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LA GRAN SCENA OPERA CO. was
conceived and launched in 1981 by its Artistic Director, Ira Siff, and
has performed extensively in New York for the past fifteen years. La Gran
Scena lovingly lampoons the
conventions of opera with theatrical parody and brilliant musical insight.
It is an all-male troupe, most of whose members perform en travestie.
They parody that which they love, but make in accessible to non-opera
buffs. In 1985 La Gran Scena performed at the Teatro Municipal in Caracas,
and at the Munich Theater Festival, which began a long tradition in travel
abroad. The group has toured through Italy, Germany, Netherlands, England,
Spain, Brazil, and Australia numerous times, not to mention many cities
within the U.S.
Impressions of classical opera
Diva's and the creation of characters give new life to classic opera works
which La Gran Scena performs. Within transitions from songs, audiences
learn history of the male Mezzo Soprano, the castrati... or perhaps hear
favorite Motown hits sung a la opera. In narrations by usual hostesses
Madame Vera Galupe-Borszkh and Sylvia Bills, "America's most beloved retired
diva," audiences sometimes actually recieve explanation for what the divas
are singing about.
The members o La Gran Scena
are all experts in the ways of camp comedy. Most have created outlandish
names and faux histories for their drag personas justifying their diva
stature. "For seven years little Verina swam the bay daily, to and
from each voice lesson." the company website states, "This may
account for her phenomenal breath control." Of Sylvia it says "Miss
Bills caused a brouhaha in the world of opera during her debut at the
now defunct Kalamazoo Opera House, when, in La Fille du Regiment, she
included a tap dance in her rendition of 'Il Faut Partir'"
La Gran Scena is one of the
few groups of tranvestite performance which is commercially successful
and which is still running.
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