the little OPERA theatre of ny Livestream Concerts: Zemlinskys Zimmer on Monteverdi & Other Treasures from the Seicento

The little OPERA theatre of ny (LOTNY) presents two livestream concerts, Zemlinskys Zimmer on Friday, April 16, 2021 at 7:30pm ET and Monteverdi & Other Treasures from the Seicento on Friday, June 4, 2021 at 7:30pm ET. The productions will offer an optional immersive viewing experience by Musae. Tickets begin at $5 on a sliding scale and can be purchased at lotny.org or by calling (646) 481-9890. With any purchase, you’ll also have the option to replay the concert at a later date.

Zemlinskys Zimmer (Zemlinsky’s Room)
Friday, April 16, 2021 • 7:30 pm ET
Livestream from St. John’s in the Village
Travel to Vienna with the music of Fin-de-Siècle Austrian composer Alexander Zemlinsky, who was born in Vienna in 1871 and died in Larchmont, NY in 1942. He was wildly celebrated in Europe as a conductor, composer and teacher, but his life was changed by the Second World War. The performance interweaves vocal and chamber music as a prelude to scenes from his opera Eine Florentinische Tragödie (A Florentine Tragedy), which was based upon a play by Oscar Wilde. The “tragedy” involves a love triangle between a married woman, a Prince, and her working class husband. The opera was first performed in 1917 in Stuttgart, with performances following in the same year in Prague, Vienna, and Graz. Featuring Soprano Katy Lindhart, Baritone Eric McKeever and Tenor Nicholas Simpson. Led by Music Director & Pianist Catherine Miller, Director Philip Shneidman, and Assistant Director Dalia Sevilla, and includes Costume Design by Lara de Bruijn, and guest violinist Laura Frautschi. The performance is approximately 50 minutes long and will be sung in German with simultaneous English translation.
 
Monteverdi & Other Treasures from the Seicento
Friday, June 4, 2021 • 7:30 pm ET
Livestream from St. John’s in the Village
Enjoy one of the earliest chamber operas, Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda by Italian composer Claudio Monteverdi, which premiered in Venice in 1624. Based upon a poem by Torquato Tasso, it tells the story of a battle between a Crusader and a Saracen. Beneath their armor they discover another story. The program will also feature instrumental and vocal music of Monteverdi’s contemporaries: Dario Castello, as well as Barbara Strozzi, one of the earliest known female composers in the Baroque/Classical tradition. Featuring internationally acclaimed Tenor Raúl Melo as The Narrator, with other singers to be announced. The performance is led by Music Director & Harpsichordist Elliot Figg, Director Philip Shneidman, and features Violinists Manami Mizumoto and Rebecca Nelson, Violist Majka Demcak, Theorbist and Guitarist Paul Morton, and another to be announced. The performance is sung in Italian, with English translation, and is approximately 50 minutes in length.

General Ticket
Pay $5 to stream a concert live or watch the replay later—stream from your phone, tablet, computer, or TV! Socialize with LOTNY and fellow audience members in the chatroom for some live banter throughout the performances.

Fan Ticket
Upgrade to a $15 ticket to give a donation to little OPERA

Supporter Ticket
Upgrade to a $25 ticket to give an extra donation to little OPERA

Headset Tickets (A five-day lead-time is required for shipping)
Upgrade to a $50 ticket and receive all of the above, plus your own virtual reality (VR) headset in the mail from Musae!* With your VR headset, you can enjoy a fun 360° viewing experience! Your headset remains yours to keep and can be used for both shows. *VR Headsets can also be purchased separately. A basic google cardboard-style model may be purchased for $8 and a premium model may be purchased for $40. Order at least five days in advance to allow for shipping.

