WXXI’s Brenda Tremblay drove from Rochester to join us in Cooperstown for our four 2010 productions. While here she sat down with several company members, including incoming General & Artistic Director Francesca Zambello. Click here for the podcast of this interview and hear Zambello’s thoughts on programming, becoming The Glimmerglass Festival and next summer’s world premiere – A Blizzard On Marblehead Neck. You can also follow Brenda Tremblay’s blog here.
Deborah Voigt in Annie Get Your Gun
We recently announced that Deborah Voigt will join us as Annie in next summer’s Annie Get Your Gun. If you missed it, be sure to read Dan Wakin’s recent NYT blog post on the role of Annie. He provides some interesting history on past Annies, such as Ethel Merman and Mary Martin, and provides some great clips for comparison. Be sure to check out the final clip he references of Voigt singing Berlin’s “I Love Piano.”
Mark Adamo and John Corigliano to Lead Master Class for YAAP
Mark Adamo and John Corigliano
World-renowned composers Mark Adamo and John Corigliano will lead a master class for members of Glimmerglass Opera’s Young American Artists Program at the Otesaga Resort Hotel in Cooperstown at 10 a.m. on Monday, August 2. The master class is free and open to the public.
Adamo most recently premiered Four Angels: Concerto for Harp and Orchestra, which was introduced by the National Symphony Orchestra in June 2007. Adamo’s first opera, for which he composed both music and libretto, was Little Women. Little Women was first performed by Houston Grand Opera in 1998 and later at Glimmerglass Opera in 2002. It has been nationally telecast on the PBS series Great Performances, released on CD, and heard in more than 60 national and international engagements.
Corigliano’s scores, now numbering more than 100, have won him a Pulitzer Prize, a Grawemeyer Award, three GRAMMY Awards and an Academy Award. Corigliano currently serves on the composition faculty at the Juilliard School of Music and holds the position of Distinguished Professor of Music at Lehman College, City University of New York, which has established a scholarship in his name.
Adamo and Corigliano will be working with singers Karin Mushegain, Claire Shackleton and Andrew Stenson, accompanied on piano by Jeanne-Minette Cilliers, the principal coach and accompanist for Glimmerglass Opera’s production of Tosca. Mushegain, Shackleton and Stenson are all members of Glimmerglass’s 2010 Young American Artists Program, an apprenticeship program for young singers which focuses on education through performance. Young American Artists perform roles in operas, sing in the chorus, receive vocal coachings and sing in recitals and concerts throughout the season. This summer, Mushegain joins the program for her second year and sings the role of Alessandro in Handel’s Tolomeo. Shackleton, also returning for her second year, sings Mrs. Splinters in Copland’s The Tender Land and Stenson performs Martin in The Tender Land.
This master class is made possible by the Rona Cader Rosenbaum Masterclass Fund.
The Brookwood School at Glimmerglass
The Brookwood School summer camp joined us this morning for a backstage tour. Pictures of the children exploring the theater are below.
We felt like the Pied Piper leading the children to the theater.
Kate pointing out our hidden television monitors while on stage.
Kate explains our rigging system to the children.
Kate explains electrics to the children.
Young American Artists Perform in Oneonta July 31
J'naid Bridges
Members of Glimmerglass Opera’s Young American Artists Program will perform at the Oneonta Theatre Open House Gala on Saturday, July 31. The gala will celebrate the grand re-opening of Oneonta’s historic playhouse.
The Oneonta Theatre Open House Gala is free and open to the public and will begin at 7 p.m. at the Oneonta Theatre, 47 Chestnut Street in Oneonta. Right now, it looks like our Young American Artists will be performing at about 9:40 p.m.
Alison Bates
Young American Artists J’nai Bridges, Alison Bates and Juan José de León will perform, accompanied by pianist Jonathan Kelly. This summer, Bridges understudies the role of Cherubino in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro and Mrs. Jenks in Copland’s The Tender Land and will perform as a soloist in a concert at the Alice Busch Opera Theater. Bates returns for her second year in the Young American Artists Program and understudies the title role in Puccini’s Tosca. De León serves as an understudy for both Basilio and Don Curzio in The Marriage of Figaro.
