Bronx Opera (BxO) is an

opera company Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a ...

the Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New ...

, New York. It was founded in 1967 by artistic director and

music director A music(al) director or director of music is the person responsible for the musical aspects of a performance, production, or organization. This would include the artistic director and usually chief conductor of an orchestra or concert band, the ...

, the conductor Michael Spierman. The company is a member of the New York Opera Alliance. The company performs two operas a year, one lesser known work, and an opera from the

standard repertoire In music, a standard is a musical composition of established popularity, considered part of the "standard repertoire" of one or several genres. Even though the standard repertoire of a given genre consists of a dynamic and partly subjective set of ...

. All productions are sung in English with full orchestra and chorus. 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. Opera performances are at Lehman College's Lovinger Theatre and

Hunter College Hunter College is a public university in New York City. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools. It also adm ...

's Kaye Playhouse in Manhattan's

Upper East Side The Upper East Side, sometimes abbreviated UES, is a neighborhood in the boroughs of New York City, borough of Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 96th Street (Manhattan), 96th Street to the north, the East River to the east, 59th Street (Man ...

; concerts are given in the Bronx and surrounding areas from Long Island to Delaware County.''Cinderella'' (2016) program

Origins

In 1966, a group of musicians were attempting to put together a performance of Handel's ''

Messiah In Abrahamic religions, a messiah or messias (; , ; , ; ) is a saviour or liberator of a group of people. The concepts of '' mashiach'', messianism, and of a Messianic Age originated in Judaism, and in the Hebrew Bible, in which a ''mashiach ...

''. 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''.

Repertoire

References

External links

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Bronx Opera
at BronxNet {{authority control Culture of the Bronx New York City opera companies Musical groups established in 1967 1967 establishments in New York City Organizations based in the Bronx Musical groups from the Bronx