Bronx Opera
The Bronx Opera is a Bronx, New York opera company founded in 1967 by artistic director and music director Michael Spierman.
The company performs two operas a year, both with full orchestra, one lesser known opera in the fall, and an opera from the Standard repertoire in the spring.
Performances are at Lehman College, Hunter College, and Hofstra University.
BxO's repertoire to date (listed alphabetically by composer) follows:
Auber – Fra Diavolo (1977, 2011)
Bizet – Carmen (2007)
Blitzstein – Regina (2000)
Britten – Albert Herring (1974)
Chabrier – An Incomplete Education (2006)
Copland – The Tender Land (1976, 1995, 2007)
Donizetti – Don Pasquale (1978, 1991, 2000, 2010)
Donizetti – The Elixir of Love (1975, 1987, 1996)
Floyd – Susannah (1980, 1992)
Gilbert & Sullivan – Iolanthe (1970)
Gilbert & Sullivan – The Pirates of Penzance (1976)
Gilbert & Sullivan – Trial by Jury (1991)
Gilbert & Sullivan – The Yeomen of the Guard (1995)
Gounod – The Doctor in Spite of Himself (1980)
Humperdinck – Hansel and Gretel (1973, 2012)
Lehár – The Merry Widow (2003)
Leoncavallo – Pagliacci (2008)
Mahler/Weber – Die drei Pintos (2010)
Mechem – Tartuffe (1996)
Menotti – The Consul (2005)
Menotti – The Medium (1972, 1997)
Moore – The Ballad of Baby Doe (1987)
Moore – The Devil and Daniel Webster (1991)
Mozart – The Abduction from the Seraglio (1968, 1979, 1988, 1999)
Mozart – Don Giovanni (1973, 1984, 1997, 2011)
Mozart – Così fan tutte (1967, 1976, 1986, 1993, 2006)
Mozart – The Impresario (1972, 2008)
Mozart – The Magic Flute (1974, 1982, 1994, 2009)
Mozart - The Marriage of Figaro (1970, 1981, 1991, 2002)
Mussorgsky/Blatt – The Fair at Sorochinsk (1981)
Nielsen – Maskarade (1983, 1999)
Offenbach – Ba-ta-clan (1975)
Offenbach – Bluebeard (1985)
Offenbach – La belle Hélène (1990)
Offenbach – Orpheus in the Underworld (1979, 2008)
Puccini – La bohème (2005, 2013)
Purcell – Dido and Aeneas (2006)
Rossini – The Barber of Seville (1972, 1992, 2001)
Rossini – La Cenerentola (1989)
Rossini – La gazza ladra (2013)
Rossini – L'equivoco stravagante (2004)
Schubert – The Conspirators (1975, 1997)
Smetana – The Bartered Bride (1993, 2003)
Smetana – The Secret (1989)
Smetana – Two Widows (1984, 2009)
J. Strauss – Die Fledermaus (1998)
Suppé – Boccaccio (2002)
Vaughan Williams – Hugh the Drover (1982, 1998)
Vaughan Williams – The Poisoned Kiss (2012)
Vaughan Williams – Sir John in Love (1978, 1988)
Verdi – Un giorno di regno (1983, 1994)
Verdi – La traviata (1971, 1977, 1985, 2004)
Weber – Abu Hassan (1982)
Weber – Der Freischütz (1971, 1986, 2001)
Origins
In 1966, a group of musicians were attempting to put together a performance of Handel's Messiah. While this performance never happened, it was the genesis of what became the Bronx Opera. Michael Spierman, a recent graduate of New York University's University Heights campus in The Bronx (now Bronx Community College of the City University of New York) took the hub of the group that was to perform the Handel and combined it with his intention to form an opera company that would be based at the Bronx NYU campus. This organization was to be known as the "Heights Opera." It was as the Heights Opera Company that the group first performed on November 24, 1967, at Vladeck Hall of the Amalgamated Housing Corporation. The opera was Mozart's Così fan tutte.