and will give us Rossini’s La Cambiale di Matrimonio in the fall.
• Floating Opera New York did a Pelleas et Melisande on a barge in Red Hook and we cannot wait to hear what they’ll come up with next.
• The Secret Opera is more focused on new works and is hosting a composition competition in 2017.
• Director R.B. Schlater has also been doing exciting things (Alcina in a Lower East Side art gallery, anyone?), next up he’ll present Handel’s Ariodante at the brand new and hip venue National Sawdust in Williamsburg.
• Then there are companies such as Dell’Arte Opera Ensemble, Regina Opera and Martina Arroyo’s Prelude to Performance that train and showcase up and coming young singers in often excellent productions.

Hopefully all this will give Opera News some pointers as to where to find indie opera in NYC and a sense of how exciting it is – in any of the five boroughs and with or without tattoos.

- Lei & Lui

Rambunctious Baroque Fun

Jewels of the Baroque

(High voices and low tea in a semi-precious setting)

Opera Feroce / Vertical Player Repertory

Behind the Door, 219 Court Street, Brooklyn

November 28, 2015

"Castrati" getting loud
Photo credit: Vertical Player Repertory

Lei: Behind a tiny red door at 219 Court Street (Brooklyn), we were transported to a parallel 17th century universe, where everybody wore powdered (and feathered!) wigs, sported over the top Baroque gear and bore eccentric improbable names in a hodgepodge of old world tomfoolery. The hosts were British and served tea (with deliciously buttery scones and classic cucumber sandwiches) at intermission, the “renowned ensemble” providing entertainment was composed of an dashing young Italian man, Sig.re Topazio Ametista Catenadoro (mezzo Hayden DeWitt), a prissy French wannabe primadonna, M.lle Zirconie Pavé (soprano Beth Anne Hatton) and a self-absorbed German fop, Herr Smaragd Solitaroff von Schmückstuck (countertenor Alan Dornak), not to mention their “banda” of musicians with equally colorful names: Joe Ielli (flauto traverso), Wisteria Peasblossom (baroque violin), Yo-yo Ma-ma (viola da gamba), and Saffronia Peasblossom (harpsichord).

M.lle Pavé and Sig.re Topazio Catenadoro
Photo credit: Vertical Player Repertory

Lui: We’ve all been invited to Mrs. Minnie Minim’s home for “an après-midi of fine music presented by the renowned ensemble Opera Feroce.” Her husband, a cranky old fart who spoke in a slurred Welsh accent popped out half dressed every so often slightly perturbed by the ruckus in his parlor and their daughter Miss Acquamarinia Minim (soprano Allegra Durante, sporting a miniature peacock as headpiece) was also on hand. Speaking in a hybrid of Romanaccio Italian and heavily accented English, Topazio Ametista Catenadoro acted as the master of ceremonies throughout most of the show. After thanking the audience and Mrs. Minim for her hospitality, Catenadoro announced that they would be starting with a nice song about a shipwreck, (Caprioli’s Navicella ch’a bel vento) which in his broken English came out sounding like “sheep-wreck.” The laughs start early.

Schmückstuk exhibits his way with women.
Photo credit: Vertical Player Repertory

Lei: And the colpi di scena (or coups de theatre while we’re at it) arrive quickly, too. A lovely Bach duetto per flauto e violino by Miss Wisteria Peaseblossom and Mr. Joe Ielli (which sounds like “jewels” in Italian – get it?) was abruptly interrupted by a thunderous knocking on the door. I seriously thought it was some rude opera loving latecomer (there are many of those out there). But no, it was all part of the show, as an over the top uber-jeweled, feathered and Venetian-masqued operatic diva made her grand entrance together with a crazy-haired sketchy guy. She introduced herself as Diamante Maria Scarabelli (soprano Judith Barnes) and her companion as her trusted musician (and jealous lover) Señor Juan Almendra Sebolla Avellana Perejil y Gambas (playing the viola da gamba, of course).

