The Amato Opera with its 107 seats is the world's smallest opera house and a gem that even some New Yorkers have never heard about. It is situated on the Bowery - two doors up from the now vanished rock club CBGB and near the New Museum of Contemporary Art - an area on the Lower East Side where modernization and the building of luxurious condominiums and stores threatens the old way of life.
Founder and director Anthony Amato (87, above during rehearsal) refuses to sell his house, which has accommodated the opera for the past 60 years, to developers.
I shot the story for the German weekly DIE ZEIT, it was written by Kerstin Kohlenberg. Read the article here
Amato Opera Opera Music Bowery Lower East Side New+York Stefan Falke
Die Bilder sind genial.
ReplyDeleteMein Favorit ist das Portrait vom Besitzer.
Ich hoffe, er lebt noch 100 Jahre und kann das Juwel noch geraume Zeit weiter fuehren!
Dear Stefan -
ReplyDeleteYour evocative photographs of the Amato Opera show what a loss this theatre is, not only to New York but the world of opera - which is an art form I generally don't enjoy at all. In this tiny theatre without the usual pomposity and self-importance of the opera world it would have been a completely different story. Thank you again.