Juan Jose de Leon
The gala will also feature performances by Brian Miller Comedian & Magician, the Central New York Radio Group’s Junior Idol Winners, Clayton Bink, City of the Hills Sweet Adelines, Donna Decker Fokine Ballet, Elite Dance Company, Guava Smash, Orpheus Theatre, Party of Two, Roundhouse Rockers, Stamp Collectors, Stanley-Wade School of Dance, Tom Joy, Too Many Divas, Upstate Bellies, Wine Cellar and more. For more information on the gala, visit www.oneontatheatre.com.
Glimmerglass on WSKG
WSKG’s Bill Snyder and Greg Keeler joined us in mid-June to record several interviews with cast and creative team members of the 2010 productions.
They met and spoke with Tosca‘s Lise Lindstrom and Adam Diegel and director Ned Canty. You can here the interview online here. Next, Bill interviewed The Tender Land director Tazewell Thompson, conductor Stewart Robertson and Lindsay Russell, who sings Laurie in the opera. Listen to their conversation here.
To hear Anthony Roth Costanzo, Joélle Harvey and director Chas Rader-Shieber discuss Tolomeo, click here. Michael MacLeod discusses The Marriage of Figaro, here.
Visit WSKG’s blog for more on their trip to Cooperstown.
2011 Festival Details Released
THE GLIMMERGLASS FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES DETAILS FOR 2011
Four New Productions,
Including a World Premiere and Professional Premiere,
Headline the 37th Festival
Festival Artists Include Anne Bogart, Rod Gilfry, Nathan Gunn,
Tony Kushner, Terrence McNally, John Musto, David Pittsinger,
Jeanine Tesori and Deborah Voigt
Company Inaugurates Annual Artist in Residence Series
COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. – The Glimmerglass Festival has released details regarding its 2011 summer season, the first under incoming General & Artistic Director Francesca Zambello.
Francesca Zambello
The 2011 Festival will open with new productions of Bizet’s Carmen and Cherubini’s Medea. Additionally, a double bill of two new operas highlighting American artists will feature the world-premiere production of A Blizzard On Marblehead Neck, a Glimmerglass-commissioned work by the award-winning team of composer Jeanine Tesori and playwright Tony Kushner, and the professional premiere of John Musto and Mark Campbell’s acclaimed Later the Same Evening. The four operas will be joined by Irving Berlin’s Annie Get Your Gun. The main stage productions will be supplemented by special performances, concerts, lectures and symposiums throughout the season.
“For years, Glimmerglass has been celebrated for its devotion to the operatic form and for its adventurous productions of familiar and unfamiliar works from the classic repertoire,” Zambello said. “As part of the company’s mission to produce new, little-known and familiar operas and works of music theater, The Glimmerglass Festival will offer an annual production of an American musical theater piece performed in the way it was first heard with full orchestra and chorus and without amplification. Irving Berlin’s Annie Get Your Gun will inaugurate this series as our fourth production.”
CARMEN (Bizet/Meilhac & Halévy)
The 2011 season features strong heroines – and the fiery Carmen is no exception. The role of the independent protagonist will be sung by Ginger Costa-Jackson in her role and company debut. Costa-Jackson is a recent member of the Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artist
Ginger Costa-Jackson sings Carmen.
Development Program. Adam Diegel returns to Glimmerglass as Don José after his performance this summer as Cavaradossi in Tosca, for which he was praised for his “smooth and darkly tinged voice.” Keith Miller will sing the role of Escamillo. Miller has been seen as Zuniga in the Met’s production of Carmen and also recently appeared in Salome and Madame Butterfly, both of which were broadcast live in HD around the world. American soprano Anya Matanovič will sing the role of Micaëla in her company debut. The production will be directed by Anne Bogart, who serves as the Artistic Director for the SITI Company and whose work was last seen at Glimmerglass in 2008 with Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi. Glimmerglass Music Director David Angus will conduct.
