Shawn K. Kaufman

IL TABARRO has a special relationship to New York, since it’s the only Puccini to premiere here at the Metropolitan, in 1918. While it’s only the first third of the trio of short operas that go by the title IL TRITTICO, no one attending the other night’s performance by On Site Opera in partnership with the South Street Seaport Museum should have felt short-changed. It definitely felt like an evening’s worth of opera--and a fine one.

Celebrating its 10th anniversary season, On Site Opera gave its audiences a present: The lively, fun-filled GIANNI SCHICCHI--the only comedy in Puccini’s trifecta, IL TRITTICO, which had its world premiere at the Met in 1918 and is surely its most popular of the triptych of one-acts. Of course, the composer’s written about greed, love and violence before, but never in a way to lift the spirits and tickle one’s fancy, using Giovacchino Forzano’s libretto.

On Site Opera, New York's pioneer opera company rooted in site-specific storytelling and the immersive experience, announced today a three week initiative to bring industry operatic giants from their Artistic Advisory Council together to initiate discussions across multiple areas of focus. Established in the Fall of 2019, the diverse Council was assembled to bring together artists to steer the organization into new levels of exploration and growth.

On Site Opera, New York's pioneer opera company rooted in site-specific storytelling and the immersive experience, will host a series of online performance live streams and events to remote patrons and audiences as social distancing becomes a necessary norm all over the world.

On Site Opera, an organization dedicated to presenting site-specific opera productions in non-traditional venues throughout New York City, has announced casting for Das Barbecü at Hill Country Barbecue Market, January 26- February 11, 2020. With book and lyrics by Jim Luigs and music by Scott Warrender, Das Barbecü's songbook ranges from Broadway to Texas swing, jazz to twangy country and western with a multi-disciplinary cast to reflect the show's artistic demands.

On Site Opera, an organization dedicated to presenting site-specific opera productions in non-traditional venues throughout New York City, will present the return of Gian Carlo Menotti's perennial one act opera Amahl and the Night Visitors at Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen December 4-8, following its critically acclaimed run in 2018. 

Known for pioneering rare and captivating site-specific performances, On Site Opera (OSO) will produce the New York premiere (and the first production since its world premiere) of Ricky Ian Gordon's Morning Star on March 21-22, and 25, 2018, at the Eldridge Street Synagogue, in partnership with the Museum at Eldridge Street.

Well, three cheers for On Site Opera, for completing its trilogy of works based on Beaumarchais' 18th century 'Figaro' plays and digging deep into the repertoire to deliver some lesser known works. First, a BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA not by Rossini (theirs, by Giovanni Paisiello) and then a FIGARO not by Mozart (instead, Marcos Portugal). This week, the whip-smart company presented the American premiere, in partnership with the Darius Milhaud Society, of Milhaud's LA MERE COUPABLE (THE GUILTY MOTHER), based on the least known and, to some, the unknown, among the Beaumarchais plays.

It had a great score but an unmanageable book. So the director had it reshaped, cut and done in a creative environmental production that sent the singers scampering throughout the audience. No, I'm not talking about Hal Prince's famous reinvention of Leonard Bernstein's CANDIDE, but On Site Opera's (OSO) charming new take on Mozart's THE SECRET GARDENER (LA FINTA GIARDINIERA), a coproduction with the Atlanta Opera, which just opened in a New York garden before heading south.