East Village Opera Company

The problem with typical pop classical crossovers -- sappy pap like the Three Tenors or Josh Groban -- is that it lands so rarely on the pop side of the coin that it tends to be swollen with self-importance. The East Village Opera Company succeed by doing the opposite: nicking the bare essentials of Italian arias or Wagner melodies and punching them up (hard) with R&B horns and swaggering back beats. Corny? At times. Over the top? Certainly. But it's just as often stone-cold brilliant.