Festival Preview: They're All Over the Map

NY OperaFest 2018 brings music to the masses.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

The Bronx Opera staging of Sir John in Love. The company will mount Der Freischütz as part
of NY Opera Fest 2018. Photo © 2018 Bronx Opera courtesy Unison Media.

The Metropolitan Opera's spring 2018 season is in its last weeks but the opera season rolls ahead undaunted. This week marks the start of the annual NY Opera Fest, a coalition between a number of the exceptional small companies that dot New York, members all of the New York Opera Alliance.. From pyramids in South Brooklyn to a hunt through the wilderness of the North Bronx. the city resounds with a cornucopia of opera productions.

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.

Opera Review: Sudden Death, Over Time

Pocket Opera Players premieres two new works.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

The composer Anton Webern at the piano. 

The sudden failure of New York City Opera caused a tectonic shift in the landscape of New York's opera community. Suddenly, the spotlight has fallen on Pocket Opera Players, John Eaton's smart little shoe-string company working out of the Thalia Theater on the lower level of Symphony Space. On Saturday night, POP (as they style themselves) offered the third performance of its season-opening double bill: The Death of Webern by Michael Dellairia and ReRouted, a farce by company leader John Eaton.

Opera Preview: Powder Her Face

She slept with 88 men...and had the Polaroids to prove it.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Three views of Margaret Campbell, the "Dirty Duchess."
Photo montage by the author, who no longer owns a Polaroid.

The New York City Opera is back, once again operating a short split season with performances at BAM and City Center.  On Friday night, the company kicks off its 2013 season with Thomas Adés' Powder Her Face, a saucy English opera from 1995 that takes on the scandalous subject of Margaret Campbell, the Duchess of Argyll.

Known in the British tabloids as the "dirty Duchess", Mrs. Campbell hit the headlines when her 1963 divorce erupted in the courts as her husband brought forth accusations of infidelities with eighty-eight other lovers and a set of naked Polaroids including one of the Duchess engaged in oral congress with a "headless" man who might have been a son-in-law of Winston Churchill. To be fair, the Polaroids featured Mrs. Campbell still wearing her signature triple strand of pearls.

Opera Review: Anna Bolena at the Dell'Arte Opera Ensemble

Enrico VIII and his second queen, Anna Bolena.

Bel canto tradition came to the Theater 80 St. Marks this weekend, when the Dell'Arte Opera Ensemble staged a thoroughly successful "black box" production of Anna Bolena. The first of Donizetti's "English Queens" trilogy, "Bolena" dramatizes the disgrace and execution of Anne Boleyn, second wife of Henry VIII. With its difficult title role and high tenor part, this is a challenging opera to cast. Under the direction of Christopher Fecteau, the Dell'Arte company made a good case for Donizetti's genius. They knocked us dead, and then off with her head.

This opera's success rests on the soon-to-be-headless shoulders of Anna herself. Donizetti's score requires a lyric soprano who can project a majestic presence, sing with dramatic power and navigate the ornamental passages that dominate the finale. Jill Dewsnup was up to this challenge, singing with fierce accuracy and shattering high notes, soaring through the passagio with ease and maintaining a regal presence all the way to the final mad scene.

The role of Percy presents its own challenges and problems for the tenor. The writing is demanding and high, calling for a strenuous high E♭ above the stave. Following the opera's premiere, Donizetti transposed the part down two whole steps, in order to make it performable for most singers. Kirk Dougherty rose to the challenge. Although the results were not always pretty, he went up and grabbed that murderous high note, and finished the aria in style.


Cherry Duke was a picture of inner conflict as Giovanna (Jane) Seymour, Anna's best friend who replaces her on the throne. As Smeton, the smitten court musician who betrays Anna to the king, Blythe Gaissert was convincing in the trouser part and had some lovely music to sing in the first act. Matthew Anchel was a ponderous King Henry--he sounded best in the big Act III trio with Anna and Percy.

Isaac Grier gave a very strong performance as Percy's doomed brother Rochefort--this bass has potential and is a singer to watch for. The entire performance was accompanied by Hellgate Harmonie, a stripped-down ensemble of amateur and freelance musicians. They played a stripped-down version of Donizetti's score as a wind band, the only strings being a double bass.