Go Ape on Opera

This past weekend, I attended a performance of Heart of a Dog at Boston Conservatory mainly to support one of my good friends playing in the orchestra. As I read the program, I noticed the group’s name, Guerilla Opera, and began to think about its implications.

First, here’s the information about this particular group:

Guerilla Opera is a collective of young Boston-based singers and instrumentalists dedicated to legitimizing and promoting a unique theatre-oriented brand of chamber opera featuring a repertoire of newly commissioned work. Each work is scored for a quartet of voices and a unique chamber ensemble featuring saxophone, viola, cello, and percussion.

The term guerilla warfare refers to the unconventional warfare with a small group of combatants. In art, guerilla could be used to insinuate the group’s purpose is to attack or question the status quo of American mainstream thought. In this particular case, here’s a group of eight musicians ( for singers and four instrumentalists ) modernizing chamber opera works for the mass audience. This is an example of how of a musical group breaks down the barriers of the rigid categories of opera, orchestra, and classical music.

For more information about the Guerilla Opera visit the website at:
www.guerillaopera.com