The Bonfire of the Vanities: The Opera

{{short description|2015 opera composed by Stefania de Kenessey}}

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{{use mdy dates|date=January 2025}}

The Bonfire of the Vanities: The Opera is an opera by the American composer Stefania de Kenessey and American librettist Michael Bergmann. The story is about ambitions and tensions in New York City in the 1980s and is based on the novel The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe.{{cite news |last=Chow |first=Andrew R. |date=July 12, 2015 |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/07/12/the-bonfire-of-the-vanities-gets-opera-adaptation/ |title=The Bonfire of the Vanities Gets Opera Adaptation |newspaper=Artbeats/The New York Times |access-date=December 26, 2024 }}{{cite news |last= |first= |date=October 13, 2015 |url=https://www.ft.com/content/711a615a-718d-11e5-9b9e-690fdae72044 |title=Bonfire of the Vanities, El Teatro at El Museo del Barrio, New York — review |url-access=subscription |newspaper=Financial Times |access-date=December 26, 2024 }} Kenessey said she wanted to make an opera in the vein of Carmen, depicting the urban upper classes in an operatic and satirical way.{{cite news |last=Oteri |first=Frank J.|author-link=Frank J. Oteri|date=October 2, 2017 |url=https://newmusicusa.org/nmbx/stefania-de-kenessey-20-years-after-rewriting-history/ |title=Stefania de Kenessey: 20 Years After Rewriting History |publisher=New Music USA |access-date=December 26, 2024 }}

Directed by Bergmann, the opera was first performed on El Museo del Barrio's El Teatro stage in New York City on October 9 and 10, 2015.{{cite news |last=Jorden|first=James|author-link=James Jorden |date=October 14, 2015 |url=https://observer.com/2015/10/a-less-than-fiery-bonfire-of-the-vanities-plenty-of-distraction-at-tannhauser/ |title=A Less-Than-Fiery Bonfire of the Vanities, Plenty of Distraction at Tannhäuser |newspaper=The New York Observer |access-date=December 26, 2024 }} The production starred Randal Turner, Kevin Maynor, Anne-Carolyn Bird, Yingjie Zhou and Adrienne Danrich.{{cite news |last=Peterson |first=Tyler |date=September 15, 2015 |url=https://www.broadwayworld.com/bwwopera/article/Process-Studio-Theatre-to-Present-BONFIRE-OF-THE-VANITIES-THE-OPERA-20150915 |title=Process Studio Theatre to Present Bonfire of the Vanities: The Opera|newspaper=BroadwayWorld |access-date=December 26, 2024 }}

James Jorden of The New York Observer wrote that the libretto suffers from including too many details from the novel. Jorden described the music as "tuneful and grateful to the voice" but wrote that it consists of "a series of short musical theater ditties", resulting in "neither art music nor compelling pop".