THE BRONX OPERA ANNOUNCES ITS 51st SEASON

For Immediate Release – Bronx, New York – The Bronx Opera will perform a pair of operas in 2018 for its 51st season. They open their season with Mozart’s beloved comic gem, The Abduction from the Seraglio (January 12, 13, 14, 15); and Carl Maria von Weber’s Der Freischütz, the opera that most successfully established the German romantic opera style (May 5, 6, 12, 13). This will be BxO’s fifth presentation of The Abduction from the Seraglio and their fourth of Der Freischütz. Each production will be performed in the Bronx, at Lehman College’s Lovinger Theatre, and both operas will be performed in English.

The second-oldest continually presenting opera company in New York, the Bronx Opera has become a cultural staple of the city and the borough, supplementing its full productions with concerts and community outreach initiatives to many of the underserved communities in the Bronx. In addition to their two productions, they will also present condensed versions of each opera for children, through their Opera-in-the-Schools program. Furthermore, the season marks an exciting update with regards to Bronx Opera’s administration: the Board of Directors has appointed Benjamin Spierman as General Director, leading the company alongside his father, co-founder and Artistic Director Michael Spierman.

The Bronx Opera Company (BxO) is currently the second-oldest continually presenting opera company in New York City. Since its founding in 1967, the BxO’s mission has been to broaden the audience for the art form by keeping ticket prices low (no ticket costs more than $45); by performing all operas in English; and by bringing opera to schools in the Bronx through its Opera-in-the-Schools (OitS) Program.

BxO regards opera as the perfect art form, intended to be understood by its audiences. All productions are performed with full orchestra and chorus, fully staged and costumed, and are sung in English. The company is open to all individuals to participate based on their talents and availability. In the words of Opera News, “The Bronx Opera’s crowd, like the company’s enthusiastic, sonorous chorus, is (hearteningly) among the most racially integrated to be seen in New York; encouraging the attendance of so many young people marks a positive contribution to the art form.”