Opera - Bel Canto at Caramoor

William Tell by Gioachino Rossini on July 9, 2011 in the Venetian Theater

Orchestra of St. Luke’s, in residence at the Caramoor International Music Festival.

Ewa Podles

July 7 Ciro in Babilonia by Gioachino Rossini
Bel Canto at Caramoor
Saturday, 8:30pm ~ Venetian Theater
Tickets: $15.00, $20.00, $40.00, $60.00, $80.00, $100.00    Buy Now

Orchestra of St. Luke’s
Will Crutchfield, conductor and Director of Opera
Davide Livermore, stage director and video projections designer

Celebrated contralto Ewa Podleś returns to Caramoor in the role of Ciro. This production is in collaboration with the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, Italy.

This opera is early Rossini, and you can see Baroque opera turning into Romantic opera before your eyes. – Will Crutchfield, Caramoor Director of Opera

This performance will be semi-staged and sung in Italian with English supertitles.

Just for Ticket holders:
Prior to the performance there will be Pre-opera events beginning at 3:30pm:

3:30pm -Young Rossini and his Revolution
Stendhal compared Rossini's impact on music with Napoleon's on Europe. Will Crutchfield and Guest (to be announced) discuss the nature of his "revolution" and how he carried it out.

4:30pm - Bel Canto a Due
Duets in close harmony - brilliant and virtuosic or delicate and tender - were a staple feature of bel canto opera, highlighted in both of this season's Caramoor titles.  The same genre was immensely popular as chamber music for home performance; our Bel Canto Apprentices present a sampler of this rich repertory.  

5:30pm - Belshazzar and his Feast
The chilling Bible story of the "handwriting on the wall" is the centerpiece of Ciro's second act. The Bel Canto Young Artists present musical treatments of the same episode by Handel, Schumann, William Walton and others.

6:30pm - Dinner

7:30pm – Lecture (Lecturer to be announced)

Just for Opera: Ride the Caramoor Caravan round-trip from NYC.  More Info

Pre-purchase your picnic or enjoy a treat from Great Performances®’ refreshment stands, which open at 2:30pm.

Kate Aldrich

July 21 I Capuleti ed i Montecchi by Vincenzo Bellini
Bel Canto at Caramoor
Saturday, 8:00pm ~ Venetian Theater
Tickets: $15.00, $20.00, $40.00, $60.00, $80.00, $100.00   Buy Now

Orchestra of St. Luke’s
Will Crutchfield, conductor and Director of Opera

Bellini's I Capuleti ed i Montecchi tells the Romeo and Juliet story - based on the same ancient Italian sources that Shakespeare used - in the gorgeous language of Italian bel canto. Late in life, Richard Wagner told how its yearning, passionate melodies had inspired him to create Tristan und Isolde.

This performance will be semi-staged and sung in Italian with English supertitles.

Just for Ticket holders:
Prior to the performance there will be Pre-opera events beginning at 3:00pm:

3:00pm - Romeo and Tristan
Richard Wagner, late in life, told his wife unequivocally that the germ of inspiration for Tristan und Isolde had come during a performance of I Capuleti ed i Montecchi that he conducted with Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient, who went on to sing in the premieres of three Wagner operas. Will Crutchfield looks through both scores to show just how Wagner's love of Bellini marked his music.

 4:00pm - Maestro Vaccai
For a significant part of its early history, I Capuleti ed i Montecchi was performed with a finale from another composer's setting of the same libretto.  That composer was Nicola Vaccai, and there are many reasons for remembering his music even if we no longer insert it into Bellini's opera.  Our Young Artists and Apprentices show why in this mini-recital.

5:00pm - The Star-Cross'd Lovers
Excerpts from Romeo and Juliet settings by Zingarelli, Steibelt, Berlioz, Tchaikovsky, Zandonai, Delius, Gounod, Blacher and Bernstein, sung by the Bel Canto at Caramoor Young Artists.

6:00pm - Dinner

7:00pm - Lecture (Lecturer to be announced)

Just for Opera: Ride the Caramoor Caravan round-trip from NYC.  More Info

Pre-purchase your picnic or enjoy a treat from Great Performances®’ refreshment stands, which open at 2:00pm.