Siena Opera Club Trips
515 Loudon Road
WEBSITE: WWW.SIENA.EDU/OPERA
Loudonville, New York 12211
EMAIL Haley@Siena.edu
Cell:
Peter E. Haley
(518) 669-6457
SUMMER OPERA SCHEDULE - 2015
CLOSING DATE FOR TICKET ORDERS – JUNE 8, 2015
(Except ORFEO – Closing Date - MAY 25)
All prices include transportation and driver gratuity. There are no refunds. In the event you
must cancel, you may donate a ticket for student use. If you have not ordered your tickets by
June 8, and wish to attend a particular event, space permitting on our bus, you may acquire
tickets on your own and ride with us for the cost of transportation. ($20/$30)
Restaurant Offerings: See page 4.
Please pay by cash or check made out to cash or to Peter Haley for all meals separately on the
day of the trip.
June 21 – Sun. Mat.
Departure 11:00 a. m.
L’Orfeo (Monteverdi)
$100
Boston Early Music
Mahaiwe Theater
July 10 – Fri. Eve.
Departure – 4:00 p. m.
The Long Walk (Beck)
$99
Opera Saratoga
World Premiere
July 12 – Sun. Eve.
Departure 6:00 p.m.
Dido & Aeneas (Purcell)
$99
Opera Saratoga
July 18 - Sat. Mat.
Departure – 11:30 a. m.
La Cenerentola (Rossini)
$99
Opera Saratoga
July 19 - Sun. Mat.
Departure - 9:30 a.m.
Candide (Bernstein)
$ 100
Glimmerglass Festival
July 26- Sun. Mat.
Departure 9:30 a.m.
Macbeth (Verdi)
$120
Glimmerglass Festival
July 29 - Wed. Mat.
Departure 9:30 a.m.
The Wreckers (Smyth)
$95
Bard College
Aug. 2 – Sun. Mat.
Departure – 9:30 a.m.
The Magic Flute (Mozart)
$120
Glimmerglass Festival
Aug.4 – Tue. Mat. & Eve.
Departure 1:30 p.m.
Tanglewood on Parade
$95 (BSO, B. Pops,TMC Orch.
Williams, Lockhart, Deneve, Nelsons
Tanglewood
Aug. 22 – Sat. Mat.
Depart 10:00 a.m.
Cato in Utica (Vivaldi)
$ 120
Glimmerglass Festival
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SOME HIGHLIGHTS REGARDING SUMMER PERFORMANCES
6/21 L’ORFEO (Monteverdi) – Not performed from its premiere in 1607, Mantua,
Italy, until early in the 20th century, L’Orfeo is now established as the first great operatic
masterpiece, and is the earliest opera which is nowadays regularly performed. Several
composers found the story of Orfeo and Euridice inviting and set the piece to music. It is
a story of love, death, and undying devotion between the lovers. Count on the Boston
Early Music Festival to deliver an authentic period production featuring the expert period
orchestra of the Boston Early Music Festival supported by Baroque dance and an
international cast of superior interpreters of the style and supported by designers of sets
and costumes sure to be a definitive representation of the great Baroque Period.
7/10 THE LONG WALK (Beck) - Opera Saratoga, under its new Artistic Director
Lawrence Edelson, presents a WORLD PREMIERE of American Iraq War Veteran Brian
Castner’s critically acclaimed book of the same title. (The Long Walk: A Story of War
and the life that Follows…) “The timeless drama presents … a deeply personal
exploration of a soldier’s return from Iraq where he served as an officer in an Explosive
Ordnance Disposal Unit, and his battle with what he calls “the Crazy” as he tries to
reintegrate into family life upon returning from the war.” With music by Jeremy Howard
Beck and libretto by Stephanie Fleischmann, this bold adventure by Opera Saratoga offers
its audience a first-hand musical drama, at once contemporary and at the same time, a
timeless story. The up-close exposure to a soldier coping with Post Traumatic Stress
Disorder (PTSD) and to the family that struggles valiantly to embrace their husband and
dad, promises a beautiful and terrifying glimpse of the family’s plight.
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DIDO & AENEAS (Purcell) – Again, Opera Saratoga steps out with a bold, new
approach to the age-old story of Dido, widowed Queen of Carthage, and Prince Aeneas, a
fugitive from Troy. “Supported” by a cast of malevolent witches and court characters and
a sorceress, Dido remains a model in terms of dramatic pace, numbers, and melodies,
with each solo followed by a chorus with danced interludes in each of the three acts. The
most substantial aria comes in the last act, “When I Am Laid In Earth,” sung by Dido,
over a repeated 5-bar phrase or “ground bass” The production, sung in Italian with
English text will include dancers from the ArmitageGone ! Dance Company and will be
performed in partnership with the National Museum of Dance “under the stars.”
