Fire Island Opera performs Kurt Weill rarity

Guto Bittencourt (left) and Matthew Morris (right)

The Fire Island Opera Company is presenting the East Coast Premiere of Kurt Weill's first opera, The Protagonist. The piece stars a few singers familiar to this site, Liam Bonner, who sings the role of the Young Man; Matthew Morris, a former barihunks calendar model who sings one of the Schauspielers; and, Jeremy Galyon, who sings the innkeeper. Someone to keep an eye on in the production is model and singer-songwriter Guto Bittencourt, who is also one of the Schauspielers. 

The remainder of the cast includes tenor Samuel Levine in the title role, Maeve Höglund as the sister, tenor John Easterlin, as the Chief of Staff, as well as Jeremy Hirsch, Katrina Yaukey and Megan Marino as the remaining Schauspielers.

Liam Bonner

The opera is bases on a lurid subject drawn from a play by Georg Kaiser an is an example of the sensationalistic, psychologically oriented operas popular during the Weimar Republic. The story is about a theatrical troupe run by the Protagonist, an actor who is overly protective of his Sister. Unable to distinguish between illusion and reality, he kills her after she tells him she has a fiancé; at the close, he calls the murder his greatest theatrical performance. 

The Pines Pavilion on Fire Island has been transformed into a wild, dream world by Marfa-based installation artist, Charles Mary Kubricht, and project runway finalist and former Mark Morris dancer, choreographer/costume designer, Bradon McDonald.

The evening will culminate in a Kurt Weill inspired Haus music dance party!  [Hey, it's Fire Island].

The Sunday matinee production is preceded by a performance of Un Amour de Proust on The Pavilion's Lower Deck and followed by an Opera Pool Party on the Pool Deck! 

Performances are on August 23 and 24 and tickets are available online. 

Fire Island Opera Festival features sexy Matt Morris is Gluck rarity

Fire Island is known more for its circuit parties booming with house music, rather than presenting high culture, but that will all change this weekend.  The annual Fire Island Opera Festival will be presented on August 23-25 at the famous gay resort and will feature Christoph Willibald Gluck's rarely performed L’arbre Enchanté (“The Magic Tree”) and Lee Hoiby's Bon Appétit.

The festival kicks off with a VIP event on Friday, August 23 featuring a special gala performance of Bon Appétit, as well as a program of famous opera arias performed by the stars of the Fire Island Opera Festival.  Bon Appétit provides a witty take on one of chef Julia Childs, played by 2013 "BBC Cardiff Singer of the World" winner Jamie Barton. The evening will be hosted at an exclusive private home on the bay.

The real treat for lovers of all think barihunky will be L'Arbre Enchanté, which features Matthew Morris, who created a huge sensation in the Barihunks Calendar eating a sandwich in his boxers[see above]. Morris was also recently featured in Buzzfeed's "33 Opera Hunks Who Need To Serenade You Right Now." Word is that Morris will be showing a lot of skin...A LOT OF SKIN! This is Fire Island, after all.

The opera, which was last performed in 1775 for Marie-Antoinette at Versailles, with some equally lusty men we assume, also features David Pittsinger, David Garry, Will Ferguson, Amy Justman, Yiselle Blum and Emmett O'Hanlon.  L'Arbre Enchanté is the story of two men fighting for the love of a beautiful young man. The young man must choose between a  dashing, rich business man with a beach mansion or a hot, penniless, pool boy.

Saturday evening's performance of L'Arbre Enchanté, August 24, will be followed by a late-night dance party in true Fire Island style. Click HERE to buy tickets.

Performances will be at the newly rebuilt Pavilion on Fire Island Pines, converted into a beach opera house by Marfa-based installation artist Charles Mary Kubricht using only repurposed wood and materials from trees and structures destroyed during Hurricane Sandy. A portion of the proceeds from the inaugural Fire Island Opera Festival will benefit the Sea Shore Defense Fund.