2017 SUMMER
Song, song, and once again song.
caramoor.org / 914.232.1252
A message from the Director of Opera, Will Crutchfield
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Angela Meade is known worldwide for her Norma, the role she first sang at Caramoor on what Das Opernglas called “a truly perfect night at the opera” in 2010. Our Young Artist program, whose alumni are heard on stages from Santa Fe to La Scala to St. Petersburg and everywhere in between, is heard in two Thursday programs — one devoted to a quirky giant of bel canto, the tenor-composer Manuel García, and the other to Bellini himself in the realm of song. The Rossini Petite messe solennelle is led by Rachelle Jonck, whose choruses have electrified Caramoor audiences for most of our twenty years here. Starting in 2018 our team will migrate to its own organization, Teatro Nuovo, to continue the adventure of bringing bel canto to the 21st century. Meanwhile we celebrate the last season in our longtime “paradise” with a true feast of expression and music. Please join us!
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So was Richard Wagner when it was new. There are strong traces of Il pirata in Die Walküre, and a lot of the intoxication of Wagner’s “endless melody” seems to have been revealed to him by the hypnotic Italian master: “Bellini wrote melodies more beautiful than one’s dreams,” he told Cosima decades later. Bellini was helping to usher in a new kind of opera. The pain of love that cannot be crowned with union; the longings of an outcast for status and community; the hunger for affection
Bellini’s own dream was “to make people shudder, suffer, die, through singing.” Who wants to shudder, suffer, and die at an evening’s entertainment? As it turns out, everyone with a heart: those universal human griefs, sublimated through the language of music and the primal cry of the human voice, arrive at something we might call “transcendence,” or “catharsis,” or “rapture” — but whatever we call it, once we come in contact with it, we need it. And bel canto delivers it like nothing else.
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The masterpiece at the center is Il pirata, which was Vincenzo Bellini’s breakthrough opera in 1827. A hundred and thirty years later, it was the opera that proved (with Maria Callas at La Scala) how Bellini’s radical language could speak to the modern world even without the familiarity and tradition that supported Norma. In 2000, it was the first Bellini title revived by Bel Canto at Caramoor, and everyone was bowled over by the depth and beauty of the work.
by the un-loved - these are the themes of Il pirata, and they would be the themes of opera’s Romantic century, the era that produced the artform’s most durable masterpieces.
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he 20th anniversary of Bel Canto at Caramoor is a celebration in five parts, with song at the heart of each. We begin with a starry gala sampling bel canto’s beloved hits, and finish with the last mysterious notes of Gioachino Rossini, the composer who had gotten it all started. In between we explore the melodious overflow of opera into chamber music, and at the center of the season we revisit a genuine masterpiece of music drama. A few years back, Alex Ross was kind enough to say in The New Yorker that thanks to our program, “Caramoor has become an operatic paradise,” and the flowers of that paradise are the individual human voices we encourage, nurture, challenge, and invite our public to share.
caramoor.org / 914.232.1252
Saturday, June 17 / 8:30pm / Venetian Theater
Will Crutchfield
Angela Meade
Opening Night Concert & Gala
Celebrating 20 years of Bel Canto at Caramoor with A Night of Italian Opera
Artists and Apprentices sample other composers’ works in the genre, from Paisiello and Cimarosa at the beginning of the 19th century to Puccini and Tosti at the dawn of the 20th.
Angela Meade, soprano Santiago Ballerini, tenor Harold Wilson, bass Bel Canto Young Artists Will Crutchfield, conductor Orchestra of St. Luke’s
4:30pm / Bellini’s First Pirates Il pirata was composed for three superstars: Henriette Méric-Lalande, Giambattista Rubini, and Antonio Tamburini. The Bel Canto Young Artists and Apprentices give a vocal portrait of the trio through other excerpts from their other principal roles.
Thursday, June 29 / 7:00pm / Spanish Courtyard
6:30pm / Bellini’s Breakthrough Timothy Cheung introduces Il pirata.
Un avvertimento ai gelosi by Manuel García Bel Canto Young Artists Timothy Cheung, piano
Saturday, July 8 / 7:30pm / Venetian Theater
Bel Canto at Caramoor presents Il pirata by Vincenzo Bellini
Santiago Ballerini
Harold Wilson
Imogene / Angela Meade, soprano Gualtiero / Santiago Ballerini, tenor Ernesto / Harold Wilson, bass Bel Canto Young Artists Will Crutchfield, conductor Orchestra of St. Luke’s Members at all levels are invited to join us for an intermission reception in the Pavilion. Pre-concert lectures and recitals in the Spanish Courtyard 2:30pm / A New Voice Bellini was not an innovator when it came to the formal structure of opera, but the way he re-imagined melody and harmony was profoundly important for the whole Romantic era. Will Crutchfield explains his influence on Schumann, Chopin, and Wagner.
Bel Canto Young Artists
3:30pm / Canzonetta sull’aria (A Song in the Air) The Italian composer’s favorite form of chamber music was the song with keyboard accompaniment. Bellini’s contributions to this repertory will be heard on Thursday July 13th; here, the Bel Canto Young
Thursday, July 13 / 7:00pm / Spanish Courtyard
The Intimate Bellini Bel Canto Young Artists Will Crutchfield, piano
Sunday, July 23 / 4:00pm / Venetian Theater
Bel Canto at Caramoor presents Petite messe solennelle by Gioachino Rossini Bel Canto Young Artists Rachelle Jonck, conductor Pre-concert lectures and recitals in the Spanish Courtyard
2:00pm / Church and Stage Though only Rossini’s and Verdi’s have become “standard repertory,” all Italian opera composers wrote beautiful music for the church as well. This program offers short gems by Cimarosa, Cherubini, Donizetti, Bellini, and Verdi, as a prelude to Rossini’s final masterpiece. 3:00pm / Neither “Petite” nor “Solemn” Will Crutchfield introduces Rossini’s Petite messe solennelle.
Bel Canto Young Artists Teresa Castillo, soprano Robyn Marie Lamp, soprano JoAna Rusche, soprano Shirin Eskandani, mezzo-soprano Sean Christensen, tenor Joshua Sanders, tenor Derrek Stark, tenor Kyle Oliver, baritone Joseph Beutel, bass-baritone
Caramoor Bel Canto Apprentices Kirsten Anderson, soprano Heejung Lee, soprano Elizabeth Novella, soprano Elisabeth Papageorgiou, soprano Brooklyn Snow, soprano Meigui Zhang, soprano Noragh Devlin, mezzo-soprano Yoojin Lee, mezzo-soprano Madison Marie McIntosh, mezzo-soprano Stephanie Polonio, mezzo-soprano Carolyn Ramseur, mezzo-soprano Lucas Alvarado, tenor Thor ArbjĂśrnsson, tenor Matthew Greenblatt, tenor Gabriel Hernandez, tenor Christopher Hochstuhl, tenor Ki Taek Song, tenor Jose Cuartas, baritone Nicholas Kreider, baritone Thomas Lynch, baritone Rob McGinness, baritone John T.K. Scherch, bass
For more information about Membership please call 914.232.5035 ext. 261 or visit caramoor.org/membership.
Transportation from New York City to Katonah It’s easy to get here. Catch the Caramoor Coach to and from Manhattan (single-ride and round-trip available), take the train (Metro-North Katonah Station, Harlem Line) and free Katonah shuttle from Metro-North, or take a scenic drive and enjoy free parking. For information, tickets, and to view the full summer schedule, visit caramoor.org.