NEW YORK OPERA ALLIANCE presents the second annual NEW YORK OPERA FEST May & June 2017

The festival showcases the breadth and diversity of opera in New York City through 28 events, ranging from virtual reality to improv opera, with productions in theaters, gardens, garages, bars, playgrounds and more.

The New York Opera Alliance (NYOA), a consortium of New York opera companies and producers, proudly presents the second annual New York Opera Fest (http://nyoperafest.com), a two-month celebration of opera during May and June with over 20 New York City-based companies putting on over 30 events in venues around the city.

The festival showcases New York’s vibrant and varied opera scene, with repertoire ranging from the traditional operatic canon to innovative world premieres, taking place in diverse venues such as theaters, bars, gardens, garages, and playgrounds. With the New York Opera Fest, the Alliance shows how NYC’s opera scene is truly a living, breathing community of people who are working together to produce new work, develop new artists and engage with communities of all ages and backgrounds.

“The festival is a reminder that opera doesn’t need a 3,000-seat theater to be grand, and some of the more innovative, impassioned, exciting and vital – as well as affordable – productions are coming out of these smaller, more nimble companies.” 
-WQXR

 

“I honestly thought I knew all about the New York City opera scene…I was barely scratching the surface.”
-VAN Magazine

The New York Opera Alliance works in partnership with OPERA America, the national service organization for opera and the nation’s leading advocate for American opera, based in the National Opera Center in New York City. The New York Opera Festival is supported in part by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

PERFORMANCES INCLUDE:

  • American Opera Projects presents the New York premiere of Robert Paterson’s Three Way, three playful one-act operas, on the present and future of sex and love.

  • Bronx Opera closes their 50th anniversary season with an English-language production of Verdi’s Falstaff.

  • Heartbeat Opera presents their spring festival featuring new interpretations of Bizet’s Carmen and Puccini’s Madama Butterfly.

  • Experiments in Opera presents Flash Operas, six newly commissioned 15-minute operas based on ‘Flash Fiction’ stories.

  • Opera on Tap releases The Parksville Murders, the world’s first virtual reality horror opera, in addition to performances in two bars and a school playground.

  • On Site Opera presents new site-specific productions of Mozart’s The Secret Gardener in the West Side Community Garden and the U.S. premiere of Darius Milhaud’s La mère coupable at The Garage.                    

  • Sign & Sing incorporates American Sign Language into the opera experience with “EXPLORATIONS”: three stories of love and travel.

  • Family friendly operas include New Camerata Opera’s rendition of Peter Rabbit and Ardea Arts’s performance of George Plimpton’s Animal Tales.                    

ABOUT THE NEW YORK OPERA ALLIANCE

The New York Opera Alliance (NYOA) is a consortium of New York City opera companies and producers established to enhance and support the visibility and viability of opera in NYC. Founded in 2011, NYOA has grown from 4 organizations to more than 40, and counting. Since 2013, NYOA has been fiscally sponsored by OPERA America.

They believe that New Yorkers and visitors to New York alike can be better informed about the breadth, range and vitality of New York City’s opera-producing community. NYOA is a community-driven organization; together, they aspire to increase awareness of participating organizations, share ideas and resources, and generate revenue for collaborative projects.         

ABOUT OPERA AMERICA

OPERA America leads and serves the entire opera community, supporting the creation, presentation and enjoyment of opera. Artistic services help opera companies and creative and performing artists to improve the quality of productions and increase the creation and presentation of North American works. Information, technical and administrative services to opera companies reflect the need for strengthened leadership among staff, trustees and volunteers. Education, audience development and community services are designed to enhance all forms of opera appreciation. OPERA America provides organizational and project support to NYOA, through convenings, facilitated discussion, professional development leadership and access to OPERA America member resources. For more information, please visit https://www.operaamerica.org/

NEW YORK OPERA FEST EVENTS

For additional event details, please visit: http://nyoperafest.com

MAY 1: New Camerata Opera presents Peter Rabbit
Venue TBA
A rollicking, action-packed introduction to the world of classical music, featuring the timeless melodies of Gaetano Donizetti. About thirty minutes long, with a brief question and answer session, children learn and laugh at the same time!

MAY 5: Experiments in Opera presents Flash Operas
Symphony Space, Thalia Theater, 2537 Broadway
Experiments in Opera partners with Symphony Space to commission six new short operas based on inventive ‘Flash Fiction’ stories by Jack Handey, A.M. Homes, Patricia Marx, Andrew McCuaig, Peter Mehlman, and Keith Scribner.  

