Painting by Mike Zamansky

Bastien und Bastienne / Le 66

June 26-27, 2026 - Houghton Hall Arts Community

Two soprano shepherdesses, two tenors tempted by life in the city, two basses mediating the ensuing conflict. Mozart’s Bastien und Bastienne and Offenbach’s Le 66 are two one-act operettas which tell of characters pulled this way and that by the call of the pastoral and the metropolitan. At this crossroads, what else but hilarity can ensue? Both works are comic operas with dialogue, one with an elegant and refined score by opera’s favorite child prodigy, and the other with wall-to-wall toe-tappers by the uncontested master of French operetta.

Bastien und Bastienne

Music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Libretto by Friedrich Wilhelm Weiskern, Johann Heinrich Friedrich Müller and Johann Andreas Schachtner

Bastienne - Melissa Perry
Bastien - Yong Hoon Lee
Colas - Victor Jaquez

Le 66

Music by Jacques Offenbach
Libretto by Auguste Pittaud de Forges and Laurencin

Grittly - Angela Scorese
Frantz - Mark Martinez
Berthold - Colin Saffley

Director - Natan Zamansky
Music Director - Eric Peterson

Buy Tickets!

June 26 - 27, 2026 - 7:30pm
The Fred and Adele Astaire Ballroom
Houghton Hall Arts Community
22 East 30th Street

 

Who’s Who

  • Victor Jaquez is a Dominican Bass working as a Certified Public Accountant by Day & Opera Singer by night! Previous Credits Include: "Sarastro" with Amore Opera, "Raimondo" with the NYC Orchestra Project, & "Zuniga" with Regina Opera. Victor currently studies privately with Terence Goff and is thrilled to taking part in B&B with Opera Piccionia!

  • Yong Hoon Lee is a tenor from Seoul, South Korea. He was awarded Second prize from 3rd International Online Music Competition Colibri Arts and Music Competition. Recent engagements include his role debut in New York as Monostatos in The Magic Flute at the Connelly Thrater with Amore Opera, Chorus in Turandot with Mannes Opera at Alice Tully Hall, and Ferrando in Cosi fan tutte with Opera not-so-seria. Upcoming, he will be participating in Queens Summer Vocal Institute singing Tito in La Clemenza di Tito. He graduated from Chung-ang university in 2024. He is pursuing his Master's degree in voice at the Mannes School of Music with Arthur Levy and Cristina Stanescu.

  • Mark Martinez is an actively performing tenor based in New York City.

    He has sung principal roles with a variety of regional companies, including Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni) with Bronx Opera, Nadir (Pearl Fishers) with Amore Opera, Remendado (Carmen) with Lighthouse Opera. Additional credits include Strephon in Iolanthe (Bronx Opera), Bastien in Bastien und Bastienne (Garden State Opera), Ferrando in Così fan tutte (Capital Opera Harrisburg), Alfred in Die Fledermaus (Ridgewood G&S Opera), Acis in Acis and Galatea (Eccentric Theater Company), and Frederic in The Pirates of Penzance and Tenor soloist in Handel’s Messiah (Eurasian Music Festival). His upcoming performances include a role debut of Vaudemont in Tchaikovsky's Iolanta as well as several recital performances.

    Beyond the stage, Mark is deeply involved in New York’s classical music community. He is the Co-Chair of the Program Committee of the Harvard Club of NYC, where he has organized events such as an interview with Opera Philadelphia’s Managing Director, Anthony Roth Costanzo, and a showcase concerts of rare Stradivarius string instruments.

    He is also a contributing writer and critic for Oberon’s Grove, a long standing performing arts publication.