About the Artists
Elliot Figg (Music Director and Harpsichord, Monteverdi) joins LOTNY for the fourth time since conducting the company’s 2016 production of L’Amant Anonyme. Other productions with LOTNY include Hasse’s Piramo e Tisbe and Mozart’s The Shepherd King (in progress). Elliot is a graduate of the Historical Performance Program at The Juilliard School where he studied harpsichord with Kenneth Weiss. He also studied with Arthur Haas at the Yale School of Music. Elliot is an active member of several New York-based early music and contemporary ensembles, including ACRONYM, Ruckus, New Vintage Baroque, and Makaris. Recent engagements include: Five Boroughs Music Festival, in a concert featuring his own music; Conductor and Harpsichordist for Death of Classical’s production of Dido and Aeneas in the catacombs of Green-Wood Cemetery; Deputy Music Director and Harpsichordist for Farinelli and the King on Broadway; Assistant Conductor and Harpsichordist for Il Farnace and Veremonda, both with Spoleto Festival USA; and Assistant Conductor and Harpsichordist for Dido and Aeneas with L.A. Opera. 

Philip Shneidman (Director) founded the little OPERA theatre of ny. Recent productions include the New York premieres of Benjamin Britten’s Owen Wingrave, J.A Hasse’s Piramo e Tisbe, Carlisle Floyd’s Prince of Players, an original adaptation of Chevalier de Saint-Georges’ L’Amant Anonyme. Additional productions include Floyd’s Slow Dusk & Markheim, and Gioachino Rossini’s Opportunity Makes the Thief. Previous seasons include Gluck’s The Reformed Drunkard; and an evening of two one-act operas by Gustav Holst entitled Travelers. Mr. Shneidman has also directed Eugene Onegin and Dialogues of the Carmelites at The Mannes College of Music, and Purcell’s The Tempest at Rutgers. His theater directing credits include: Fully Committed (Adirondack Theatre Festival), Romeo & Juliet (Queens Theatre in the Park), and A Drowned Girl [1919] (HERE). As an assistant director on Broadway he worked on The Full Monty, and the Gutierrez productions of A Delicate Balance and The Heiress.

Lara de Bruijn (Costume Designer) couldn’t be happier to be working again with little OPERA on this unique presentation! Previous work with LOTNY includes Owen Wingrave, Slow Dusk and Markheim, and Opportunity Makes The Thief. Other projects include The Rake’s Progress (Boston Conservatory), The Threepenny Opera (Trinity Rep Consortium), The Two Character Play (New World Stages), Salome (Irondale), and Hi, My Name is Ben (Goodspeed Musicals). Upcoming feature films are “So Cold The River,” and “The Duel.” Please see more at laradawndesign.com.

Dalia Sevilla (Assistant Director) is a director, performer, and lighting designer. She is the founder of the Classical Voice Collective at NYU through which she produced and directed seven operas: Bastien und Bastienne, Hänsel und Gretel, The Portrait of Manon, Riders to the Sea, Le Mariage aux Lanternes, Daphnis et Chloé and Prima la Musica e poi le Parole. She also directed For the Love of Natalie Woods for Communal Spaces Festival and the premiere of Bismillah at the Fresh Fruit Festival. She assistant directed The Dialogue of the Carmelites as well as directed five opera scenes at the Harrower Music Festival. Her lighting design credits include ChristinaNoel and the Creature’s Self Love Kind of Thing, Arts for All’s production of Jack vs Rapunzel, Players Club’s production of A Little Night Music, Classical Voice Collective’s productions of Le Mariage aux Lanternes, Daphnis et Chloè, Riders to the Sea, and Hänsel und Gretel. She has also assisted in many productions around NYC including The New York Pops’ concerts at Carnegie Hall, Blueprint Specials, Fairytale Christmas, and The Dudleys!. Her performance credits include Cavalerria Rusticana, A Body in the Allegheny Valley (Lana), Twelfth Night (Malvolio), 4@15, First Stages, and Pulsing and Shaking. Other credits include Carmina Burana at Charles University in Prague.

