OPERA
WEDNESDAY - SUNDAY, DECEMBER 11 - 15, 2019
8:00 PM WEDNESDAY - SATURDAY
3:00 PM SUNDAY

Weber:  Die Freischütz
Heartbeat Opera
Baruch Performing Arts Center
55 Lexington Avenue (entrance on East 25th Street), Rose Hill, Manhattan

$16-$116; $251 Sunday benefit performance
https://www.heartbeatopera.org/der-freischutz

Heartbeat Opera does contemporary, highly politicized updates of classic operas (employing miraculously acceptable reductions of their orchestrations).  In this case, they dig into an early Romantic German opera — enormously popular in its home country — whose failure to catch on over here is mystifying.  It has it all:  great tunes, dramatic and atmospheric music, and a nutso Gothic story that's actually kind of compelling.  And that story should be even more compelling when it's interpreted as an account of misguided social rot.  Also on hand:  electronics and a Butoh dancer!

MAKE A NIGHT OF IT:  We're getting to just the right season for O:N's seasonal Korean hot-pot cuisine.