In a time and place where people with more money than sense are willing to shell out $2500 a ticket to scalpers on the off chance that a sickly, overweight and over-the-hill Italian tenor might actually show up for his farewell performance, the debut of composer John Eaton’s formerly Chicago-based “pocket opera” company is a welcome dose of reality.  Too much of New York’s music scene is about big, expensive “events” and celebrity ego-stroking which has more news value than artistic merit.  The Metropolitan Opera, which is rolling in cash but still feels obligated to have its professional almspeople phone me three nights a week begging for more, is the worst offender but it is hardly alone. 

Fortunately, there are a handful of genuine music lovers who want to make opera and classical music more accessible and egalitarian.  A University of Chicago Professor of Music and composer, Eaton calls his company a “pocket opera,” which is just about right.  There are other pocket opera companies, of course.  San Francisco has had one for 25 years.  England has one. Scandinavia has many. What they have in common is that they tend to stage their shows with a handful of instrumentalists, a few vocalists and creative lighting, rather than with the elaborate sets, full orchestra and dozens of cast members.   Rather than being hidden away in the orchestra pit, the instrumentalists are on often stage during the entire production–and they wear modest or partial costumes, sing, move and speak, in addition to playing their instruments.  Many of these operas can be performed by amateur groups and Eaton, as a composer, often encourages performers to make do with whatever resources they have on hand.

Eaton has written at least 14 such operas, the first of which was the critically acclaimed Peer Gynt, based on the play by Ibsen and originally performed in 1993 by the New York New Music Ensemble.  In the program notes for Tuesday night’s performance at the newly refurbished “Peter Norton” Symphony Space, Eaton writes that they (the instrumentalists) are “not expected to be experienced, professional actors, singers or dancers…In all cases, the stage directions are to be interpreted freely, enhanced if they can be or simplified in situations where they can not be realized as given.”

Obviously, having amateur actors clomping around the stage in silly hats works best if it is supposed to be funny and Eaton has taken some of Ibsen’s heavier Freudian swords and bent them into genuinely amusing Classic Comicbook plowshares.  Clarinetist Jean Kopperud, as the intrepid Peer Gynt captures just the right mix of swaggering spoiled male bravado and thickheadedness to keep the character honest.  Played by a man, Peer might have been more real but he certainly wouldn’t have been as funny.  Ted Mook, the cellist, was lovely as the raped bride.  Listened to casually, Eaton’s score sounds deceptively simple but when you pay more attention you realize that much of the dialogue, and most of the mood, is being carried by the music—not the words.  Conductor James Baker did a great job of keeping his musicians from running over each other.

 The second half of Tuesday’s program was devoted to the premiere of  Eaton’s latest pocket opera called  “…inasmuch,”  a whimsical fantasy  based on an idea of Eugene Walter and brought to life by the composer’s daughter, librettist Estela Eaton. Written for three coloratura sopranos, mezzo-soprano, tenor, baritone, jazz singer and seven instrumentalists, the plot is about as dense as a Moliere farce or, perhaps a year’s worth of  “One Life to Live.”  Esperanto  (Jeffrey McCollum) is in love with Mediana (Sharon Quattrin) who is in love with Tense-Marker (Atoninette Arnold) who finds shipwrecked Adam (Mark J. Meier) washed up on  their Caribbean Island.  Soon, Adam discovers and falls in love with the beautiful Zamala (Hyoun-soo Sohn) who can only communicate through three parrots (Quattrin, Arnold and Bridget Wintermann-Parker) who speak a lost Aztec language. She falls for Adam and they plan to marry.  But, alas, with the help of Schwa (Stacia Spencer), Esperanto kidnaps the birds and plans to commercialize them by having them perform in an infomercial for a cruise line.

 Adam and Mediana rescue them and Adam returns the parrots to Zamala.  Happy ending?  No way.  This is opera, after all, and it ends with Zamala singing a lament to her lost love. 

 Eaton’s music is bright and engaging  throughout and, unlike Peer Gynt,  which makes few tough vocal demands, ‘…inasmuch” required some real stretching on the part of the singers, especially Mark J. Meier in Adam’s opening prologue number and the exquisite Hyoun-soo Sohn in a couple of Zamala’s arias.   Indeed, everyone in the cast was superb which, of course, is something one can rarely say about a production at some better-known local venues.   The piece was conducted by the sure-handed Carmen Helena Tellez, one of the quiet forces behind the promotion of  contemporary music in America today.

 All in all, an auspicious beginning for what we hope will become a New York institution.  So, it wasn’t Pavarotti but the singers not only showed up but sang their hearts out and it was only twenty bucks.