Glimmerglass Opera 2007: Don't Look Back

A virtual tour

2007-08-13T10:58:00.000-04:00

A customer peruses postcards before an opera.

Inside Alice Busch Opera Theatre, patrons prepare for a night of opera.

The crowded scene shop, where set pieces are stored between performances.

Inside the makeup room of the Wardrobe House.

View of the fire lake from the balcony of the house.

Donors enjoy Intermission Club between acts.

One of over 50 changeovers the stage operations crew will do this season.

Glimmerglass reaches out to the community through events

2007-08-13T07:28:00.000-04:00

Each season, Glimmerglass Opera brings in professionals from all around the country to produce high-quality operas. However, as geographically diverse as the opera is, it still has strong ties to the Cooperstown community.

When many people think of Cooperstown, they think only of the Baseball Hall of Fame Museum. But there are many attractions outside of the sports culture like the Fenimore Art Museum, the Farmers' Museum, and of course, Glimmerglass Opera, that reflect the diverse interests of Cooperstown. Although many people travel from outside of Otsego County to visit Glimmerglass, much of the opera's business and its most ardent supporters come from Cooperstown itself.

In addition, many local singers participate directly in the operas. David Fahrquar, a Cooperstown resident and Glimmerglass Opera Guild Member, has sung in the chorus nearly every season since 1982.

"I sing with people here that I read about next year in Opera News," said Fahrquar. "I enjoy it so much that I wouldn't know what to do in the summer besides sing at Glimmerglass Opera."

Fahrquar and wife Donna, along with many other community members, also volunteer their time as ushers.

The Alice Busch Opera Theater itself hosts community events. For example the company hosts Fall for the Arts in September, where an assortment of local arts organizations held performances, demonstrations and workshops. Recently the theater hosted Cherry Valley High School's graduation.

But the majority of Glimmerglass' community contact comes form shows and events. For example, in July Glimmerglass hosted Family Day, where kids ate a picnic, played games and learned the cancan. Afterwards, they saw the opera "Orpheus in the Underworld" by Offenbach, a French comedic opera translated into English. Also, Glimmerglass presents free Young American Artist recitals in Cooperstown and the surrounding area.

Glimmerglass promotes opera in both the summer season and the off-season. During the long New York winter, Glimmerglass participated in Cooperstown's Cabin Fever Film Series by screening films with opera references in them. In the spirit of this year's Orpheus themed-season, Glimmerglass is hosting free film screenings of Jean Cocteau's Orphée and Marcel Camus' Black Orpheus at the Fenimore Art Museum.

Cocteau's Orphée plays:

August 16 at 3:30 p.m.

August 21 at 5:30 p.m.

Black Orpheus plays:

August 18 at 11:00 a.m.

August 24 at 3:30 p.m.

Another way Glimmerglass promotes opera is by hosting seminars. In March the Glimmerglass Opera and the Glimmerglass Creative Learning Center presented a series of seminars entitled Opera Unplugged, which covered a wide range of topics including opera music in film, languages in opera, the life of a singer, and voice types. During the season, Glimmerglass hosts classes through the Center for Continuing Adult Learning (CCAL) , giving participants a taste of life behind the curtain, as well as previews of upcoming operas, a tour, and access to staff production seminars.

During August, the opera also offers backstage tours on Saturday mornings at 10 a.m. and production changeover talks on Saturday afternoons after the matinee performance.

For more information on Glimmerglass events, please visit the Special Events, Picnics, Previews & Recitals page.

For upcoming events, including Young American Artists Program Recitals, please scroll down to the bottom of the page.

One more Orpheus

2007-08-11T12:28:00.000-04:00

Although all the mainstage productions have opened, Glimmerglass still has one more new work to present--a concert version of Haydn's L'Anima del Filosofo. The opera was never performed during Haydn's life and is still rarely presented.

Glimmerglass' presentation features former member of Young American Artists Program Sarah Coburn. Coburn has gone on to sing at the Metropolitan Opera among other great American opera houses. Tenor Norman Shankle regularly graces the stage of European opera houses and has previously sung the role of Orfeo in L'Anima del Filosofo at the Eisenstadt International Haydn Festival. Members of the Young American Artists Program and local chorus form the ensemble chorus, which has a strong presence throughout the work. The conducting work is split between Monteverdi conductor Antony Walker and Glass conductor Anne Manson.

Because the concert must fit into the busy production schedule, it rehearsed on the Offenbach set, but will be performed on the Monteverdi set and the Gluck set.

This is the first year that Glimmerglass has presented a concert in addition to the four mainstage productions. The work made its Glimmerglass premiere on Sunday. There will be one more performance on August 19 that is already sold out. Plans are already in the works for another Shakespeare-themed concert next season. Repertoire will include music from Mendelssohn's A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Young Artists In Recital

2007-08-09T14:26:00.000-04:00

Starting July 26, the 29 members of the Young American Artists Program began presenting recitals at venues in and around Cooperstown. The recitals offer community members, ticket holders, opera staff, and fellow program members the opportunity to hear these emerging singers in a solo setting.

The program includes many of the nation's best and brightest upcoming young singers. Members of the Young American Artists Program from years past have gone on to sing at the Metropolitan Opera and other great American opera houses, as well as internationally.

The artists have been preparing their 45-minute recital program in addition to opera rehearsals and performances. Soprano Katrina Thurman (left) has had to cover (understudy) five roles, in addition to being in the ensemble for three of the shows and having a small solo in the Monteverdi. She presented her recital Friday, the day before the Monteverdi opened.

The singers often choose to theme their recitals. For example, soprano Ellen Wieser performed a recital consisting entirely of songs by British composers like Britten and Quilter. Thurman themed her recital around a poem she had written, using it to form a story arc. Soprano Donna Smith also created a story out of her program, using a variety of composers to chronicle a tale of love lost and re-gained.

For a list of upcoming recitals, please scroll to the bottom of the page.

Classic Opera Stories

2007-08-06T16:15:00.000-04:00

Possibly the most commonly asked question for artists is "where do you get your ideas?" For most opera composers, the story is already written for them--they simply provide the music. Composers often draw the stories of their operas from the popular culture of the time. Popular legends, myths, books, plays, poems all became subjects of opera. Although most opera stories are set once, maybe a few times, and then retired, a few sources pop up over and over again over the course of music history.

Greek myths served as the basis for most operas of the Baroque and Classical Eras, and continued to be mildly popular in the Romantic and Modern Eras. A popular source was Ovid's Metamorphoses, the basis for operas like Cavalli's La Calisto, Handel's Acis and Galatea, Handel's Semele, several operas by Lully, Mozart's first opera Apollo et Hyacinthus, Donizetti's first opera Il Pigmalione, Strauss' Daphne, and many operas about Orpheus.

Ludovico Ariosto wrote the epic poem Orlando Furioso, which served as the inspiration for Tasso's work Jerusalem Delivered and the basis for a slew of operas named Armide, set by Lully, Salieri, Gluck, Haydn, Rossini and others. The epic story La liberazione di Ruggiero dall'isola d'Alcina, also based on Ariosto's work was the inspiration for Francesca Caccini, Luigi Rossi, Handel, Vivaldi, Lully, Rameau, and Haydn, among others.

William Shakespeare became popular in the opera world about 200 years after his death, during the Romantic Era. Many of his plays enjoy one or more opera settings. The Merry Wives of Windsor about the lusty knight Falstaff was set by Salieri, Nicolai, Verdi, Holst, and Vaughn Williams. The ever-popular Romeo and Juliet was set by Gounod, Delius, Bernstein, Bellini, and Vaccai. Glimmerglass Opera is basing its 2008 season around tales told by the prolific bard, including Handel's Giulio Cesare in Egitto, Bellini's I Capuleti e i Montecchi (based on the story that inspired Romeo and Juliet), Wagner's Das Liebesverbot (based on Measure for Measure), and Cole Porter's Kiss Me Kate (based on The Taming of the Shrew.)

