Vertical Player Repertory

Name: Vertical Player Repertory
Address: 219 Court Street, Brooklyn, NY, 11201, US

219 Court Street

Brooklyn, NY 11201

212-539-2696

Mission:

Vertical Player Repertory’s mission is to invite a diverse public to experience the ever-evolving art form that is opera by introducing rarely-performed operas from the 17th to the present century infusing the standard repertory with fresh theatrical Vision Promoting and commissioning new opera bringing artists from all disciplines together to create opera theatre involving members of the community and young singers in our work

History

Founded in 1998 by Judith Barnes, Vertical Player Repertory is a pioneer of the alternative opera movement in New York City. VPR began life in a storefront in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, bringing an ensemble theatre aesthetic to intimate performances. The 2003 world premiere of composer Yoav Gal’s comic opera The Dwarf brought the company notice in The New York Times feature article “Never Say Die in Indie Opera” by opera critic Anne Midgette.

At the invitation of Sal Catucci, CEO of American Stevedoring Inc., VPR created two site-specific productions outdoors at the Red Hook Container Port in 2007 and 2008. Il Tabarro was performed on the deck of the oil tanker The Mary Whalen, and Les contes d’Hoffmann was staged atop tons of raw lumber in an amphitheatre made of stacked shipping containers. These productions brought thousands of people to a spectacular location usually inaccessible to the public.

In 2009, port access was restricted nationwide by Homeland Security while VPR was preparing for a site-specific staging of A View from the Bridge, William Bolcom’s powerful opera about Brooklyn longshoremen, to be set on the very Red Hook docks where the story takes place. VPR returned to its storefront venue with a new chamber arrangement of the opera, created in collaboration with the composer. In 2011, VPR brought Francesco Cavalli’s bedroom comedy of the gods, La Calisto, to a post-industrial factory courtyard on the banks of the Gowanus Canal.

Repertoire at VPR has included works as varied as Handel’s Alcina, Mozart’s Idomeneo, JanáÄek’s JenÅ¯fa and Milhaud’s Médée. World premieres include The Dwarf, Isidore Elias’ original vaudeville Bucky and his Friends, and Opera Feroce’s baroque pasticcio opera Amor & Psyche. Other pieces VPR has developed include Der Rosenkavalier: The True Story, a hybrid opera-theater reworking of Strauss’ classic with a speaking role for Baron Ochs. The Dwarf, a comic opera by Yoav Gal, which VPR premiered in 2003, is being revived as a hybrid opera-film-to-be-performed directed by Doug Fitch.

VPR’s first commission, The Peace, by composer Nizan Leibovich and librettist Isidore Elias, based on Aristophanes’ stinging social satire, is currently receiving its first workshop performances and is planned for premiere in the 2014-2015 season. In addition to full operas in varied locations, VPR continues to give intimate performances of opera and recital repertoire as part of its In Your Lap Atelier Series in its storefront venue, Behind the Door.

VPR has received grants from the Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA), Brooklyn Arts Council (BAC), the Independence Community Foundation, The New York Community Trust, BRIC/Rotunda, The Field, the Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation, and many generous contributions from private donors.

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