“I’ve always thought it was a ridiculous name for a prison. Sing Sing. I mean, it sounds more like it should be an opera house or something.”   — Holly Golightly

And the Gershwin Hotel? It sounds like there should be music playing or something.  Maybe even opera.

For two nights this week, May 29 and 31, that’s precisely what happens — though it’s strains of George Friedrich Handel’s ALMIRA, Königin von Castilien, not Porgy & Bess, filling the sprawling red and orange lobby of this laid-back, art-filled hotel in the East 20s.

The Gershwin lobby, one of city’s most congenial (slouchy sofas, high drama decor, no one hounding you to buy drinks or be on your way), doubles as a performance space, attracting a clever line-up of new music, early music, jazz, poetry readings and opera.  The latter comes courtesy of operamission, a plucky, three-year-old pick-up company that stages operas new and old and sometimes manages to trump the Met. (more…)