Goethe's Faust--Originally a folk legend, the story of the man who sold his soul to the devil was made into a play by Christopher Marlowe (c. 1600) and Goethe (1832). The Goethe play was the basis for several operas by composers like Gounod, Berlioz, and Boito. Texts by Goethe were also extremely popular for lieder composers.

Images courtesy of NYPL Digital Gallery.

Free Films on August 4

2007-08-03T12:00:00.000-04:00

In the spirit of this year's Orpheus themed-season, Glimmerglass is hosting free film screenings of Jean Cocteau's Orphée and Marcel Camus' Black Orpheus at the Fenimore Art Museum.
Cocteau's Orphée plays:
August 4 at 11:00 a.m.
August 16 at 3:30 p.m.
August 21 at 5:30 p.m.
Black Orpheus plays:
August 4 at 2:00 p.m.
August 18 at 11:00 a.m.
August 24 at 3:30 p.m.

The Last Premiere

2007-08-02T13:42:00.000-04:00

This Saturday marked the fourth and final opera premiere of the Glimmerglass 2007 season, Monteverdi's L'Orfeo. The opera is a co-production between Glimmerglass and Opera North (Leeds, England). In 2008, Opera Norway will also produce the opera.

L'Orfeo is one of the most historically significant operas ever written. Although composers had experimented with combinations of music and drama before, the opera is generally considered the "first" opera and is certainly the earliest performed with any real regularity.

During a production seminar last Wednesday, conductor Antony Walker explained the evolution of opera before Monteverdi. "Fifty years before this was written, there were many documented, large-scale celebratory pieces that sometimes had a narrative going through them. A little analogy might be the musical theatre of today, which had a lot of spoken dialogue and then some songs as well. Then we had people asking, 'What did the Greeks used to do? What did they do with their dramas and how can we possibly hearken back to the Hellenic times and recreate what they might have done?' So, they came up with this sung recitation, which was accompanied by continuo-- it wasn't so much a song, but a narration."

As historically notable as the music is, director Christopher Alden strives to bring modernity to the production. "This version of the opera is very much about Orpheus as an artist. We're talking about art and what it means to be an artist. To me what's fascinating about this piece is Eurydice is like Orfeo's art, his muse, his creativity. It was so long before she gave in to him. That's when he created all this amazing music, out of his longing for her. And then, as soon as he gets it, she dies--it's taken away from him. When you want it, when you are really hungry for it, that's when you are creative, but as soon as you get that thing and are paid for it and are successful on some level, it's gone."

The opera is the centerpiece of the season, the one that General and Artistic Director Michael MacLeod built the season around to celebrate the 400th anniversary of its premiere. "I think it's extraordinarily lucky that in 2007, the 400th anniversary of Monteverdi's L'Orfeo, that we have the chance to present it at Glimmerglass for the first time. In fact, that was the germ of the idea of having an entire season based on the Orpheus myth," MacLeod said.

Recommendations

2007-08-01T23:00:00.000-04:00

Check Glimmerglass' newly updated Amazon.com recommendation list here. The list includes books, CDs, and DVDs relating to the 2007 season.

From the Screen to the Stage

2007-07-30T15:50:00.000-04:00

Harry Potter's done it. So have the Geico cavemen and the Incredible Hulk. The crossing of a story from one medium to another is the current obsession of the western media. However, movie and TV producers aren't the only ones borrowing from another medium. More and more modern composers have taken their libretti from the stories already made popular by film.

This season, Glimmerglass Opera is presenting the genre-jumping opera Orphée by modern composer Philip Glass. The opera is based from Jean Cocteau's 1950 film by the same name. From 1993-1996 Glass wrote an entire opera trilogy based on the films of Jean Cocteau: Orphée, La belle et la bête (Beauty and the Beast), and Les enfants terribles (The Terrible Children). Each opera shows a closer merge between the genres. Glass composed Orphée by using Cocteau's screenplay as his libretto. Glass meant La belle et la bête to be performed as an concert opera, with the film without sound playing simultaneously in the background.
However innovative Glass' operas are, he is not the first or last composer to use a film as inspiration for an opera.

What Next? (1999) by Elliot Carter based on Jacques Tati's Traffic (1970)
A Wedding (2004) by William Bolcom, based on the Robert Altman film (1978) by the same name
Lost Highway (2007) by Olga Neuwirth, based on the David Lynch film (1997) by the same name, starring Bill Pullman and Patricia Arquette

Upcoming:

Dancing in the Dark by Poul Ruders, based on Lars Von Trier's award-winning film (2000) by the same name, which featured Bjork
The Fly by Howard Shore (Oscar-winning composer of Lord of the Rings) based on the David Cronenberg film (1986) by the same name which featured Jeff Goldblum. Placido Domingo will music-direct the production.

Composers are using films as inspiration for opera more and more, but currently it's far more common for novels to cross into operas. It's been happening for centuries.

Wagner--Baron Edward Bulwer-Lytton's Rienzi, Last of the Tribunes
Tchaikovosky--Pushkin's Eugene Onegin
Richard Strauss--Wilde's Salome
Korngold--Die Tote Stadt after Rodenbach's Bruges la morte
Prokofiev- Tolstoy's War and Peace
Britten--Henry James' The Turn of the Screw
John Harbison--Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby
Mark Adamo--Alcott's Little Women
Poul Ruders-- Atwood's Handmaid's Tale, Kafka's The Trial
Tobias Picker--An American Tragedy

However, many of these stories are best known by their classic film adaptations:

Carlisle Floyd--Of Mice and Men (1970)
André Previn--A Streetcar Named Desire (1998)
Nicholas Maw- Sophie's Choice (2002)
Jake Heggie--The End of the Affair (2004), Dead Man Walking (2000)
Ricky Ian Gordon--The Grapes of Wrath (Feb. 2007)

Images courtesy of NYPL Digital Gallery.

Hot Links:
Cronenberg's The Fly to transform into an opera--CBC.ca
Opera to retell classic tale of love and insecticide-The Sydney Morning Herald
New Opera to Be Based on Von Trier Film--AP
Lost Highway, Opera Based on David Lynch Film, Gets New York Premiere--Playbill Arts
Opera and Film: Can This Union Be Saved?--Washington Post
Opera by the Book--Village Voice
The Novel of the Opera--Norman Lebrecht

All About the Journey: Jill Gardner, Offenbach's Newest Muse

2007-07-26T13:34:00.000-04:00

After a brief illness opening weekend, leading lady Jill Gardner is back in the role of Eurydice in Offenbach's Orpheus in the Underworld. An alumna of Glimmerglass' Young American Artists Program, Gardner earned her bachelor's degree in piano, but decided to focus on voice instead after a fellow pianist recommended a voice teacher whose students he accompanied.
Offenbach's Eurydice is unique. In every other Orpheus opera Glimmerglass is producing this season, Eurydice takes a back seat to the heroic Orpheus, the center of the action. Offenbach puts a twist on the myth by placing Euridice as the heroic figure of the story--the only character who doesn't cave to the domineering Public Opinion. Jill sees the character of Eurydice as a multi-faceted, beyond the frivolous veneer usually linked with comic characters.
"It's easy to think that Eurydice is naive, that she doesn't know what she's doing. She's skirting the societal influence, that which is always trying to wield its sword over us in whatever guise. She is the only one that does not operate in this socially influenced way. That's why I find it interesting and that's what I ultimately want to bring to this portrayal, not just someone who sings a ton of high notes."

