Summer Stages: Summertime and the Opera is Easy in the Northeast

The new opera season doesn't start till September at the earliest. What's an opera fan to do until the Met's curtain goes up on September 21? Well, with a little bit of effort, opera in New York and the surrounding states during the summer months can offer quite a bit.

New York Philharmonic, June 10-13

www.nyphil.org

Technically, the Philharmonic doesn't finish its season until late in June, so its performances of Honegger's JOAN OF ARC AT THE STAKE (JEANNE D'ARC AU BUCHER)--part opera, part oratorio--are part of the spring season. But this is the latest of the adventurous works that Maestro Alan Gilbert has brought to the orchestra's audiences and the effort has been quite successful. This is the U.S. Premiere of staged production created at the Festival Saito Kinen Matsumoto in August 2012 under the artistic direction of Seiji Ozawa and stars French actress Marian Cotillard as Joan, a speaking role, along with two other actors, French actors, Eric Genovese and Christian Gonon. Met favorite soprano Erin Morley is one of the singers.

Metropolitan Opera, June 15-30

www.metopera.org

Gone are the days when the Met traveled New York's boroughs with fully staged operas, but its concert performances featuring (mostly) up and coming performers are nothing to be sneezed at. This year, the Summer Recital Series returns with six performances in the parks of all five boroughs, starting with a concert at Manhattan's Central Park SummerStage on June 15, in a program that will be repeated on the17th in Pier l of Brooklyn Bridge Park in Brooklyn. The old pro of the group is baritone Nathan Gunn, who won the Met Council auditions in 1994, and is warming up for the world premiere of Jennifer Higdon's Cold Mountain, based on the award-winning 1997 novel of the same name by Charles Frazier, in Santa Fe this August. Isabel ("don't call me mezzo") Leonard, who was Cherubino is last season's new LE NOZZE DI FIGARO and a popular Rosina in IL BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA, is also on the program. The third performer is soprano Janai Brugger, who is another Met auditions winner and made her Met debut in 2012 as Liu in TURANDOT. From what I've heard, she's one to watch. Dan Saunders is the pianist for the concerts. The only name familiar to me from the second group of singers, who will be singing in Queens, Staten Island, the Bronx and another Manhattan concert, is mezzo Ginger Costa-Jackson, who was a dynamic Lola in CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA at the Met this spring.

Monday, June 15, 2015, 8pm
Central Park SummerStage
Wednesday, June 17, 2015, 7pm
Brooklyn Bridge Park, Pier 1, Brooklyn
Janai Brugger, soprano
Isabel Leonard, mezzo-soprano
Nathan Gunn, baritone
Dan Saunders, pianist

Wednesday, June 24, 2015, 7pm
Socrates Sculpture Park, Queens
Friday, June 26, 2015, 7pm
Jackie Robinson Park, Manhattan
Sunday, June 28, 2015, 7pm
Crotona Park, Bronx
Tuesday, June 30, 2015, 7pm
Clove Lakes Park, Staten Island
Kiri Deonarine, soprano
Ginger Costa-Jackson, mezzo-soprano
John Moore, baritone
Dan Saunders, pianist

In addition, starting July 8, the Met will show Encores of some recent Live in HD presentations at many of the venues that carry the series year-round, including two with soprano Natalie Dessay, LA FILLE DU REGIMENT and LA FILLE DU REGIMENT. In late August, the Met's most popular Live in HD presentations are screened in Lincoln Center Plaza in a free ten-day festival. Check the Met site for details and dates.

On Site Opera (New York), June 9-13

http://osopera.org

On Site Opera, whose mission is to stage operas in non-traditional locations ideally suited to the stories they tell, is bringing a familiar name in an unfamiliar opera to Manhattan's opulent Fabbri Mansion (House of the Redeemer) on New York City's Upper East Side. The opera is IL BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA--THE BARBER OF SEVILLE--but not the familiar Rossini composition but by Giovanni Paisiello. It's a charming work, quite different from its namesake, done in an immersive site-specific staging, conducted by Music Director, Geoffrey McDonald and directed by OSO's Co-Founder and Artistic Director, Eric Einhorn. It's updated to the early 20th century, when the Fabbri Mansion was built, and staged in its outdoor courtyard and library.

Lincoln Center Festival, July 15, 18

http://www.lincolncenterfestival.org/2015/daphne

The Lincoln Center Festival's contribution to opera this year is a concert performance of Richard Strauss's DAPHNE, with the Cleveland Orchestra conducted by Music Director Franz Welser-Most, with soprano Regine Hangler as the nymph Daphne,and two tenors as the men who adore her, Andreas Schager as the god Apollo and Norbert Ernst as the shepherd Leukippos.

Mostly Mozart, August

www.mostlymozart.org

New York's Mostly Mozart Festival has long since given up the 'mostly Mozart' part of its name in its performances. This is nowhere more evident than in this year's two major vocal performances:

First is the U.S. stage premiere of George Benjamin's masterpiece, with libretto by Martin Crimp,the erotic and visceral, WRITTEN ON SKIN, which tells of a woman bound by a cruel marriage and consumed by an illicit passion. France's Le Monde declared it "the best opera written in twenty years," finally arrives in New York for a much-anticipated premiere. August 11,13,15. New York Philharmonic conductor Alan Gilbert, making his Mostly Mozart debut, leads the Mahler Chamber Orchestra

Also on the schedule is Haydn's The Creation, August 21,22, with The Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra conducted by Louis Langrée, and the Concert Chorale of New York under James Bagwell.

Those willing to travel a little further for their opera fix have some interesting choices in New York State.

Caramoor Festival

http://www.caramoor.org/

Caramoor Center for Music and Arts in Katonah, New York, set on a 90-acre estate in Westchester, presents a wide array of classical, jazz and pop music concerts, but to opera aficionados, it is best known for its full-length, semi-staged bel canto and other opera productions.