7/18 LA CENERENTOLA (Rossini) – A story of forgiveness and true love peppered
with familiar arias, duets, trios and small ensembles, Cenerentola (Angelina) shows
Rossini’s magical hand at scoring plenty of fast-paced hysterical comedy – but with
plenty of heart and sincere messages tucked in amongst the fun. Unlike the fairytale
version, this setting uses matching bracelets in place of the glass slipper. Rossini set the
part of Cinderella for mezzo-soprano and after two acts packed full of bubbling patter
songs, a marvelous sextet and a lot of vocal acrobatics, the devilish composer gives
Cinderella a great “forgiveness aria,” as she pardons all who have been mean. “Non piu
mesta” (No longer sad) is sure to bring down the house and send the audience out in a
very happy mood.
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7/19 CANDIDE (Bernstein) – One can only imagine what Glimmerglass’ Francesca
Zambello will do with Berstein’s whacky and satirical setting of Voltaire’s short novel of
the same title. With libretto by Lillian Hellman, revised by Hugh Wheeler and at least
seven others, including Stephen Sondheim, Candide pre-dates West Side Story by one
year. Bernstein presents the “travelogue” of an innocent Westphalian youth as he and his
friend Cunegonde traverse the continents in search of “the best of all possible worlds.” A
series of disastrous adventures expose the youngsters to rapacious and merciless men and
a life full of shocks and disappointments. Finally, after experiencing exile, war, rape,
Inquisition and betrayals, Candide returns home and settles down with his beloved mentor
Pangloss and his even more beloved Cunegonde, determined to “make his garden grow.”
The ever-inventive Bernstein takes full advantage of the opportunities to set various
rhythms and tunes in parody of dance styles ranging from tango to gavotte, all adorned
with trios, quartets and ensembles of rare complexity. After a major orchestral Overture
with Rossini-style crescendo and dramatic pauses, Bernstein moves on to his parody of
opera sopranos as Cunegonde’s “Glitter and Be Gay” a takeoff on Faust’s Jewel Song, a
dazzling coloratura showpiece. Cunegonde and Candide get a lovely duet, “O Happy
We,” while Candide gets a solo “Lament.” There is a very moving chorale-anthem
(“Make Our Garden Grow”) as the opera’s conclusion.
7/26 MACBETH (Verdi) Set in 1847 in the progression from Nabucco and Ernani in
the approach to Verdi’s great Middle Period (Rigoletto, Traviata and Trovatore) Macbeth
was first set as a ballet and represents Verdi’s first foray into Shakespeare. The music
represents a leap forward in Verdi’s development; ex. a hushed duet – more like a
dramatic dialogue - between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth before Duncan’s murder.
Macbeth requires a mature Verdi baritone though the character gets only one major aria at
the very end of the opera. “Pieta, rispetto, amore” is a lament (a la Iago and Rigoletto)
for his decline into evil, comparable to Shakespeare’s “tomorrow, and tomorrow, and
tomorrow.” The part of Lady Macbeth, notoriously difficult to cast, requires the voice to
be dark and ugly. Not satisfied that he might have killed off the soprano earlier in the
“Sleepwalking Scene,” Verdi demands a high D Flat – sung pianissimo, which most
sopranos cannot muster. Historians tell us that Verdi replaced the first Lady Macbeth
because her voice was too beautiful for such an ugly character.
7/29 THE WRECKERS (Smyth) Dame Ethel Smyth realized that it was not the time
for a woman composer, after unsuccessful attempts to have her third opera produced in
England. A local writer commented, “For five years Ethel Smyth, wearing manish
tweeds and an assertively cocked felt hat, had been striding about Europe, cigar in mouth,
trying to sell her opera The Wreckers to timorous and stubborn impresarios.” Not to be
squashed, Smyth convinced presenters at the Neues Theater, Leipzig to present the drama
in Leipzig, 1906. Regarded as Smyth’s finest opera, it was successful in its time, but is
now all but forgotten. In 18th-century Cornwall the local inhabitants, after extinguishing
the lighthouse beacons, pray for ships to be sent to the coast so that they could wreck and
despoil the contents, all with the blessing of the local preacher, whose wife Thirza revolts
at the savagery. Along with her lover, Mark, she lights warning fires on the cliffs. They
are discovered and are locked in a cave where they will be drowned by the rising tide.
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8/2
THE MAGIC FLUTE (Mozart) Composed not for an opera house, but for librettist
Emanuel Schikaneder’s vaudeville theater, Die Zauberflote, one of Mozart’s last works, promises
a “something-for-everyone” experience. The creators mix a theatrical stew of comedy, farce,
religious rite, pantomime, spoken dialogue and special effect scenes with hints of Masonic
philosophy. There are young lovers struggling to withstand the dueling spats between the evil
Queen of the Night (who hurls high F’s) and the High Priest of the Temple, Sarastro (who hurls
low F’s.) Music history tells us that the soprano who premiered the role of Pamina, the young
lover and daughter of Queen of the Night, was only 19 years old! Glimmerglass will present the
opera in English.
