June/July Castleton Festival Announces Lineup
By: Kelsey Denette Feb. 23, 2011
Artistic Director, Lorin Maazel, and Administrative Director, Dietlinde Turban Maazel, of the Castleton Festival have announced casting and concert program details for this summer's festival that will bring together young talent with experienced professionals for 20 opera and concert performances over four weeks, Saturday, June 25 through Sunday, July 24.
As previously announced, new productions will be staged of Puccini's La Bohème, Ravel's L'enfant et les sortilèges, and Kurt Weill's Seven Deadly Sins in addition to concerts featuring excerpts from Gershwin's Porgy & Bess and Bizet's Carmen and four orchestral concerts. Returning Castleton productions include Puccini's Il tabarro and Gianni Schicchi, de Falla's Master Pedro's Puppet Show and Stravinsky's A Soldier's Tale.
In 2011 the Castleton Festival will extend beyond the two venues located at the Maazels' Castleton Farms in Rappahannock County, Virginia to the 1,121-seat Merchant Hall at the Hylton Performing Arts Center in Manassas, Virginia and to the inaugural BlackCreek Summer Music Festival at the 14,000-seat Rexell Centre in Toronto, Canada. Two post-festival concerts will be given under the auspices of the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing's famous Opera House known as "the Egg". (Full performance schedule and calendar follow.)
One of the hallmarks of the Castleton Festival, now entering its third season, is the quality of the performances and productions that Maestro Maazel says are worthy of any established international festival. Of last year's festival, Gramophone magazine wrote: "Not only does the Maestro bring out the best in these young musicians, they bring out the best in him. And ultimately, that's what makes Castleton so special; young artist-fuelled summer programs abound, but where else can they learn from the undisputed best?"
Maestro Maazel says, "Our festival's heart lies in identifying and nurturing stars of the future - singers, musicians, conductors and stage directors - and I am delighted that this year's festival will see many of the singers who are now singing in major opera houses around the world return to Castleton to perform roles they excelled in last year, and in new roles to delight our audiences."Soprano Joyce El-Khoury and baritone Corey Crider will both reprise their acclaimed roles in Puccini's Gianni Schicchi for a performance on Thursday, July 14 at the Hylton Performing Arts Center. Reviewing Ms. El-Khoury's performance of the aria "O mio babbino caro" last year, the Washington Post described her as "...floating out the gorgeous tune with aplomb". In this year's festival, Maestro Maazel has given Ms. El-Khoury the leading role of Mimi for four performances of La Bohème that he will conduct. Maestro Maazel comments: "Joyce is a winner!"
Corey Crider's portrayal of Gianni Schicchi was described as "delightfully dastardly" by Gramophone magazine with the Baltimore Sun saying he "...sang the title role in robust voice and acted up a storm." In addition to reprising this role, he will sing Marcello in La Bohème for three performances. Baritone Michael Anthony McGee will perform Marcello on Saturday, July 16 and the roles of Musetta and Rodolfo will be performed by Suzanne Vinnick and Brian Jagde respectively, with Diego Silva singing Rodolfo on July 16. Michael Anthony McGee and tenor René Barbera will perform a recital called "Stars of the Future" on Monday, July 11 at the Theatre at Washington in the nearby town of ‘Little' Washington, VA.
Other singers returning this year include: soprano Jessica Klein, described as having a "lustrous, resonant voice" by the Financial Times, as Giorgetta in Il tabarro, a role she will reprise; soprano Tharanga Goonetilleke, whose performance in Gianni Schicchi was described by American Record Guide as being "...reminiscent of Kathleen Battle in her Glory Days"; baritone Paul LaRosa and tenor Tyler Nelson, who will reprise their roles in Master Pedro's Puppet Show; and Dominic Armstrong, who previously performed roles in Castleton's Britten chamber opera productions, and who this year will sing Luigi in Il tabarro and take on new roles in Seven Deadly Sins and L'enfant et les sortilèges.
