Opera Breve will open its 2016-17 season with Menotti’s “Amahl and the Night Visitors” on December 8. 

The opera will star Gary Ramsey, a baritone who is best known for his interpretation of Don Alfonso in Mozart’s “Cosi Fan Tutte” at the Loft Opera and Bonnie Frauenthal, a soprano who was recently praised in La Scena Musicale for her role debut of Violetta in La Traviata with Dell’Arte Opera Ensemble.  It will also star  Kathleen Farrar Buccleugh, Stephanie Sanchez and Caroline Tye.

Menotti’s opera made its world premiere on Dec. 24, 1951, by the NBC Opera Theatre in New York City at NBC studio 8H in Rockefeller Center, where it was broadcast live on television. The opera was written with an English libretto and was the first opera specifically composed for television in the U.S.

Opera Breve is an independent opera company that seeks to transform the world of opera and takes risks on productions showcasing standard and modern repertoire. The company provides a place for young and emerging artists to perform roles that may not be available to them elsewhere. In past seasons the company has performed Mozart’s “Cosi Fan Tutte,” Britten’s “Albert Herring” and Humperdinck’s “Hansel and Gretel.”

“Amahl and the Night Visitors” will be performed at St. Michael’s Parish Hall in New York, NY and will run through Dec. 11. No other repertory announcements have been made.