“Glimmerglass is known for unusual repertoire, so Carmen seemed a strange choice, until I heard that it would be directed by Anne Bogart,” Angus said. “Everything that Anne touches is transformed into something exceptional and different, so I am thrilled I will be doing Carmen with her.
“We can expect a completely new approach to the work, and I am sure we will discover many new layers of the story and a very strong staging. When this is combined with the Glimmerglass tradition of bringing in the newest generation of young stars, this will be a Carmen worth traveling a long way to see.”
James Schuette, who designed costumes for Bogart’s Glimmerglass production in 2008, will design sets and costumes. 2010 Tony Award nominee Robert Wierzel, who has designed more than 35 productions for Glimmerglass, will design lighting. SITI Company member Barney O’Hanlon will choreograph.
MEDEA (Cherubini/Hoffmann)
Medea, Cherubini’s rarely performed opera, will be presented in Italian. The role of Medea, the scorned wife who will stop at nothing for revenge, will be sung by Alexandra Deshorties in her role and company debut. A graduate of theMetropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artist Development Program,
Alexandra Deshorties sings Medea.
Deshorties made her Met debut as the High Priestess in Aida and has since appeared as Elettra in Idomeneo, Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte and First Lady in The Magic Flute. Jason Collins, seen last summer in Seattle Opera’s Ring Cycle, will sing the tenor role of Jason. Collins last performed at Glimmerglass in 2002 as The Chevalier in Dialogues of the Carmelites. Wendy Bryn Harmer, also a graduate of the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, will sing the role of Glauce. The role of King Creon will be sung by David Pittsinger, last seen at Glimmerglass in 2005 as The Traveller and The Elderly Fop in Death in Venice. Pittsinger has most recently performed at the Met as The Animal Trainer/Acrobat in Alban Berg’s Lulu and The Speaker in Julie Taymor’s production of The Magic Flute. Other engagements include performances as Emile de Becque in South Pacific at Lincoln Center Theater. He also appeared as Enobarbus in a Carnegie Hall concert performance of Antony and Cleopatra with New York City Opera. Englishman Michael Barker-Caven, known for his work in London’s West End and the Royal Opera House, will direct and Italy native Daniele Rustioni will conduct, both in their U.S. debuts. They will be joined by Joe Vanek, who will design sets and costumes. Robert Wierzel will design lighting.
DOUBLE BILL (Tesori/Kushner)
A Blizzard On Marblehead Neck
The world premiere of A Blizzard On Marblehead Neck will be inspired by an episode in the life of playwright Eugene O’Neill. This will be the first operatic composition for Jeanine Tesori, who is well-known for her scores on Broadway, including Shrek The Musical and Tony Award-winning Caroline, or Change. Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tony Kushner will provide the original libretto; Kushner is acclaimed for his Tony Award–winning play, Angels in America, which was later turned into a mini-series. His other plays include A Bright Room Called Day, Slavs! and Homebody/Kabul. He wrote the book for Tesori’s Caroline, or Change and the screenplays for Mike Nichols’s film Angels in America and Steven Spielberg’s Munich. Zambello will direct A Blizzard On Marblehead Neck. Court Watson will design costumes.
