La Gran Scena Opera Town Hall

Successful satire, the saying goes, sincerely loves its targets. This, beyond all the gags and double-entendres, best explains why La Gran Scena Opera Company works. The eight-man (yes, man) ensemble returned over the weekend bringing their cross-dressing glitter and feminized voices to operatic scenes from "Madama Butterfly," "Semiramide," "Manon," "Der Rosenkavalier" and "La Fanciulla del West." The ranges were authentic, but, more important, scrupulous attention was paid to phrase and ornament.

Ira Siff as Vera Galupe-Borszkh offered his well-timed comic silences and terrifying fortissimos on Saturday night. Philip Koch as Philenne Wannelle negotiated Rossinian difficulty with considerable poise. From a Fort Lee, N.J., mall, they and Johnny Maldonado (Carmelita della Vaca-Browne) updated the "Rosenkavalier" trio (here in a Peter Sell-out production). David St. Jude Sabella (Mirella Frenzi) was a chameleonlike presence. Mark Janicello (Mario Costa-Plenti) sang in his nice natural tenor. Ross Barentyne played the piano splendidly.

Joe Simmons (Sylvia Bills) gave the monologue and introductions. I am probably in a minority in wishing that Sylvia Bills might be curtailed a little; amid all the accompanying extravagance, one senses overkill.

Affection triumphed over ridicule halfway through the evening when Keith Jurosko, who later sang Jack Rance in his natural baritone, appeared as an aging diva in "Home Sweet Home." So simple, eloquent and purely sung was the music that the audience forgot to laugh and held its breath in respect.