Wesley Chinn, the attractive, young and very gifted producer of this new “boutique” opera company, now has a serious problem; how can he top this sold-out and utterly delightful first offering? New York is always looking for the creative, the new and the unusual but who would have thought Baroque Opera performed in a club setting would turn out to be such a crowd pleaser? In fact, it has done just that. The company’s first production, Monteverdi’s The Coronation of Poppea, a work dating to 1643, has packed the house at Le Poisson Rouge (formerly “The Village Gate”) on Bleecker street in New York with an enthusiastic audience of all ages from trendy twenty-somethings to elderly lovers of ancient music, illustrating the fact that you do not have to be an opera lover to thoroughly enjoy this highly accessible, English language, well sung and acted production.
