A customer peruses postcards before an opera.
Inside Alice Busch Opera Theatre, patrons prepare for a night of opera.
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.
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.
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. 
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.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. 
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.)Check Glimmerglass' newly updated Amazon.com recommendation list here. The list includes books, CDs, and DVDs relating to the 2007 season.
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.
Upcoming:
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
However, many of these stories are best known by their classic film adaptations:
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
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. 
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.
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.
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.)
Fidelio by Beethoven revolves around the rescue of Florestan from an underground prison by his wife Leonore. 
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.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.All images courtesy of NYPL Digital Gallery.
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.