Despite much experience in opera and operetta, Orpheus in the Underworld marks the first comedic role for Gardner, a thrilling challenge for the young soprano. "That's another reason why I found it interesting to try myself out at this. I'm not a big TV-watcher, but I've taken the time to watch some Sex and the City and Seinfeld and even going back to watch I Love Lucy and The Carol Burnett Show. When you sit and watch it totally from the aspect of comedy--not the story, just how they deliver the comedy-- you realize how much real life actually operates in that realm. You see human nature in the most real kind of way. Your instincts are really driven to deliver the comedy in a timing and a specificity that is very multi-layered. This kind of comedic timing is very hard. I have a lot more respect for it than I did.
"When you're singing all the time, when you have music to suport your words, that already sets up a multi-layered dimension and the music often expresses so well the subjective aspect of a character. You realize with dialogue how much energy's got to be in it and how quixotic we are as human beings."

As well as being her first comedic role, this is Gardner's first opportunity to sing a show with her husband Jake Gardner. Jake plays Jupiter, the head god and one of the many men who fall in love with Eurydice. The pair sing the famous "Fly Duet" and share a few romantic moments on stage.
"It's been great. Jake and I have sung quite a bit of concert work and oratorio work together, so it's not like this is the first time we've worked together. We have a lot of respect for one another. There's a lot of give and take in our relationship that's a part of that respect. To be able to have a flirtation with one another as we do in the Offenbach is wonderful. It's fun, not only for us, but for other people as well. You want people to feel enjoyment, happiness, magic, lust, love, flirtation. There are pieces that we'd like to be able to do together where that flirtation isn't there. We'd love to be able to do Carlisle Floyd's Susannah, for instance. I think as long as that mutual respect is there and that we're always reaching for this artistic integrity, that's what guiding us. And then our mission is the same, whatever ego is there or need to control."
"Having this much time to be together with Jake is just nirvana. It's a real gift."

Through the Glass Darkly

2007-07-24T13:35:00.000-04:00

Last week the creative team and singers of Philip Glass' Orphée moved from the gymnasium of Richfield Springs High School to the stage of the Alice Busch Opera Theater. It was during this week that all of the elements of the show came together to form one cohesive artistic production. During each rehearsal, about 20 people from various departments were in the house of the theatre and about 10 are in the lighting booth and backstage, running the show and taking notes. Some of the corrections, like music and lighting cues, were addressed immediately. Other corrections were made later--changes in costuming, wigs and make-up, and set details.

Director Sam Helfrich explained the challenges he faces during a tech rehearsal. "I've spent three weeks in a room sitting in this one place at this one table, watching the stage from about five feet away and creating the show. The minute you move out into the house and start watching the show from 50 feet away, 100 feet away, it changes. Now it's a question of finessing things."

While looking forward to the show's opening and all the work ahead, the creative team took time last Wednesday to look back at the work they've done so far and present it to the entire staff of the opera. Orphée is based directly from French filmmaker Jean Cocteau's film of the same name. Helfrich's first concern was translating a 1950 film with over 15 sets and effects -- such as reverse motion and people walking through mirrors --into a viable opera.

"You can't avoid--I almost regret it now-- starting out by watching the movie. It's such a beautiful and exquisite piece of filmmaking that the designers and I made the decision early on to try to find a way to approach this piece that would be theatrical, that would work on the stage and that would really have something to say that was contemporary and modern and of its time," Helfrich said.

The design team decided to create one set for the entire opera, rather than 15. It is set up like a living room--complete with walls, ceiling, and realistic furniture. It took over 5 hours to put all the pieces on stage for the first time.

Lighting was a challenge because of the shape of the set. During the seminar, nearly everyone on the creative team pointed out lighting as one of their major challenges during the tech rehearsal process.

"It should be noted that this actually is an enormously difficult set to light. It's not just because it has a ceiling. There are some limitations on what you can do from above, but we wanted to do it all using practical lighting fixtures. It's very tricky finding a balance between looking at the lighting fixtures themselves and looking at a person's face lit next to a light fixture," Andrew Lieberman, Set Designer, said.

Production Manager Matthew Kirby-Smith pointed out that the "practical lighting" is not always enough to fully light the stage. "There are lighting instrument hidden throughout backstage--over doors, in alcoves, etc. We placed lighting instruments anywhere we could to help."

Mirrors play a large structural and thematic role in the opera. To create the same atmosphere as the mirrors in the movie, each major character has a double that matches them exactly in hair, make-up, and wardrobe.

To Wig and Make-up Designer Anne Ford-Coates, the doubles presented a special challenge. "With Caroline Worra, her natural appearance makes it very easy to believe that she would have the big heart that would anchor a really temperamental artist for years. That's already there, so there wouldn't be the need to change that, except when we get to Brenda Rae, her double, who has dark hair and a different look. We have to style Caroline so she can be Eurydice, but also so that Brenda can be her for a split second on stage."

A Unique New Voice: Michael Maniaci

2007-07-20T21:13:00.000-04:00

Male soprano Michael Maniaci has been acclaimed throughout the world for his otherworldly voice. He has sung on many American stages, as well as in Europe. This season, he plays Orphée in Glimmerglass' production of Orphée et Eurydice, a beautiful production populated with extraordinary voices. However, this extraordinary voice has an unusual story. Through a lucky coincidence, Michael's voice never changed.
"My larynx is smaller. My cords didn't lengthen and thicken as much as they could have, but they did fully develop, in that I don't sound like a boy when I go to sing," he said. "I haven't encountered any other men who had the experience that I did--where developmentally, this just naturally happened. I've met with and performed with some falsettists that sing in a soprano range, but I've not encountered professionally anyone else."

Although he was originally drawn to musical theatre, Maniaci realized that there were more roles for him in the world of opera. Indeed, he is one of the few male sopranos singing opera today.
"Actually there are plenty of roles. People sometimes assume quickly that it would be quite limiting, when instead it's the exact opposite. At the end of the day most people will end up narrowing their focus to about a half a dozen to ten roles. There's certainly plenty for me within early Mozart operas or the whole Handel canon."

Music from the Baroque and Classical Eras suits Michael well. During that period, many roles for men were written for the castrati, who sang in a range only approached today by countertenors and mezzo-sopranos. Michael's unchanged male soprano voice makes him perfect for opera characters that are usually considered pants roles.
"I'm fortunate in many many ways, particularly in terms of timing. If there weren't this big Baroque revival going on right now, I wouldn't be having the opportunities that I'm having. There seems to be a real interest on the part of companies and audiences in reviving these works. I've fallen in love with Baroque music; the simplicity, the beauty, the classiness, and also the way that emotion is dealt with in that period is so similar to how we deal with it today. That's why I think it resonates with emotional situations that we still have today--hundreds of years later."

Maniaci believes this is especially true with the Gluck.
"The piece goes in and out of these brilliant juxtapositions. You start the show with this beautiful glorious overture. If you don't know the piece and you come to this opera, you think you're in for a night of grand comic opera. And suddenly it becomes this unbelievably subtle, soft thing. It's transformed into melodie. In the first act, when the chorus is gone and I'm let on stage alone for that huge chunk of time, for me that's just like singing any French melodie. It asks for very quiet static quality, but the text is alive and the music is alive. Then you go from that into a religious hearkening back to Bach and then a pre-Mozartian bravura aria. It's amazing. The piece goes through all of these peaks and valleys--it's wild."

