Gotham Chamber Opera Performs at Botanic Garden

Not sure what you're doing tonight? Are you a fan of opera or ready to give it a try?

Then head to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden tonight where the Gotham Chamber Opera will perform La hija de Rappaccini in the garden’s first staged opera presentation in its 103-year history.

Not familiar with it? Here's a description from Gotham Chamber Opera:

"With a libretto by the Mexican Nobel Prize winner Octavio Paz, based on the classic short story “Rappaccini’s Daughter,” by Nathaniel Hawthorne,La hija de Rappaccini tells of a doctor who tries to protect and control his daughter by locki in a garden where he experiments with poisonous plants. 

Although she is immune to the plants, she is a carrier of their danger, and when a young student falls in love with her, he is faced with the knowledge that pursuing that love will surely lead to his death. 

The Mexican-born Catán (1949–2011) composed his music in a neo-Romantic style, with long melodic lines, Debussy-like harmonies, and rich orchestrations. Though clearly contemporary, La hija de Rappaccini is as lyrical as works by Puccini and Mozart. 

Also appealing are the contemporary resonances of the 160-year-old story. “An ideal can be made to serve the most horrific and inhumane causes,” Catán wrote of his opera. “The 20th century has provided us with more examples than we would ever want.” La hija de Rappaccini takes place at that intersection of beauty and danger. 

Gotham Chamber Opera, now in its 11th season, is the nation’s leading company dedicated to the highest quality productions of chamber operas rarely performed today. Its mission is to produce vibrant, fully staged productions of works from the Baroque era to the present intended for intimate venues. Gotham Chamber Opera is recognized nationally as the only company committed solely to producing chamber opera."

The show begins at 7 p.m. at Brooklyn Botanic Garden, 900 Washington Ave. at Eastern Parkway (2/3 to Eastern Parkway). Seating is by general admission. Tickets are $35 and are available at ticketcentral.com or 212- 279-4200. For more information, visit gothamchamberopera.org.

Note, as of 4:15 p.m., the opera was scheduled to be performed as planned. In case of rain (or threat of it) check Gotham Chamber Opera's ticket page.