Pocket Opera of New York

Last Wednesday night I attended the opening concert and reception of PONY, Pocket Opera of NewYork http://pocketoperany.org/. They performed Ravel's  L'enfant et les sortileges and Debussy's La chute de la maison Usher (what there is of it). It was marvellous, done in English with piano accompaniment and some staging. 14 singers! PONY has large pockets. PONY has been around since last year. I was as much impressed with the organizational skills of the PONY admin. team as I was with the performance and with the quality of the singers.

I talked with Wei-En Hsu, Artistic Director and also the excellent accompanist for PONY. They had 6 weeks of rehearsal on a low budget!"This is New York. We had auditions, and singers from Chicago  offered to come, paying their own way." What happens when a singer gets a "paid" gig that conflicts with a production like this? This from one of the singers: "There are lots of little opera organizations in New York. Most double or triple cast each role. There are so many hungry singers here that it's possible to do that."

PONY is obviously not into touring, with such a large cast. Voice Afire Pocket Opera and Cabaret is.
Perhaps there's some synchronicity there? http://www.voiceafire.com

PONY performed at the Bechstein Showroom at 207 West 58th St. http://www.bechstein-america.com/

Any singers wanting to audition for PONYtry:  info@pocketoperany.org