Handel Opera Performed In New York Community Garden
Handel: Orlando – the Baroque opera performed in Campos Community Garden (on 12th Street between Avenues B and C).
By Norman Lebrecht
Slipped Disc
July 24, 2022
(Must see! Mike)
Excerpt:
Film-maker Paul Moon tells slippedisc.com:
Two months ago, I documented a really unique performance of Handel’s opera Orlando. It happened in a community garden in my East Village neighborhood of Manhattan, and the circumstances were serendipitous… I hopped onto a Citibike from my 1st Street apartment in the East Village, to this inaugural performance in Campos Community Garden (on 12th Street between Avenues B and C). I found a spot on a log to sit towards the rear of the seating area; and adjacent to that, next to a big tree, the artistic director Marianna Mott Newirth was trying to prop up an iPhone, standing on a teetering barstool in the soft garden ground.
Kind of inevitably, to a gigantic collective gasp from everyone, she fell hard when that stool tipped over — miraculously, not injured, just bruised. The performance went on, and it was really exceptional: one of those “only in New York City” moments, surrounded with the charm of birds chirping, street noise, Springtime flowers, neighbors, passerbys, and burgeoning indie talent all around. After it was over, I told Marianna straight-up, I live a few blocks away from here, and filming stuff like this is something I do, and should I come back with cameras?
