La Cieca is nothing if not infinitely suggestible, particularly when the suggestion in question is clever and elegantly expressed. So, on the prompting of commenter M (pictured above) La Cieca would like to remind the cher public about a few contemporary opera projects on the immediate horizon.

Starting May 20, New York Metro Vocal Arts Ensemble presents The Art of Eating, music by Jeffrey Lependorf, libretto by Joseph Goodrich, on a double bill with (sorry, M) a revival of Bach’s Coffee Cantata. Lependorf is the composer of Tim Gunn’s Podcast, heard at the 2008 New York International Fringe Festival:

On May 21, Ben Lear performs his Lillian: A Folk Opera at Le Poisson Rouge.

Also beginning Friday night, Porgy and Bess at the New Jersey State Opera with a starry cast including Gregg Baker and Laquita Mitchell. (Though it’s not exactly contemporary, it’s certainly American, so maybe M can make an exception just this once.  Plus they advertise on parterre.com, which shows they know where the elite meet!)

Coming up next week is Le Grand Macabre at the New York Philarmonic, about which more a little later.