Catherine Miller (Music Director and Piano, Zemlinskys Zimmer) has enjoyed her career in New York as accompanist for voice recitals, auditions and regional opera productions. She has worked at the Mannes College of Music in the College, Extension and Preparatory divisions, playing for lessons, juries, recitals, workshops and song literature classes. Ms. Miller was music director for LOTNY’s inaugural concert Gardens of Disguise at the Kosciusko Foundation; she also led The Bohemians at Socrates Sculpture Park, The Mother of Us All at The Box, and New Voices at the Kosciusko Foundation. Catherine studied with Walter Cook at UMKC Conservatory of Music, and with Elizabeth Rich in New York.

American operatic baritone Eric McKeever (Simone, Zemlinskys Zimmer) has won consistent praise for his voice of “power and brilliance” (Chicago Tribune) and “considerable flexibility and a communicative presence enhanced by expressive, crystalline diction.” (Opera News). Eric’s 2020-2021 season includes recording the role of Charlie in Kamala Sankaram’s Looking at You, singing several roles in Experiments in Opera’s Aqua Net and Funyuns podcast opera, performing Dandini in Opera on Tap’s digital version of La Cenerentola, performing live in Salt Marsh Opera’s outdoor “Music at the Lighthouse” concert, joining the little OPERA theatre of ny in a live-stream of Zemlinksy’s Eine Florentische Tragödie, and returning to Opera Columbus for Marcello in a new production of La bohème. Recent performances include Tonio (Pagliacci) with Salt Marsh Opera, Sharpless (Madama Butterfly) with Opera Columbus, David (L’Amico Fritz) with Baltimore Concert Opera, and covering the role of Jake Wallace (La Fanciulla del West) with New York City Opera. www.ericmckeeverbaritone.com

Lauded for her “large, robust, and flexible voice” (Bachtrack) and “sparkling stage presence” (St. Louis Dispatch), Katy Lindhart (Bianca, Zemlinskys Zimmer) has delighted audiences across the United States in repertoire ranging from Mozart to Sondheim. Katy’s 2020 season began with the premiere of Zemlinskys Zimmer for little OPERA theatre of ny, followed by selections from The Shining at the National Arts Club. In March, Katy placed first in Opera Ithaca’s Edward M. Murray International Competition of Voice. In 2021, Katy sings Alice Ford in Falstaff in a virtual production for Barn Opera, returns to the little OPERA theatre of ny for a livestream performance of Zemlinskys Zimmer, and covers Elena in I vespri Siciliani for New Amsterdam Opera. In 2022, Katy makes an exciting role and house debut with Opera Omaha as the Beggar Woman in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Other recent engagements include: Così fan tutte with Opera in the Heights, Lucio Silla for Odessey Opera, Don Giovanni for Salt Marsh Opera, The Rape of Lucretia for Loft Opera, Faust for Summer Garden Opera, Viva la Mamma! with Florida Lyric Opera, Ainadamar with the Lexington Philharmonic, and Le nozze di Figaro for Opera Columbus and Winter Opera Saint Louis. https://www.katylindhart.com/bio

Nicholas Simpson (Prinz Guido, Zemlinskys Zimmer) has been praised by Opera News for his performances, which “immediately seized attention with his full-bodied, brightly projected voice.” An award winning tenor, Nicholas’ singing has taken him to all seven continents in repertoire stretching from Broadway to opera. His roles include Cavaradossi in Tosca(Maryland Symphony), Charles II in Prince of Players (the little OPERA theatre of ny), Tannhäuser (Apotheosis Opera), Kronprinz in Silent Night (Fort Worth Opera), Paul in Korngold’s Die Tote Stadt with Cleveland Opera. Cleveland Classical noted that he was “… splendid as Paul, negotiating a punishingly high and demanding vocal line with strength and agility.” 
NicholasSimpsonTenor.com