New productions that will introduce new faces and voices to Castleton audiences are: Kurt Weill's Seven Deadly Sins that will feature Kate Mangiameli in the lead role of Anna; Ravel's L'enfant et les sortilèges featuring Cecelia Hall as L'enfant, Sungji Kim as Le feu and Alex DeSocio as L'horloge comtoise; and a concert of excerpts from Porgy & Bess featuring Patrick Blackwell as Porgy, Reyna Carguill as Bess, John Fulton as Crown and Chauncey Parker as Sportin' Life.
The festival's rising talent will be augmented by guest appearances of internationally acclaimed artists including mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves, who will perform excerpts from Bizet's Carmen at the first orchestral concert on Sunday, June 26 with tenor Richard Troxell. Ms. Graves will also perform songs by Stephen Foster at a concert commemorating the 150th Anniversary of the First Battle of Manassas (Bull Run) at the Hylton Performing Arts Centre on Thursday, July 21. Both concerts will be conducted by Maestro Maazel. Grammy Award-winning soprano Sylvia McNair will present her one-woman show called "Subject to Change!" at the Theatre at Washington on Monday, July 18.
In addition to the singers selected by audition by Maestro Maazel and the Castleton Festival's General Manager Nancy Gustafson for key roles in the festival productions, the festival also runs the Castleton Artists Training Seminar (CATS) that this year has more than doubled in size to 40 participants. At the 2011 festival, CATS participants will comprise the chorus for La Bohème and will participate in L'enfant et les sortilèges. They will perform opera scene recitals throughout the festival and also be responsible for covering roles in the festival's opera productions while receiving vocal coaching and intense training in performance skills, art songs, three European languages and career management.
All of the music for the staged performances and concerts will be performed by members of the Castleton Festival Orchestra that Maestro Maazel describes as "a group of carefully vetted young virtuosos who put their prowess at the service of their art, lovingly mentored by established artists, including myself." The 87 musicians selected for the orchestra by Maestro Maazel come from the United Kingdom, France, South Korea, China, Russia, Germany and Canada as well as from the United States. Repertoire for the 2011 festival's concerts is made up of works by Bernstein, Bizet, Copland, Chabrier, Stephen Foster, Gershwin, Grofé, Maazel, Prokofiev and Ravel. (Full concert program details follow.)
On Sunday, July 17 violinist Jennifer Koh will perform Maestro Maazel's Music for Violin and Orchestra with the Castleton Festival Orchestra led by Maestro Maazel. Ms. Koh will also feature in three performances of Stravinsky's A Soldier's Tale, which she performed last year. Pianist Kevin Cole will be the soloist for Gershwin's Concerto in F and Rhapsody in Blue on Sunday, July 3 and Marouan Benabdallah will perform Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 3 on Sunday, July 24.
At the conclusion of this year's festival, the Castleton Festival Orchestra will travel with Maestro Maazel to Beijing to perform concerts on Friday, July 29 and Saturday, July 30 at the state-of-the-art concert hall at the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA). These concerts mark the beginning of a partnership between the festival and the NCPA that will continue in 2012 with a new Castleton production of Rossini's The Barber of Seville that will be premiered in Beijing in November 2011 and that will open the 2012 Castleton Festival.
During the festival three Associate Conductors, Levi Hammer, Matthieu Mantanus and Blake Richardson, will share the podium with Maestro Maazel. A new partnership with the prestigious Copenhagen-based Malko Competition for Young Conductors will see the 2009 competition winner, Joshua Weilerstein, make his Castleton Festival debut leading Bernstein's Symphonic Dances from West Side Story at the 150th Anniversary of the First Battle of Manassas concert on Thursday, July 21.
All Castleton Festival productions are directed by Castleton's Resident Stage Director, William Kerley, with sets and costumes by Nicholas Vaughan and lighting by Rie Ono. Productions at Castleton Farms are performed in the intimate 140-seat Theatre House that was custom-built on the property, and the Festival Tent. This year's ‘tent' will be a new permanent structure that will seat 400 people and that is insulated, providing patrons with a more comfortable, air-conditioned experience.
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