Glimmerglass Opera

[foxy]

It's the new season for opera in upstate NY. I have been to several productions and they have been wonderful. http://www.glimmerglass.org Near Cooperstown which is a very pretty town and area. Well worth a visit.

[bostonman]

Just looked at the season - looks good. RUN (do not walk) to hear Rachele Gilmore sing Zerbinetta in Ariadne Auf Naxos - I saw her do the role in Boston several seasons ago, after she made a splash as a last-minute replacement at the Met in Tales of Hoffmann, singing what supposedly was the highest note ever sung on that stage (a double high Ab). (Christine Goerke as Ariadne is no chopped liver either, lol.) In any case, Gilmore is the real deal - she can sing the hell out of Zerbinetta's impossible aria - and in the production I saw, doing all sorts of wonderful physical gags at the same time along with the men in the commedia troupe - how she could do all that and sing it so well was really amazing.

 

Not happy to see the choice of music director for Carousel, but I know other people like his work. He really screwed over some colleagues of mine a few years ago - not something I'm about to forget.

 

If you're not familiar with Picker's An American Tragedy, I was pleasantly surprised by the Met production a few years back. (I wasn't as fond of the same composer's Emmaline, which did get a lot of praise, but somehow didn't do it for me.) Inasmuch as a good deal of American operas get heralded first productions then tend to disappear, I'm glad to see this work getting exposure.

[MrMiniver]

I have to admit I would never go to an Ariadne for the Zerbinetta (a less than 10 minute role) but I would definitely go for the Ariadne!

[bostonman]

I love the whole opera, but I have to admit Zerbinetta's aria (along with that whole commedia sequence) is just too much fun. ;-)

 

Plus, she gets that scene with the Composer which is also great stuff. And essentially the punchline of the opera at the end (a real "I told you so" lol) even though she doesn't get the literal last word.

 

The real test of casting that opera is to find a tenor who can make it through Bacchus.

[MrMiniver]

I love the whole opera, but I have to admit Zerbinetta's aria (along with that whole commedia sequence) is just too much fun. ;-)

 

Plus, she gets that scene with the Composer which is also great stuff. And essentially the punchline of the opera at the end (a real "I told you so" lol) even though she doesn't get the literal last word.

 

The real test of casting that opera is to find a tenor who can make it through Bacchus.

 

I can think we can forget that one. Jon Villars when he was still "on" (and that lasted about a five minute career) was the last one, before that James King, I suppose.

 

I really love Ariadne but find it an oddly disjointed work and I usually feel that I wish they'd cut the Zerbinetta aria/scene and just get to the juicy lush stuff, so to speak. I get what they're going for and all that ... I just want my lush Straussness all together and all that funny business usually bores me .... I sometimes feel the same way (but it works so much better to me in this work) about the first part of Act 3 of Rosenkavalier -- but that is so much more brilliantly handled that I don't really mind -- when I'm just wishing we'd put away the kids and all the comedy and get to that last 20 minutes or so ....

[bostonman]

Jon Villars when he was still "on" (and that lasted about a five minute career)

 

Seems to me that Villars' problem was that he was indeed always "on" a little too much. And then he walked off...

[MrMiniver]

Seems to me that Villars' problem was that he was indeed always "on" a little too much. And then he walked off...

 

Boy, the stories I could tell about him. I remember first meeting him and he was so tall and handsome and in such good shape. But he was so neurotic! And it kept getting worse. Then he started putting on weight. Sad. In the beginning, the voice was so perfect for Bacchus and other roles of that type. But it didn't last long. He's still singing in Europe from what I hear. He also had this boyfriend .... it made Lady Macbeth look tame.