Rhinebeck

Or: Summertime and the (country) livin's humid as hell

Step into my Chamber (Opera)

Some weekends ago came an interesting opportunity to photograph NY's lesser-known (to me, anyway) chamber opera scene. Set in the fittingly acoustic, subterranean performance space behind Dixon Place, the feature premiered works by composers Robert Paterson and Stewart Copeland (formerly of The Police, now of the Sacred Grove).

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“It’s art for art’s sake, and it’s totally free. Because god knows — I already got paid”

— Stewart Copeland, on The Sacred Grove, during an intermission panel

For the interested, a review of the evening's poe-ceedings (hush, let me have it), and brief history of the chamber opera format can be found at Paul Pelkonen's Superconductor blog.

Keeping to its history, chamber operas tend toward the exiguous and the intimate, featuring a small ensemble, minimal sets, and the pronounced lighting of the blackbox theater.

The actors' dressing room was a lively contrast to the deliberately sparse, minimalist framing of the stage. This is a favorite setting of mine; the space itself creates frames. The cozier setting meant some fun in showing a greater range of interaction between the "characters" in the room, and the framing can suggest relationships and new contexts.

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