Girls on the F Train and
The Witches of Bushwick
By Zoe Thomas
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
DUMBO – The opera is coming to town, but in this case you won’t need binoculars, tuxedos or even an expensive ticket to get in.
“Opera Grows in Brooklyn” will have its second installment at the Galapagos Art Center in DUMBO tomorrow, presented by American Opera Projects (AOP) and Opera on Tap.
It will be an evening of all-new opera scenes and songs from contemporary composers, a surprising concept for most. AOP Manager Matt Gray said this will give new talents a place to showcase their skills.
“There are not enough places for new composers and musicians. We want to be that home,” Gray said. “What we do is exclusively new opera, because the nail in the coffin of opera has been hammered in dozens of times and yet it is not dead.”
The show got started when founder of Opera on Tap, Anne Richi, contacted AOP board members and friends at the Galapagos.
“We wanted to put it out there that Brooklyn is the place for contemporary music,” said Richi. She is also the creator of the show’s name which, Richi said, emphasizes both the newness of the work and the location where it was created.
The first show in April entertained a large audience and received rave reviews. Organizers are hoping that this second installment will be even better.
“I think the best part will be new audiences discovering opera and perhaps, seasoned audiences experiencing it in a new way,” said Gray.
Echoing his sentiments, Richi added, “My biggest hope is that it will be well attended and well received.”
Tomorrow’s two-hour show will feature four performances. FADE a one-act opera following the struggles of a couple in a new home is from composer Stefan Weisman. The AOP did a reading of it last year. It then went on to debut in London and cities around America.
Songs from the F Train features the poetry of three Brooklyn girls put to music by composer Gilda Lyons. Composer David T. Little, was also asked to be part of this second installment, has put together a selection of new pieces for the show. Opera on Tap will then show off a new cast of contemporary female composers in The Witches of Bushwick (And Other Parts of New York), a performance set in the framework of a wicken ritual.
“It’s supposed to be amusing,” Richi explained
Both of the groups organizing the show got their starts in unusual ways, and both strive to change the modern view of opera and where it is performed and created. The AOP started 20 years ago in a SoHo loft and has since moved its headquarters to Fort Greene.
“We love being here in Brooklyn, and we try to bring [opera] to the community as often as we can,” said Gray. AOP’s main goal is to change the way people think of opera by showing only new opera in variety of locations.
Opera at Freddy’s Bar
Opera on Tap started just four years ago in Freddy’s Bar on Dean Street, best known as a meeting place for opponents of Forest City Ratner’s Atlantic Yards project. Like AOP, Opera on Tap promotes contemporary opera in new and unusual locations, giving its performers an opportunity to perform for audiences that “would never step foot in a concert hall,” said Richi.
Both groups stressed the need to advance new opera. “There are a lot of good companies doing the classics,” Gary said. The problem in the eyes of both groups is that opera is seen as an older art form and not a modern artistic medium.
“I think the new and modern stuff comes from the classics,” added Richi. “It’s really about creating the line of connection between the old work and the music that is being created today.”
If tomorrow’s performance goes well, Richi said they would like to see Opera Grows in Brooklyn become a quarterly performance at the Galapagos.
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