Sig.ra Scarabelli is simply irresistible.
Photo credit: Vertical Player Repertory

Sig.ra Scarabelli mentions, in heavy Italian accent, that she wears a mask otherwise everybody would want to kiss her and touch her on the street because she’s such an operatic sensation. Turns out she was not kidding as Diamante Maria Scarabelli was indeed a real life popular Italian soprano in the late 17th and early 18th century (and indeed one could suspect that, as her name was the least absurd of the bunch). Diamante explains that she heard of the little concert and could not resist stopping by to make some music and regale everybody with her talent. The diva hijacks the show creating a number of hilarious vignettes: she distributes new concert programs with her name in a font that’s double the size of everybody else, sings moving lamenti from Bonconcini, Monteverdi and Porpora (every time tearing up and saying stuff like “this Claudio [Monteverdi] makes me feel things in the inside”). She constantly belittles the “French” soprano M.lle Pavé (who sneers “nous at Operrra Ferrross sommes ici pour la musique, pas pour ecouter vos cochonneries!), brags about her many dead husbands (all composers she “inspired” as their “muse,” of course) and so on.

The diva and her charms.
Photo credit: Vertical Player Repertory

Lui: And just when you thought the Opera Feroce troupe was already having more fun than such a recital could possibly allow, they go and dial it up another notch and then another yet. Think about the duet between Herr von Schmückstuck and Miss Minim (Son nato a lagrimar, from Handel’s Giulio Cesare) that ends with Mr. Minim spanking his daughter because she starts speaking dirty German (the influence of the fop, no doubt). Or else the finale when tutti sing an aria from Mozart’s Idomeneo (the composer is not born yet, but when he is, Diamante will make him her “13th husband” because he will be a genius). Herr von Schmückstuck sings a very inspired final “Andrò ramingo e solo” in his deepest baritone voice, which prompts Catenadoro to yell “you’re not a real castrato!!!” To which he retorts “and neither are you!” (indeed, she’s a mezzo soprano). To conclude, Diamante, intrigued by his unexpected male attributes, starts flirting with von Schmückstuck while everybody takes a bow.

M.lle Pavé singing something lovely.
Photo credit: Vertical Player Repertory

Lei: Make no mistake about it: this company may successfully joke around and make its public laugh hysterically, but it is dead serious about the period music it makes, uncovering rare gems of the Italian, French and German 17th and 18th century repertoire, from Bonconcini to Monteverdi and Porpora, Rameau and Janequin, Telemann, Handel and Krieger. The genius of Opera Feroce consists in playing with the extravagant spirit of the Baroque and reinventing its interpretation in fresh and highly entertaining ways. No detail is too small for this company, as every single aspect of their show (costumes, props, programs, scones, multi-lingual jokes) was thoughtfully curated with an irreverent effervescence, yet coupled with an incredibly competent musicianship and respect of the original score and text.

Herr von Schmückstuk flaunts his stuff.
Photo credit: Vertical Player Repertory

Lui: We thought that with “Jewels of the Baroque” Opera Feroce was going to bring us a respectable teatime recital of baroque rarities, but after having discovered them in the extravagant pastiche Arminio in Armenia, we should have known to expect better than that. The whole evening was such a feast of linguistic playful pleasure on top of all the fabulous music. The artists of this fierce opera company outdid themselves yet again with a ragtag mash up of theatrical and musical entertainment punctuated by bouts of well-choreographed chaos and a true linguistic feast with hilarious dialogues in Italian, French and German. These guys just bring the music to life with the sheer joy that they so clearly bring to performing it, and the public cannot help but join in the contagious rambunctious Baroque fun.

- Lei & Lui

Opera Feroce e Amici
Photo credit: Vertical Player Repertory

A Very Operatic NYC Summer

The Met 13/14 season just ended, but that does not mean that we will have to be opera-deprived for three months. Here's our overview of what looks enticing in New York this summer:

Image Credit: Gotham Chamber Opera

Gotham Chamber Opera will close its own 13/14 season with The Raven, a monodrama by Toshio Hosokawa, based on Poe’s classic narrative poem of love forever lost. We're intrigued by the combination of opera and ballet, as mezzo-soprano Fredrika Brillembourg will perform together with La Scala’s prima ballerina assoluta Alessandra Ferri. May 28 - 31, 2014 at Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College.

One can never get enough Donizetti, particularly if bel canto queen Mariella Devia plays her majesty Elizabeth I in Roberto Devereux, with Stephen Costello in the lead tenor role. Brought to us in concert by The Opera Orchestra of New York. June 5 at Carnegie Hall.

Mariella Devia as Elisabetta I in Roberto Devereux
Image credit: Michele Balistreri

We love site-specific operas, even more so if baroque and ripe with Ovid literary references. On Site Opera’s performance of Rameau’s Pygmalion about a sculptor falling in love with his creation promises to deliver all of that with a gala performance set in Madame Tussauds’ wax museum and two additional shows at the Lifestyle-Trimco Showroom. June 17, 20 and 21.