As much as Maniaci has enjoyed performing Gluck's masterpiece, he has also enjoyed the audience's reaction to his unique voice.
"There hasn't been any stopgap with the audience. People say,'oh, this is so weird because you're not a countertenor and you don't sound like a woman--you're just this other weird thing.' Thank God it's been an asset. At the same time, I feel a tremendous amount of responsibility and frankly, pressure. I don't ever want to be successful because I'm weird. Wherever my career continues to go, I want it to be because my talents, my artistry, my musicianship, my vocalism warrants it. There's an enormous responsibility on my shoulders to make sure that I continue working my tail off to keep hashing away at those things."

Opening Night!

2007-07-12T17:54:00.000-04:00

Finally, it's the night everyone's been waiting for! Ticket holders, opera fans, and all the departments at Glimmerglass have been eager for the season to begin. The Orpheus season began July 7 with Offenbach's satiric comedy Orpheus in the Underworld. However, the opera wasn't the only thing patrons could look forward to!

The night began with an Opening Night Champagne Celebration, to kick off the season. Guests enjoyed light hors d'oeuvres as they mingled and discussed the exciting night ahead.

Every night, a staff member hosts a pre-opera talk an hour before the performance. Saturday's preview featured Lucy Arner and tenor Joseph Gaines, who plays Mercury. Gaines, a member of Glimmerglass' Young American Artists Program, sang an aria from the 1874 version of the score that was not included in the production. Arner explained the history behind the piece and some of the operatic trends of the time.

While patrons enjoyed the sights, sounds, and tastes of pre-opening night festivities, members of Glimmerglass staff were busy behind the scenes making final preparation for the night. Marketing staff manned the Guest Services desk and Gift Shop, Development staff coordinated pre-opera picnics, ushers prepared the house, and the production team focused lights and tested backstage equipment.

Finally the moment everyone had been waiting for arrived. The doors opened, seats were filled, and the orchestra began to tune. However, opening night did not come without its share of drama. Soprano Jill Gardner, who was slated to sing the large role of Eurydice, became indisposed the night before. Fortunately, Glimmerglass makes it a policy to cast covers (understudies) from the Young American Artists Program for every major role in each season's operas, so the show was not cancelled. Soprano Juliet Petrus went on instead and, despite the short notice, gave a masterful performance.

After the opera, singers, staff, guild members, and guests rubbed elbows at an opening night party. General and Artistic Director Michael MacLeod gave an opening address thanking each and every one of the staff, and expressing his excitement for the season ahead.

Opera in Hell

2007-07-11T14:25:00.000-04:00

Besides the four operas playing at Glimmerglass about Orpheus, there have been many other operas about the legendary poet, the Greek Underworld, Christian Hell, and Hell's posterboy the Devil.

Orpheus

An astounding number of operas feature the Orpheus myth itself, a popular subject for an opera when the genre was in its infancy. Most operas were based on Greek mythology, so the story of Orpheus, a poet and musician of epic proportion, truly lends itself to a sung musical story. Two of the most popular examples of these early operas are Monteverdi's L'Orfeo (1607) and Peri's Euridice (1600), but the earliest well-known example is Politan's 1480 Fabula di Orfeo (The Fable of Orpheus.)
Over the years, so many composers set Orpheus operas that yet more composers began to parody them, such as P.D. Deshayes who parodied Gluck's famous work. Offenbach's Orpheus in the Underworld (1858) is certainly the best known and most performed Orpheus satire.
Despite the existence of over 40 operas on the subject of Orpheus, interest in the myth continued into the 20th and 21st centuries. Composers like Darius Milhaud, Harry Birtwistle, Philip Glass set the opera, Stravinsky wrote a ballet, and most recently, Leslie Burrs and John A. Williams created a show re-telling Orpheus legend set during the time of the Underground Railroad.

Orpheus' Influence

Fidelio by Beethoven revolves around the rescue of Florestan from an underground prison by his wife Leonore.
In Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, Tamino rescues Pamina from imprisonment with only a magic flute at his disposal.
Wagner, who was heavily influenced by folklore and myth. The lead males in Der Meistersinger von Nürnberg and Tannhäuser are both singers with the ability to charm their audience.

Christian Hell or the Greek Underworld

Rameau, an 18th century opera composer whose focus was often Greek myth, set Castor and Pollux and Hippolyte et Aricie, both of which involve underworld scenes.
Don Giovanni by Mozart features the legendary lover Don Juan, who gets swallowed up by Hell.
Rachmaninov's Francesco da Remini is set in the set in the second circle of Hell a la Dante's Inferno.
Too Many Sopranos by Edwin Penhorwood--a cult classic amongst college voice students, the opera follows the hijinks of four sopranos trying to get get into Heaven's already full choir.

Devil of a Time

Faust by Gounod (1859) French grand opera, based on the wildly popular book by Goethe which set to poetry the legend of Faust, a man who sold his soul to the devil. Similar operas followed, including Mefistofeles by Boito and Damnation de Faust by Berlioz.
The Devil and Kate (1899) by Dvorak is a comedy based on Czech folk legend that parallels the Orpheus myth. A peasant girl is lured to Hell by the devil and is rescued by her shepherd love.
The Devil and Daniel Webster (1939) by Douglas Moore tell the story of another man, this time a politician from New Hampshire, who sells his soul to the devil and what happens when the devil comes to collect.
Paradise Lost (1975) by Krzysztof Penderecki depicts the courtship, marriage and temptation of Adam and Eve, with author John Milton as commentator. The piece uses semitones and is designed in the style of a Renaissance Florentine court drama.

All images courtesy of NYPL Digital Gallery.

Insider Rehearsal Report: The Style of Staging

2007-07-06T19:44:00.000-04:00

Shepherds (Brian Thorsett and Christian Reinert) embrace Orpheus (Michael Slattery).

Making a modern version of an older opera, like Monteverdi's L'Orfeo, is all about accentuating those contrasts while making them fit into a cohesive artistic vision. Director Christopher Alden is casual and approachable, but obviously knowledgable about the opera and its history.

La Musica (Juliet Petrus) waits for her cue.

In this early stage of rehearsing, the creative team divides its time between music and blocking. With any form of theater, the way an actor delivers his or her lines is essential to building dramatic tension. Conductor Antony Walker coaches the singers not just on tuning or rhythm, but on expression. "In the end I want to conduct it as little as possible and have you drive it."

Directing is very much about taking a page with some music or words on it and creating a world out of it. No two directors will create this world in the same way. Alden's dynamic staging is a far cry from what could be staged as a rather stiff court drama. Instead, there is movement going on nearly every moment. Each line of music has a clear intention behind it and Alden ensures that the singers express it in the staging.

Director Christoher Alden shows Christian Reinert blocking.

Alden shows the actors exactly what he wants by walking their parts, saying what could be their inner monologue. "'Let's get out of here.' 'Yeah, you're right; let's go now.' They're getting more and more freaked out," he said, describing the emotions that the shepherds feel when encountering Pluto, Lord of the Underworld.

Independence Day at Glimmerglass

2007-07-04T19:55:00.000-04:00

While the Glimmerglass staff is dedicated to producing high-quality operas, it's not "all work and no play"! Every year, the company enjoys throwing its own events as well as participating in community ones.
One of these events is the Springfield Center 4th of July Parade. Interns like Brooke Cartus and Kate Foster are excited to hand out candy and operate the float.
Set Designer John Conklin and Technical Director Abby Rodd (above left) designed this year's float. Often they use discarded set pieces from the showin their designs. For example, the larger-than-life waving Uncle Sam was originally a moving puppet of Pluto, the Greek god of the underworld. Originally Gluck chorus members used the puppet, plus two others, to act out the myth of Persephone's abduction. When the creative team decided for a simpler look, the puppet was re-painted, dressed, and cut off at the legs to be reincarnated as Uncle Sam.

