To complement the opera and reflect its central ideas, Gallery Particulier is currently presenting a juried visual arts exhibition titled Body Positivity – Gender Euphoria. The show explores themes of identity, liberation and the joy of inhabiting one’s own body, echoing the spirit of Adler’s story. On view throughout the opera’s run, the exhibition invites audiences to experience a dynamic conversation between visual and performing arts, deepening the emotional and sensory impact of the production.
A hundred years after her heyday (and a hundred years before OnlyFans), brothel owner Polly Adler will once again step into the spotlight.
Before the Beverly Hills Madam or the Mayflower Madam or Heidi Fleiss, Adler ran a bordello in Manhattan for 20 years, catering to the city's glitterati and its gangsters. In the process, she became a celebrity herself and wrote a best-selling memoir, A House Is Not a Home. This November, she'll be a character in her own opera.
Madam – The Opera is a world premiere immersive production, presented by Killer Queen Opera in collaboration with Gallery Particulier in Flatbush. Composed by Felix Jarrar with a libretto by Bea Goodwin, Madam chronicles Adler’s rise from immigrant to madam to cultural power-broker, while the audience watches from the parlor of a '20s speakeasy.
“Polly’s story is an American story: an immigrant working towards the dream of wealth, of community and, most importantly, of home,” said Goodwin in an official statement.
To make the opera even more immersive, audiences are encouraged to deck themselves out in their finest Jazz Age attire, becoming, for the length of the show, flies on the wall of Adler's beloved house of ill repute—one where Dorothy Parker would drop in to chat with Adler and which served the best bootleg liquor in the city with a private chef. Afterwards, take the train into Manhattan and get a drink at Polly's, a bar inspired by Adler located beneath Tanner Smith's in Hell's Kitchen.
Directed and choreographed by Christina Swanson, Madam stars Karina Camile Parker as Polly, with Evan Main, Krissy Terwilliger, Trysten Reynolds, Aja Nile Brimm and Amy Guarino. The ensemble includes Lucas Bouk, Pedro Sequera, Nestor Carrillo and Milan Furtado.
The creative team is comprised of Giulia Magarelli (music director), Mari Moriarty (intimacy director), Curtis Faulkner (solo choreography) and Annika Low and Killer Queen Opera (costumes).
Performances will be at 7:30pm on November 7; at 3pm on November 9; and at 7:30pm on November 11 at Gallery Particulier, 281 Maple St., Brooklyn. Tickets are available at Eventbrite.