Oh to be in the room with the super-creatives of Experiments in Opera—four composers and four librettists— when they met to hatch Constance. We can’t help but imagine that they just can’t stop laughing….
Somebody on the team may have seen, like this writer, or heard tell of the art world’s Banana episode. It was pre-pandemic 2019 at the prestigious Art Basel Miami show, when an artist taped a banana to the wall and collected an oversized check for their artistic creation. Our charismatic title character (sung by Sydney Anderson) takes this one step further— convincing a fellow art student (The Mark, performed by soothing voiced Nathaniel Sullivan) to cut off his middle finger, winning plaudits from the local paper’s art critic (Sishel Claverie) who dismisses all else as pedestrian. Reading the libretto, we learn that these scenes are titled, The Fickle Finger of Fate.
That’s just the start. We follow Constance in her many re-inventions— as a spiritual guide who accepts Venmo or Zelle, an online influencer finding people desperate to move beyond the near-death experiences of leaky gut syndrome or color blindness, and finally as the fully developed cult leader, dressed like an Aztec priestess who escaped from a Buck Rogers film, and acts like a Jeffra Epstein. Only Zen Wu as The Skeptic seems to see the fraud for what it is.
Constance is a laugh-a-minute whodunit of cult-ridden America today.
Composers and Performers Seize Opportunities Afforded by the Story
You too may find yourself welcoming the orchestra transitions as a chance to focus on the musical performance by Hypercube without interruptions by narrative or comedy. The ensemble of saxophones, percussion, piano and guitars amazes by their ability to effect all the scores affects in ways you might otherwise think would require a large orchestra.
Hypercube is more than helped, in this reviewer’s opinion, by the top shelf performers whose opera hall-sized voices seem to rally our spirits every time they sing solo, and duet+ all the more. How wonderful to also get to see Sydney Anderson wearing her character on her face and expressions projected oversized on a screen during Constance’s social media influencer phase. How wonderful, though all too brief, to see Sishel Claverie (Enabler role) show her comic chops as a fortune teller who seems and sounds much like a jaded Sylvia cartoon character walking off the page.
Though we are in one of the most absurd moments in the story — when The Mark (Nathaniel Sullivan) is about to be cured of his tragic color blindness — the score moves from blue notes spices to the sound of sacred music. The singing refrains of color names— red, blue, etc.— has the feel of referencing holy saints. If we plucked it out of the story it could function well in many a sanctified space.
You too may find yourself checking the Experiments in Opera website frequently to see if and when they post some performance snippets to savor.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
CAST:
Sydney E. Anderson - Constance (Soprano), Zen Wu - The Skeptic (Soprano), Sishel Claverie - The Enabler (Mezzo-soprano), Nathaniel Sullivan - The Mark (Baritone)
CREATIVE TEAM:
Elizabeth Gartman - Composer, Roger A. Martinez - Composer, Jasmine Galante - Composer, Mattie Levy - Composer, Sam Norman - Librettist, Susan Bywaters - Librettist, Lisa Clair - Librettist, Ed Valentine - Librettist, Shannon Sindelar - Director/Managing Producer, Dmitry Glivinskiy - Music Director, Erin Rogers - Saxophones (Hypercube), Jay Sorce - Electric guitar (Hypercube), Andrea Loge - Piano (Hypercube), Chris Graham - Percussion (Hypercube), Silin Chen - Scenic Design, Mary Ellen Stebbins - Lighting Design, Krista Intranuovo Pineman - Costume Design, David Pym - Video Design, Nathaniel Butler - Sound Engineer.
WHEN:
May 13 – 22, 2026
WHERE:
HERE Arts Center
145 Sixth Avenue (SoHo)
New York, NY 10013
TICKETS:
$10+
For more information and tickets visit the Experiments in Opera website.
Photos by Silin Chen
This story has been added to the Picture This Post roundup article on OPERAS WE LOVE.
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About the Author: Amy Munice
Amy Munice is Editor-in-Chief and Co-Publisher of Picture This Post. She covers books, dance, film, theater, music, museums and travel. Prior to founding Picture This Post, Amy was a freelance writer and global PR specialist for decades—writing and ghostwriting thousands of articles and promotional communications on a wide range of technical and not-so-technical topics.