Besides Uncle Sam, this year's float featured metal chairs, bird baskets holding flags, and a full-size phone booth with a real ringer (to "let freedom ring").

Putting it Together: The Tech Rehearsal

2007-07-02T11:36:00.000-04:00

Glimmerglass productions get seven onstage tech rehearsals prior to dress rehearsals with piano and orchestra. Often, this means they hit the stage while still finalizing choreography and staging, and before all costumes and set elements are completed. This schedule gives the creative team a chance to see all of the elements together, which means if things need to change, there are still two weeks to fix them. This week it's Offenbach and Gluck on stage.

Gluck chorus member and Music Intern Dan Richards was surprised that adding technical elements made such a large difference in the way the show was performed. "Before we went to tech rehearsal, we ran the show at the rehearsal venue and it really felt like it was ready to be performed, but then we got into the space and we had to make the performance fit into that space," he said. "The artistic team tried some new ideas. Adding the set, lighting, and costume made everything come together, to feel more like a whole."

Both shows open the first weekend in July, so rehearsal time is crucial for everyone, both on-stage and off, to perfect their parts. The cast, stage and lighting crew, and creative team are in rehearsals six hours a day. Meanwhile, the other crews are still working away on props, costumes, and set pieces.

During tech rehearsals, many costumes are finished. However, there are some not quite finished and some that need to change. "It's all about being flexible--it's just adding and changing every time. Sometimes we have to make adjustments on stage, so the designers can see what it looks like," Shelby Newport, Assistant Wardrobe Supervisor, said.

One thing is for certain--everyone's busy preparing what looks to be an exciting season!

Insider Rehearsal Report: Principals at Play

2007-06-28T14:38:00.000-04:00

The rehearsal process involves many different types of rehearsals: choral rehearsals, technical rehearsals, dress rehearsals, etc. Early rehearsals with the principals take place away from the theater, but are important in allowing principals to develop their characters in the context of the creative team's concept of the production.

In Thursday's Glass rehearsal, the focus was staging the scene in the opera that is most like a sitcom--when Orphée and Eurydice come back to their home from the underworld and Orphée is not allowed to look at her. The scene is chock-full of rapid dialogue over orchestration composed in a cellular style, with phrases of music are repeated again and again. There are also timing issues to tackle, such as Orphée casting near-glances at Eurydice without actually looking at her and making the whole thing look accidental, yet natural.

Director Sam Helfrich began by talking through the scene with singers Philip Cutlip (Orphée), Caroline Worra (Eurydice), Jeffrey Lentz (Heurtebise) and conductor Anne Manson. Discussion jumped to character conceptualization, pivotal points in the work, and interpretation of Glass and Cocteau's work. As they talked in the school gymnasium, the group lounged on the set.

Working with the principals also allows Manson to work in-depth on the music in the scene. Working on music is essential for any opera, but especially a piece that is not in the standard repertoire. Often, all the music is new to the singers until they are cast. Since the singers learned the music and words before they arrived, only small adjustments--a word here, an entrance there--were needed. Even when the singers were just sitting and singing, they were still rehearsing facial expressions and the occasional gesture.

Helfrich's excitement often mirrored that of the principals', lending an air of dynamic creativity to these rehearsals. "I have such a good way for you to get back from the underworld. I'm dying just to do it and watch it."

For more rehearsal photos from the Glass, click here.

Something old, something new

2007-06-26T20:20:00.001-04:00

Opera has an ill-conceived reputation for being intellectually challenging, elitist, and overall intimidating here in America. And while anyone who has seen a production of Orpheus in the Underworld, Die Fledermaus, or any number of fine productions can tell you that's simply not true, the myth lingers on. A good director knows how to balance artistic creativity with accessibility. So, how can a director help an audience engage with a piece that's nearly 400 years old, composed before opera as we know it really existed?
Director Christopher Alden has a plan. Having already directed the show with Opera North in Leeds, England, Alden is ready to tailor the production for Glimmerglass. This production of Monteverdi's L'Orfeo, marking the 400th anniversary year of its premiere in Mantua, Italy, uses a mixture of elements from 1607 and today.

"It is very edgy," he said. "It's a piece about artists and art—at the core it's about what it means to be an artist. It's amazing how not a lot of things have changed between then and now- to survive as a composer, as a stage director, as a tenor or a baritone." Bringing an older opera up-to-date promises that there will be something in the production for everyone in the audience.

Something Old
One of the challenges of producing such an old show is making the music sound like it did when it premiered. While this has a lot to do with the conductor's choices and knowledge of historical performance practice (ornamentation, tempi, accents, etc.), the most noticeable change is the type of instruments used. The other shows in the season have music rehearsals with a piano, but the Monteverdi will rehearse with a continuo ensemble of baroque keyboard instruments (such as a harpsichord) and stringed instruments. This is not because the piano wasn't invented until the 1800's, but rather because the interaction between instruments and voices in the early Baroque period more closely resembles that of today's jazz ensemble than a traditional orchestra. Although instruments like the recorder and trumpet have specifically written parts, the continuo instruments' score is like a blueprint or chord chart, leaving them free to improvise. This means that while the instruments are over 400 years old, each performance will be new and unique.

Something New
Set Designer Paul Steinberg and Costume Designer Doey Lüthi planned the props and costumes as fusion of faux 17th century fashion and contemporary styles. The assortment of furniture lends an eclectic atmosphere to the stage environment. The costumes run the gamut from classic Greek to frilled collars to patched jeans. "Eurydice is in this sort of Greeky-ish costume, but she also sort of looks like Courtney Love," Alden said.

Something "Borrowed"
Glimmerglass often co-produces shows with other companies. Co-producing a show means that the sets, props and costumes were designed with Opera North, Glimmerglass, and Norwegian Opera in mind, and the designers are at Glimmerglass working with the creative team. All of the sets and most of costumes are the same ones used in Opera North's production, with some alterations for new singers.

The cast will rehearse for four weeks before opening on July 28th. Until then, they'll be hard at work bringing Monteverdi's masterpiece 400 years into the future.

Behind the Magic: Abby Rodd, Technical Director

2007-06-26T15:02:00.001-04:00

Looking the finished product of a show, the audience only sees what’s out front—polished actors, beautiful costumes, a seamless set. Often audience members don't consider how these pieces come together—the business behind the magic. A good show keeps the audience so enthralled that they don’t need to think about it.

Technical Director Abby Rodd, a 16-year veteran of Glimmerglass Opera, is in charge of the people who bring the show to life behind the curtain, working in the field of stage operations, carpentry, rigging, or scenic art. Here's an inside look at the world of stagecraft at Glimmerglass.

Q: You’ve been here 16 years, since you were an intern in 1992. How has the company evolved since then?
Abby Rodd: There was no stage ops when I started. The carpenters ran the shows. We didn’t build any full sets in-house. I don’t know specific numbers, but I think [the size of the company] has at least doubled since I’ve been here. And the sizes of the shows and the sizes of the budgets have gone way up. But I came here knowing nothing. It was just a summer job, because I lived in Cooperstown.

Q: You said you were in charge of Stage Operations. What exactly is that?
AR: Stage Ops is a crew of 19 people and they do the changeovers from one show to the next. They're also there for running the shows and for bringing rehearsal scenery and props to rehearsal halls. They do all the fly cues and open the trapdoor.

Q: Fly cues—like flying people?
AR: We're not flying people this year—we were going to. When people do fly cues, they are pulling the ropes that make the sets fly in.

Q: So hell drops in?
AR: Well, not really. Mount Olympus comes down to cover up Earth, so the side walls come down. Then at the intermission, we change all of the walls for hell. There are essentially four sets. It works with a lot of counterweight. There are two side walls, so we have 2000 pounds of counterweight on the other side, so it’s an equal balance. So one person can fly rope and pull 2000 pounds.