Later the Same Evening (Musto/Campbell)
Originally commissioned by the National Gallery of Art, the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center and the University of Maryland, Later the Same Evening is a one-act opera inspired by five paintings of American icon Edward Hopper. The opera is written by Pulitzer Prize-nominated composer John Musto and award-winning librettist Mark Campbell, who previously collaborated on the highly successful comic opera, Volpone, for Wolf Trap Opera. Later the Same Evening imagines the lives of the figures in Hopper’s paintings and weaves a narrative that connects them – both tangentially and directly – on a single night in New York City in 1932. “Ultimately, the opera is a love letter to the city,” explains librettist Campbell, ”and celebrates the serendipity its inhabitants hold sacred…and its belief that love could always be just around the next corner.” The production will feature Patricia Schuman in the role of Estelle Oglethorpe. Schuman has performed in many leading opera houses and festivals, including the Met, Vienna State Opera, Salzburg Festival, Royal Opera House Covent Garden and Houston Grand Opera. Baritone Jake Gardner will perform the role of Ronaldo Cabral. Gardner returns to Glimmerglass after performances as Jupiter in the company’s 2007 production of Orpheus in the Underworld. Leon Major, who directed Later the Same Evening’s 2007 premiere to critical acclaim, will direct; David Angus will conduct. David Roberts designed costumes for the premiere and designs this new production. Erhard Rom, who also teamed with Major on the premiere, will design the sets for the double bill in his company debut. Mark McCullough will design lighting for A Blizzard On Marblehead Neck and Later the Same Evening.
ANNIE GET YOUR GUN (Berlin/Fields)
Based on the real-life romance of sharpshooter Annie Oakley and Frank Butler, Berlin’s Annie Get Your Gun features the popular and well-known songs “Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better,” “I Got Lost in His Arms,” and “There’s No Business Like Show Business.” Leading dramatic soprano Deborah Voigt will sing the title role. Although Voigt is internationally revered in the operas of Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss, and is noted for portrayals of such Italian operatic heroines as Tosca and Aida, she has also sung Broadway and popular songs in recital and in special cabaret presentations. Rod Gilfry will sing the role of Frank Butler, Annie’s love interest. Gilfry is a two-time GRAMMY nominee who can currently be seen as Emile de Becque in the U.S. National Tour of the Lincoln Center Production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific. Buffalo Bill Cody will be sung by Jake Gardner. Zambello, known for both her opera and theater productions, will direct the musical. Kristen Blodgette, who has worked on many Broadway productions, will conduct. Court Watson will design sets and costumes in his company debut, and Mark McCullough will design lighting. McCullough returns, after having designed Das Liebesverbot in 2008, for his ninth season with the company.
GLIMMERGLASS FESTIVAL ARTIST IN RESIDENCE
New in 2011, the company will host a Glimmerglass Festival Artist in Residence. Each summer, an Artist in Residence will join the company for the season and be fully integrated into the Festival. The inaugural Glimmerglass Festival Artist in Residence will be Deborah Voigt who, in addition to starring in Annie Get Your Gun, will perform special solo performances throughout the summer and work closely with members of the company’s Young American Artists Program.
“Great opera singers are always seeking ways to renew and refresh their art,” Zambello said. “Every summer, The Glimmerglass Festival will be enriched by an internationally acclaimed artist who will join us for the entire season to explore new avenues of expression, to mentor our Young Artists and to interact with our public. We are especially pleased to welcome Deborah Voigt as our first Artist in Residence in 2011.”
Voigt said, “I am honored to have been chosen as The Glimmerglass Festival’s first Artist in Residence. I love working with young, talented singers. To have the opportunity to mentor them over a period of weeks, during which we all live, work and create together, will be very special. I certainly hope it will be enriching for them, and I know it will be fulfilling for me.
“Fifty or 60 years ago, these big, classic American musicals were originally scored with very large orchestras, and there was certainly no sound amplification,” she continued. “It will be exciting to sing Annie this way, and I’m certain that our audiences will find it very satisfying to hear the orchestra and the singing performed the way it was intended.”
CONCERTS AND SPECIAL PERFORMANCES
The 2011 Glimmerglass Festival will feature two special performances. A cabaret starring Deborah Voigt will take place on July 29, 2011. This performance will be the premiere of a program developed by Voigt, director Zambello and award-winning playwright Terrence McNally. McNally has written the books for the musicals The Full Monty, The Rink, Ragtime and A Man Of No Importance, as well as the libretto for Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking at San Francisco Opera. He is also acclaimed for his Tony Award-winning play, The Master Class, which focuses on the life and career of operatic soprano Maria Callas. The performance will take place in the Alice Busch Opera Theater at 3 p.m.
