Bronx Opera (BxO) is an opera company in the Bronx, New York. It was founded in 1967 by artistic director and music director, the conductor Michael Spierman. The company is a member of the New York Opera Alliance.[1]
The company performs two operas a year, one lesser known work, and an opera from the standard repertoire. All productions are sung in English with full orchestra and chorus.[2] Additionally, the company presents concerts of opera excerpts throughout the year. The company's opera orchestra is increased to full-size to form the fully professional Orchestra of the Bronx which gives two free concerts every year.[3]
Opera performances are at Lehman College's Lovinger Theatre and Hunter College's Kaye Playhouse in Manhattan's Upper East Side; concerts are given in the Bronx and surrounding areas from Long Island to Delaware County.[4]
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 core of the group that was to perform the Messiah 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 Cooperative. The opera was Mozart's Così fan tutte.
| Year | Composer | Opera | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1967 | Mozart | Così fan tutte | |
| 1968 | Mozart | The Abduction from the Seraglio | |
| 1970 | Gilbert & Sullivan | Iolanthe | |
| 1970 | Mozart | The Marriage of Figaro | |
| 1971 | Verdi | La traviata | |
| 1971 | Weber | Der Freischütz | |
| 1972 | Menotti | The Medium | |
| 1972 | Mozart | The Impresario | |
| 1972 | Rossini | The Barber of Seville | |
| 1973 | Humperdinck | Hansel and Gretel | |
| 1973 | Mozart | Don Giovanni | |
| 1974 | Britten | Albert Herring | |
| 1974 | Mozart | The Magic Flute | |
| 1975 | Donizetti | The Elixir of Love | |
| 1975 | Offenbach | Ba-ta-clan | |
| 1975 | Schubert | The Conspirators | |
| 1976 | Copland | The Tender Land | |
| 1976 | Gilbert & Sullivan | The Pirates of Penzance | |
| 1976 | Mozart | Così fan tutte | |
| 1977 | Auber | Fra Diavolo | |
| 1977 | Verdi | La traviata | |
| 1978 | Donizetti | Don Pasquale | |
| 1978 | Vaughan Williams | Sir John in Love | |
| 1979 | Mozart | The Abduction from the Seraglio | |
| 1979 | Offenbach | Orpheus in the Underworld | |
| 1980 | Floyd | Susannah | |
| 1980 | Gounod | The Doctor in Spite of Himself | |
| 1981 | Mussorgsky/Blatt | The Fair at Sorochinsk[5] | |
| 1981 | Weber | Abu Hassan | |
| 1981 | Mozart | The Marriage of Figaro | |
| 1982 | Vaughan Williams | Hugh the Drover | |
| 1982 | Mozart | The Magic Flute | |
| 1983 | Nielsen | Maskarade | |
| 1983 | Verdi | Un giorno di regno | |
| 1984 | Smetana | The Two Widows | |
| 1984 | Mozart | Don Giovanni | |
| 1985 | Offenbach | Bluebeard | |
| 1985 | Verdi | La traviata | |
| 1986 | Weber | Der Freischütz | |
| 1986 | Mozart | Così fan tutte | |
| 1987 | Moore | The Ballad of Baby Doe | |
| 1987 | Donizetti | The Elixir of Love | |
| 1988 | Vaughan Williams | Sir John in Love | |
| 1988 | Mozart | The Abduction from the Seraglio | |
| 1989 | Smetana | The Secret | |
| 1989 | Rossini | La Cenerentola | |
| 1990 | Offenbach | La belle Hélène | |
| 1991 | Donizetti | Don Pasquale | |
| 1991 | Gilbert & Sullivan | Trial by Jury | |
| 1991 | Moore | The Devil and Daniel Webster | |
| 1991 | Mozart | The Marriage of Figaro | |
| 1992 | Floyd | Susannah | |
| 1992 | Rossini | The Barber of Seville | |
| 1993 | Mozart | Così fan tutte | |
| 1993 | Smetana | The Bartered Bride | |
| 1994 | Mozart | The Magic Flute | |
| 1994 | Verdi | Un giorno di regno | |
| 1995 | Copland | The Tender Land | |
| 1995 | Gilbert & Sullivan | The Yeomen of the Guard | |
| 1996 | Mechem | Tartuffe | |
| 1996 | Donizetti | The Elixir of Love | |
| 1997 | Menotti | The Medium | |
| 1997 | Mozart | Don Giovanni | |
| 1997 | Schubert | The Conspirators | |
| 1998 | J. Strauss | Die Fledermaus | |
| 1998 | Vaughan Williams | Hugh the Drover | |
| 1999 | Mozart | The Abduction from the Seraglio | |
| 1999 | Nielsen | Maskarade | |
| 2000 | Blitzstein | Regina | |
| 2000 | Donizetti | Don Pasquale | |
| 2001 | Rossini | The Barber of Seville | |
| 2001 | Weber | Der Freischütz | |
| 2002 | Mozart | The Marriage of Figaro | |
| 2002 | Suppé | Boccaccio | |
| 2003 | Lehár | The Merry Widow | |
| 2003 | Smetana | The Bartered Bride | |
| 2004 | Rossini | L'equivoco stravagante | |
| 2004 | Verdi | La traviata | |
| 2005 | Menotti | The Consul | |
| 2005 | Puccini | La bohème | |
| 2006 | Chabrier | An Incomplete Education | |
| 2006 | Mozart | Così fan tutte | |
| 2006 | Purcell | Dido and Aeneas | |
| 2007 | Bizet | Carmen | |
| 2007 | Copland | The Tender Land | |
| 2008 | Leoncavallo | Pagliacci | |
| 2008 | Mozart | The Impresario | |
| 2008 | Offenbach | Orpheus in the Underworld | |
| 2009 | Mozart | The Magic Flute | |
| 2009 | Smetana | The Two Widows | |
| 2010 | Donizetti | Don Pasquale | |
| 2010 | Mahler/Weber | Die drei Pintos | |
| 2011 | Auber | Fra Diavolo | |
| 2011 | Mozart | Don Giovanni | |
| 2012 | Humperdinck | Hansel and Gretel | |
| 2012 | Vaughan Williams | The Poisoned Kiss | |
| 2013 | Puccini | La bohème | |
| 2013 | Rossini | La gazza ladra | |
| 2014 | Mechem | The Rivals[6] | |
| 2014 | Verdi | La traviata | |
| 2015 | Britten | Albert Herring | |
| 2015 | Mozart | The Marriage of Figaro | |
| 2016 | Blitzstein | Regina | |
| 2016 | Rossini | La Cenerentola | |
| 2017 | Vaughan Williams | Sir John in Love | |
| 2017 | Verdi | Falstaff | |
| 2018 | Mozart | The Abduction from the Seraglio | |
| 2018 | Weber | Der Freischütz | |
| 2019 | Menotti | The Consul | |
| 2019 | Gilbert & Sullivan | The Mikado | |
| 2020 | Mozart | Don Giovanni | |
| 2021 | Mozart | The Impresario (virtual) | |
| 2022 | Smetana | The Bartered Bride |