Q: What do you use for the actual counterweights?
AR: They’re iron weights—they’re called pig-irons and they come in 25-40 pound bricks that we stack up on an arbor that holds it all. The rigging people install that rig and the Stage Ops people operate it under the riggers’ supervision.

Q: Shows are only running two months during the year. What is your schedule like during those two months—the official “season”?
AR: All four shows are only running for one month together. August is kind of an easy month for us. These two weeks here in June—teching the first two shows while we’re getting the third and fourth shows ready—are difficult. The weeks we’re in right now are probably the most difficult part of the summer.

Q: What about the “off-season,” September through April?
AR: Well, we started building the Glass in April. Before that, I was doing a lot of budgeting and drafting for that show and also the other shows. Two of the other shows were in contract shops being built. They started building in early February, so there were trips to where they were being built and lots of meetings. January is bidding out any contract shops and that tends to be a long process, because it never comes in on budget the first time. September’s sort of quiet, and then we start having preliminary planning meetings in October and November. We do shop maintenance and stuff. It’s a little bit more of a 9-to-5 job in the winter, until March.

Q: You mentioned drafting. John Conklin and the other production designers submit drafts for the shows. What sort of drafting do you do?
AR: They draw what it’s supposed to look like and I draw where the frame goes and how it all fits together and where—bolt-holes and where it needs to break to fit into the truck, where it needs to break to fit for storage.

Q: What would you say the biggest challenge is in coordinating these four very different shows?
AR: It’s different from year to year, really. [This year] we have a major storage issue. The stage is a specific size and we fill that four times. Our storage space to store everything in is smaller than that space, so we need to store three of those sets in the one smaller space. It all doesn’t really fit right now. Right now, the Offenbach is on stage, but we have a Gluck wall upstage and a Monteverdi wall on stage right—it’s just going to have to be there, because there’s nowhere else to put it. That’s not typical. We have more scenery this year than we’ve had ever here before, but we make it work; we just figure out how to fit things in. There’s a lot of stuff in the air—more lighting than scenery now.

Q: So you guys are the one who make the magic?
AR: I don’t think I make any magic happen. I make the set stand up.

Q: Well, that’s pretty useful.
AR: It’s more useful than lying down.

Opera Extras in CCAL seminars

2007-06-26T15:01:00.001-04:00

While the staff at Glimmerglass Opera is hard at work preparing each opera production, they are also whetting the appetites of operaphiles and neophytes alike with a variety of related events. The company holds seminars during the year about the operas, but for those who enroll in Cooperstown's Center for Continuing Adult Learning (CCAL) Opera at Glimmerglass course, the company offers a seminar on each of the four operas of the season. Participants hear talks about producing the operas and excerpts from the operas sung by members of the Young American Artists Program.

Last week, the group met John Conklin, set designer of the Gluck, and Kelley Rourke, titles guru and lyricist of the Offenbach. Conklin took them on an in-depth journey through the process of building a set for an opera, showing set models, costume designs, and his own sketches used to plan the set.

He discussed the initial conception of the show's design. "Always the question is 'is the Gluck an 18th-century opera?' Yes, it was written in the 18th century, but it's being seen with modern sensibilities, so in that sense one doesn't want to make it a historical, archeological object. We want to make it vivid and human, but still reflecting some of the ideas of the 18th-century world."

Rourke treated the audience to her take on translating and writing English lyrics for operas. The Offenbach, originally written in French, has undergone many translations, but Rourke created an original one for Glimmerglass to use this season.

"I'm careful about the word 'translate.' It is step one—the translation is one part, but it's not a direct translation of what is going on in the libretto." Rourke tries to stay as true to the libretto as possible, but sometimes the language is convoluted and wouldn't make sense in English. As an example, Rourke cited a line in the Gluck where Amour literally asks Orpheus in French, 'What do we owe you?' "I don't think it's actually true to the intent of the librettist," Rourke said.

After hearing excerpts from the opera, participants go to a production seminar, which is also attended by the staff and guild of the company. Here, the creative team for each of the operas meet and discuss their choices in producing the opera. Friday's rather lively discussion about Offenbach featured Kelley Rourke, Director Eric Einhorn, Set Designer Allen Moyer, Costume Designer Gabriel Berry, Lighting Designer Shawn K. Kaufman, and surprise guest Production Manager Matthew Kirby-Smith. Discussion topics ranged from Offenbach's off-the-wall plot, to the concept behind each set location (Olympus, Earth, and the Underworld), to creating crazy hell costumes.

Berry explained, "Luckily, I got the 'Orpheus goes to France.’ I mean, going in your underwear is fun, going to the underworld is better, going to France in your underwear to the underworld—that's best of all. I had a few mandates from the company and from [director] Eric, and one of them is that we're in the 19th century. I'm like 'great', because that's corsets and hoop skirts." Berry's designs are definitely not strait-laced Victorian, though, warned her audience to be prepared for "cleavage and the occasional studded leather garment."

"What I wanted to talk about with this particular team is pushing the envelope, because I think that that is the quintessential point of this show, whether it is scenery or lighting or costumes,” said Kirby-Smith, who pointed out the sheer size of such a spectacular and grandiose production, especially "the automated moving instruments that we have, the sheer number of costumes, and the thousands and thousands of pounds of scenery that somehow goes up and down."

For more information about CCAL, click here.
For more information about Glimmerglass events, click here.

Insider Rehearsal Report: All the way through Offenbach

2007-06-20T18:06:00.000-04:00

Think opera is all about Viking hats, long-winded Italian sopranos, and extended death scenes? Think again! Orpheus in the Underworld by Jacques Offenbach is a satiric comedy, taking the traditional myth about the loving couple separated by death and standing it on its head. Sung in English, Orpheus in the Underworld is perfect for the newcomer to opera, as well as great fun for the veteran opera-goer.

Offenbach’s whimsical approach to the Orpheus myth seems to have affected the feel of the rehearsals themselves. Although the work ethic is no less focused than in Gluck rehearsals, the light-hearted nature of the opera shines through in the personalities of the singers and staff, which are as vibrant as the characters they portray. It's easy to see that the singers, conductor, and director love what they do and love planning gags that will make the audience laugh. The singers wear parts of their costumes and their shoes, creating an interesting mix of modern and antiquated clothing. Upbeat tunes and comical staging complete the eclectic atmosphere.

Today's rehearsal was the first run-through before rehearsals on the stage of Alice Busch Opera Theater. The run-through can give the cast and creative team (the lighting designer was in attendance) a better idea of how the show itself will flow, as opposed to perfecting tiny sections. The director and conductor can also assess which sections need the most work. In the next few days, the crew of Orpheus in the Underworld will add sets, costumes, props, and lighting to their rehearsals, so the cast and production staff have a better idea of how their production will come together.

Everyone is looking forward to learning how the various production elements will enhance the cast’s already excellent work. Joyce Castle (Public Opinion) alone, in all her proselytizing glory, is worth the trip to Cooperstown, Jill Gardner's (Eurydice) high notes are sparkling--add in the other hilarious, consummate professionals and you've got magic!

To view more photos from rehearsal, click here.

Gluck Discussion Panel

2007-06-19T22:29:00.001-04:00

What does it take to put on an opera? What sort of research is done? Over 150 people were asking themselves the same questions today at noon, when the first of 4 panel discussions were held in Alice Busch Opera Theater (ABOT). At the helm were seven members of the production team for Berlioz’ edition of Gluck's Orphée et Eurydice, all integral components of the planning, rehearsal, and performance stages of a performance. The panel included, from left to right, Kelley Rourke (Dramaturgy/Projected Titles), who moderated the discussion, Lillian Groag (Director), Nicola Bowie (Choreographer), Julian Wachner (Conductor), Robert Wierzel (Lighting), Constance Hoffman (Costumes), and John Conklin(Set).

