at the Santa Fe Opera last year and sings regularly with Philadelphia Opera, will be Curly. On the podium is James Lowe, who conducted Camelot at Glimmerglass in 2013. inspiring,” she explains, but she hopes the whole season Baroque opera returns this season with Handel’s will offer “a starting point for a much bigger conversation masterpiece, Xerxes, in Italian with English projected about identity and homeland.” She will direct Porgy and text. It is a tale of love, loss, and fraternal loyalty Bess, widely considered to be the first great American opera, in the original version, with a full orchestra, a large involving the fierce and powerful Persian conqueror who reigned for twenty years until his assassination in 466 BC. The opera has “everything,” according to director Tazwell Thompson (who directed Vivaldi’s Cato in Utica in 2015), “comedy, pathos, and beauty.” Its opening aria, “Ombra mai fù,” outstanding in Handel’s work, is a serene song of praise to a shade tree. Countertenor John Holiday, on the faculty at Ithaca College since 2015 and who played Caesar in the Vivaldi opera, returns to sing the role of Xerxes. The part of his brother and rival in love, Arsamenes, is played by 2016 Young Artist Allegra De Vita. Nicole Paiement, who led the 2016 production of The Crucible, will conduct, while veteran John Conklin has designed the scenery. The Siege (Above) Actor’s cry out during “The Crucible” (Right) A cast member from last year’s “Sweeney Todd” (Below) of Calais “The Thieving Magpipe” on last year’s stage (Photos: Karli Cadel: he Glimmerglass Festival) by Gaetano Donizetti, a virtually unknown opera about the cast, and potential star performers. She sees Catfish Row French port city and never before as both a home and a prison and that Porgy’s optimism performed in the United States, was leads to his getting away. South African bass-baritone Musa Ngqungwana, who appeared in feathers in last year’s selected by Zambello as she was struck by the beauty of the music Rossini opera, The Thieving Magpie, sings Porgy, while and the powerful contemporary Talise Trevigne, most recently in David Little’s JFK at the resonance of the story. She knows Fort Worth Opera, will play Bess. In the role of Crown the opera well, as she directed it at by Norman Garrett, a recent alumnus of the Washington National Opera (WNO) Young Artist program. Returning England’s Wexford Festival over 20 years ago. The plot concerns the to the podium is popular conductor John DeMain, who burghers of Calais (immortalized has led more than 350 performances of this opera. in stone by Rodin), who offered to The beloved classic Oklahoma! — all about starting sacrifice their lives to lift a year-long a new promising life in a rough and rowdy territory— English siege. Instead of keeping the makes its Glimmerglass debut in a new production by original 1346 time frame, director the artistic director of Arena Stage, Molly Smith. She Zambello will update the setting considers Rodgers and Hammerstein to be “the best in to the present day, reminding us musical theater,” and that this work “appeals to anyone of what has recently happened in who longs for freedom and change.” Leading a cast of Calais and of the deplorable situations that have caused colorful characters are Vanessa Becerra, a 2015 graduate millions to flee their besieged homelands. She wants of the Glimmerglass Young Artist program and seen the Glimmerglass Festival to be a home of dialogue last season as Musetta in La bohème, as Laurey, while baritone Jarrett Ott, who played Masetto in Don Giovanni where a wide variety of views can be spoken and heard, with hopes of “sparking meaningful discussion.” Leading the cast are two singers to watch: mezzo soprano Aleksandra Romano, former Glimmerglass Young Artist, who sings the trouser role of Aurelio, heroic son of the mayor, and soprano Leah Crocetto, who had the title role of Aida at the San Francisco Opera this season, as his wife, Eleonora. Music director Joseph Colaneri will conduct what he calls an “extraordinary score” containing some of Donizetti’s “most dramatic and lyrical vocal writing.” On the main stage as well will be two performances of a one-act comic opera, Scalia/Ginsburg by Derrick Wang (and inspired by the opinions of the Justices themselves); Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has GlimerGlass
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been an enormously popular Showtalk participant at Glimmerglass since 2012. She shared a friendship with the late Justice Antonin Scalia, who, as we know, strongly contested her on legal matters. They both loved opera, however. This year’s artist in residence and acclaimed tenor William Burden will star, and performances will be on August 4 and 13, the latter followed by a Q&A with Justice Ginsburg. Also the main stage in July will have An Afternoon with Stephen Schwartz, with stories and songs by this award-winning composer-lyricist performed by Young Artists, plus a reading in August by David Sedaris from his books followed by a Q&A session. Two smaller productions have world premieres in August. Stomping Grounds, by Victor Simonson, who conducts, with an English verse text by Paige Hernandez, who directs and does choreography— is described as “hip-hopera” and will have three performances. A youth opera, Robin Hood, featuring the Glimmerglass Youth Chorus and members of the Young Artists program, has eight performances. Second Stage events include concerts at the Pavilion — with the opera principals; with Young Artists presenting songs, scenes and stories on the theme of home; with Gospel music; with Klezmer music done by a quintet; and a baseball-themed presentation called Perfect Pitch. Highlights of the Saturday-morning Showtalk series, held at the Otesaga Hotel in Cooperstown, include Jeffrey Toobin and Faith Gay on current events related to 2017
opera themes and a program with music director Colaneri and Youn Artists performing songs that celebrate the human spirit. Zambello will present a 2018 preview over lunch at the Pavilion, and there are two baseball-themed concerts at the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Not to mention free events: previews of all main-stage opera performances, backstage tours, production changeovers on Saturday afternoons, Q&As. Early in June Glimmerglass holds “company intros” where the cast and the creative team get together in the large rehearsal hall. They go around the room, explain who they are while the director, conductor, and designers get to talk about their approaches to the production and this season’s theme. It’s like one big family, whose summer homeland is this place in Central New York, where people get to know each other, where young members and new voices come to learn, and from which they often go off to a major career. To name a few we’ve been lucky to see and hear in fabulous performances — countertenor David Daniels, bass-baritone Owens, and soprano Goerke, a Young Artist more than 20 years ago, who will be Elektra at the Met next season. There are others all over the world, whose careers were shaped here. Come to the opera and hear familiar and new voices, soaring out over the peaceful land. •