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The Arts Intel Report

A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler
A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler

Only an Octave Apart

Sept 21 – Oct 3, 2021
45 Water Street Brooklyn, Brooklyn, NY 11201, United States

Justin Vivian Bond, once dubbed “the greatest cabaret artist of their generation,” has teamed up with the countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo, a Metropolitan Opera veteran, for the first full-capacity performance at St. Ann’s Warehouse since March 2020. This hybrid opera-cabaret sees leaps from Purcell’s 17th-century aria “Dido’s Lament” to the English singer Dido’s 2003 hit “White Flag.” As Bond describes it, the 90-minute, intermission-free show brings a form (cabaret) that is “really intimate and spontaneous and dangerous because you don’t know what’s going to happen,” together with another form (opera) that “is very calculated.” Directed by Zack Winokur, the genre-bending show explores gender-bending queer histories. —J.D.

Photo by Ruvén Afanador.