MAY 6: Opera On Tap presents The Parksville Murders
Clinton Cameo Studios, 307 West 43 St
FREE EVENT
Experience The Parksville Murders, the world's first episodic horror opera written specifically for virtual reality at the NYC Independent Film Festival! In Episode 1, two young women (Sarah and Corrine) wake up confused and terrified in a dark, surreal, music-filled world of incongruities and evil intentions, where strange watchers lurk in the shadows. Will they make it out alive?

MAY 6 & 7:  Bronx Opera Company presents Verdi’s Falstaff
Kaye Playhouse, Hunter College, 695 Park Ave
An English-language version of Verdi’s Falstaff closes out BxO’s 50th season celebration. Additional performances April 29 & 30 at Lehman College’s Lovinger Theatre.

MAY 10: Regina Opera Company presents a preview of Donizetti’s L'Elisir d'amore
Our Lady of Perpetual Help school auditorium, 5902 6th Ave, Brooklyn NY
FREE EVENT
Regina Opera Company offers a free “sneak-peek” of their upcoming performance of Donizetti’s sparkling comedy, L’Elisir d’Amore.

MAY 11: Opera on Tap presents Home Brewed Opera
Freddy's Bar and Backroom, 627 5th Avenue, Brooklyn, NY
FREE EVENT
Have a Stella with your Strauss! The Divas of Opera on Tap bring you funny, irreverent, immersive operatic concerts in a casual setting.

MAY 11-13: On Site Opera presents Mozart’s The Secret Gardener (La finta giardiniera)
The Westside Community Garden, 123 West 89th Street
FREE EVENT
On Site Opera and The Atlanta Opera join together to bring Mozart’s The Secret Gardener (La finta giardiniera) to life in a new site-specific production at the Westside Community Garden.

MAY 11 & 12: Hunter Opera Theater presents Fireworks and Lady Bird
Danny Kaye Playhouse, Hunter College, 695 Park Avenue
The NYC premieres of Fireworks by Kitty Brazelton and Lady Bird by Henry Mollicone.

MAY 13, 14, 20 & 21: Regina Opera Company presents Donizetti’s L'Elisir d'amore
Our Lady of Perpetual Help School Auditorium, 5902 6th Ave, Brooklyn NY
A shy bumpkin – a rich girl – a swaggering soldier – a quack doctor – a love potion. All these add up to sparkling comedy in Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore (The Elixir of Love).

MAY 18: Encompass New Opera Theatre presents Paradigm Shifts: Music & Film Festival
Baruch Performing Arts Center, Engelman Recital Hall, 55 Lexington Avenue
A music, opera and film festival, celebrating true stories of courageous change-makers preserving our planet, oceans and wildlife.

MAY 18-20: New Opera NYC presents Rimsky-Korsakov’s Golden Cockerel
Sheen Center for the Arts, 18 Bleecker St
A cornerstone of the Russian opera heritage, based on faux fairytale by a great Russian poet Alexander Pushkin and set to a libretto by Vladimir Belsky.

MAY 19 & 20: Rhymes With Opera presents Bonnie Lander’s Coping Mechanisms
124 Bank Street Theater, 124 Bank St
An improvisatory opera, in which an ensemble of singers create their own narrative, textures, characters and vocalizations, focusing on our need for both privacy and communication in modern society.

MAY 20 & 21: Ardea Arts presents George Plimpton’s Animal Tales
Location TBA
A rambunctious masterpiece bursting with fun, optimism, and insight into the human journey for audiences of all ages. Seven animals and their veterinarian, assisted by a children’s chorus, will raise the curtain on a new family favorite that speaks to the child in all of us.

MAY 20-28: Heartbeat Opera presents annual Spring Festival
Baruch Performing Arts Center, 55 Lexington Avenue
In a new four-character adaptation of Bizet’s Carmen with a brand-new instrumental arrangement, love is a fire that burns everything in its path and leaves no prisoners. A newly orchestrated Puccini’s Madama Butterfly investigates the stereotypes, racism, and misogyny embedded within the foundations of this masterpiece.

MAY 21: SIGN & SING presents Explorations
Symphony Space, Thalia Theater, 2537 Broadway
EXPLORATIONS examines three stories of love and travel – Heggie’s At the Statue of Venus, Vaughan Williams’ Songs of Travel and Elgar's Sea Pictures reimagining great works of classical music in sung English and American Sign Language. Open captions and assisted listening devices will be provided.

JUNE 2, 3, 9 & 10: Opera Upper West presents Tom Cipullo’s Glory Denied
Baylander IX-514, West Harlem Piers, New York, NY 10027
Board a Vietnam war aircraft carrier and be immersed in the story of Colonel Floyd James Thompson, America's longest serving Prisoner of War. Experience the culture shock of the 60’s and 70’s, and observe how media and memory forge American identity.

