With Scalia/Ginsburg, Derrick Wang’s delightful mash of an opera, the composer shamelessly steals from almost every major composer and switches styles with alacrity, even setting some American anthems to quirky operatic use. It signifies his knowledge and relish of the entire operatic repertoire and marks his celebration of Justice Ginsburg as the genre’s great champion. […]

Don Giovanni lives! – unrepentant and unleashed – at Castleton Festival. The Festival has delivered the story of the world’s most famous reprobate with a terrific company, whose members pull off the tricky changes of dark and light tones of Mozart’s hefty work with remarkable facility – and the singing is top notch.

Opening the 2014 season, with Lorin Maazel scheduled to conduct, word came down from il Maestro himself that this production of Madama Butterfly was the “real thing.” The place was packed and the air was electric in Castleton Festival’s gigantic performance tent. (Certainly this was a different kind of electricity than had met me two […]

Carmen, the second opera of Castleton Festival’s 2012 season, aired after Friday’s storm left performers, staff, and crew with a cancelled scheduled opening and, for many, 72 hours without power and running water. The amazing thing was that this duck (Castleton) not only kept on paddling but that it could quack at all.

Now in its fourth season, Castleton has blossomed into an artistically first rate festival and conservatory program that stands proudly beside stalwart organizations like Glimmerglass, Tanglewood, and Wolf Trap.