In planning the production, Director Lillian Groag focused on not just the story of a man, but the story of how a community deals with death—in this case, a community in the 18th century. An understanding of Gluck’s cultural context helps explain the alterations he made from the original myth, mainly, that Eurydice is resurrected a second time. As a German Lutheran, Gluck's belief in redemption would have been a central tenet of his faith. Resurrection and rebirth is a central theme in Christian literature, from the raising of Lazarus to the resurrection of Jesus. Gluck was also living at the crux of the Enlightenment, a time when human invention and intelligence were held to the highest standard. “To send the audience home depressed would be a highly illogical decision,” quipped Groag; rationality had to prevail, as was the style of the time.

Conductor Julian Wachner said that cultural surroundings played a significant role in the music as well; Gluck was working right in between the Baroque and Classical periods. Wachner called the piece “a watershed event [in that] musical expression could be connected to everyday life”. This opera unfolds in real time, meaning a character does not have a six minute aria to portray one emotion. They only have as much time as we do—sometimes mere seconds—to show the world what they are feeling. Wachner also touched on which aspects of the show were altered by composer Hector Berlioz. Keeping the libretto in French, Berlioz reworked the piece less than one might presume. He did, however, create an orchestration that substituted modern instruments for those no long longer in existence, with careful attention to creating a more Baroque sound. He also transposed the role of Orpheus, which already existed in versions for castrato and haut-contre, to a mezzo-soprano. This, of course, required a few key changes. Wachner confessed that he, along with the whole production team, has been “swimming in the love of the music”.

Choreographer Nicola Bowie brings movement in all forms into both earth and the underworld. Although Bowie worked closely with all members of the cast, it was Trey Gillen and Katarzyna Skarpetowska who were a large part of her focus in the rehearsal process. Trained at The Julliard School, both dancers play the roles of instigators, guides, storytellers, as well as a constant reminder of death and its presence in our lives. Their transformation scene by scene, as well as that of the chorus, is overwhelmingly impressive and like a good lighting plot or set design, instantly pulls the audience into the moment.

Since this production just started rehearsing in the theatre this week (their rehearsal space up until now has been off campus), many elements of production including sets, costumes, and lighting were only recently added. This panel discussion allowed the designers to shed some light on their individual and collective inspiration. John Conklin, who designed the set, rooted his inspiration in the spirit of the 18th century, and, like Groag, wanted to connect the audience to the urgency and universality of the story. Conklin tapped into the work of two period artists, Francisco Goya (1746- 1828) and Giovanni Piranesi (1720-1778). In these artists’ depictions, Rome’s fall had left behind countless grandiose ruins and fallen architecture. The people of the time used what they could, by taking pieces and using them as building materials, or squatting in the rooms of crumbling palaces. Conklin used this theme of “melancholy in lost grandeur of a classical world” and allowed his set a pastoral element while still remaining aware of the outside world and its influences.

Costume designer Constance Hoffman was also drawn to Goya; her goal was to make sure the person wearing the costume was the focus and not the other way around. Simple, breathable clothes made from modest materials like linen and cotton allow the singers to portray different characters over the course of the opera.

Light designer Robert Wierzel focused on creating a singular mood for each scene. The lights give the audience an instant hint to the scene they are about to walk, writhe, or dance into. Wierzel also added that one of the advantages of working at the Glimmerglass Opera is having the time to experiment in the space through the whole summer. And considering that Gluck opens in two weeks, it is incredible to think that the performers and designers already have a chance to put the piece together on stage.

Insider Rehearsal Report: A Blank Slate for New Orphée

2007-06-18T23:13:00.000-04:00

Beginning work on any opera is exciting. However, beginning work on a modern opera that's only been staged 3 times in North America--that's a landmark moment for any company. The opera in question is, of course, Philip Glass' Orphé e, which premiered in 1993 at the American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Glimmerglass rehearsals began Monday. Director Sam Helfrich created a open atmosphere by using the first meeting to share his conceptualization of the show and encourage discussion amongst the cast and crew.
Artistic and General Director Michael MacLeod began the rehearsal by introducing himself and the idea behind the season-- why Orpheus? To follow the distinguished 29-year tenure of Paul Kellogg, MacLeod searched for an imaginative way to make a mark on the company for his first season. To his surprise, three of perhaps the most famous operas based on the Orpheus myth had never been done at Glimmerglass, and it only seemed appropriate to do a season of Orpheus in 2007, the 400th anniversary of the first widely-recognized opera, Monteverdi's L'Orfeo. "The four operas complement each other perfectly," he said. "You can't ask for a wider range of style."

Unique style won't be a problem for Helfrich, who is directing the only modern opera of the season. Glass' Orphée is based directly on the 1950 film by French director Jean Cocteau, which integrated modern film techniques such as reverse footage. Helfrich and the show's designers made a conscious decision to move away from the staging and scenery of the film version. "It's a beautiful movie, and with beautiful movies, it's easy to get lured into aesthetics. I thought, we have to get into this piece in some other way."

The piece, as well as the movie it's based on, presents a host of puzzles. Helfrich touched on this, discussing the second to last scene in the opera, where the Princess lets Orpheus go, supposedly for some greater good. "That's a huge question without an easy answer," he said. Conductor Anne Manson pointed out similar challenges with the score. "One of my first frustrations in looking at the score was that the orchestration reveals so little about the inner lives of the characters. The music doesn't give you clear answers."

Fortunately, with no clear answers, the potential for creativity in all areas of the production process is nearly limitless. For Helfrich, rehearsals are a mental process, complementing the physical process of staging. He encourages the actors and the audiences to talk about these questions. "This piece will be a success to me if I leave the audience not only asking what just happened, but dying to talk about it."

Steven Blier Masterclass

2007-06-16T20:26:00.000-04:00

One of the many perks of being one of Glimmerglass’ 29 Young American Artists is masterclasses with true masters in the field. Attending these masterclasses means watching the finest teachers of today work with some the most promising young artists of tomorrow. Reading these singers’ biographies is like reading a roster of the nation’s finest music schools and conservatories, such as The Juilliard School, Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and New England Conservatory. Glimmerglass’ Artistic and General Director Michael McLeod pointed out that the over 800 applications to the program “almost by definition suggests that the standard is extremely high”.

Steven Blier’s resumé speaks for itself—Artistic Director of New York Festival of Song, faculty at Juilliard, collaborative pianist for recitals with great artists including Renée Fleming and Samuel Ramey, writings appearing in The Yale Review and Opera News, and a long, Grammy-winning discography, ranging from German lieder to Gershwin. Although these are all indicators of a good masterclass to come, the teacher must be able to keep the class interesting for three hours. Steven Blier certainly met and surpassed this basic requirement.

Blier addressed many issues that come up in a masterclass right after the thunderous applause for him ceased. He pointed out that not all teaching can be done in a public setting. From the moment he started speaking, the air of a lecture evaporated from the room; this was a discussion and a mentoring conversation. The philosophy of music was a focus.

Music is a thought process as well as an intricate art form; the voice is as personal and unique as the singer, and the strength it takes to be vulnerable is monumental and one of the biggest challenges facing performers. To use a masterclass as a laboratory, a Socratic vocal forum, seemed to be Blier’s intention and he certainly fulfilled it.

