Opera Bites
Celebrating Five Years
10-Minute Operas with food and drink
This production is postponed due to health concerns of Coronavirus/COVID-19
If you already have tickets, please see our Coronavirus/COVID-19 Ticket Policy
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People Love Opera Bites!
"Delightfully thought-provoking and fun...a delicious program celebrating life’s sweetest and sometimes most sour moments with cleverness and heart."
"Boston Opera Collaborative struck gold again with this refined selection of short and sweet works."
"Most of the collaborative’s singers are early in their careers, and vibrant singing and dramatic know-how are obviously in no short supply, One can easily imagine bragging in a
few years that we saw some of them way back when."
The Experience
Boston Opera Collaborative and Longy continue this wildly popular evening of short, new operas in English, in a cabaret-style setting. This year’s production will include crowd favorites from the past four years, alongside exciting new commissions, and as always, there will be food and drink!
WHEN
New Dates Announced by May 1, 2020
WHERE
Longy School of Music of Bard College
27 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA
TICKETS
VIP and Premium tickets seated at cabaret tables, with wine and hors d'oeuvres. General Admission tickets are theater style seating.
VIP Seating
Adult $45, Senior $40 (65+)
Premium Seating
Adult $40, Senior $35 (65+)
General Seating
Adult $25, Student/Senior $20
plus processing fee
We are unable to offer refunds for purchased tickets. We apologize for any inconvenience.
The Shows
The Total Spiritual
Music by Beth Ratay, libretto by Rich Orloff
The final test before you enter the Good Place isn’t exactly how you imagined it.
DIRECTION
Patricia Au, music director
Gretchen Werda, stage director
CAST
Marse Romero, Interviewer
Marissa Dyer, Applicant
Katelyn Geary, Brigade
American Flag
Music by Eva Kendrick, libretto by Sylvia Weiffenbach
A bachelor party gets real the next morning.
DIRECTION
Patricia Au, music director
Ingrid Oslund, stage director
CAST
Abby Mae Rogers, Mona
Wes Hunter, Man
Hamlet Investigations, Inc.
Music by Jonathan Shin, based on a play by Ellen Abrams
She thinks her fiancé is cheating on her. The detective she hired thinks it’s the 16th Century. Match made in heaven?
DIRECTION
Patricia Au, music director
Greg Smucker, stage director
CAST
Ethan DePuy, Hamlet
Madison Hatten, Annette
Cubs Win!
Music by Eva Kendrick, libretto by Marisa Smith
The book club discovers the truth about who Rick really was – but too late!
DIRECTION
Brian Moll, music director
Gretchen Werda, stage director
CAST
Alyssa Hensel, Aly
Megan Bisceglia, Colleen
Shannon Grace, Becca
Jessica Trainor Tasucu, Vicki
A Tall Order
Music by John Greer, libretto by Sheri Wilner based on her play "A Tall Order"
Wanting to make a good impression on a first date can be maddening.
DIRECTION
Jean Anderson Collier, music director
Patricia-Maria Weinmann, stage director
CAST
Tamara Ryan, She
Ethan DePuy, He
The Trapped Language of Love
Music by Carlos Carrillo, based on a play by Ronan Colfer
From love-at-first-site to hate-at-first-site in a matter of minutes.
DIRECTION
Katie Barr, music director
Ingrid Oslund, stage director
CAST
Jennifer Soloway, She
Wes Hunter, He
Graceland
Music by Omar Surillo, based on a play by Katie Thayer
A couple finally take the trip they’ve been talking about for years, to see Graceland. What awaits surprises them both.
DIRECTION
Brian Moll, music director
Greg Smucker, stage director
CAST
Sarah Joyce Cooper, Grace
Jessica Trainor Tasucu, Priscilla
Triangle
Music by Tony Solitro, based on a play by Jane Martin
Love triangles are never easy. But when the “other woman” is a goddess? OMG. How do you compete with that?
DIRECTION
Katie Barr, music director
Greg Smucker, stage director
CAST
Shannon Grace, Joyce
Kristen Buabin, Aphrodite
Wes Hunter, Art
A Womb with a View
Music by Beth Ratay, libretto by Rich Orloff
Baby is due! But before she enters the world, she has a few questions and needs some last-minute adjustments.
