Opera Saratoga’s 2023 summer festival season featured at Universal Preservation Hall
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. » Opera Saratoga’s 2023 summer festival season will be anchored in the heart of Saratoga Springs, featuring three productions at Universal Preservation Hall.
“We are excited to be partnering with Universal Preservation Hall this season for our MainStage performances and look forward to introducing our audiences to this amazing space right in downtown Saratoga Springs,” managing director Amanda Robie said in a press release.
The season will also feature concert performances in the beloved Spa Little Theatre, The Mansion of Saratoga, and at Caffè Lena.
With shows from June 30 through July 9, this season is a celebration of the talent of the group’s festival artists — 16 singers, two conductors, a pianist and two directors — capstoned by two distinguished guest artists, Andy Papas and Eric McConnell, both alums of Opera Saratoga’s
training program.
“I am particularly excited about this season,” head of music staff Laurie Rogers said in the release, “as it is cast completely from either current or former members of our prestigious Young Artist program. Additionally, this year’s talented singers, drawn from an application pool of over 900, will be showcased in our Broadway and Stars of Tomorrow concerts.”
The festival season provides something for all with three productions — the Tony awardwinning A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, Gaetano Donizetti’s bel canto masterpiece Don Pasquale, and a worldpremiere of a new children’s opera based on Oscar Wilde’s short story The Selfish Giant with music by Clarice Assad and libretto by Lila Palmer, along with additional festival concerts. Each performance will feature production elements that leverage the unique site-specific features of Universal Preservation Hall.
A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder is a delightfully devilish
musical comedy, with book by Robert L. Freedman and music by Steven Lutvak. The fourtime Tony-award winning show opened on Broadway at the Walter Kerr Theatre in 2013, winning a Tony for Best Musical. Opera Saratoga is excited to share a new presentation of this musical comedy, with themes of love, deception, and trickery woven throughout both festival MainStage performances.
The Italian opera buffa Don Pasquale is one of Donizetti’s most celebrated works as a musical comedy in three acts. Audiences will enjoy this bel canto classic as the scheming Dr. Malatesta and Norina’s plot unfolds, much to the surprise of her beloved Ernesto and the wealthy Don Pasquale.
In a different thematic context, Opera Saratoga shares the story of Wilde’s The Selfish Giant. This opera was developed at American Lyric Theater under the auspices of the Composer Librettist Development Program in New York City with leadership support from The Mellon
Foundation and the New York State Council on the Arts. With great timeliness, it addresses themes of empathy, compassion and togetherness as the selfish giant learns to share his bountiful garden with neighboring children.
Suitable for the entire family, Opera Saratoga presents this work in the summer as an extension of its touring school production, Opera-to-Go, which will visit schools throughout the greater Capital Region. Free performances of The Selfish Giant will occur throughout the summer festival season. A full recording of this work, and comprehensive virtual lesson plan were shared with teachers, free of charge throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
Tickets to these performances can be purchased online at universalpreservationhall.org.