“I’ve been doing evenings of show songs, ballads and cabaret songs for a few years now,” Voigt said, “and these performances have met with great response from audiences and critics alike – which is wonderful because I really love doing them. A cabaret can be very much like an art song or lieder recital. The evening must be carefully constructed and have a theme that both the artist and audience can relate to. This makes it more personal, which is what this kind of intimate evening is all about. I love singing opera, but it is a very different kind of experience. [In an opera performance] I am up there on stage, hundreds of feet away from the audience, with a 100-piece orchestra between us. So I’ve always loved and appreciated these more intimate evenings of song, whether classical or popular. At The Glimmerglass Festival, we’ll be looking for a little bit of both, perhaps, for our cabaret evenings. I’m not exactly sure yet…but I can guarantee that it will be magical…and lots of fun!”
Nathan Gunn will also perform a concert accompanied by his wife, Julie Gunn, in the Alice Busch Opera Theater on August 12, 2011, at 3 p.m. Mr. Gunn made his Glimmerglass debut in Zambello’s production of Iphigenia in Tauris in 1997. He has appeared in internationally renowned opera houses such as the Met, San Francisco Opera, Seattle Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Paris Opera and Glyndebourne Opera. A frequent recitalist, Mr. Gunn has been presented in recital at Alice Tully Hall by both Lincoln Center’s Art of the Song series and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and by Carnegie Hall in Zankel Hall. He recently released a solo album, Just Before Sunrise, on the Sony BMG Masterworks label. Other recordings include the first complete recording of Rogers & Hammerstein’s Allegro and his debut album, American Anthem, a collection of American songs.
“My summers at Glimmerglass were two of the most memorable and enjoyable I’ve ever spent,” Mr. Gunn said. “The beauty of the lake, eating ice cream downtown, and the perfect evenings at the opera brought everything I love about summer together in one small town. I can’t wait to be back.”
MEET ME AT THE PAVILION
New in 2011, The Glimmerglass Festival will present Meet Me at the Pavilion, a series of special performances and lectures that will take place in the company’s Thaw Pavilion next to the Alice Busch Opera Theater. These performances will be presented all summer and will consist of concerts, lectures, post-performance discussions with cast and crew, and performances by members of the Young American Artists Program. Deborah Voigt, baritone Rod Gilfry, the 2011 Young Artists, and acclaimed composer and pianist John Musto will be involved in the summer series of special performances and concerts. His playing is featured in song recitals, chamber music, concertos and solo works.
BACKSTAGE TOURS, CHANGEOVERS AND Q&As
In addition to Meet Me at the Pavilion, audience members may continue to enjoy free previews prior to each performance, where a member of the music staff will offer an exploration into the work about to be performed. Free backstage tours will still be offered every Saturday in August at 10 a.m. During backstage tours, audience members have the opportunity to take a behind-the-scenes look at how each production comes together. Between performances on Saturdays in August, audience members can remain in the theater to watch as the production crews change the scenery and lighting to that of the next production. A member of the production staff narrates as the crews race to change the scenery in less than three hours. In 2011, audience members will be invited to remain in the theater after many performances for special Q&A sessions with the cast and creative teams.
SHOWTALK
Next summer, The Glimmerglass Festival will introduce ShowTalk, a series that will take place over three weekends and two weeks in August when visiting scholars and artists will explore topics related to the Festival productions.
“In the coming months, we will announce the prominent group of artists and experts who will engage us during the 2011 ShowTalk,” Zambello said. “Anticipate an eclectic mix of cultural and critical perspectives on music, theater, art and ideas.”
