Eaton '57 *59 Premieres One-Act Opera

John Eaton ’57 *59 (Photo: Courtesy John Eaton ’57 *59)

The performances: Pocket Opera Players is presenting world premieres of two one-act operas: Re-Routed by John Eaton ’57 *59 with libretto by his daughter Estela Eaton, and The Death of Webern by Michael Dellaira with libretto by J. D. McClatchy.

Dates and location: October 10, 11, and 12 at 8 p.m. at Leonard Nimoy Thalia at Peter Norton Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway at 95th Street in New York City. 

The composer: Eaton founded the Pocket Opera Players in 1993. His “pocket operas” are hour-long productions that require only a handful of instrumentalists and vocalists performing on minimalist sets, and can be mounted on a modest budget. Eaton frequently collaborates with his daughter, the poet and librettist Estela Eaton. They recently worked together on another pocket opera, an adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s ’17’s short story, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

The opera: Re-routed brings a 150 year-old tale, Dostoyevsky’s Bobok, to life as an opera-within-an-opera. Reset in the 21st century, Re-routed tells the story of a present-day opera company as it struggles to plan its next season amidst a series of disasters. The farce features the personification of a GPS navigational unit.

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