  • Melissa Perry is a New York City based operatic soprano and recitalist. Originally from San Diego, she was a dedicated ballet dancer throughout childhood, and began studying classical music halfway through her first year of college, later earning a BA in Music Performance from Seattle Pacific University. During her undergraduate years she was a two time 1st place winner in the Puget Sound NATS student adjudication and a concerto competition finalist. This season Melissa performs in La Bohème (chorus), Suor Angelica (1st Cercatrice, nun’s chorus) at Regina Opera in NYC, and Bastien und Bastien (Bastienne) at Opera Picciona, also in NYC. Past roles include “Queen of the Night” from Mozart’s Die Zauberflӧte, “Olympia” from Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffman, and "Mademoiselle Silberklang” from Mozart’s Der Schauspieldirektor. A new music enthusiast, she has recently begun a recording collaboration with composer Sophia Pavlenko. Melissa is also a soloist at Trinity LES Lutheran Parish in New York City, performing oratorio and cantata selections with chamber orchestra.

  • Colin Safley is a baritone from Kansas City, Missouri. He enjoys performing a variety of opera, musical theatre, operetta, and sacred music. His studies brought him to DePaul University, in Chicago, then to the Mannes School of Music, in New York City. Colin’s recent credits include performing the title role in Don Giovanni (Amore Opera), Owen Hart in Dead Man Walking (Miami Music Festival), Prestr-Sùg (f.k.a. Pish-Tush) in The Mikado (Utopia Opera), and Don Alfonso in Così fan Tutte (opera not-so-seria). When he is not singing, Colin is working as an expert in styling menswear.

  • Angela Scorese is thrilled to be joining Opera Picciona again (now that we have a proper name) as Grittly, after playing 2nd Woman/First Witch in OP’s inaugural production of Dido and Aeneas. She was most recently seen as Zorah in Blue Hill Troupe’s production of Ruddigore, marking Stop #9 on her grand Gilbert & Sullivan tour that includes Phyllis in Iolanthe, the title role in Princess Ida, and Yum-Yum in The Mikado with Ridgewood Gilbert & Sullivan, along with Hebe in Utopia Opera’s H.M.S. Pinafore. Opera credits include Adele in Die Fledermaus, Oscar in Un Ballo in Maschera, Blonde in Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Servilia in La Clemenza di Tito, and Sophie in Werther with New York Opera Forum. She previously broke opera’s digital barrier (and Zoom’s volume limits) during the pandemic as Queen of the Night in Spooky Goose Opera’s virtual Die Zauberflöte, and returned to the work in its English translation  this past January as 2nd Spirit in Amore Opera’s production. Much love and endless thanks to her husband Ryan for putting up with her muttering “le son argentin-tin-tin-tin/A sa chasonette” 1000 times on end until she got the French tongue twister down. 

  • Molly is ecstatic to be joining Opera Picciona for their inaugural production of Bastien und Bastienne. Molly made her stage debut as Phyllis’ lamb in Iolanthe, and reprised the role in Opera Picciona’s landmark recording of Phyllis’ recently rediscovered lost aria, which can now be seen on EweTube. She hopes that this will be the beginning of a long and prolific stage career. Dream roles include Lucia di Lambermoor, the Baaaaaarber of Seville, Semi-Ram-Ide, and Third Yeomen in The Yeomen of the Guard.

  • Eric Peterson is a graduate of William & Mary and Peabody Conservatory; a French horn major who discovered singing and conducting and got distracted. He has worked for decades with LGBT+ community music groups, helping to found the Philadelphia Freedom Band, conducting the Big Apple Corps concert band, and performing with the Queer Urban Orchestra. As a theater conductor, he has worked with Stamford’s Troupers Light Opera (Mikado, Gondoliers, Fledermaus) and NYC’s Blue Hill Troupe (Mame, Forum, Night Music, concerts). He is a regular attendee at the International Gilbert & Sullivan Festival in northern England and has conducted five productions (Sorcerer, Pirates, Patience, Ruddigore, Pinafore) with Savoynet Performing Group, winning the Best Musical Director award for their 2018 festival-winning production of Patience. He is delighted to be working with Natan, Manya and these amazing singers on ‘BB66’!

  • Natan Zamansky is a co-founder of Opera Picciona, and directed their pre-inaugural production of Dido and Aeneas in January 2026. Next up, Ages Ago!