DIRECTION
Jean Anderson Collier, music director
Patricia-Maria Weinmann, stage director
CAST
Maria Whitcomb, New Kid
Kristen Lawler, Supervisor
Caiyi Wang, Assistant A
Molly McGuire, Assistant B
Composers
Carlos Carrillo (The Trapped Language of Love)
Born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Composer Carlos R. Carrillo holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music (BM), Yale University (MM) and the University of Pennsylvania (PhD). His teachers have included Tania León, Joseph Schwantner, Christopher Rouse, Jacob Druckman, Martin Bresnick, Roberto Sierra, George Crumb, James Primosch, Jay Reise and Steve Mackey. Mr. Carrillo is the recipient of numerous awards including the Bearns Prize, the Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, BMI and ASCAP awards. He has been commissioned by Music and the Anthology for the Da Capo Chamber Players, the New York Youth Symphony, Concert Artists Guild and the Pennsylvania Music Teachers Association. In 2004 he received a commission from the American Composers Orchestra, the second such work commissioned for ACO by the BMI Foundation, Inc./ Carlos Surinach Fund. Dr. Carrillo’s music has been performed at the American Composers Orchestra's Sonido de las Americas Festival and the Casals Festival, and by Young Musician Foundation's Debut Orchestra, Sequitur, Network for New Music, Prism Quartet, Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra, New York Youth Symphony, and members of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. In 2002, his symphonic work Cantares was featured at the inaugural "Synergy: Composer and Conductor" program presented by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and American Symphony Orchestra League. In 1998 he received one of the first Aaron Copland Awards from the Copland Heritage Association and he was the 2001-2003 Van Lier Emerging Composer Fellow with the ACO. In the spring of 2005 Dr. Carrillo was invited to the inaugural John Duffy Composers Institute as part of the 9th Annual Virginia Arts Festival. In 2007 he received a fellowship from the Civitella Ranieri Foundation. From 2007 to 2009 Dr. Carrillo was musical director of the Wabash Valley Youth Symphony. He has taught composition at DePauw University, Reed College, and the Conservatory of Music in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
In the Spring of 2013 Dr. Carrillo was appointed Assistant Professor of Composition-Theory at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
John Greer (A Tall Order)
JOHN GREER is an active accompanist, vocal coach, arranger, composer and conductor and is heard in these capacities throughout Canada and abroad, in recital and on various CBC broadcasts.
Mr. Greer has served as Music Director, coach or conductor for prominent performing and educational institutions such as: the University of Toronto opera division, Victoria’s Opera Piccola, Ottawa’s Opera Lyra, The Banff School of Fine Arts, the Toronto Gilbert & Sullivan Society, Mirvish Productions (Canada), Opera (Hamilton) Ontario, the Canadian Opera Company, Eastman Opera Theatre, the Opera Studio at the University of Maryland, the New England Conservatory, the Janiec Opera Workshop at the Brevard Music Center, Glimmerglass Opera, Chautauqua Opera and the University of Kentucky. He currently works at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, Canada.
Mr. Greer’s compositions include ten song cycles written for Canadian singers such as Catherine Robbin, Kevin McMillan, Mark Dubois, Tracy Dahl, Monica Whicher, and Adrianne Pieczonka and numerous works based on Canadian folk song. He has written two operas for the Canadian Children’s Opera Chorus, The Snow Queen based on the Hans Christian Anderson tale with a libretto by Jeremy James Taylor of Britain’s National Youth Music Theatre, and an adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s fairy tale The Star-Child with librettist Ned Dickens and a revision and orchestration of the 1889 Canadian operetta Leo the Royal Cadet by O. F. Telgmann, commissioned by Toronto Operetta Theatre.
Eva Conley Kendrick (American Flag & Cubs Win!)
Eva Kendrick is a Boston-area composer, vocalist, music director and vocal/music theory instructor. Awards include the Judith Lang Zaimont Prize from the International Alliance of Women in Music, ASCAPLU$ awards, The American Prize for Opera/Theatre and grants from the American Composers Forum and the Massachusetts Cultural Council. Dramatic works include Emily, a one act opera, five short operas and two musicals. Other opera collaborators include the Thompson St. Opera Company (Louisville, KY), Gateway Opera (St. Louis, MO), and One Ounce Opera (Austin, TX). She holds a Masters of Music in Composition with Distinction from the Longy School of Music. www.evakendrick.com.
