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Gotham Chamber Opera
Praised by The New York Times as “the pre-eminent small opera company in New York,” Gotham Chamber Opera presents vibrant productions of intimately scaled works, from the Baroque era to the present, that are generally overlooked in traditional opera houses but offer audiences immediate, involving, and powerful music theater.
Before 2000, New York City lacked a first-class company dedicated to such works. In its first years, Gotham Chamber Opera quickly altered the landscape, presenting six U.S. premieres of 18th- and 20th-century operas, including such masterpieces as Mozart’s 1771 Il Sogno di Scipione; Czech composer Bohuslav Martinu’s 1928 Dada opera Les Larmes du couteau (The Tears of the Knife) and his 1935 radio opera Hlas lesa (Voice of the Forest); Swiss composer Heinrich Sutermeister’s 1935 masterpiece Die schwarze Spinne (The Black Widow); and Handel’s Arianna in Creta.
More recently, Gotham Chamber Opera has expanded both its horizons and its audience. Puppeteer Basil Twist’s 2005 production of the U.S. premiere of Ottorino Respighi’s fantastical puppet opera La bella dormente nel bosco (Sleeping Beauty in the Woods) sold out its run at the Lincoln Center Festival. In the spring of 2006, Benjamin Britten’s only comedy, Albert Herring, received its first professional New York staging in more than 30 years, and in the winter of 2007, Rossini’s Il signor Bruschino received its first major professional New York staging in over a half century. In the 2007/2008 season, Gotham Chamber Opera celebrated dance with productions of Astor Piazzolla’s tango opera María de Buenos Aires, directed by David Parsons and featuring Parsons Dance, and with a new work entitled Ariadne Unhinged, directed by Karole Armitage and featuring members of Armitage Gone! Dance.
Even more firsts are on the way. Montsalvatge’s El gato con botas (Puss in Boots) features a collaboration between two of our favorite artists: Moisés Kaufman and Basil Twist. And then there’s Haydn at the Hayden: an operatic trip to the moon, via the American Museum of Natural History. Prepare for takeoff!
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