The Merry Wives of Windsor Otto Nicolai (Composer); Salomon Hermann Mosenthal (Original Libretto); Donald Pippin (English Version, Libretto) Based on Play by William Shakespeare Pocket Opera With a measure of self-worth and a confidence in his own attraction to the fairer sex that are almost as mammoth as his rotund belly, Shakespeare’s Falstaff has through the … [Read more...] about The Merry Wives of Windsor
Pocket Opera
Cunning Little Vixen
Cunning Little Vixen Leoš Janáček (Music & Original Czech Libretto) Donald Pippin (English Version of Libretto) Pocket Opera An old badger waddles outside its bushy abode, batting away a horde of buzzing, pesky insects. A spry frog hops onto a nearby rock while one by one, other forest creatures happily hop, prance, and sniff as a butterfly and blue dragon flit and fly … [Read more...] about Cunning Little Vixen
La Cenerentola
La Cenerentola Gioachino Rossini (Composer): Jacopi Ferretti (Original Italian Libretto); Donald Pippin (English Libretto) Pocket Opera Music that excites the imagination and pleases the senses; voices that soar with their clarity and amaze with their electricity; an adapted, English libretto that teases and titillates with its rhymes and rhythms; acting that elicits … [Read more...] about La Cenerentola
Tosca
Tosca Giacomo Puccini Original Italian Libretto by Luigi Illica & Giuseppe Giacosa English Version by Donald Pippin Pocket Opera, in a Co-Production with Cinnabar Theatre When Giacomo Puccini’s universally popular, 1900-premiering Tosca is transformed from its usual position on grand opera stages with scores of cast members to an intimate setting where a few … [Read more...] about Tosca
Orpheus in the Underworld
Orpheus in the Underworld Jacques Offenbach (Music) Hector Crémieux & Ludovic Halévy (Original French Libretto) Donald Pippin (English Adaptation) The plights of Orpheus and Eurydice have fascinated audiences from the times of ancient Greeks through the works of Ovid and Virgil up until today’s multiple versions of their ill-fated journey into Hades as told in … [Read more...] about Orpheus in the Underworld
Die Fledermaus, or The Revenge of the Bat
Die Fledermaus Johann Strauss II Original German Libretto by Karl Kaffner & Richard Ginée; English Version by Donald Pippin Pocket Opera Everybody who is anybody of societal standing in Vienna is heading to the ball of the season at the palatial home of Prince Orlofsky. The gowned and tuxedoed guests include a man-about-town disguised as a French marquis who is … [Read more...] about Die Fledermaus, or The Revenge of the Bat
La Traviata
La Traviata Giuseppe Verdi, Composer; Original Libretto by Francisco Maria Piave English Version by Donald Pippin Pocket Opera, in Co-Production with Cinnabar Theatre With cheeks flushed against a snow-white, pale face, Violetta Valéry slowly enters pressed against the strong arm of her devoted servant, Annina, who serves as a needed crutch. Gingerly, painfully, … [Read more...] about La Traviata
The Grand Duchess of Gerolstein
The Grand Duchess of Gerolstein Jacques Offenbach Original French Libretto by Henri Meilhac & Ludovic Halévy English Translation by Donald Pippin Pocket Opera As the marching beats and sounds of the Overture are suddenly interrupted by the fanfare of a trumpet, a group of soldiers spills onto the stage, looking much like a colorful collection of toy soldiers that … [Read more...] about The Grand Duchess of Gerolstein
