[xtypo_dropcap]W[/xtypo_dropcap]ith its theater overlooking the scenic Otsego Lake in Upstate New York, Glimmerglass Opera, located in the small, quiet village of Cooperstown, could not have found a better place to host their well-crafted, high-quality productions. Surrounded by all the wonders of the Cooperstown natural landscape, their annual festival season provides the ultimate summer escape for music lovers.[etssp 90]
But it is also here that young opera singers embark on a valuable apprenticeship experience every year through Glimmerglass Opera’s Young American Artists Program.
Beginning in 1988, hundreds of applicants vie for the opportunity to perform and “cover” or understudy roles in the opera company’s four mainstage productions of the season. This year, out of around 750 applicants, 250 were selected for live auditions, and 36 singers and two pianists (who also act as the vocalists’ coaches), were chosen to participate in the program.
The Training Process
Auditions begin in the fall, typically around October, in major cities across the country. The finalists then arrive in Cooperstown in late May for 13 weeks of training.
Michael Heaston, program director for the Young American Artists Program, explained how the training begins. “Each young artist comes here and they have assignments. They might be mainstage assignments where they’re singing small roles on the main stage, or they’re covering, or understudying is another term for that … Every role at our opera company is covered by someone at the Young American Artists program.”
Each member receives private coaching for their roles from experienced pianists and coach-accompanists on the Glimmerglass music staff, who are also involved in the productions.
The coaches, many of whom come from New York institutes like the Julliard School and the Metropolitan Opera, provide the members with invaluable resources, from diction and acting lessons, to audition techniques and advice on how to interpret a piece of music. They also receive coaching on the repertoire that they may encounter in auditions or for their future roles.
Members also attend master classes given by renowned artists, like theater and opera director, Sir Jonathan Miller and the late Theodor Uppman. This year, distinguished pianist Steven Blier is one of the guest master class instructors.
In addition, many members will be holding solo recitals in nearby Cherry Valley. This year, 28 artists will perform a piece of their own choosing. “They have to submit to me a recital proposal by April 1 ... telling me why they’ve chosen it, why the music they picked creates a cohesive program. ... Just doing a 35 minute program is almost unheard of in a full-length recital, which is usually 60 to 90 minutes. So they really have to think carefully about how to make an impression,” Heaston explained.
But having the difficult task of presenting a complete, fluid program in a short amount of time is not the only challenge. Heaston continued, “Part of their recital assignments is also that they have to talk to the audience. We want to convey to people that this art form really is all about communication. And I think the art song recital has a bad reputation in being this very high art form that is not accessible, and part of our mission of making everything we do accessible to the public is requiring these singers to talk to the audience.”
Oftentimes, the singers will explain to the audience why they chose to perform a particular piece, share details of the composer’s life, the style of the music, or what the translations of the libretto mean for them. “Other people go further and they get more into a showpiece, where instead of giving program notes, they find pieces of poetry or quotes to link things together, sort of more like a theatrical presentation. Some of them will work with our assistant directors to actually semi-stage portions of their recital, [giving an] even more dramatic impetus to what they’re presenting,” Heaston added.
Challenging, Exciting Repertoire
Most importantly, Glimmerglass offers the young artists a place to perform repertoire that is rarely performed elsewhere. Though Glimmerglass does present classical opera pieces like this season’s “The Marriage of Figaro” by Mozart, the opera company specializes in the exciting and lesser known. When Handel was barely performed on opera stages, Glimmerglass added the composer to its repertoire.
They also present many productions of 20th century operas. For example, this year, Aaron Copland’s “The Tender Land” will be appropriately cast with only members of the Young American Artists program.
For years, Glimmerglass has also presented musical theater pieces, including a successful run of Cole Porter’s “Kiss Me, Kate” in 2008. With the newly appointed general and artistic director Francesca Zambello’s decision to present one musical theater piece each season, Glimmerglass is taking the art form to new heights.
Heaston expressed that musical theater and opera are inextricably intertwined, and it would be inaccurate “to think of them as two separate entities.” Many opera singers themselves began their vocal training by singing in choirs and high school musicals.
“We’re the only company that I can think of that is presenting musical theater classics, as they were originally intended to be heard by the composers, and how Broadway audiences initially heard them years and years ago. And that is, no amplification, meaning no microphones, with full orchestra. You know, when people thought of the original “Annie, Get Your Gun” with Ethel Merman, that’s what they heard, and that’s what we’re doing here,” he also said.
“Annie, Get Your Gun” will be staged at Glimmerglass for the 2011 season.
Heaston explained why Glimmerglass is the perfect place for new repertoire like musical theater. “The Glimmerglass audience is primed for innovations like this … They identify us with doing many rarely performed works and doing them very well, and we’re able to do that because we have a longer rehearsal process.
“As opposed to most opera companies who just provide people with two to three weeks of rehearsal, we have five to six weeks of rehearsal here. So, we can do brand-new productions every season and have time to make it all happen. We have time for the design team, the directors, for the singers, the music staff, everybody to work together, to have time to really craft the piece and work on it.”
“That’s what allows us to, I think, really focus on these little chestnuts that people have neglected over the years because we can find time to make them work.”
Opportunities
In addition to the program providing them with rewarding and challenging training, Glimmerglass is also an important place to kick off their careers. Opera house administrators frequently visit Cooperstown to scout out young talent. Heaston noted that many of the program alumni tell him that they still remember their experiences at Glimmerglass. They have since gone on to debut and perform in world-class opera houses.
Notable alums Christine Goerke and Michelle de Young now have very successful opera careers. Rebecca Jo Loeb, a member of the 2009 and 2010 Young American Artists program, will perform in theaters in Torino and Berlin next year.
Heaston said, “Our singers are all on the precipice of something big.“ During their summers at the Young American Artists Program, “they are bridging that gap between study at the conservatory level or other year-round young artists programs during the year and really having a full-fledged career in their own way.”
An Intimate Setting
At Glimmerglass, the audience gets a close-up look at productions. Previews of the opera performance are free to all ticket-holders, and Glimmerglass music staff provides the audience with information to better appreciate the music: what influenced the composer, who the composer’s influenced later, and how the music had evolved over time.
“Many times, these performance previews are meant to allow music staff members to relate to audience on a very real and personal level…For example, someone did a preview here for one of our Handel operas, and talked about the structure that many of the pieces are written in, and then played an example from Led Zeppelin, and said, look! These are all in the same sort of format,” Heaston said.
These previews are designed to inform and inspire. “It makes them [the audience] understand how much music really is connected. It gives them a sense of what to listen for during the performances ahead of them and allows them to realize just how universal this language is, this language of music. It really is a global language that everyone can understand on some level,” Heaston explained.
Its History
Glimmerglass Opera had its first season in a high school auditorium in the summer of 1975. Since the construction of The Alice Busch Opera Theater, completed in 1987, and the creation of the Young American Artists Program, the company has experienced exponential growth. For the first 17 years of the company’s history, productions were all performed in English. Today, they are sung in the original language, accompanied by English super titles.
Glimmerglass only runs productions in the summer. From the theater’s sliding walls that allow audiences to take in the breath-taking beauty of the surrounding landscape, to the opera company’s picnic catering services for opera-goers to enjoy on campus grounds, it all adds up to a complete outdoor summer festival exprience.
The opera company is named after American writer (and the son of the village’s founder) James Fenimore Cooper’s moniker for Otsego Lake in his “Leatherstocking Tales.”
The 2010 season runs from July 9 to Aug. 24. For more information on the shows and how to purchase tickets, please visit www.glimmerglass.org.
