“The Vertical Player Repertory...has developed a following for its intense performances of unusual works.”
The New York Times

 About Vertical Player Repertory

Indie opera company Vertical Player Repertory (VPR) presents fully staged opera in alternative venues. Founded in 1998 by Judith Barnes, VPR embraces operatic repertoire from traditional to eclectic. With an emphasis on theatrical integrity, VPR offers an unusually direct and vital experience of opera. The New York Times called VPR's original performance space "one of the most intimate spaces for opera in all New York" and Classical Singer Magazine praised the company's "theatrical immediacy and subtleties."

VPR's recent site-specific production of Puccini's one-act Il Tabarro on an oil tanker docked at the Red Hook Marine Terminal in Brooklyn won wide acclaim and drew capacity crowds, making a successful transition from intimate black box opera to the wide-open space of the Brooklyn Waterfront. Brian Kellow of Opera News called the production "exhilarating."

Repertoire at VPR has spanned the 18th to the 21st centuries, including the world premiere of composer Yoav Gal's comic opera The Dwarf . VPR's “high brick walls and tin ceiling have resonated with everything from Handel's Alcina to Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana.” ( The New York Times ) Other operas staged at VPR include Janácek's Jenufa , Puccini's Il Tabarro, Mozart's Idomeneo , Poulenc's La Voix Humaine , Britten's The Rape of Lucretia , Gluck's Orphée et Eurydice , Purcell's Dido and Aeneas , Ned Rorem's Bertha and Darius Milhaud's Médée.

Reviews for VPR consistently reflect the high quality of the company's work. VPR has been hailed for “some serious singing” ( The New York Times ) and “beautiful music, creative and moving performances, and above all, great ideas…” ( Brooklyn Heights Press ). VPR's recent production of Darius Milhaud's 20 th century masterpiece Médée was called “a propulsive operatic tragedy of the first order” and “an intensely dramatic…tremendously affecting account of this difficult work.” ( The Brooklyn Papers) The New York Theatre Wire called it “ a very effective and moving evocation of Euripides' tragedy…” Handel's Alcina earned the rave in the Brooklyn Heights Press “just splendid…It would be hard to think of any group anywhere creating greater delight out of an 18th century opera.”

VPR has received grants from the Brooklyn Arts Council since 2000, support from the Independence Community Foundation, The New York Community Trust, BRIC/Rotunda, The Field, the Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation, and many generous contributions from private donors.

Vertical Player Repertory, the “small company on Court Street that always has something new and different in the works ” ( Brooklyn Heights Press ) is emerging as a vital alternative presence on the operatic scene.

“Vertical Player Repertory is attracting an ever larger audience.”
The New York Times