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The Glimmerglass Festival, a shimmering jewel on the world
music festival scene, held its 2012 Spring Gala GL!MMERATA!
on April 10 at The Metropolitan Club in Manhattan. The
glittering evening benefitted the company’s Young Artists
and Summer Internship programs.
The Glimmerglass Festival Young Artists Program is an
acclaimed program that provides training and performance
experience for talented singers at the beginning of their
professional careers. The Festival also offers summer
internships in production, administration and artistic
administration, providing the opportunity for young
professionals and students to experience the fast-paced
world of repertory opera and musical theater.
The elegant evening hosted by Glimmerglass Festival Artistic
& General Director Francesca Zambello with her partner Faith
Gay at her side along with Gala Chairs Patricia Kavanagh &
James Grant and Estelle Parsons & her husband Peter Zimroth
made great use of the sprawling mansion that houses the
club. The festivities kicked off with cocktails in the
stately Great Hall. Glimmerglass Managing Director Linda
Jackson, the first African American woman to head a major
opera company proudly pointed out this year of the over 100
Young Artist Program participants 39 of them are singers and
most interestingly 15 are African Americans and 5 are from
South Africa.
The ringing of a gentle bell signaled it was time to move
onto the West Lounge for a recital by established stars of
the opera and musical theater world as well as several
members of the Young Artists Program. Following words of
welcome by Ms. Zambello and Patricia Kavanagh, the program
began with famed Metropolitan Opera bass-baritone Eric Owens
(this year’s Artist in Residence at Glimmerglass) performing
the title song from “Lost in the Stars”. Then David Daniels
sang “Ogni indugio d’un amante” (from Handel’s Rinaldo) and
Sean Panikkar & Dwayne Croft performed the rousing Don Carlo
duet.
Klea Blackhurst famed for her Ethel Merman-esque vocals
added a touch of lightness with “Taking a Chance on Love”
Duke’s Cabin in the Sky. Ginger Costa-Jackson who delighted
critics and fans alike with her sexy turn as Carmen at
Glimmerglass last season turned up the heat with Kurt
Weill’s “Pirate Jenny” from The Threepenny Opera.
Dwayne Croft & Elizabeth Futral gave a sneak preview of this
summer’s musical selection, Meredith Willson’s The Music Man
with “Seventy-six Trombones”/ and My White Knight”. The
recital fittingly ended with the Nile Duet from Verdi’s Aida
performed by Young Artists Karen Jesse & Dominick Rodriguez.
Dinner and dancing to the Peter Duchin Orchestra followed
the performance.
Among the guests swirling around the Great Hall to the
up-tempo sounds of Peter Duchin & his Orchestra were Carole
& Dudley Johnson, Bibhu Mohapatra, ABT Executive Director
Rachel Moore; author A.M. Holmes author; Former Gen Manager
Metropolitan Opera Joe Volpe; Philanthropist Adrienne Arsht;
Michael Kaiser, President of the JFK Center for the
Performing Arts; Jim Grant Grants Financial; Jean-Marie
Eveillard; composer Tobias Picker; Susan Morris chair of
Santa Fe Opera; James Feldman and Natalie Wexler; Carolyn
Ryan, Bill Edwards, CEO Classic Media, Board Member of the
Public Theatre ; Honorable Judith Kaye & Honorable Susan
Read and Eugene O’Neill Theater Center founder George White
and his wife Betsy.
The Gala committee included Adrienne Arsht, Nancy & Jim
Barton, Klea Blackhurst, Ira Don Brown, Patricia & John
Chadwick, Dwayne Croft, Wendy & John Curtis, David Daniels,
Elizabeth M. & Jean-Marie R. Eveillard, Elizabeth Futral,
Faith Gay, Sherwin H. Goldman, Alfred Hubay, Mrs. John R.
Hopper, Karen Jesse, Carole & Dudley Johnson, Alla Milchtein,
Kevin Miller, Bibhu Mohapatra, Eric Owens, Sean Panikkar,
Dominick Rodriguez, Dagni & Martin Senzel, Court Watson &
Francesca Zambello. Gala Junior Chairs were Pauline
Eveillard and Sage Mehta.
The 2012 Glimmerglass Festival mainstage productions include
Verdi’s Aida, Willson’s The Music Man, Lully’s Armide and
Kurt Weill and Maxwell Anderson’s Lost in the Stars. The
productions will run in rotation July 7 through August 25 in
the Alice Busch Opera Theater in Cooperstown, New York. The
mainstage productions will be supplemented by special
performances, concerts and lectures throughout the season.
Tickets start at just $26 and youth tickets (ages 6-18)
start at $10 when accompanied by an adult. Call (607)
547-2255 or visit
www.glimmerglass.org for tickets and additional
information.
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