Concert Review: Opera at the Lizard Lounge

(Mintzer also represented for Humility and Faith in the form of 16th-century Hinduism via a 20th-century American composition by John Harbison, with a memorable closing line: And now you want to climb on a jackass!)

Last time Opera Boston annexed the Lizard Lounge, they performed a handful of mini-operas that seemed to share a thread of longing and miscommunication. Wednesday night's format was somewhat more disjointed but suitable for even shorter attention spans (though the line of frozen-toed opera fans along the outside wall of the Cambridge Common Restaurant was as long as ever). Individual songs, a few clumped together by composer, left plenty of breathing room for banter and nacho consumption in between. Opera Boston Music Director Gil Rose bought drinks for trivia champions in the audience.

At least one species of Vice—the subject of a forthcoming sequel show—may have crept into the program via Christian Figueroa's very pleasing rendition of "The Seven Deadly Virtues" from Camelot and the somewhat over-represented virtue of Love, notably exploited by Glorivy Arroyo, causing men of various professions to behave irresponsibly in William Bolcom's "Amor" and prompting some cartoonish gestures and incisive questions in Britten's "Tell me the truth about Love." Does its odour remind one of llamas, or has it a comforting smell?

Bostonist was also rather charmed by Brenna Wells, who sang three times, and each piece was like a very small, tart pastry, gone in a couple bites. We've never been big on Prudence, but Wells' delivery of "As is it plenty" (W.H. Auden set to music by Benjamin Britten) nearly made us reconsider.