About Enigma Chamber Opera
Our company launched at the very end of 2019; and we staged our first production, Britten’s The Turn of the Screw, to sell out audiences, early in 2020. The Boston Globe’s AZ Madonna hailed us as ‘an auspicious arrival in the Boston arts landscape,’ and wrote, ‘…if this is only the first step for this new company, I eagerly await the second.’ And then the pandemic hit, and the world shut down.
Through the lockdown that summer and beyond, we stayed sane by creating an online production of Mozart’s The Impresario. That one act opera is about a poor, frustrated artist who tries to stage operas, but encounters all sorts of issues - such as lack of funds, and the egos of performers. It seemed the perfect piece to update, exploring all those same problems with the added difficulties created by social distancing. Just how do you stage opera during a pandemic? You can find the answer online.
It seemed unlikely that we’d be able to stage an ‘in person’ show in 2021, with so much ongoing uncertainty. A chance conversation one day, however, led to an epiphany: Curlew River is the piece we needed at that moment! So began a quest to stage all three of Britten's church parables, retaining the same core ‘troupe’ of performers and designers throughout the trilogy. 2024 will see the final chapter on this journey, as we present Burning Fiery Furnace. And then, what next? Watch this space….We are a small, flexible company made up of a core group of artists (designers, conductors, singers, director), all of whom are experienced and already very well established in the opera business. The skill and expertise of the group means that we are able to bring together the highest quality of production in a short space of time – just eleven days of rehearsal on average for our productions! – thus keeping down costs.
Enigma is based in Boston, Massachusetts, but our portable productions can easily be taken to different venues around the world. (We had plans for appearances at arts festivals abroad, before Covid intervened….) If you’d like to be a patron of the company, we’d be delighted to have your support through a tax deductible donation.
You can contact us at
team@enigmachamberopera.org
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Kirsten Z Cairns
Artistic Director and Founder