I wish the timing did not coincide with a very busy festival season, which means I won’t be able to explore this new adventure in Portland. But the two productions that OrpheusPDX is offering in August look very interesting. The company’s second season will offer Mozart’s 1775 opera seria Il re pastore (3 and 6 August) and Nico Muhly’s Dark Sisters (24 and 27 August). (I well recall Vancouver Opera’s production of Muhly’s fascinating opera, which I reviewed in December 2015 for Musical America.) All performances will take place in Portland State University’s 475-seat Lincoln Performance Hall.
Portland Opera’s former General Director Christopher Mattaliano founded OrpheusPDX last year and operates the company “without an office and via lots of Zoom calls. Its model is to honor tradition and explore new directions,” he says, creating a space “where opera gets intimate.”
Filed under: music news, opera companies
MEMETERIA by Thomas May 