Utopia Opera to Present L'ENFANT ET LES SORTILEGES & THE ZOO, 3/13-14

On March 13 and 14 at 7:30pm, Utopia Opera presents an imaginative double bill: L'enfant et les sortilèges by Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) and The Zoo by Arthur Sullivan (1842-1900) in a fully-staged production performed with an 18-piece orchestra at the Ida K. Lang Recital Hall at Hunter College (695 Park Avenue). Utopia founder and artistic director, William Remmers, conducts L'enfant and directs both operas, while Jeremy Weissmann conducts The Zoo; both operas have costume styling by Eric Lamp.

L'enfant et les sortilèges (The Child and the Spells), a one-act fantasy with a French libretto by the poet Colette, originally premiered in 1925 (after 8 years of composition) and tells the story of a wicked boy (the titular "Child") who abuses the people, animals, and inanimate objects around him to the point where they plunge him into a cavalcade of nightmare visions as all of his victims visit him in sequence, ultimately offering him a chance for redemption. Somewhere between Wizard of Oz and A Christmas Carol, this bildungsroman features a master composer at the height of his creativity, deploying and utilizing every genre, style, and idiom known to him to distinctly evoke the nearly two-dozen enchanted figures from the Child's daily existence.

The Zoo, a comic folly in one act written by Arthur Sullivan (of Gilbert & Sullivan) with librettist Bolton Rowe (pen name of B.C. Stephenson) premiered in 1875 before being lost to sight for many decades and then rediscovered and revived with consistency since the latter half of the 20th century. Often a favorite among G&S troupes as a suitable pairing for the one-act G&S comedy Trial by Jury, Utopia is presenting the work in the same universe as L'enfant, as the characters from the Ravel opera populate the chorus in the environs of London's zoological gardens both as attractions and as zoo-goers. The principal cast are unique creations: two couples whose romantic misadventures are suitably arisen, tried, and resolved by the opera's frothy conclusion. After the psychological fantasy of L'enfant, The Zoo (immediately following a wine-soaked intermission) is sure to be a refreshing afterpiece geared to send the audience home in a cheery mood.