Raúl Melo (Testo/The Narrator, Monteverdi) has performed at the MET as the Duke in Rigoletto opposite Anna Netrebko and as Pinkerton to Patricia Racette’s Madama Butterfly. He was most recently seen as Neruda in Daniel Catan’s Il Postino with Virginia Opera and Opera Southwest; Faust with Arizona Opera; and Pollione in Norma opposite Angela Meade with the Astoria Music Festival. Other appearances include La Bohème in Shanghai, Naples, and Palermo; Butterfly and Tosca with New York City Opera and New Orleans Opera; Carmen in Salerno and Leipzig; Rigoletto in Bologna; La Traviata in Palm Beach and Oslo; Un Ballo in Maschera with Seattle Opera; and Lucia di Lammermoor in Zurich. Concert appearances include the Chicago Symphony under Riccardo Muti; Faust in Berlioz’s La Damnation de Faust conducted by Keith Lockhart with the Utah Symphony; Massenet’s La Navarraise with New York City Opera; and the Verdi Requiem at Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires. Additionally Mr. Melo has performed with Berlin’s Deutsche Oper and State Opera, Hamburg State Opera, Stuttgart’s State Opera, Düsseldorf’s Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Frankfurt Opera, and Dresden State Opera to name a few; and in the United States he has sung with Washington Opera, Cleveland Opera, Minnesota Opera, Des Moines Opera, Connecticut Opera and Fort Worth Opera among others. Mr. Melo appeared as Sir Charles Sedley in LOTNY’s NY premiere of Carlisle Floyd’s Prince of Players.

Laura Frautschi (Violin, Zemlinskys Zimmer) has established a reputation as a versatile musician with a strong commitment to contemporary as well as classical repertoire. She regularly performs as soloist and chamber musician throughout the United States and Asia and collaborates frequently with living composers. She has given world premieres of violin concerti by leading American composers Lee Hyla and Augusta Read Thomas. Her chamber music activities include appearances at the Caramoor International Festival, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Wellseley Composer Conference, Moab and St. Bart’s Music Festivals and tours throughout Japan and the US as a member of piano trio Intersection, with cellist Kristina Cooper and pianist John Novacek. In addition, she has appeared as concertmaster of the Orchestra of St. Lukes and the New York City Opera Orchestra, and tours internationally as a concertmaster of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. Ms. Frautschi’s extensive discography ranges from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons with the Festival Strings Lucerne and Lee Hyla’s Violin Concerto with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, to twentieth-century chamber works by Bernard Rands, Chen Yi, and Margaret Brouwer. With Intersection, she has also recorded and filmed numerous CDs and DVDs of short popular works in diverse genres, for Pony Canyon Records and Fuji TV. Laura Frautschi studied applied mathematics at Harvard College, and violin performance with Robert Mann at The Juilliard School. Ms. Frautschi was the Concertmaster for LOTNY’s NY premiere of Owen Wingrave.

New York native Manami Mizumoto (Violin 1, Monteverdi) started her lifelong relationship with music at age 3 on the violin. Early exposure to chamber music sparked in her a devoted love of collaboration. This led to a fascination with performing contemporary music and working with living composers. In recent years, this has manifested in a songwriting project co-created with Uhuru Quartet and composer Sato Matsui to benefit women’s shelters in NYC. In addition, Manami is passionate about exploring different approaches to music making in history and how that can transform the way modern audiences relate to music of the past. Her driving curiosity is in exploring the dialogue between ancient and contemporary thoughts, and she is equally at home on the baroque violin, modern violin, and electro-acoustic setups with Ableton Live. Manami is a recent graduate of the Juilliard School, where she earned her Masters in Historical Performance and graduated with the Norman Benzaquen Career Advancement Grant. Ms. Mizumoto has been featured in LOTNY’s The Shepherd King video project and in the livestream Mozart & Friends.

Rebecca Nelson (Violin 2, Monteverdi) was the first US citizen born in former East Germany. At fourteen she left home to pursue a musical career in the States. She has played with different period ensembles all over the East Coast, including Boston’s Handel Haydn Society and has performed works on gut strings ranging from Monteverdi operas to film music by Saint-Säens. She is a member of the Shanghai Camerata, Digital Camerata and she recently joined Nuova Practica, a troupe of modern baroque composers and performers. Since graduating from The Juilliard School in May of 2020, Rebecca has started composing songs inspired by her love of both baroque and folk and is recording her very first album titled Do Not Lament. Ms. Nelson has been featured in LOTNY’s The Shepherd King video project.