This year. there are two French selections, though only the first falls into the bel canto repertoire.

Donizetti's LA FAVORITE, July 11

Written for the Paris opera, LA FAVORITE takes place against the Moorish invasionsof 14th century France. The last time the Met presented the opera, it was the Italian version, starring Shirley Verrett, and much was lost in translation. Here, it goes back to the original French. Mezzo Clementine Margaine stars, with tenor Santiago Ballerini, baritone Stephen Powell and bass-baritone Daniel Mobbs.Will Crutchfield leads the Orchestra of St. Luke's.

Poulenc's DIALOGUES DES CARMELITES, July 25

The last time this opera was presented at the Met, it was a justifiable hot ticket for the opera itself as well as the stellar performances. This foray into 20th century opera--unusual for Caramoor--has a strong cast of female voices, including sopranos Hei-Kyung Hong,Jennifer Check and Deborah Polaski and mezzo Jennifer Larmore. Crutchfield again conducts the St. Luke's.

The festival also presents a pair of concerts, on June 25 and July 25, featuring the music center's Bel Canto Young Artists and Apprentices. The first programs unattributed vocal gems from the early years of bel canto's golden age; the second consists of songs by Alessandro and Domenico Scarlatti, father and son.

Glimmerglass Festival

http://glimmerglass.org/

The Glimmerglass Festival, in Cooperstown, New York (also home to the Baseball Hall of Fame), is a professional, non-profit organization presenting four new productions of opera and musical theater in rotation every July and August. This year's schedule includes:

THE MAGIC FLUTE, July 10-August 23

A new adaptation of Mozart's classic Enlightenment tale takes its inspiration, in part, from the magical qualities of an unspoiled natural landscape.

MACBETH, July 11-August 22

In the first-ever Glimmerglass production of Verdi's powerful Shakespearean drama, Artist in Residence Eric Owens makes his role debut as the title character; Melody Moore returns as his scheming wife.

CATO IN UTICA, July 18-August 22

Passion and politics collide in Vivaldi's exquisite setting of Metastasio's poetic depiction of Cato the Younger.

CANDIDE, July 19-August 21

Funny, fast-moving and philosophical, Bernstein's take on Voltaire's satirical novella includes such classic tunes as "The Best of All Possible Worlds" and "Glitter and Be Gay."

There will also be:

- A lecture by Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (a big opera buff) on Saturday, July 18 at 3:00 p.m. Her talk shares her passion for opera and unique perspective on law in the arts.

- A joint recital by bass-baritone Eric Owens and tenor Lawrence Brownlee in concert on Sunday, August 2 at 5:00 p.m.

- A master class by soprano Deborah Voigt, Friday, August 7 at 3:00 p.m.

- A young artists fully staged evening performance of THE MAGIC FLUTE, Friday, August 14 at 1:30 p.m.

- 40TH ANNIVERSARY CONCERT, Sunday, August 16 at 5:00 p.m., with performances by guest artists and Young Artists celebrating Glimmerglass' four-decade milestone.

-A master class by renowned mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade, Friday, August 21 at 3:00 pm.

Bard SummerScape

http://fishercenter.bard.edu/summerscape/

Among the musical attractions at Bard College's SummerScape, located in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, on the Hudson River about 90 miles north of New York City and 220 miles southwest of Boston is a true opera oddity: THE WRECKERS by Dame Ethel Smyth, being performed by American Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Leon Botstein, music director, and directed by Thaddeus Strassberger, July 24-August 2.

Smyth's opera is based in historical fact: in small, desperately poor villages on Britain's Cornish coast, bands of villagers formed secret cadres that at critical moments would extinguish the beacons established on the coast to guide ships, thus forcing them onto the rocks and then plundering the cargo and murdering the crews. She had a hard time getting it produced. Written in French, its first performance was in German in 1906 and didn't find much interest until the noted British conductor Sir Thomas Beecham took it under his wing in 1909. Its U.S. premiere, also with the American Symphony, took place in 2007.

Tanglewood Music Festival

http://www.bso.org/brands/tanglewood/features/2015-tanglewood-season.aspx

For those wanting to go even further afield, there is always the Tanglewood Festival in Lenox, Massachusetts, summer home of the Boston Symphony. There are no full operas in concert this summer at Tanglewood, but there are plenty of bits and pieces.

On July 11 at 8:30, Bramwell Tovey conducts the BSO in an All-Italian program that includes soprano Sondra Radvanovsky, baritone Bryn Terfel, and Tanglewood Festival Chorus under John Oliver in Act II of Puccini's TOSCA.

A month later, on August15 at 8:30, the BSO's Music Director, Andris Nelsons conducts the orchestra in a program of Italian opera featuring his wife, the wonderful Kristine Opolais, who was sensational in MADAMA BUTTERFLY at the Met and next season starts with Jonas Kaufmann in a new production of MANON LESCAUT. The highlight here should be the Willow Song and "Ave Maria" from Verdi's OTELLO.

Also around the Festival program are some notable singers in recital: Bryn Terfel (7/9), Sarah Connolly (7/16), Audra McDonald (7/19), and the thrilling Matthias Goerne (8/5) doing Schubert's WINTERREISE.

And if all this still isn't enough, you might want to ponder a trip to the Castleton Festival in Rappahannock County and Manassas, Va., castletonfestival.com, for the premiere of SCALIA/GINSBURG, at the festival created by Lorin Maazel and his wife, Dietlinde Turban Maazel, who is now artistic director. It's a comic opera by Derrick Wang about the two opera-loving Supreme Court justices. Comic? Well, I suppose I'd rather hear Scalia on opera than on any of the tough issues facing the Supreme Court.

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