Image Credit: On Site Opera

The feisty Opera Feroce will perform their exhilarating baroque pasticcio Arminio in Armenia we were lucky to catch last January and cannot recommend enough. June 22 at the St. Stephens and St. Martins Church in Brooklyn; June 25, 27, 28 at the Blue Building in Manhattan.

Image Credit: Park Avenue Armory

Park Avenue Armory is such an amazingly unique performance space that it’s hard to resist to pretty much anything they show. Their co-presentation with Lincoln Center Festival of Mieczyslaw Weinberg’s holocaust opera The Passenger will take audiences on a voyage from the stylish deck of a luxury liner to the squalor of a Nazi death camp. The opera was banned by Soviet authorities upon its completion in 1968, resurfacing for its first full staging some 40 years later and only now making its New York premiere. July 10-13 at Park Avenue Armory.

The Lincoln Center Festival will also showcase Rimsky-Korsakov's The Tsar's Bride, performed by the Bolshoi Opera, no less! Not to be missed if, like us, one got under Russian opera spell cast by the Met earlier this year (with the new productions of Eugene Onegin and Prince Igor). July 12-13 at Avery Fisher Hall. 

Lovely Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts
Photo Credit: Caramoor

Who does not want to drive one hour through the Hudson River Valley to catch some top notch singing performed in a gorgeous Venetian garden theater?!? Caramoor’s rich summer opera program includes semi-staged productions of Lucrezia Borgia and Rigoletto, an “Intimate Donizetti” concert of chamber music and vocal ensembles, a “Bel Canto Showcase” and a myriad of panel discussions, concerts and other operatic goodies. If you need further incentive: Angela Meade (who bewitched everybody with her Norma at the Met last fall) will play Lucrezia Borgia. The Intimate Donizetti: Chamber Music and Vocal Ensembles - June 26; Lucrezia Borgia - July 12 and 18; Bel Canto Showcase: Daniel Mobbs - July 17; Rigoletto - July 19 -- at the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts. 

Angela Meade in the Venetian Theater
Photo credit: Caramoor

We discovered Dell'Arte Opera Ensemble last summer and were overwhelmed by the extraordinary results of their mission of coaching young opera singers into fresh and energetic (but also seriously solid) performances. This summer they propose an ambitious Shakespeare Repertoire Project, comprised of staged productions of Purcell’s The Fairy Queen, Salieri’s Falstaff and Verdi’s Macbeth, as well as a concert of arias and duets based on Shakespeare sonnets and plays. August 7-24 at the East 13 Street Theater.

Mostly Mozart festival will be offering two Handel baroque gems by the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra: Teseo (in concert setting – August 17) and Acis and Galatea (an exciting combination of opera and dance, showcasing the collaboration between choreographer Mark Morris and early-music specialist Nicholas McGegan – August 7-9).

The Mark Morris Dance Group
Photo credit: Mostly Mozart

Finally, for some al fresco operatic pleasure, we’ll look forward the Met Opera Summer Recital Series and its six performances in the parks of all five boroughs (June 23-July 10*). Few things are more blissful than listening to great opera arias while sipping chilled rosé wine on a picnic blanket at dusk - with NYC lights gradually turning on around you…

Lei & Lui

Opera and Manhattan Skyline
Photo credit: The Metropolitan Opera

* Superstar mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton will perform on June 23 and 25

A Fierce Baroque Pasticcio

Opera Feroce’s Arminio in Armenia

Zion German Evangelical Lutheran Church (Brooklyn Heights)

January 10, 2014

Opera seria in two acts

Music by Nicola Porpora (Germanico in Germania, Carlo il Calvo, Semiramide Riconosciuta, Agrippina)

Libretto by A. Sconosciuto

While I was having breakfast last Friday morning, social media told me that, in case I was in the mood for baroque, Vertical Player Repertory recommended Opera Feroce’s Arminio in Armenia, playing that same evening in a Brooklyn Heights church. Of course I am always in the mood for baroque, especially if performed by a company named Opera Feroce - “Fierce Opera” or, as they put it on their website, “opera that bites.” The advertisement had little yet intriguing information on the show, stating that it had been created “by cross-pollinating an original plot and a lot of great music by Nicola Porpora” and involved “Shipwreck! Sorcery! Swordfights! And Turkeys!” Also, tickets were “$20 at the door (with no one turned away).” This was more than enough to lure us to the Zion German Evangelical Lutheran Church, where we were rewarded with a most exhilarating and unique operatic experience.

