NEW YORK – Teatro Grattacielo’s Artistic Director Stefanos Koroneos and the Board of Directors announced their November 2021 productions including L’Amico Fritz on November 14. Greek-American Koroneos told The National Herald that he is “very happy to be contributing to the comeback of live shows to New York City.”

On Sunday, November 14, 4 PM EST, Teatro Grattacielo will be presenting at La MaMa’s Ellen Stewart Theatre (capacity 300), 66 East 4th Street in Manhattan’s East Village, a staged production of Pietro Mascagni’s L’Amico Fritz (1891), a charming pastorale opera last presented in New York City in 1987.

L’Amico Fritz is set in pre-Franco-Prussian war Alsace with libretto by Nicola Daspuro, adapted from L’Ami Fritz by Emile Erckmann (1822-1899). The international cast is led by tenor John Bellemer, young up and coming soprano Alexandra Razskazoff, recent Operalia semi-finalist, baritone Marcus Deloach as David, and mezzo soprano Mariya Kaganskaya. The performance will be conducted by Teatro Grattacielo’s music director James Bagwell at the head of The Queens Symphony Orchestra, and it will be directed by Malena Dayen and Stefanos Koroneos. Other key members of the creative team are Jon DeGaetano, set and lighting designer, Sangmin Chae, technologist from Culture Hub who will create the live feed, and Guadalupe Marin who, from her home in Argentina, will add a contemporary dimension to the presentation through projected original video artwork design.

The production will be presented in a semi-staged form with the enhancement of digital technology. “Key components of the opera’s storytelling are Mascagni’s music, premade projections, live feed and our international cast,” Koroneos said.

On Saturday, November 13, 7:30 PM EST, Teatro Grattacielo, in co-production with Opera Hispanica will be presenting at La MaMa’s Ellen Stewart Theatre a fully staged performance of Quando el Fuego Abrasa, a double bill of De Falla’s El Amor Brujo and Piazzola’s Oblivion and other tango songs. Spanish superstar mezzo soprano Nancy Fabiola Herrera appears in the role of Candela. Teatro Grattacielo celebrates the 100th Anniversary of tango master Astro Piazzola with Oblivion and other tango staged songs with baritone Gustavo Feulien. The performance will be conducted by Opera Hispanica’s General and Artistic Director Jorge Parodi at the head of Metamorphosis Ensemble Orchestra with Latin Grammy Award-winning bandoneon player Rodolfo Zanetti, Latin Grammy Award-winning bass player Pedro Giraudo, and directed by Malena Dayen.

Teatro Grattacielo continues with the fulfillment of their mission of reviving great, neglected masterpieces and assisting young singers in advancing their careers. In addition, Teatro Grattacielo with its first all in Spanish production, is looking forward to exploring operatic repertoire of the romantic and post-romantic era in languages other than Italian. “At Teatro Grattacielo, we believe that it is the role of artists to help see the world in new ways,” as noted in the company’s news release. Over the past 27 years, Teatro Grattacielo has presented many U.S. premieres, while ensuring that the scope of their achievement includes the vast diversity of artistic voices, cultures, disciplines, and traditions found in our own New York community, as well as around the world.

More information is available online: https://grattacielo.org/.