The Glimmerglass Festival evolved from the Glimmerglass Opera, founded in 1975 and is now the second-largest summer opera festival in the United States. Every summer the rotating repertory company mounts performances of four productions selected from grand opera, the Broadway stage and new and lesser-known compositions. In the true sense of a festival, there are special events including interesting and informative talks by composers and artists and guest speakers. There are nearby galleries and museums. The operas are presented in the Alice Busch Opera Theatre about 13 kms north of Cooperstown. For anyone not familiar with “Glimmerglass” it is the name used by author James Fenimore Cooper, referring to Otsego Lake on which the Glimmerglass State Park is situated.
Francesca Zambello, the distinguished stage director whose work may be seen on several outstanding new releases on Blu-ray discs including Porgy and Bess from San Francisco and Don Giovanni from Covent Garden, has been the Glimmerglass’ artistic and general director since 2011. Her personality and enthusiasm illuminate every aspect of the festival.
The four offerings for 2014 are Madame Butterfly, Carousel, Ariadne auf Naxos and An American Tragedy.
Madame Butterfly will be directed by Zambello and conducted by Joseph Colaneri. Pinkerton is to be sung by Dinyar Vania, Cio-Cio-San by Yunah Lee and Sharpless by Aleksey Bogdanov. The balance of the cast has been chosen from members of the Festival’s Young Artist program. The costumes are from the San Diego Opera.
Carousel, Rogers and Hammerstein’s second collaboration, is based on the 1909 play Liliom by the Hungarian author Ferenc Molnár. Instead of Budapest, the story now unfolds on the coast of Maine and the characters are very mid-century American. Carousel was Rogers’ favourite among his musicals and Time magazine thought so too, naming it the “best musical of the 20th century.” This new production is performed with a full orchestra and, thankfully, with no sound reinforcement.
Richard Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos is the setting of his playwright Hugo von Hofmannsthal’s adaptation of Molière’s play. The amusing behind-the-scenes goings-on in preparation for the staging of the serious opera form an opera within an opera. This anticipated new production, directed by Zambello, features artist in residence Christine Goerke in the title role. Goerke is the acclaimed American dramatic soprano who will sing the role of Brunnhilde in the COC’s Die Walküre in Toronto in 2015 and will be the MET’s Brunnhilde in their 2018/19 Ring Cycle.
An American Tragedy is an opera by Tobias Picker based on Theodore Dreiser’s novel. Many will have an idea of the story from the 1951 movie, A Place in the Sun. One of the Special Events at last year’s festival was Picker recounting and illustrating the evolution of his opera, including an adventure on Big Moose Lake in the Adirondack Mountains where the original murder (?) that inspired Dreiser took place. We are looking forward to how Picker and his librettist worked it out in this revised version.
Special Events this summer include a masterclass with Jessye Norman, “Christine Goerke in Concert,” a masterclass with Jonathan Miller and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who once again shares her passion for opera and muses on law in the arts.
Check out the performance dates for the operas, their casts and all the Special Events by simply Googling “Glimmerglass.” It’s a six hour drive from Toronto including a leisurely lunch.