Enticing flier for the cryptic event

Arminio in Armenia is a fun though seriously well-structured experiment that manages to repurpose delightful baroque arias in an approachable homage to the world of Italian opera seria. The piece is a baroque pastiche that rearranges arias from several of Nicola Porpora’s little-known operas and cantatas to fit an intricate plot where the fearless crusader Arminio is sent by the Pope to convert the Armenians to Catholicism, but ends up shipwrecked in Massachusetts, where he decides to convert the puritanical Pilgrims of the New World instead (!). Arminio’s adventures lead him to close encounters with Norberto, the uptight governor of Massachusetts, his twin peasant brother Adalberto, the latter’s love interest Clorofilla, the sorceress Tusnelda and the pilgrim maiden Genovinda.

Photo credit: Opera Feroce

The libretto is a combination of (mostly) original Italian arias and English recitatif. While on paper it sounds odd, it actually worked perfectly, playfully making the pasticcio feature crystal clear. I have to say that I liked this approach better than the Met’s Enchanted Island that kept the original music but re-wrote all the plundered arias in English. The beauty of the original Italian baroque arias is entirely lost if one slaps some English singing on them.

Opera Feroce admirably seems to have respected the integrity of the original Italian arias throughout, however, with one perhaps glaring and hilarious exception. In one of his stand out moments at the end of Act I, the quixotic governor belts out his mission as leader of his motley crew of Protestant refugees: “Miseri! I Pellegrini cercando la Terra Nuova / e la libertà dal Vaticano, da un barbaro / che mai non dimostrò pietà, che vuol / che i Pellegrini siano soggetti del Papa.”* For some reason, I just can’t imagine how such sentiments, which Norberto delivers in the pose of a rock-n-roll diva, could have fit anywhere into Porpora’s early eighteenth-century body of work.

Photo credit: Opera Feroce

Not only does this group have a sense of humor, but they also have vision. The first act in particular was brilliantly constructed with meticulous care placed on the layering of multiple subplots. After an action packed opening that features a storm at sea and a shipwreck, the cast of characters is introduced through a series of scenes that include more than one case of mistaken identities, intersecting triangles of amorous intrigue, magic spells and heightened religious and ideological tensions. The second act does not quite match the first in terms of care in composition and it seems to rush all too headlong toward a clean conclusion. While it is no less enjoyable, the payoff could be greater if they cultivated more of the narrative seeds planted in Act I, in which so many exciting characters came to life.

Although the show was advertised as a “re-premiere” concert (the piece was first performed in June 2012), it was actually a highly entertaining semi-staged performance, with singers jumping in and out of simple costumes, really acting and using props that ranged from turkey legs to magic wands. The three singers were all on double duty, each performing two very different characters. Mezzo-soprano Hayden DeWitt played the brave crusader Arminio and the pious pilgrim maiden Genovinda. Soprano Beth Anne Hatton was both the fierce witch Tusnelda and the Zerlina-like country girl Clorofilla. But it was Alan Dornak who showcased the widest range, switching back and forth from countertenor to baritone as Norberto and Adalberto, respectively. While all three were evidently having a lot of fun with the piece and had hilarious comic acting moments, they were quite serious about their singing, with excellent Italian articulation and great baroque musicality.

Beth Anne Hatton

Alan Dornak

Hayden DeWitt

The energy, passion and unassuming talent of these singers and the five-piece ensemble (violins, harpsichord, viola da gamba, traverso) were refreshing and left us wanting for more. The program mentions that sometime later this year we will have the pleasure of a fully staged costumed performance of this same piece. We will be sure to check out how Opera Feroce manages to improve this great material. Meanwhile, we’ll look forward to their next show, Magdalene’s Dilemma, an oratorio/mystery play with music by Giovanni Bonconcini – on February 6, as part of the Midtown Concert Series of the Gotham Early Music Scene.

- Lei & Lui

* “Miserable ones! The Pilgrims came in search / of the New world and freedom from the / Vatican and from a barbarian who never / showed any mercy, who wanted them to be / subjects of the Pope.”