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What do divas, housewives, and hot dogs have in common? An appearance in the Wall Street Journal blog. Read here.












I came to El Paso to direct my new production of The Magic Flute, to which I also supplied new English dialogue. The response to this non-traditional performance was overwhelming. The people of this city are so gracious, and it has not one, but two performance halls (The Chavez and the newly restored Plaza Theatre), in a downtown arts center that also includes two museums on the City Plaza. It's an amazing place, and I'm honored to be a part of it.
Click here to learn more about El Paso Opera.



THE MAGIC FLUTE
Rockefeller Park, River Terrace and Warren Street
Come join us in Rockefeller Park for a one-hour concert version of Mozart’s The Magic Flute in English. It's an ideal introduction to opera, offering familiar tunes, colorful characters, rollicking comedy, and an fun time for audiences of all ages.
LA NAVARRAISE
220 Vesey Street – World Financial Center, Winter Garden

OPERA ON THE PIER
The Seaport, Pier 17
We'll be waterside at Pier 17 of the South Street Seaport for a concert program of beloved arias, duets and overtures. Highlights will include excerpts from La Bohème and Madama Butterfly.

1966: New York City Opera presents the premiere of "Julius Caesar," the first Handel opera mounted at Lincoln Center. It's the production that makes soprano Beverly Sills a star.
Sept. 15, 2001: Four days after the attacks of Sept. 11, New York City Opera opens new productions of "The Mikado" and "The Flying Dutchman," at the request of Mayor Rudy Giuliani. The shows were supposed to premiere on that fateful Tuesday. The Saturday event becomes the first show to be held at a major New York arts venue since the tragedy.
2005: New York City Opera battles its elitist image by starting the "Opera for All" festival, with seats for just $25. It also adds free lunchtime concerts in Bryant Park.
Read more at http://www.nydailynews.com

Last weekend NYCO held its Tenth Annual VOX Showcase, with a wide array of contemporary American works. New York City Opera interns Kristina, Dimitri, and Alex give their take on VOX 2009.
All three of us really liked Ted Hearne’s Katrina Ballads, which expressed the harsh realities surrounding the Hurricane Katrina tragedy. This piece was Kristina’s favorite because of its unique use of lyrics pulled verbatim from the media. The words really speak to the audience because they are from that moment in history and show the political and social tension during the event. One of the highlights of this piece was the vignette entitled “You’re doing a great job Brownie,” in which the vocal styling resembled those of a DJ’s mix.
Dimitri, who’s a huge opera fan, really enjoyed Gordon Beeferman’s The Rat Land. Mezzo-soprano Laurie Rubin stole the show as the isolated daughter of a dysfunctional family. Her acting perfectly portrayed the role of a little girl trapped in the midst of an embarrassing birthday party. Singing the role of her autistic brother, Jonathan Makepeace performed an eccentric duet with a Speak-And-Spell toy. Now we see why the VOX programmers revisited the work, which premiered in 2007, and we are all eagerly awaiting a full-length production somewhere in the near future.
Alex loved Car Crash Opera by Michaela Eremiášová and Jairo Duarte-López. It is an eight-minute piece where the music is set to an animated film by Skip Battaglia depicting a car crash. The film wasn’t shown on Saturday, but we could definitely understand how the music would fit. We could easily identify the different characters--from the truck driver, to the impassioned couple, to the mother and child--just by listening to the piece. The singers’ ability to identify with these characters transported the audience into the passenger’s seat.
What did you think?















