A Clown Shows in Brooklyn

Pagliacci postponed: gang of plucky kids may be responsible.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Pennywise the Dancing Clown (Actor Bill Skaarsgaard) visits LoftOpera.
Pennywise image © 2017 Lions Gate Studios. LoftOpera image © LoftOpera.
Photoshop by the clown that writes this blog.

Opera lovers may notice a gaping hole in the schedule this week. LoftOpera, that plucky and innovative company that mounts wonderful operas on the cheap has been forced to postpone   its planned production of Pagliacci, the bloody Leoncavallo verismo drama about a clown who goes berserk and murders his wife.

Opera Review: It Ain't Exactly Shakespeare

Loft Opera mounts the Rossini Otello.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

A word before you go: Otello (Bernard Holcomb) assaults Desdemona (Cecilia Lopez) in Rossini's opera.
Photo by Robert Altman for LoftOpera.

LoftOpera opened its 2017 season last night, choosing LightSpace Studio, a high-ceilinged, white-walled warehouse on Flushing Avenue in Bushwick as the venue for the company's first staging of Rossini's Otello. Yes, you read that right. There's a (now mostly forgotten) Rossini version of this Shakespeare story, written back in 1816 and a pinnacle of the repertory before it was eclipsed by the Giuseppe Verdi opera from 1887. This performance marked the first New York staging in forty years.

Opera Review: Mozart Before the Wrecking Ball

LoftOpera tackles Cosí fan tutte.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Sisters are doin' it for themselves: Dorabella (Sarah Nelson Craft) and Fiordiligi (Megan Pachecano)
in a scene fron LoftOpera's Cosí fan tutte. Photo by Robert Altman © 2016 LoftOpera

The dark, shadowy streets where Williamsburg abets Bushwick are deserted at night. That is, unless you count the musicians, patrons and Mozarteans who flocked to last night's opening of LoftOpera's latest production. This new staging of Mozart's Cosí fan tutte occupied one quarter of an enormous old warehouse at 101 Varick Avenue, a desolate property that is scheduled for sale, demolition and redevelopment in the near future.

Spring Breakdown 2016: The Operas

The Five Best Operas of Spring 2016
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Theo Hoffman (right) and Kara Sainz as Papageno and Papagena
in Act II of Die Zauberflöte at Juilliard. Photo by Richard Termine for the Juilliard School.

This was a strange operatic spring for Superconductor. I missed most of the Met season (which turned out to be due to a computer battery problem (I couldn't sync with their computer to get rush tickets and it is still house policy not to bestow press tickets upon bloggers) so there were no Superconductor reviews of Les Pecheurs de Perles, Manon Lescaut or even Roberto Devereux. As they say, c'est la guerre.

Opera Review: Nun of Your Business

LoftOpera dazzles Bushwick with an aerial Comte Ory.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Bed-shaped: Thorsteinn Arbornsson (left) Sharin Apostolou (center) and Elizabeth Pojanowski
negotiate in the final scene of Le Comte Ory.
Photo by Robert Altman © 2016 LoftOpera. 

It all started with a pair of flying nuns.

On Thursday night in Bushwick, LoftOpera offered the penultimate performance of  Le Comte Ory at the close of the 2015-16 spring season. This wild Rossini comedy that, almost two centuries after its 1828 debut has finally found its audience in the 21st century. The nuns in question were aerialists Nicki Miller and Chriselle Tidrick. The venue was The Muse, a circus training facility by day and cabaret by night, located hard by the railroad on a stretch of Moffat Street where the sidewalk (quite literally) ends.

Opera Review: Torching the Warehouse

Loft Opera goes to the mattresses with Tosca.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Police brutality: Scarpia (Gustavo Fuelien) menaces Tosca (Eleni Calenos) in Act II of
Puccini's Tosca at LoftOpera. Photo by Robert Altman © 2016 LoftOpera.

The industrial warehouses that line the Long Island Rail Road tracks on the north side of Flushing Avenue in Bushwick  are used for myriad purposes: art studios, rehearsal rooms, and (presumably) past  underworld activity. This month, the old bus depot at 198 Randolph Street is home to LoftOpera, and the three-year-old company's first-ever foray into the murky waters of grand opera. Thursday was opening night, and the company put its back into mounting a budget-friendly and yet compelling version of Puccini's bloody thriller. This was the second Puccini production for this young company, and a watershed, as Tosca is rife with technical challenges and many dramatic and vocal pitfalls.

The Year in Reviews: The Operas of 2015

The ten best opera performances of the year that was.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Dangerous curves: Marliss Peterson's performance in Lulu was a highlight of 2015.
Photo by Ken Howard © 2015 The Metropolitan Opera.

Despite the untimely death of Gotham Chamber Opera, 2015 was largely a successful year for the art form in the New York area and elsewhere. Here's the ten best opera performances that this reviewer saw this calendar year. All titles link to full Superconductor reviews. Chronological order with the oldest first.

Opera Review: Bloody Deeds in Brooklyn

LoftOpera takes on Britten's The Rape of Lucretia.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Detail from Lucretia by Rembrandt.

The chamber operas of Benjamin Britten are works of great  dramatic power, demanding a tight ensemble and a cast that can act as well as sing. All those quantities are present in LoftOpera’s first production of “The Rape of Lucretia," seen Saturday night in a temporary performance space created, seemingly out of thin air at the event space/art gallery 501 Union. This production marks this bold young company’s first staging of a Britten opera and its first show in English.

Concert Review: Bel Canto Over Brooklyn

Joyce DiDonato cleans up at the Gowanus Canal.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Joyce DiDonato.
Photo by Pari Dukovic for Warner Brothers Classics.

The Gowanus Canal, that perennially toxic waterway that side-winds through north-west Brooklyn is not usually associated with opera. On Friday night at the Gowanus Ballroom (a space created from the upper loft level of Serett Metalworks just off of 9th St.) mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato brought the music of 19th century Naples to this funky, out-of-the-way locale.