JUNE 2: Opera Lafayette presents Rameau’s Les Indes Galates - Part IV
The Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Avenue
The cast, Opera Lafayette Orchestra, and Gallery Voices, an acclaimed chamber vocal ensemble, highlight the incomparably rich music of this most famously gifted of French composers in this multinational love story set in North America.

JUNE 2: Opera on Tap presents New Brew: Pint-Sized Opera Edition
Barbes, 376 9th St., Brooklyn, NY
An irreverent and entertaining concert filled to the brim with very short operas that pack a punch (shots of opera, if you will), written by some of today's most exciting composers.

JUNE 5: Vertical Player Repertory presents Britten’s Phaedra
LEIMAY CAVE, 58 Grand Street, Brooklyn, NY
A staged performance of Britten's solo cantata for mezzo soprano, featuring Judith Barnes, presented in partnership with LEIMAY, the interdisciplinary ensemble and producing organization, and performed with a reduced chamber ensemble as part of SOAK.

JUNE 15: Opera on Tap presents The Elixir of Love: The Playground Opera
The Playground, Public School 129, 425 W 130th St
FREE EVENT
Opera on Tap returns to Harlem PS 129 for the third year in a row, presenting a colorful re-imagining of Donizetti's Elixir of Love, co-produced by the students and performed in their school playground.

JUNE 15-18: American Opera Projects presents Robert Paterson’s Three Way
BAM Fisher - Fishman Space, 321 Ashland Pl, Brooklyn, NY
The New York premiere of Robert Paterson’s Three Way, a new opera, comprised of three playful one-acts, on the present and future of sex and love.

JUNE 17: Martina Arroyo Foundation presents MAF Prelude to Performance Opera Highlights Concert
Ida K. Lang Recital Hall, Hunter College, East 69th St
Join the exciting young artists of the MAF Prelude to Performance program for excerpts from the upcoming Prelude operas, Bizet's, Carmen and Puccini's, Suor Angelica/ Gianni Schicchi.

JUNE 20 & 22-24: On Site Opera presents Darius Milhaud’s La mère coupable
The Garage, 611 West 50th Street
The U.S. premiere and new site-specific production of Darius Milhaud’s La mère coupable (The Guilty Mother).

JUNE 23: OperaRox Productions presents A New Works Concert
Opera America Rehearsal Hall, 330 Seventh Ave
An evening of entirely new works performed by OperaRox Young Artists, including excerpts from The Contract Player, an opera in progress by Price Walden and Lane Williamson, as well as works by a group of other talented composers. 

TBA: Indie Opera Podcast presents Women in Opera
The National Opera Center, 330 7th Avenue, 8th Floor
FREE EVENT
Prominent women gather from various aspects of Opera Production to discuss issues facing women in opera today. Is access and influence fair or still a loaded game?

TBA: Victor Herbert Renaissance Project LIVE! presents Victor Herbert and the Grand Opera Natoma
Location TBA
VHRP LIVE! will give you an overview of Herbert's place in American musical theatre, the opera's history, our restoration, excerpts from the vocal score, and a comparison of an excerpt on piano with the same excerpt as heard with a full orchestra -- utilizing portions of Herbert's grand opera Natoma.

    
For more info, full schedule and tickets, visit: http://nyoperafest.com           

NEW YORK OPERA ALLIANCE PARTICIPANTS

American Lyric Theater
American Opera Projects
ARDEA Arts
Beth Morrison Projects
Bronx Opera Company
Chelsea Opera
Citywide Youth Opera
Create Opera
dell’Arte Opera Ensemble
Douglas Moore Fund for American Opera
Downtown Music Productions
Encompass New Opera Theatre
Experiments in Opera
Harlem Opera Theater
Heartbeat Opera
HERE Arts Center
Hunter Opera Theater
Indie Opera Podcast
Manhattan School of Music
Martina Arroyo Foundation, Inc.
New Camerata Opera
New Opera NYC
On Site Opera
OPERA America/National Opera Center
Opera Breve
Opera Lafayette
operamission
Opera on Tap
OperaRox Productions
Opera Upper West
Paula Kimper Ensemble
Queens College Opera
Regina Opera
Rhymes With Opera
Sign & Sing
Spectrum Symphony
the little OPERA theatre of NY
Untitled Theater Company No. 61
Vertical Player Repertory
Victor Herbert Renaissance Project LIVE!
Vital Opera

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