“Like a lot of other people in this town,” writes Tim Smith Wednesday (2/18) on his Baltimore Sun blog Clef Notes, “Brendan Cooke was affected personally by Baltimore Opera’s decision to file for bankruptcy in December. He had sung with the company for nearly a decade, in more than 20 supporting roles and as a member of the chorus in the bass section, and he was counting on more work this spring. Cooke isn’t giving up on opera, however. He’s now running his own company: Baltimore Concert Opera.” The new group “will offer Mozart’s Don Giovanni on March 25 in the elegant ballroom of the Engineer’s Club (Garrett-Jacobs Mansion), which seats about 250. There will be no staging, just singers with music stands, and not too many of the recitatives. … And no orchestra; to keep things financially manageable, there will be only piano accompaniment. … If all goes well, another opera-in-concert will be presented this spring. Beyond that, Cooke envisions a four-opera season, maybe two performances each.”
