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Magical Glimmerglass: Opera's Intimate Summer Retreat
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23055 |
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THE ARTS
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5 / 2003 |
2,555 Words |
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Peter Catalano
Peter Catalano is an arts writer based in Boston. |
Santa Fe Opera has its sunsets, Glyndeborne its gardens and lawns; Bayreuth beckons with its dubious Wagner mystique. The signature motif of Glimmerglass Opera is the lush, rolling hills and glistening lakes of upstate New York's Otsego County. This midsummer festival calls to mind the image of a friendly gazebo where amiable audiences gather and formalities are dispensed with. It's a festival for the avid opera fan, tucked away in historic Cooperstown on the shores of Lake Otsego, the "Glimmerglass" of James Fenimore Cooper's "Leatherstocking" tales. Euro-glitterati are nowhere in sight. There's no special cachet in being spotted at Glimmerglass. Music and theater, sky and meadow are the main attractions, graced with a welcoming, inclusive atmosphere and a touch of the university symposium tacked on for good measure.
Every day is dress-down day at Glimmerglass Opera; well, except for the company's publicity director Michael Willis, who wears such things as a snappy lime-green seersucker suit and bow tie even on the hottest days. But there are plenty of men in shorts and ladies in sleeveless blouses rubbing shoulders with cast members from the Handel opera that played the previous night.
Before performances at the Alice Busch Opera Theater, people mill about in the sunshine. Come intermission, those who are Patrons of the Festival gather in cool, screened ballrooms and yellow-striped tents for cold drinks and finger food, while casual visitors head for picnic tables under shady trees scattered across the acres of lawn surrounding the performance complex.
The Busch Theater cuts a profile suggesting a barn, echoing the real-life dairy farms dotting
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