The 2011 Festival runs July 2 through August 23. Subscriptions for the 2011 Festival are currently on sale. Ticket buyers should note that many performance times next year have been scheduled earlier to better accommodate dining and travel arrangements for Glimmerglass visitors, and a new weekend subscription is now available in August. For more information on the 2011 Glimmerglass Festival and performance dates and times, visit www.glimmerglass.org or call the Box Office at (607) 547-2255.
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Francesca Zambello officially assumes the role of General & Artistic Director commencing September 1, 2010. She will succeed Michael MacLeod, who has held the position for five years. The company is a professional and non-profit organization that offers approximately 40 performances of four productions that run in rotation during July and August. Since its opening in 1987, the company’s Alice Busch Opera Theater has been home to more than 85 productions. The 2010 Festival runs from July 9-August 24 and features four new productions: Puccini’s Tosca, Copland’s The Tender Land, Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro and the U.S. professionally staged premiere of Handel’s Tolomeo. For additional information, call (607) 547-2255 or visit www.glimmerglass.org.
Tolomeo Opens this Sunday
Anthony Roth Costanzo as Tolomeo
Tonight is the final dress rehearsal for Handel’s Tolomeo before the production opens this Sunday. Here is some insight into the piece from our company dramaturg, Kelley Rourke.
The operas of George Frideric Handel have enjoyed a tremendous resurgence in recent decades. Glimmerglass Opera’s intimate theater provides an unparalleled setting for the nuanced artistry required by these great eighteenth-century works. This season, Glimmerglass Opera is proud to present the U.S. professionally staged premiere of Handel’s Tolomeo.
“Tolomeo is very much like Giulio Cesare in that it has very little to do with the historical characters,” says stage director Chas Rader-Shieber. “I think of it as more of a profound romantic comedy.” At the opera’s outset, Tolomeo, by rights the joint ruler of Egypt, has been the victim of a conspiracy involving his mother, Cleopatra III, and his brother, Alessandro. The exiled Tolomeo is living secretly in Cyprus, disguised as a shepherd named Osmino. His wife, Seleuce, has been cast out of Egypt as well. Unbeknownst to Tolomeo, she is also in Cyprus, disguised as the shepherdess Delia. Although Tolomeo and Seleuce have been searching tirelessly for each other, they have been unsuccessful. To complicate matters, the morally suspect royals of Cyprus — Princess Elisa and her brother, King Araspe — are in love with Tolomeo/Osmino and Selefuce/Delia, respectively. Despite the machinations of Elisa and Araspe, Tolomeo and Seleuce display unwavering faithfulness, even in the face of uncertainty and death.
“Handel understood perfectly how to combine the bittersweet poignancy of real life with comedy,” says Rader-Shieber. “It’s a reality-based comedy that I just love. One wants to find a light touch in the heaviest moment, as well as an emotional truth in the lightest. That balancing act… that ‘conversation’… you know what I like to call that? Life. It’s exactly like life.”
Tolomeo opens July 18 at 2:00 p.m. and runs through August 23.
Anthony Roth Costanzo as Tolomeo and Joélle Harvey as Seleuce
2011 Chorus Auditions Saturday
Photo: Karli Cadel
We are holding auditions for the 2011 Glimmerglass Festival Chorus on Saturday, July 10, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.
Those interested in auditioning should contact Joshua O’Malley at jomalley@glimmerglass.org by Friday, July 9. Applicants should indicate their voice type, performance experience, instrument proficiency and a daytime telephone number. Eligible candidates will then be contacted with a specific time and location for their audition.
Candidates should prepare a selection from opera, musical theater or art song; a pianist will be provided. The audition panel will be composed of Eric Schnobrick, Artistic Events and Music Manager, and Chorus Master Bonnie Koestner.
Glimmerglass Opera Chorus members are offered an honorarium and reimbursement for mileage to and from all rehearsals and performances.
Technical Difficulties
Our official website is currently down due to technical difficulties, but we hope to be up and running again soon. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.
