Opera Review: Digging in the Dirt

On Site Opera puts on Mozart in a community garden.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Gardening at night: Ashley Fox is Lady Violet in Mozart's The Secret Gardiner.
Photo by Fay Fox courtesy Unison Media.

On Site Opera has built its reputation by staging unusual works in some decidedly odd locations around New York. On Thursday night, Eric Einhorn's little opera company invaded the West Side Community Garden for the first of three performances of The Secret Gardener. A co-production with Atlanta Opera, this is an adaptation of Mozart's opera La Finta Gardeniera, written for the Munich stage when the composer was just 18. It is one of his important early opera buffa, and its rapid succession of arias and ensembles (there is no chorus) hints at the brilliance that was to come.

Opera Review: A Madcap Marriage, Minus Mozart

On Site Opera mounts Marcos Portugal's Figaro.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Oh, Susanna: Jesse Blumberg as Figaro in the kitchen of 632 on Hudson.
Photo by Rebecca Fay for On Site Opera.

On Site Opera opened the second installment of a planned Beaumarchais trilogy on Tuesday night, with the North American premiere of The Marriage of Figaro, a version of the Beaumarchais play set to music by the largely forgotten Portuguese composer Marcos Portugal. Portugal's version of the opera came nine years after Mozart's and has been all but forgotten. Like Giovanni Paisiello's Barber of Seville (staged by this company a year ago) this is a noble work and well worthy of performance and revival. Figaro is still Figaro, and his wedding is always worth attending.

Opera Review: The First Close Shave

On Site Opera presents Paisiello's Barbiere di Siviglia.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Figaro (Andrew Wilkowske) and Rosina (Monica Yunus) share a moment
in Giovanni Paisiello's Il Barbiere di Siviglia.
Photo by Rebecca Fay © 2015 On Site Opera.

Giaochino Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia celebrates its bicentennial birthday next year, having trimmed beards onstage for two centuries. But when it premiered in 1816, Rossini's opera eclipsed a 1782 opera on the same subject by composer Giovanni Paisiello. On Tuesday night at the Fabbri Mansion, New York's own On Site Opera  kicked off its three year Figaro Project with an entertaining and vital performance of Paisiello's Barbiere. The Project continues in 2016 and 2017 with performances of two more operas based on lesser-known adaptations of the Beaumarchais plays: Marcos Portugal's The Marriage of Figaro and Darius Milhaud's version of The Guilty Mother.

Opera Review: Slaughter on 12th Avenue

On Site Opera presents Blue Monday at The Cotton Club.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Before the bullets fly: Joe (Chase Taylor) and Vi (Alyson Cambridge) canoodle in the Cotton Club.
Photo by Richard Termine © 2013 On Site Opera.

The current incarnation of Harlem's fabled Cotton Club may be an echo of the establishment's heyday, when Duke Ellington led the orchestra and Fletcher Henderson reigned supreme. But on Monday night, Eric Einhorn's young opera company On Site Opera made the Harlem venue culturally relevant again with a production of Blue Monday, the 1922 one-act jazz opera by one George Gershwin.

The Superconductor Interview: Eric Einhorn

The director brings Blue Monday to Harlem's historic Cotton Club.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

The sign of the historic Cotton Club. Image from FotoPedia.

In order for opera to evolve, it has escaped from the stuffy confines of the opera house.

The last five years have seen an uptick in the number of companies willing to take chances and present opera outside its usual venue. From coffee barges moored off of Red Hook to the landscaped walks of the Bronx Zoo, opera is busting out all over.

One young company that is taking advantage of this trend is Eric Einhorn's On Site Opera, a troupe devoted to performing rare repertory in unconventional locations. This Tuesday, OSO will present its second show: George Gershwin's jazz opera Blue Monday on the hallowed dance floor of The Cotton Club in Harlem.