<body><div><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=04PWsv_0w18oyIA00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=04PWsv_0w18oyIA00" width="1600" height="1501" ><figcaption>Renegade Opera’s “Orlofsky’s Party” at The Judy. Photo by Tom Lupton.</figcaption></figure>At first, descending the steps into the Judy Kafoury Center for Youth Arts (aka “The Judy”) gave me a sense of melancholy. I don’t know exactly when the fourplex at 1000 SW Broadway died, but it felt like yet another thing that covid killed. Former movie theaters typically make me sad somehow; as they fall like autumn leaves under the merciless onslaught of streaming services or mutating viruses, each one feels like a tiny piece of lost Americana that’s never coming back. But that’s not really true–the mighty yet fading Schnitz herself, right across the street, was once the grande dame of the old Portland movie houses, so it seems fitting that her younger, less august cousin should likewise see rebirth as a performing arts venue. The rich, unmistakable smell of fresh movie theater popcorn once again being popped at the concession stand felt like irrefutable proof of this resurrection. The scent was nostalgic; warm and inviting of an early fall night already on the verge of being chilly.No popcorn for me alas, but as I arrived in the theater for Renegade Opera’s production Orlofsky’s Party, I did have a glass of bubbly from the bar on set, open to patrons until the performance started. The room had the feel of a fin de siècle party upon entrance: a gay Viennese waltz rang from the piano as black-clad servers with carnivale masks and trays of champagne stood by.Renegade Opera billed Orlofsky’s Party as “A modern, immersive retelling of Die Fledermaus,” and the retelling took shape as a swanky NYC party hosted by the impresario Orlofsky (Claire Robertson-Preis), at which her friend Rosie Eisenstein (Emily Evelyn Way), in disguise, was attempting to lure her tech billionaire husband Gabe (Jesse Preis) into “cheating” on her in violation of their pre-nup, so she could take him for all he was worth and run off with her girlfriend Falke (Jasmine Johnson).<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=4YnmH9_0w18oyIA00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=4YnmH9_0w18oyIA00" width="1600" height="1075" ><figcaption>Renegade Opera’s “Orlofsky’s Party” at The Judy. Photo by Tom Lupton.</figcaption></figure>The opening chorus, which based on the lyrics I would call “What a joy to be here at this super boozhie party,” was a hoot. Falke was a podcaster, and her show, called ‘Fraudcast,’ focused on white-collar crime. A clever voice-over from the podcast proclaimed that she was at the party to give her listeners a glimpse at the life of the 1%.Falke suggests that Gabetech Industries, a remorseless polluter, is trying to pull a greenwashing scam, and Gabe, spewing corporate speech about his ‘Green tech’, seems to confirm this. There was a fun bit where the old movie screen was used to show some ‘behind the scenes’ podcast production. The number where Gabe, Adele and Rosie sing a trio while dancing, doing a bit of choreography with their rolling suitcases was a vaudevillian bit of physical comedy that brought out the laughs.<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=0dBV8b_0w18oyIA00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=0dBV8b_0w18oyIA00" width="1600" height="1313" ><figcaption>Renegade Opera’s “Orlofsky’s Party” at The Judy. Photo by Tom Lupton.</figcaption></figure>Abigail Krawson sang the role of Adele, one of Gabe’s employees who attended the party by way of impersonating a generic socialite. She was the quintessential diva, with a magnificent cadenza for her big aria, controlling her voice to a point where it was perfectly almost-too-big for the small space. Way’s voice was spectacular: employing delicate phrasing, marvelous balance, dynamic control and effortless charm, she was completely captivating as she sang Rose Eisenstein’s long aria. Although Johnson’s role in this rendition was more speaking than singing, she sang a short bit in a magnificent contralto that was powerful and spine-tingling: I could’ve listened to her sing all night. There were other darkly comic bits that stuck out: a merry tune singing “don’t drink the water, don’t breathe the air,” a rendition of Tom Lehrer’s Poisoning Pigeons in the Park that called out the Bird Alliance of Oregon, and it was hilariously interrupted by a purportedly vegan chorus member who proclaimed her extreme distress at the song. Later, as climate protesters invaded the party, Orlofsky, rather than being horrified, revels in the moment—the very vision of a world-weary hedonist for whom novelty, any kind of novelty, is something to be cherished no matter what. A meta Ouroboros eating its own tail, the proclamation that the whole thing was ‘art imitating life imitating art’ was a fun philosophical noodle scratcher dropped into the middle of the whole silly soup.<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=2ks8ry_0w18oyIA00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=2ks8ry_0w18oyIA00" width="1600" height="1158" ><figcaption>Renegade Opera’s “Orlofsky’s Party” at The Judy. Photo by Tom Lupton.</figcaption></figure>The program certainly lived up to its billing as ‘immersive’. From the occasional 4th-wall break and many winks and nods to the audience, to the voiceover podcast, to having the singers actually refill the audience’s champagne glasses during the performance for a toast to the Champagne Song (“bubbles, bubbles, bubbles!”), one felt like something more than merely a fly on the wall at Orlofsky’s Party. The whole thing was (appropriately) dripping with corn; its shameless reverence for all the over-the-top frippery attendant of opera buffa was enough to draw in even a crusty cynic like myself, who has more than once sworn off light opera thusly: ‘been there, done that, if I go to one more 19th-century comic opera with mistaken identities or reductive class warfare as plot devices I’m going to scream.’ Yet I was toasting and swaying along with everyone else by the end. Renegade Opera’s imaginative reworkings such as this one, a much needed letting of air out of the tires of a genre whose whole goal was originally to let the air out of the tires of more serious opera, are what draw me back time and again. That and the fact that this little company punches way outside its weight class in terms of vocal talent. Prost! to Renegade Opera and Orlofsky’s Party!<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=4Jxoww_0w18oyIA00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=4Jxoww_0w18oyIA00" width="1600" height="907" ><figcaption>Renegade Opera’s “Orlofsky’s Party” at The Judy. Photo by Tom Lupton.</figcaption></figure></div></body>

Mountain View, CA

NewsBreak

Shameless reverence: Renegade Opera’s “Orlofsky’s Party”

At first, descending the steps into the Judy Kafoury Center for Youth Arts (aka “The Judy”) gave me a sense of melancholy. I don’t know exactly when the fourplex at 1000 SW Broadway died, but it felt like yet another thing that covid killed. Former movie theaters typically make me sad somehow; as they fall like autumn leaves under the merciless onslaught of streaming services or mutating viruses, each one feels like a tiny piece of lost Americana that’s never coming back. But that’s not really true–the mighty yet fading Schnitz herself, right across the street, was once the grande dame of the old Portland movie houses, so it seems fitting that her younger, less august cousin should likewise see rebirth as a performing arts venue. The rich, unmistakable smell of fresh movie theater popcorn once again being popped at the concession stand felt like irrefutable proof of this resurrection. The scent was nostalgic; warm and inviting of an early fall night already on the verge of being chilly.

Shameless reverence: Renegade Opera’s “Orlofsky’s Party”

Comments / 0