Majka Demcak (Viola, Monteverdi) is a violinist from British Columbia, Canada. She has been studying and exploring music from the Baroque and Classical eras and enjoys performing the music of her Slovak heritage. Majka was featured as an emerging artist in the Vancouver Bach Music Festival, performed with Pacific Baroque Orchestra, and toured with the Juilliard415 orchestra to Paris in collaboration with Les Arts Florissants, and to New Zealand. Her viola debut was in a Juilliard415 concert led by Pablo Heras-Casado. Majka is a founding member of Quartet Salonnières, a period classical quartet that highlights music of the lesser-known contemporaries of Boccherini, Haydn and Mozart.

Lutenist, theorbist, banjoist, guitarist, lyricist, composer, arranger, vocalist, historical archeologist, soloist, chamber musician; the music of Paul Holmes Morton (Theorbo/Guitar, Monteverdi) is defined less by genre than by a fascination with history, a cultivation of creativity, and a belief that music once born does not die or grow old. With a technical palette of colors ranging from the Florentine Camerata to modern Americana, Paul follows the thread of resonant evolution, his interpretations and performances stained with the resin left by countless musics present and not yet passed. 

About the little OPERA theatre of ny
Since its founding in 2004, the little OPERA theatre of ny (LOTNY) has presented 4 NY Stage Premieres : Britten/Piper’s Owen Wingrave; Hasse/Coltellini’s Piramo e Tisbe; Floyd’s Prince of Players; Mozart/Cigna-Santi’sMitridate, re di Ponto; 2 US Stage Premieres: Saint-Georges/Desfontaines/De Genlis’ L’ Amant Anonyme, Cui/Pushkin’sA Feast in the Time of the Plague, 1 World Premiere: Zaretsky/Kharms Man in a Black Coat: and commissioned a new translation of Mozart/Metastasio’s Il re pastore as The Shepherd King from Mark Herman & Ronnie Apter. Other notable projects include the original Holst double bill Travelers, Gluck’s The Reformed Drunkard, Rossini’s Opportunity Makes the Thief, and Floyd’s Slow Dusk & Markheim at venues including 59E59 Theaters, Baruch Performing Arts Center, the former GK Arts Center, The Bushwick Starr, and the JCC Manhattan. LOTNY’s recent production of Owen Wingrave was noted as “long overdue..a world class production” in Credenza and in Opera News as “(a) shadowy, haunting, attractive production…superbly prepared.” Piramo e Tisbe received wide critical acclaim, heralded by Opera News as “superlative [and] an excellent and irrefutable case for programming this rare work, [with] indelible performances that should count among the finest and most complete interpretations heard in New York this season.” The NY premiere of Prince of Players was praised by The New York Times as “well made and stylish” and for being “delightful, impressive, [and] affecting” in the NY Classical Review. LOTNY’s concerts have included Mozart & Friends live-streamed from St. John’s in the Village, Past & Present: Scenes from American Opera on Governors Island, This Little Light of Mine at Merkin Concert Hall, The Bohemians at Socrates Sculpture Park and Floydiana at the DiMenna Center for Classical Music.  lotny.org

About Arts at St. John’s in the Village
In addition to the rich and varied program of music presented liturgically, St John’s enjoys a wealth of music and other arts presented in concert, recital, theater, and exhibition. Prior to the pandemic St John’s presented between sixteen and twenty concerts each month, in addition to theatrical performances and art exhibitions, and continues to present concerts by live-stream and webcast of recorded performances, now also with limited in-person audiences.
 
About Musae
Musae is a next-gen mediatech company that enables artists and venues to broadcast live events simultaneously in HD & 360º Virtual Reality, and deliver radically immersive experiences by sending audiences VR headsets with tickets.