We suggest you arrive early, as there are no tickets or reservations, and the theater ain’t that big. More details after the jump.

Riptide: Performances and Screenings

Roger Prynne becomes Nurse Chillingworth (Ryan Scott Lathan; photo by Mathew Pokoik)

The Interview (Ryan Tracy, Ryan Scott Lathan; photo by Mathew Pokiok)

The Interview (Ryan Tracy, Ryan Scott Lathan, Summer Tennyson Baldwin; photo by Mathew Pokiok)

Nurse Chillingworth and A Student (Ryan Scott Lathan; photo by Mathew Pokoik)

East Salem High Spirit Team (Ryan Tracy, Summer Baldwin, Brent Capron; photos by Mathew Pokiok)

See Palestrina channeled via Nathaniel Hawthorne through the auspices of the Rocky Horror Show this weekend in rustic Mount Tremper

by Geddy Sveikauskas

Up the gravel driveway past the Mount Tremper Arts sign on Old Route 28 to the small parking lot with only one car in it, a battered green Volvo station wagon. The place looks dusty and deserted. Up at the studio is a glass door, behind which six people are sitting in a circle on the floor. What are they doing?

Open the door. The six are singing together, a cappella, carrying multiple melodic voices at the same time, pitch against pitch, entering and enlarging and diminishing, listening very carefully to each other as they create harmonies together, enjoying immensely the counterpoint they are creating.

Holy cow. It’s Palestrina, vocal music written half a century or so before Henry Hudson sailed up the same river into which the Esopus Creek outside flows. This Palestrina stuff is not easy to sing well. These people must be very good at what they do. I feel prickles up and down my spine. I’m as honored as I am surprised to be in this bright, large, sunlight space listening to pure vocal sound resonating off the rafters.

Read the complete article here.

However, I know what you’re thinking:

• I just can’t get out of the city this weekend. Things are crazy!…
• There’s no way I can make it all the way up to the Catskills and back in time to pass out watching Facts of Life reruns on Hulu in the comfort of my own bed…
• Who can keep up with each and every world premiere of a brand spanking new opera!??…

But here are two things I would say to these ridiculous, albeit relatable, grumbles:

YOU WILL NOT REGRET getting the F out of the city this weekend to spend a gorgeous day on the grounds of Mt. Tremper Arts. It just doesn’t happen. The air is fresh and rejuvenating. The landscape, Edenesque. As I type this (near 7am), a gentle veil of mist is rolling over the small ridge of a friendly mountain. Crickets, bugs, birds and other woodland creatures sound a constant chorus around the clock. Don’t even get me started about the stars: STARS, people! Then there is the stoic and elegant studio that Mt. Tremper Arts built (see picture here), which not only invites scores of artists to take time out (and time off) to invent beautiful new things, but seems somehow, also, to extract the most productive juices of inspiration while one resides under its cathedral ceiling, and atop its smooth, sprung hardwood floor. All these words may get close, but could never actually touch the truth of what it feels like to be here.

Now, on the other hand, YOU WILL REGRET not coming to see the world premiere of SCARLET FEVER. Because, let’s get god damned real here: World premieres of operas do not happen every day. It fact, world premieres of operas are about as common as total solar eclipses (wait, didn’t China just have one of those?) than every day occurrences of music theater. Now, COC is trying hard to change that (from start to finish, our opera took about 10 months to create – so, kind of unheard of, guys) but we need YOU to close the circuit and make the premiere an occasion worthy of opera.

The information is here. Check it out. Consider it. You can get here by bus, or carpool, or hitchhike, if you’re brave enough. Or, like, if four of you rent a car together, it will cost you probably around $25 apiece, which is more than likely less than 1/4 of what you will probably spend on a Friday night in the city. (Squeeze a third person in that comfy back seat and it starts to get even cheaper.) You can also CAMP OUT (not to be confused with “queen out”) on the grounds here (although you can queen out too, if you’re feeling it; no judgments here). Or find that old hippie friend of your parents who will let you crash on their couch. There will be campfires, drinks and discussion after each performance. You will meet awesome people, lay under the stars, and free your f-ing mind, all the while supporting THE ONLY OPERA ENSEMBLE IN NYC THAT IS DEDICATED TO CREATING ORIGINAL OPERA WORKS.

There. I’ve said my piece. Now make some shit happen, and spend the coolest weekend of your summer just 2 hours outside of NYC. Do it for us. Do it for opera. Do it for the children.

But wait! I will leave you with a little quote from Werner Herzog’s ridonculously awesome flick, Fitzcarraldo, about a crazy fin de siecle mo-fo who has the most rare and fantastical vision to try to build an opera house in the middle of the Amazon:

Sir, the reality of your world is nothing more than a rotten caricature of great opera.

Substitute “a stank summer day in NYC” for “your world,” and you pretty much have no excuse not to come see us.

So, have a fun weekend! We’ll be making new opera. What will you be doing?

Big hugs,

Ryan Tracy

Artistic Director, COC

OPEN STUDIO at the PARK AVENUE ARMORY
August 17
7 PM
643 Park Ave.
New York, NY 10021

Suggested donation $5

Come out on Monday, August 17 to see a few excerpts and to share your feedback before we head upstate. If you can’t make it to Mt. Tremper (although we encourage everyone to try), this is your chance to see what we’ve been cooking up.

SCARLET FEVER at MT. TREMPER ARTS
August 21, 22
647 South Plank Rd.
Mount Tremper, NY 12457
845-688-9893
$15

This is the full-meal-deal, people. Two opportunities to see the premiere engagement of Scarlet Fever in the beautiful Mt. Tremper Arts studio for which we’ve created this work.

Come one, come all.

Dress Code: Audiences attending SCARLET FEVER are encouraged to wear red.

Click here for upcoming performances.

What happens when a young woman shows up for her senior year of high school pregnant…and a man? Such is the stuff of SCARLET FEVER, a new opera from Brooklyn-based Collective Opera Company. Taking Nathaniel Hawthorne’s iconic 19th century novel “The Scarlet Letter” as a starting point, SCARLET FEVER mines America’s long-held obsession with unorthodox pregnancy. Classical voices, romantic literature and tabloid headlines collide in this absurdist riff on parental identity.

SCARLET FEVER is the first opera commission by Mt. Tremper Arts (MTA), and will be performed as part of the summer festival on August 21 at 8pm, and August 22 at 8pm. Tickets ($15) are available at smarttix.com or by calling 877-238-5596.

Dress Code: Audiences attending SCARLET FEVER are encouraged to wear red.

Concept and creation by Collective Opera Company including Summer Baldwin, Brent Capron, Michael Hart, Jocelyn Ladd, Ryan Scott Lathan, Elizabeth Munn, Chris Schiavo, Ryan Tracy, and Paula White

Original music by Ryan Tracy, with contribution from the company

Libretto by the company, based on “The Scarlet Letter” by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Lighting and visual design by Chris Schiavo

Excerpts of Scarlet Fever were performed at The Delancy on April 6, with performers including Rupert Boyd, Michael Hart, Jocelyn Ladd, Dana Marie, Rachel Mason, Christina Reaves, Ryan Tracy, Paula White, and Diana Yourke