When it comes to crimes against opera, the East Village Opera Company is fairly low on the list of offenders. Unlike most of the more serious offenders, they don’t wear skimpy clothing, they don’t dump monotonous electro beats on top of piss poor singing and shallow orchestration, and they actually have a musical style of their own. I just wish they’d picked more interesting arias (instead of rearranging Nessun Dorma for the 78th time, for instance). Either that, or that they’d stuck to instrumentals – they open with the overture from Figaro, and never quite rise that high again, possibly because their lead musters up a slightly nasal, straining tenor at best. They’re not half bad, mind you, I just don’t think they’re performing quite up to potential yet.