In Midtown, an Opera House Party - WSJ.com

By WILL FRIEDWALD

Jonathan Welter

The crowd joins in at a recent edition of Taci Opera Nights.

They don't call it Grand Opera for nothing.

At its most extreme, opera is the largest of musical and theatrical experiences. Everything about it is oversized: "Don Carlo" lasts five acts and four hours; the "Ring" cycle takes longer to watch than an entire season of "Desperate Housewives."

But what if you could make opera into a truly intimate experience and, in the process, focus on what we love most about the medium, namely beautiful voices singing beautiful melodies?

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Karina Freudenthal

Leopoldo Mucci, the 'Missionary of Opera,' welcomes patrons to a Saturday edition of Taci Opera Nights at Papillon Bistro in Midtown.

That's the dream of impresario Leopoldo Mucci, who in 1995 founded Caffe Taci on West 110th Street and Broadway. Not long after it opened, Mr. Mucci launched the cafe's weekly opera night, a gathering of aspiring singers and hungry music lovers. "I got about four students from the Manhattan School of Music," he said recently. "They only knew about three arias each, but it was enough to start."

After 10 years and hundreds of opera nights uptown, he lost the lease and moved the operation down to a temporary space in the West Village. These days, Caffe Taci survives in name only, and in its enduring Taci Opera Nights, which are a fixture every Saturday at the Papillon Bistro on East 54th Street. "We have kept going for 16 years, without an intermission," said Mr. Mucci, who calls himself the "Missionary of Opera" and is quick to point out that he is from Modena, also the home of Luciano Pavarotti. "We did the final night in the Village on a Saturday, and the first night at Papillon six days later on a Friday."

On a recent Saturday night, soprano Jennifer Glier (a direct descendent of the Russian composer Reinhold Glière) was singing "Musetta's Waltz" from "La Bohème." Sitting at the front table, Mr. Mucci said he realized that his idea was a success when, within the first year or so, opera celebrities like the famed tenor Franco Corelli began coming in.

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Karina Freudenthal

Taci patrons watch the show.

"He was too old to sing," Mr. Mucci said of Corelli, "but his presence both inspired and intimidated the young singers—it was like acting students working in front of Laurence Olivier." Joining Mr. Mucci on the very first night was the Russian pianist Iya Fedotova, who was about 70 at the time. She has remained the Opera Nights accompanist ever since.

"Taci" means "quiet" in Italian, and it is appropriate each Saturday at Papillon both in the relative serenity compared with a full-fledged production at the Met, and in how the audience, however small, is encouraged to keep quiet during the performance. Except, of course, on the many numbers where chorale participation is requested. In these instances, since most of the crowd doesn't know the words or speak Italian, there's a lot of "la-la-la"-ing going on.

Karina Freudenthal

Soprano Naya Maria Rodriguez-Castinado performs.

How is Taci different from singing in a more traditional, formal opera setting? "Both the singers and the audience agree that it's kind of a mutual party," said Stacylyn Bennett, a regular participant. "As a singer, I get a more immediate response as to how the numbers are going over, which helps me to hone my own skills."

Each Saturday, five or six singers perform regularly, including Ms. Bennett, who starred in the national tour of "Master Class"; tenor Kevin Courtemanche, who excels at Kurt Weill's "Lonely House"; baritone Robert Garner, currently in the chorus of the Metropolitan Opera; and soprano Naya Maria Rodriguez-Castinado, who studied with Pavarotti and looks the very picture of Carmen.

Baritone Charles Coleman is the only Taci regular who is not a full-time singer. He's better known as a composer of contemporary classical and theater music. Last Saturday, he sang the only Wagner tune (from "Tannheuser") of the evening. Generally, the repertoire comprises opera's greatest hits, about 70% Italian (mostly Verdi and Puccini), 20% French and 10% Mozart (who's considered an honorary Italian, even in his German-language works, like "Die Zauberflöte). Even Papillon's chef, Giuseppe Agostaro, triples as an occasional waiter and guest vocalist, usually on French and Spanish songs.

On this evening, Taci veteran Marc Heller, who made his Met Opera debut in 2007 opposite Plácido Domingo, stopped in to duet with Ms. Rodriguez on "Traviata." This inspired Karen Akers, the cabaret star who was at a table a few feet away, to recall how, at age 15 in Venice, she heard the legendary Anna Moffo sing that score with such intensity that she literally passed out. Occasionally, four Taci-ites will join forces for the quartet from "Rigoletto," and the Neapolitan song "O Sole Mio" has become a regular party piece on which everyone sings some sort of variation, including several English pop lyrics. It's like watching Enrico Caruso mud-wrestle with Elvis Presley.

Five-foot-one and slender, Ms. Bennett is one of the smallest lirico-spinto sopranos around. "I'm frequently told that I have the voice of a fat woman," she said. At the climax of "Addio del passato" (from "La Traviata"), she hit a brilliant double-A note. "Spintos traditionally garner a lot of the more tragic roles," she said. Over the course of a few hours and a bottle of chianti, the room was treated to her performances of the climactic scenes of Violetta in "La Traviata," Mimi in "La Bohème," and the title role in "Madama Butterfly."

The opera, it seems, ain't over till the soprano dies.