The term chamber opera was coined in the 20th century to differentiate smaller, relatively intimate operas from their larger operatic brothers. The term has been applied retroactively to small-scale works of the 17th and 18th centuries, as well as to some contemporary works. Chamber opera is just about anything outside of what you would encounter at most modern-day opera houses.

The difficultly with this definition is that it is vague, revolving as it does around a relative concept: size. What is big? What is small? One would imagine it safe to say that chamber operas have small (oops, there we go again) casts and no chorus, but this is not necessarily the case. Many chamber operas have a large cast or chorus, though rarely both. A chamber opera is also, not surprisingly, accompanied by a chamber orchestra, which is another 20th-century term, signifying a small ensemble of 10 to 35 musicians. Compare this to the 50 to 100 musicians you typically find in opera orchestras, and you will begin to have a sense of the scale of chamber opera.

Venue would seem to be a good indicator, too. Most chamber operas were intended for performance in intimate spaces, often the theaters of noblemen's homes or castles. But "intimate" is itself a relative term. It's safe to say that operas written for spaces that could seat thousands are not intimate.

Still, intimacy is not just a matter of size. There are also the composer's intentions, and the director's embodiment of them, to consider. The 19th century gave us masterpieces like Verdi's Aida (complete with elephants onstage!) and Wagner's Ring Cycle, intended to be performed over four days by an orchestra of 100 players and a cast of dozens. In general, operas written in the 19th century are not chamber operas. The 19th century was about big artistic gestures, not intimate ones.

In the end, perhaps chamber opera is best defined as opera intended for a small setting whose intimacy is mirrored in the economy of means employed, both musically and theatrically.

why chamber opera?
The economy of means of chamber opera translates to immediacy for the audience. Chamber operas are able to project a composer's essence in a way that larger musical gestures cannot. This immediacy is further increased by its presentation in an intimate setting, devoid of distractions, which distills the potency of the operas performed.

specifically, why the Gotham Chamber Opera?
In New York City, where the Met and City Opera seat thousands in their houses, the Gotham Chamber Opera fills a niche by providing small-scale opera intended for an intimate setting. Most of our performances take place in the Playhouse at the Abrons Arts Center, a lovely 350-seat theater on Manhattan's Lower East Side, where the distance between the back row and the stage is approximately equivalent to the distance in the huge Lincoln Center venues between the stage and the third row. The result is opera that is not a remote spectacle but immediate, involving, and powerful theater.