Thursday, July 01, 2010

If it's July...

Then summer opera season must be here. Although there were some interesting local offerings in June, the meat of the reasonably-local schedule seems to arrive this month.

The Castleton Festival's Il Trittico (July 2-24), Turn of the Screw (July 3-11), and Beggar's Opera (July 15-17) (all in Castleton, VA)
Puccini invades the formerly all-Britten opera fest.

Lake George Opera's Carmen (July 8-18) and Viva la Mamma (July 9-17) (both in Saratoga Springs, NY)

Wolf Trap's Turk in Italy (July 9-13) and Midsummer Night's Dream (August 13-17) (all in Vienna, VA)

Glimmerglass Opera's Tosca (July 9-August 24), The Tender Land (July 10-August 21), Figaro (July 17-August 22), and Tolomeo (July 18-August 23) (all in Cooperstown, NY)
Lise Lindstrom looks to be promising Tosca, if you can bear another one.

Caramoor's Norma (July 10-16) and Maria di Rohan (July 24) (both in Katonah, NY)
Angela Meade as Norma.

Opera New Jersey's Don Giovanni (July 11-August 1), Don Pasquale (July 17-August 1), and Faust (July 18-31) (all in Princeton, NJ)

The Metropolitan Opera's summer recital series (July 12-29 in NYC parks)
Mostly young singers again including documentary star Michael Fabiano.

Lincoln Center Festival's La porta della legge (July 20-22)
Need more Italian contemporary opera in your life?

Tanglewood's concert Abduction from the Seraglio (July 23) and staged Ariadne auf Naxos (August 1, 2, and 4) (both in Lenox, MA)
All were supposed to be conducted by Levine, but his recovery from the latest back issue continues. Abduction, starring last summer's revelatory Lucia Lisette Oropesa, will be conducted by the Canadian Opera Company's Johannes Debus, while the first two Ariadnes gets a star replacement in Christoph von Dohnányi (the last will be led by a conducting fellow of the festival).

Bard SummerScape's Der ferne Klang (July 31-August 6) and The Chocolate Soldier (both in Annandale-on-Hudson, NY)

3 comments:

  1. Did you hear Angela Meade's Norma tonight at Caramoor? Details to follow, but short version - she was amazing - high floating pianissimo notes, gorgeous fioratura, full-throated fury, smooth vocal line. I wanted an Act III when she sang about the flames just to hear her go on longer.

    Overall cast was great - Will Crutchfield did a great job conducting and preparing the cast. Pre-concert recitals with the Caramoor fellows were fun - a whole recital on precursors to bel canto duets, and then a second recital on Wagner's debt to Bellini.

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  2. Nope, I didn't make it out of town. Please do elaborate if you get a chance...

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  3. Try and go on Friday - take the Caramoor bus from Grand Central. It's totally worth it.

    Superb performance by Angela Meade and Keri Alkema as Adalgisa (Keri sang Donna Elvira very well at NYCO in the fall.)

    Meade has so many strengths: gorgeous sense of melody where she can unfurl a line with intelligence and emotion, beautiful high pianissimos, profound fury that never sounded like oversinging, and a confident stage presence.

    After a glorious 'Casta Diva' she was completely relaxed and just sang with joy and confidence the entire evening. Her duets with Keri Alkema were strong - their voices blend very well, and Alkema mezzo roots added a gorgeous contrast.

    My only worry is that Meade would be forced to overvolume the role at the MET, should she ever be offered it. She is already perfect for a smaller-house Norma.

    Who will sing Norma the next time the MET does it? I have already dream-cast Stephanie Blythe as Adalgisa. Netrebko? She might surprise us all.

    One other fun part of Saturday's Caramoor excursion - the afternoon recitals. A fun recital at 4:15 of duets that influenced or epitomized the bel canto duet ideal. Another fun recital at 5 detailing Bellini's influcence on Wagner. Will Crutchfield went to the piano to show us how phrases from I Capuletti (which Wagner conducted a few times) made their way into Act I Walkure and how the final scene of Act II Norma bears a similarity to Wotan's Farewell. I could have listened to Will Crutchfield talk from the piano all day.

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Absolutely no axe-grinding, please.