Opera director Francesca Zambello is as comfortable on the world’s largest stages as she is in a myriad of home kitchens around the world.
The Crucible at Glimmerglass Festival
In 1692, Tituba and a gaggle of Puritan girls frolicked by night in the woods outside Salem and allegedly conjured up the devil, an event that embroiled the witnesses and a whole township in a massive, tragic witch-hunt. By night, during this summer of 2016, surrounded by the woods of Cooperstown New York, there has […]
Sweeney Todd at Glimmerglass Festival
Is it true, as Stephen Sondheim insists, that mostly audience expectations dictate whether a work is to be experienced as an opera or a musical? When pushed, however, he is equally adamant that his Sweeney Todd was squarely conceived as a musical. Well, Artistic Director of the Glimmerglass Festival, Francesca Zambello, and the entire ensemble […]
The Thieving Magpie at Glimmerglass Festival
Well, this one’s for the birds! Full disclosure. I love a production that is steeped in fanciful storytelling. My background as a former teacher of theatre-movement makes me a sucker for anthropomorphic exploration in character building. And I swoon for the bel canto vocal sound, its clear bell-like tones and the agility of the voices […]
La Bohème at Glimmerglass Festival
In a season where we’ve been hammered by political name-calling and divisive fearmongering, the threat of climate change and global terrorism, and protests and gun violence in hometowns across America, it is an emotional salve to return, if even for an evening, to the world of Giacomo Puccini’s young Bohemians. La Bohème reminds us of […]
Opera singer Eric Owens, from Glimmerglass Festival to Washington National Opera
I interviewed Eric Owens, the world-renowned bass-baritone, in the beautiful surroundings of Glimmerglass Festival. He had just come off a performance of Verdi’s Macbeth two nights before and was preparing to work with singers from the Young Artists Program. Soon he would be appearing alongside Artistic Director Francesca Zambello pre-show to greet audiences and encourage […]
Glimmerglass Festival: no better place for The Magic Flute and Candide
On this the fortieth anniversary of the Glimmerglass Festival, Artistic Director Francesca Zambello has delivered to us two big valentines of shows: Mozart’s much beloved work The Magic Flute and Leonard Bernstein’s Candide.
A haunting Macbeth at Glimmerglass Festival
The general understanding in theatre is that there is a curse on Shakespeare’s Scottish play. I wonder in Anne Bogart’s new operatic production at Glimmerglass Festival, despite some wonderful singing, whether some of that curse didn’t leak over to create a bit of a soggy mash of an interpretation of Verdi’s opera.
Stunning premiere for Vivaldi’s Cato in Utica at Glimmerglass Festival
There is something very special about attending the premiere of a great work, where all discoveries happen in real time. Saturday evening the energy was electrifying, filled with gasps and eruptions of spontaneous applause. The production was indeed stunning from the opening moment.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s ‘On Opera and the Law’ at Glimmerglass Festival
Two giants were in fulsome display at Glimmerglass Festival on Saturday, both alike in dignity: the notorious RBG (Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg) and Roman Republic’s own Cato the Younger. Both stand as well-deserved heroes and staunch defenders of their respective republics.