Not too long ago, the end of the Metropolitan Opera season in mid-May plunged New York opera lovers into despondency as there were few options for hearing performances of any kind, not to mention ones that were distinct and enlightening. How things have changed! Now the opera offerings in New York and environs in the warm months make the city a worthy destination for the operatically adventurous.
While there are performances of standard repertory for people who want them, this time of year represents an opportunity to hear rare works that have been unearthed and contemporary operas getting their local premieres. Many interesting performances can be found at the website of the New York Opera Fest, which kicked off its second season in late April.
May 26-June 3: Amore Opera is presenting two operas about gypsies. There is Carmen (May 26, 27, 28; June 1, 2, 3) as well as the American premiere of Donizetti’s La Zingara (May 30, 31).
June 16-July 8: The always compelling LoftOpera presents 8 performances of a program combining Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater and arias by Vivaldi. They return in September with a staging of Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci.
June 10, 12, 14, 16: New York City Opera presents the New York premiere of Péter Eötvös’ Angels in America based on the monumental play by Tony Kushner. It has a very strong cast, led by the outstanding baritone Andrew Garland with Wayne Tigges, Aaron Blake, Sarah Castle, Kirsten Chambers and Sarah Beckham-Turner, conducted by Pacien Mazzagatti.
June 11, 12: Opera Upper West presents a double bill, Poulenc’s La Voix Humaine and Menotti’s The Telephone, at Cafe Tallulah.
June 12: Metropolitan Opera Summer free recital series in Manhattan’s Central Park with soprano Susanna Phillips, mezzo-soprano Elizabeth DeShong, tenor Stephen Costello and pianist Dan Saunders. These performers will appear in Brooklyn Bridge Park on June 14.
June 14, 16: Operamission presents Handel’s Rinaldo (wonderful score!) at Merkin Concert Hall.
June 15-18: Three Way, music by Robert Paterson and a libretto by David Cote at BAM in a production by American Opera Projects and Nashville Opera. These are three one-act operas that combine to explore some aspects of love and lust. It was described in Opera News as “an effortlessly funny, clever and deeply resonant opera … Paterson amplifies the humor and heartache of Cote's libretto with a bright and magnificent score.”
June 17: Opening Night of the Caramoor Festival is a bel canto gala conducted by Will Crutchfield and starring soprano Angela Meade, tenor Santiago Ballerini and bass Harold Wilson. These artists reunite on July 8 for Bellini’s Il Pirata.
June 18: Create Opera presents Strauss’s Elektra, quite an audacious undertaking for its very first performance!
June 20, 22, 23, 24: On Site Opera presents Darius Milhaud’s The Guilty Mother (La mère coupable), the composer’s adaptation of the Beaumarchais play featuring Figaro, the character who has been at the center of the company’s three year cycle of operas in which he appears. On Site Opera does each of its productions in locations specific to the content of the opera being performed. This one will be at The Garage on the far west side of Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen.
July 1-16: Saratoga Opera proposes an enticing season in a beautiful setting. Zémire et Azor, a true rarity, is an opera from 1771 with music by André Grétry and libretto by Jean François Marmontel that is an early telling of the story of Beauty and the Beast. (July 2, 8, 14). It will be in repertory with Verdi’s Falstaff (July 1, 6, 10, 15) and Marc Blitzstein’s audaciously political The Cradle Will Rock (July 9, 11, 13, 16), which should prove as pungent today as it did when it premiered in 1937.
July 6-9: The mission of the Martina Arroyo Foundation is to train promising young artists in a process called “Prelude to Performance” in which they learn all the aspects of creating an opera production and then appear in one. Many of these singers have gone on to important careers and New York opera fans love to attend these performances to discover tomorrow’s stars. Recent standouts have included Cecilia Violeta Lopez, Brandie Sutton, Michele Angelini and Ryan Speedo Green. This year’s productions are Carmen and a double bill of Puccini’s Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi. During the training period, there are free master classes on June 2, 7, 14, 21, 26 and 29. I will be doing the first one and others will be led by singers Sharon Sweet, Isola Jones and Jane Eaglen, and managers Stefano Mazzonis and Ken Benson.
July 7-Aug. 22: Glimmerglass Festival in Cooperstown, New York has something for everyone. Handel’s Xerxes (with John Holiday in the title role), Donizetti’s The Siege of Calais (starring Leah Crocetto), The Gershwins’s Porgy and Bess (starring Musa Ngqungwana and Talise Trevigne, two exceptional young singers) and Rodgers and Hammerstein’s classic musical Oklahoma. There will be other attractions including smaller productions of contemporary operas, plus concerts and recitals.
July 15: Andris Nelsons and the Boston Symphony Orchestra will perform a concert version of Das Rheingold at Tanglewood with a strong and very appealing cast.
Aug. 9: Boston’s Handel and Haydn Society performs Purcell’s The Fairy Queen at Tanglewood.
Aug. 12-27: The dell’Arte Opera Ensemble always presents an engaging and adventurous season in which young artists receive training in roles and then perform them for audiences. This year’s season includes Janáček’s Příhody lišky Bystroušky (The Cunning Little Vixen) performed in Czech, and Cavalli’s La Calisto in Italian with period instrument ensemble. There will be a concert of excerpts from Pelléas et Mélisande, Rusalka, Don Pasquale and Carmen.
Aug.17, 19, 20: The Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center presents a semi-staged production of Don Giovanniled by the superb Iván Fischer with a strong cast and the Budapest Festival Orchestra.
Aug. 26: Kristine Opolais, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Andris Nelson and the Boston Symphony will present an evening of opera music by Verdi, Tchaikovsky and other composers at Tanglewood.