Singers Juliet Petrus, soprano; Todd Boyce, baritone; Margaret Gawrysiak, mezzo-soprano; Jon-Michael Ball, tenor; and Susan Jean Hellman, soprano, each presented one art song or aria. Blier made his intentions clear at the beginning of the masterclass. “I would see teachers bring up issues in masterclasses that I felt were not effectively dealt with in public. I once watched a very famous opera singer whom I had admired a great deal as a child. She spent the whole class trying to get everyone’s tongue into a certain position. Is this what made you a great Carmen? I seriously doubt it.”

Therefore, his lessons were more about the dramatic journey inside each song than technique. Of course, Blier raised issues about diction and range, but his primary concern was interpretation issues—expression, dynamics, and phrasing. Blier pointed out to baritone Todd Boyce that although his performance of Pierrot’s Tanzlied (“Mein Sehnen, mein Wähnen”) from Korngold’s Die Tote Stadt would serve as a technically brilliant audition, he did not seem to be performing the piece. “I would love for you to take some of your defenses down," he said. "I want you to be thinking about showing us more of your heart when you sing.”

On the other hand, Blier suggested that Susan Jean Hellman, soprano, was over-expressing her selection, “Ain’t it a Pretty Night” from Carlisle Floyd’s Susannah. “It’s coming from a very good expressive place, but I think it needs to be deepened if it’s really going to work. I see all your acting choices and I see them as acting choices—I can see little rabbits there, the sky, the majesty and the fear.”

Hellman, like the other Young American Artists, integrated Blier’s suggestions into her performances, using his expert feedback to improve their expression. Much of a singer’s success is dependent on judge’s or director’s impressions of the singer, so getting as much feedback as possible is crucial for these young singers to make it in the world of opera.

-Amelia Northrup and Brooke Cartus

Insider Rehearsal Report: Introduction to Offenbach

2007-06-14T15:43:00.001-04:00

On a steamy weekday afternoon at Saint Mary's school all-purpose room, five free-standing doors replace neatly stacked tables, and rows of cornstalks line the walls, blurring the myriad of 1st communion pictures that adorn the cinderblock. It is clearly time for an Orpheus rehearsal, courtesy of the Glimmerglass Opera. The question is... which one? There are 5 distinct options this season, ranging from the avant-garde Glass to the traditional Monteverdi. Today's rehearsal however, has been reserved for Offenbach.

Filth, lust, beekeeping and showgirls are just a few of the topics touched on in this hilarious operetta that pulls at both hearts and funny bones as the myth of Orpheus is, well, transformed. The once happy marriage between Orpheus and Eurydice has become a mockery, and the chaos that ensues as the gods bicker for her affection will keep everyone laughing each minute. By the end of the show, every audience member will be dying to know: Who will Eurydice choose?! Well, you are just going to have to come see it because I certainly will not tell you!

Directing an opera has its own distinct and monumental challenges, and directing a comedy requires precision and incredible detail to timing. To seamlessly combine both is nothing short of a rehearsal colossus, but director Eric Einhorn is up for the challenge. His eclectic background, ranging from Mozart's Cosi Fan Tutte all the way to Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex, gives him the dramatic knowledge and the theater savvy that will guide the actors through the hysterical dialogue as well as the extravagant vocal lines. In rehearsal, Einhorn stays focused while constantly thinking up images to help the actors imitate the specific musical comedy style without overdoing it (unless it is necessary, of course!) One of my favorite images was when he asked the female chorus to "loom in like in West Side Story" on Pluto, a god who does not see them coming.

The actors are remarkably good sports, especially with such a brief period of time to put the piece together. Tenor Kurt Lehmann started rehearsal Saturday, June 9th, and by the time I saw him on Monday, June 11th, the script was out of his hands. For an opening on July 7th, time is precious and each second counts. A three hour rehearsal can fly by if time is wasted, but the synergy needed by both the staff and performers is crucial for making sure details are not ignored. A conductor, vocal coach, accompanist... these important staff members are at every blocking rehearsal to catch musical notes while the directing team is focusing on dramatic arc. At a break, an actor may receive a different note from each member of the staff and must implement it as soon as they can. There is no wasted time in operetta, no matter how clever the delayed punchlines may be!

Insider Rehearsal Report: Gluck Staging, Week 2

2007-06-14T10:35:00.000-04:00

Demons, a tragic accident, a trip to hell and an enduring romance. No, it’s not Hollywood’s latest blockbuster. It’s Christoph Willibald Gluck’s Orphée et Eurydice.

The second week of rehearsals is well underway and the exciting story is coming to life, guided by director Lillian Groag’s artistic vision.

With only three days left until the first rehearsal on Glimmerglass’s Alice Busch Opera Theatre, the schedule is becoming increasingly intense. Actors must be available all day for music rehearsals, costume fittings, and stagings. Staging rehearsals take place in a school gymnasium, creating an interesting juxtaposition of the school’s wrestling mats and pieces of the real opera set—in this case, large broken chunks of Greek architecture. Groag, choreographer Nicola Bowie, and conductor Julian Wachner share responsibility for running rehearsals, dictating new blocking and movement, correcting old staging, and polishing the music, both for expression and accuracy. When it’s rehearsal time, singers often rehearse in front of as many as 10 staffers—the director and assistant director, choreographer, stage manager and assistants, conductor and assistant conductor, chorus master, rehearsal pianist, and various production staffers. Fortunately, these singers are used to performing in front of an audience.

Stagings this week are all about what works and what doesn’t. Coming up with creative, believable staging is all about experimentation. Groag often allows her leads, Michael Maniaci (Orphée) and Amanda Pabyan (Eurydice), great freedom in their blocking, letting them determine how best to physically express their character and tweaking where she sees fit. Other times she has very specific ideas of what she wants from them, even giving exact measure numbers when blocking is to occur. Still other times, she decides to wait until the staging rehearsal to see how things look on the big stage.

With an opening on July 8th, the cast is well on their way, but a number of elements still need to be added to this dramatic production—set, lighting, titles, costumes, orchestra, and of course, the audience!

To see more photos from Gluck rehearsals, click here.

To visit the Glimmerglass website with ticket information and more, click here.

A Work in Progress

2007-06-14T10:31:00.000-04:00

It's about a month before the first production and already Glimmerglass is bustling with activity, off-site as well as on-site. Glimmerglass employs over 300 people in the summer and all are vital to the success of the season. During the season, designers, directors, stage managers, builders, administrators, marketers, costumers, conductors, and interns of all ilks descend on the Alice Busch Opera Theater and work furiously to bring their individual efforts into one cohesive piece of artistry.

Set building is well underway. The production crew saws and welds away in the scene shop, but often share the stage with the lighting crew, who must hoist approximately 300 lights over the stage of Alice Busch Opera Theater. The set is not merely built on stage, though. Smaller set pieces and props must be constructed, painted, and polished to be ready for opening night.

The costume shop is busy constructing and fitting costumes for four different productions. The racks overflow with over 200 costumes for the summer season.

The 29 members of Glimmerglass’s prestigious Young American Artist Program are busy as well. Several members have lead roles in the summer’s productions, but all are participating in smaller roles or chorus responsibilities. They also have to prepare for masterclasses, on-site auditions, and recitals.

Rehearsals began last week for Gluck’s Orphée et Eurydice and Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld. The singers came with their music already memorized (“off-book”), so the directors, choreographers, and conductors started work almost immediately on staging the opera. Singers rehearse daily in preparation for the opening night in three weeks.

While most of the staffers’ efforts revolve around the current season operas, plans are already in the works for next season. This week the director of Glimmerglass’s much-anticipated North American premiere of Wagner’s Das Liebesverbot, Nic Muni, toured the facility in order to explore the space in which he will stage the production.

It looks to be an exciting summer all around. For more info, please visit the Glimmerglass website, keep checking back here, or add us to your feed.