8/4
TANGLEWOOD ON PARADE, the annual “parade” of young talent from the
various music wings of Tanglewood, begins at 2:30 p.m. with brass fanfares at the gates,
chamber music at 2:30 p.m. in Ozawa Hall, followed by additional chamber music
ensembles at 3:30. Concerts by the various schools (orchestral and choral) perform
simultaneously in the main shed. After a brief respite for food, drink, and rest, brass
fanfares by the music fellows at 8:00 p.m. hail the main concert in the shed at 8:30 p.m.
The main program this season features music by Shostakovich, Ravel, Williams (for
Sejii), a world premiere by Williams and concludes with Tchaikovsky. The conducting
staff includes Deneve, Williams, Lockhart and Nelsons. The evening ends
withTchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture with three combined symphony orchestras, followed
by fireworks. This is a day-long “bring your blankets, chairs and picnics event.” While
food is available in the food pavilions, it is recommended that concert goers bring
food and drink for the day. Past concerts have introduced such singers as Renee
Fleming and Stephanie Blythe. Some of the “great voices of tomorrow” will be
performing at this outing. Open seating is available to all throughout the afternoon
programs while seats are reserved inside the great shed for the evening concert.
PLEASE NOTE that our bus will depart from Siena 2 hours LATER (1:30 PM) than in
previous seasons.
8/22 CATO IN UTICA (Vivaldi)
The Glimmerglass Festival presents Vivaldi’s masterful setting of Metastasio’s
story of Cato the Younger. Republican Cato (tenor) refuses to give in to Caesar (male
soprano) who has killed Pompey and taken over Rome. There are furious arias, wicked
recitatives and lots of coloratura for the male soprano, including high B-flats. Arbace,
ally to Cato, is sung by a male alto.
Please include payment for tickets with your order. Tickets will be distributed at the bus.
Since the meals at various restaurants involve food and drink, we must collect this money
separately on the day of the event. Kindly place exact change in a sealed envelope with your
name clearly inscribed to be collected during the bus trip.
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RESTAURANT OFFERINGS
Otesaga Resort Hotel, Cooperstown
Sunday Brunch
7/19
Sunday Brunch
8/2
Saturday Lunch
8/22:
SALTSMAN’S RESTAURANT, EPHATA
Sunday Lunch
7/26
Opera Saratoga Meals
Fri. Dinner
Sun. Dinner
Sat. Lunch
7/10
7/12
718
(TBA = To be announced)
$41
$41
$18
(Candide)
(Magic Flute)
(Cato)
TBA
(Macbeth)
(Long Walk-(TBA)
(Dido) (TBA)
(Cenerentola) (TBA)
Bard College Trip (Rhinebeck)
Please note: Instead of booking the usual brunch at The BEEKMAN ARMS, everyone
will be free to choose their own food venue for lunch. There are plenty of fine dining
places within walking distance, including the Beekman Arms.
Please note:
We still have openings for our trip to:
SANTA FE (5 operas)
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Aug. 9 – 16, 2015
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Opera Club Trips
Summer 2015
ORDER FORM
Please include payment only for opera tickets with this order
L’Orfeo
______
June 21
#_____ @
$100
Tot.
The Long Walk
Please check one:
July 10
Dinner:
# _____ @
_____YES
$ 99 Tot. ______
_____ NO
Dido & Aeneas
July 12
# _____ @
$ 99
La Cenerentola
Please check one:
July 18
Lunch
# _____ @
_____ YES
$ 99
Tot._______
_____ NO
Candide
Please check one
July 19
# _____ @
_____ Yes
$100 Tot. ______
_____ No
Macbeth
Please check one:
July 26
Brunch
# ______ @
_____ YES
$120 Tot. ______
_____ NO
The Wreckers
July 29
# ______ @
$ 95
The Magic Flute
Please check one:
Aug. 2
Brunch
# ______ @
_____YES
$120 Tot. _______
_____ No
Tanglewood on Parade
Aug. 4
# ______ @
$95
Cato in Utica
Please check one:
Aug. 22
Lunch
# ______ @
_____YES
$120 Tot. _______
_____ NO
Name
Address
Tot_______
Tot. _______
Tot. _______
Eve. Phone Day Phone
City
Zip
Email Address: ______________________________________________________(confidential)
Mail Order Form To:
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Peter Haley – Opera Series
Siena College – 515 Loudon Road
Loudonville, NY 12211-1462
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