David Daniels, Eric Owens, Elizabeth Futral and More to Perform at Glimmerglass Festival Gala, 4/10

The Glimmerglass Festival will hold GLIMMERATA!, the 2012 Spring Gala, on April 10 at The Metropolitan Club in Manhattan to benefit the company's Young Artists and Summer Internshipprograms. The evening will feature music, dinner and dancing, as well as performances by 2012 Glimmerglass Artist in Residence Eric Owens, David Daniels, DWayne Croft, Sean Panikkar, Elizabeth Futral, Young Artist DomiNick Rodriguez and more.

 

The evening will be hosted by Glimmerglass Festival Artistic & General Director Francesca Zambello with Gala Chairs Patricia Kavanagh and James Grant, and Estelle Parsons and Peter Zimroth.  Cocktails and hors d' oeuvres begin at 6:30 p.m., with the musical performance at 7:30 p.m. Dinner at 8:15 p.m. will be followed by dessert and dancing to the Peter Duchin Orchestra.

"It's going to be divo night out at our Spring Gala," Zambello said. "With performances by internationally acclaimed artists, alongside the talented Young Artists this event benefits, the evening is not to be missed." 

The Glimmerglass Festival Young Artists Program is an acclaimed program that provides training and performance experience for talented singers at the beginning of their professional careers.  The Festival also offers summer internships in production, administration and artistic administration, providing the opportunity for young professionals and students to experience the fast-paced world of repertory opera and music theater. 

"You can train your whole life as an artist, but you are not one until you are working," said Francesca Zambello, Glimmerglass Artistic & General Director. "Glimmerglass has launched the careers of a tremendous number of singers and production and administrative interns. The 2012 Spring Gala helps to continue these programs, which help serve the art form in the long run."

American bass-baritone Eric Owens, who has performed to critical acclaim at Metropolitan, San Francisco and Washington National operas, joins The Glimmerglass Festival as the 2012 Artist in Residence and will work closely with the Young Artists throughout the summer. At Glimmerglass he will perform the role of Amonasro in Aida in his role debut, and he will sing the role of Stephen Kumalo in Kurt Weill's Lost in the Stars. He can currently be seen as Alberick in the Metropolitan Opera's Götterdämmerung.

David Daniels made his Glimmerglass debut in 1994 as Nero in L'Incoronazione di Poppea at the start of his career, returning for lead roles in Tamerlano (1995) and Partenope (1998).  He joined the company for a concert performance during the 2010 Festival. Daniels has performed leading roles at the Metropolitan, San Francisco, Santa Fe, Washington National, and Houston Grand Operas, as well as Lyric Opera of Chicago, Teatro alla Scala, Bayerische Staatsoper, Covent Garden and Glyndebourne Festival. He can be heard in the Metropolitan Opera's new production of The Enchanted Island through January 30. Daniels is featured on many Virgin Classics recordings, including Bach: Sacred Arias and Cantatas and Pergolesi: Stabat Mater.

Cooperstown native DWayne Croft will return to Glimmerglass for the role of Harold Hill in The Music Man,which follows the 2011 production of Annie Get Your Gun in the company's series of American musicals performed with full orchestra and no amplification. Croft began his career as a supernumerary and chorus member at Glimmerglass and went on to sing many roles with the company.  Croft has sung more than 25 roles with the Metropolitan Opera, including the title roles in Billy Budd, Don Giovanni, The Barber of Seville andEugene Onegin.  In addition to his roles at the Metropolitan Opera, he has performed with Washington National, Los Angeles, Santa Fe and San Francisco operas, as well as Vienna Staatsoper, Salzburg Festival and Teatro la Fenice.

Sean Panikkar joins Glimmerglass this summer as The Leader in Lost in the Stars. Panikkar was recently seen as Narraboth in Francesca Zambello's production of Salome at Washington National Opera and debuted at Santa Fe Opera as Kodanda in a new production of Menotti's The Last Savage. He will perform the role of Ismaele inNabucco at Washington National Opera in May.

Elizabeth Futral sings the role of Marian Paroo this summer at Glimmerglass. Futral created the roles of Stella in André Previn's A Streetcar Named Desire and Laura Jesson in Previn's Brief Encounter. Her extensive discography includes works by Previn, Carlisle Floyd and Ricky Ian Gordon. She has performed around the globe; most recently, she debuted at New Zealand Opera and performed with the Avanti Chamber Group at Carnegie Hall. This February, she performs Fiordiligi in Washington National Opera's production of Così fan tutte.

DomiNick Rodriguez is an alumnus of the 2010 and 2011 Young Artists Programs at Glimmerglass. He was most recently seen as Don José in The Glimmerglass Festival's Young Artist presentation of Carmen, and in 2010 he appeared as Spoletta and covered Cavaradossi in Tosca. He has appeared with Virginia Opera, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis and La Musica Lirica. In 2012, he makes his debut as Manrico in Il trovatore with Houston's Opera in the Heights.

Attire is black tie or cocktail. Tickets range from $1,000 to $2,500; tables of 10 range from $10,000 to $25,000. For reservations and additional information, call The Glimmerglass Festival Development Department at (607) 547-0700 ext. 208. The Metropolitan Club is located at 1 East 60^th Street.

The 2012 Glimmerglass Festival mainstage productions include Verdi's Aida, Willson's The Music Man,Lully's Armide and Kurt Weill and Maxwell Anderson's Lost in the Stars. The productions will run in rotation July 7 through August 25 in the Alice Busch Opera Theater in Cooperstown, New York. The mainstage productions will be supplemented by special performances, concerts and lectures throughout the season. Tickets for the Festival start at just $26 and youth tickets (ages 6-18) start at $10 when accompanied by an adult. Call(607) 547-2255 or visit www.glimmerglass.org for tickets and additional information.

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