Beth Ratay (The Total Spiritual & A Womb with a View)
Beth Ratay has been composing for over 25 years. She has had works performed around the world by many different types of ensembles including Earplay, West Edge Opera, Hartford Opera Theater, Coalescence Percussion Duo, and the Cambridge Chamber Singers. Her works have been featured at the April in Santa Cruz Contemporary Music Festival and the Society of Composers National Conference. Dr. Ratay received her Doctor of Musical Arts in World Music Composition from the University of California, Santa Cruz. She is currently an Adjunct Instructor at Bunker Hill Community College and lives with her amazing family including one husband, two sons, and one cat in Somerville.
Jonathan Shin (Hamlet Investigations, Inc.)
Jonathan Shin performs extensively as a soloist and chamber musician -- and he composes across multiple genres. Studying under the tutelage of Professor Thomas Hecht and Professor Ho Chee Kong, he graduated with honors from the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music. Shin received his Master of Music Degree in Composition (Classical) at the Longy School of Music of Bard College.
Shin has won numerous prizes in Singaporean and international piano competitions, including being awarded top prizes in all four age categories of the National Piano and Violin Competition. In 2008, he clinched 3rd prize in the Young Pianists Division of the 18th Ibiza International Piano Competition in Spain. In 2009, he was awarded the Special Prize in the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music’s Concerto Competition for his performance of Franck’s Symphonic Variations. Shin was a soloist in the same work when he won the coveted President’s Young Performers Concert, as part of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. Shin won 1st prize in the Conservatory’s 2010 Piano Concerto Competition - its youngest winner ever at the age of 18. He performed the Mozart Piano Concerto No. 20 in D Minor as soloist with the YSTCM Orchestra in the Gala Winner’s Concert.
Tony Solitro (Triangle)
Tony Solitro is an active composer of concert and stage music. Commissions include works for Utah Opera (Burial, Golden Spike Commission), Boston Opera Collaborative (She’s Fabulous, Triangle, A Case of Anxiety), MIFA Victory Players (Canción Exaltada), and Network for New Music (Automata). Triangle was named a finalist in NOA’s Argento Chamber Opera Competition and was featured on Fort Worth Opera’s Frontiers Showcase. Tony is currently a 2019-21 Composer Fellow with The American Opera Project and serves on faculty at Longy School of Music of Bard College, where he leads an opera creation workshop and facilitates collaboration between composers and performers. www.tonysolitro.com.
Omar Surillo (Graceland)
Omar Surillo, a native of San Juan, Puerto Rico, is an award-winning composer, producer/engineer, and multi-instrumentalist from Orlando, FL. His music has been performed nationally and internationally in various ensembles ranging from classical to rock. Surillo received his Master of Music degree in Music Composition from Yale School of Music in May of 2011. Earlier studies include a Bachelor of Music (Music Theory and Composition) from Stetson University (2008), and an Associate of Arts degree from Valencia College (2006). After graduating from Yale University, Surillo went on to teach audio production, post-AP music theory, and composition classes at ACES Educational Center for the Arts in New Haven, CT. In 2013, he went on to teach Digital Audio and Music Theory 1 at Stetson University, along with History of Jazz and Rock, Ear Training, and Composition courses at Valencia College.
Currently, Surillo serves as music faculty at Richland College, where he teaches Audio Recording, Live Sound, Composition, American Music (History of Jazz and Rock), and leads all Music Theory courses. Aside from his teaching duties, Prof. Surillo remains an active composer and is often called upon to write, collaborate, and record with artists in Venezuela, Poland, New York, and Florida. He currently resides in Richardson where he enjoys spending time with his wife, Heather, and chasing after his English bulldog, Dexter.
Cast
Creative Team
(Music Director)
(Music Director)
(Music Director)
(Conductor)
(Stage Director)
(Co-Artistic Director & Stage Director)
(Co-Artistic Director & Stage Director)
(Stage Director)
Directions
Public Transportation
Take the Red Line to Harvard Square. Longy is about a 10 minute walk from the T station.
Parking
The closest parking available is at the Sheraton Commander Hotel, across the street from Longy at 16 Garden Street. There are also metered spots around Cambridge Common and parking garages in Harvard Square.