Overview
When is opera a party? When is a party theater? When it’s The Opera Party, a new WQXR series in The Greene Space!
Hear world-class live performances while enjoying delectable dishes created to match the music — and drinks you can take to your seat. MET Opera star Anthony Roth Costanzo curates and hosts three unfettered fêtes celebrating opera in a whole new way.
Opera stars will share the evening with chefs, raconteurs and genre-busting artists in a striking environment created for each event by artist Doug Fitch.
Join us as we kick off the series with an evening of deception, reinvention and alternate realities co-hosted by F. Paul Driscoll, editor in chief of Opera News. Revel in performances by Anthony Roth Costanzo and bass-baritone Davóne Tines, sample food that isn’t quite what it seems by James Beard Award-winning chef Patrick Connolly and interactive sculpture sure to shatter your expectations. Mistakes have never been so fun.
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Missed out on tickets? Watch our live video stream at 7pm.
About the Hosts and Guests
Anthony Roth Costanzo (countertenor) makes his debuts at the Los Angeles Opera as the title role in Phillip Glass’ “Ahknaten,” the Finnish National Opera in Kaija Sariaaho’s “Only the Sound Remains,” the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra in performances of “Messiah,” and with both the London Symphony Orchestra and the Berlin Philharmonic as Prince Go-Go in performances of “Le Grand Macabre,” conducted by Sir Simon Rattle and directed by Peter Sellars. He also produces and stars in his critically acclaimed show, “Orphic Moments,” at the Landestheater in Salzburg.
Mr. Costanzo has appeared at the Metropolitan Opera as both Ferdinand and Prospero in the world premiere of “The Enchanted Island,” and as Prince Orlofsky in a new production of “Die Fledermaus” after making his debut as Unulfo in “Rodelinda.” He also recently made his debuts at the Lyric Opera of Chicago in the world premiere of Jimmy Lopéz’ “Bel Canto” and the San Francisco Opera in “Partenope.” He made his European debut at the Glyndebourne Festival in “Rinaldo,” and has since appeared at the English National Opera in “The Indian Queen” and “Ahknaten,” the Teatro Real in “Death in Venice” and in a performance of Britten’s “Canticles” with Ian Bostridge and Julius Drake, and in concerts with Jordi Savall in Barcelona, Paris, and Versailles. He has also performed at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, on Broadway and in the Merchant Ivory film, “A Soldier’s Daughter Never Cries.” He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Princeton University where he has returned to teach, and received his masters from Manhattan School of Music.
F. Paul Driscoll has been editor-in-chief of Opera News since 2003. He began contributing to the magazine in 1990 and joined the editorial staff as managing editor in 1998.
Mr. Driscoll has served as a lecturer and interviewer for InSight Cruises and Radisson Cruises; at Cooper Union; at the MBL Falmouth Forum Lecture Series; at Hunter College’s Kaye Playhouse; at the Dahesh Museum; at the Museum of the City of New York; at CUNY Graduate Center in Manhattan; at the Art Song Festival at Baldwin-Wallace College; the Metropolitan Opera Club; the Wagner Society of New York; and the Metropolitan Opera Guild’s “Singers Studio” interview series.
For two seasons, Mr. Driscoll was the host of OPERA NY, a weekly program for WNYE-TV, and was executive producer of the 2004 WNYE television special Vignettes: an Evening with Stephanie Blythe and Warren Jones, now in the permanent collection of the Paley Center for Media. He was regularly featured on WQXR’s 2012 series “Opera in Brief” with Midge Woolsey.
Mr. Driscoll has served as a competition judge for Plácido Domingo’s Operalia, the Liederkranz Foundation, the Gerda Lissner Foundation, the Alan M. and Joan Taub Ades Competition at Manhattan School of Music and the Metropolitan Opera National Council (regional level).
Doug Fitch provides art direction and edible design for the series. As co-founder of the production company Giants Are Small, visual artist, designer, and director Doug Fitch directed several projects conducted by Alan Gilbert for the New York Philharmonic, including Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre (cited as the top opera of 2010 by The New York Times, New York Magazine, and Time Out New York), Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen (2011, New York Magazine’s “Best Classical Event of the Year”), A Dancer’s Dream: Two Works by Stravinsky (2013, later screened in movie theaters worldwide); and HK Gruber’s Gloria – A Pig Tale (2014, with forces from The Juilliard School as part of the New York Philharmonic’s Bienial). Mr. Fitch was the inaugural WBFO visiting artist at SUNY, where he created an opera of images, How Did We…? In 2013 he directed and performed in the premiere of Matthew Suttor’s musical setting of Blaise Cendrar’s poem La Prose du Transsibérien et de la Petite Jehanne de France with the Taos Chamber Music Group. He has created productions for Los Angeles Opera, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and Santa Fe Opera, and directed projects for Canada’s National Arts Centre, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, and Tanglewood (Elliot Carter’s What Next?, screened at The Museum of Modern Art).
Doug Fitch’s creative life began with his family’s touring puppet theater. While studying visual arts at Harvard University, he collaborated with director Peter Sellars on Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen, among other projects. He also studied cooking at Paris’s famed La Varenne school and design at the Institut d’Architecture et d’Etudes Urbaines in Strasbourg, France. He emerged as an architectural designer in the 1980s, then collaborated with Mimi Oka on edible art installations called Orphic Feasts, leading to their book, Orphic Fodder. In co-production with Universal Music and Deutsche Grammophon, Giants Are Small developed Peter+Wolf in Hollywood – an iPad app, CD, digital album, and live show that will appear with the National Symphony Orchestra this May. This year, he is creating a new production for flute and community participants called Pan, with flutist Claire Chase and composer Marcos Balter and, as artist in residence at National Sawdust, curating an evening called Doug Fitch’s Art Gallery Cabaret. Mr. Fitch resides in Brooklyn, New York.
Davóne Tines, deemed a “…singer of immense power and fervor…” by the Los Angeles Times and a “…charismatic, full-voiced bass-baritone…” by The New York Times, commands a broad spectrum of opera and concert performance as a singer and creator. Highlights from last season include performances with the Dutch National Opera, Ojai Music Festival, London Symphony, and LA Philharmonic in collaborations with Kaija Saariaho, John Adams, Matt Aucoin, Caroline Shaw and Peter Sellars. Upcoming performances include engagements with the Finnish National Opera, San Francisco Opera, San Francisco Symphony, Paris Opera, Orchestre national de France, BAM and the American Repertory Theater.