SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. — In honor of its 63rd season, Opera Saratoga held a kickoff event outside of the Saratoga Arts building downtown to highlight a number of the performances that will be going on during the 2024 Summer Festival.
At the kickoff a group of performers showcased some of the talent attendees would be able to see at the Opera this summer, performing numbers from two of the upcoming shows.
Accompanied by Laurie Rogers on the piano, Julia Stuart, who plays Fiordiligi, and Michael Hawk, who plays Guglielmo, performed arias from Cosi fan tutte while Maximillian Jansen, who plays Nicely-Nicely, Colin Aikins, who plays Benny Southstreet, and Kyle Dunn, who plays Rusty Charlie, performed pieces from “Guys and Dolls.”
“This summer holds fun, it holds romance and adventure. It is about uplifting optimism more than anything else because I think what the world needs right now is a space where we can all gather, listen to beautiful music and laugh with each other – and remember that there’s a lot of commonality amongst us, more pressing and important than our differences,” General and Artistic Director Mary Birnbaum said.
“To combat the divisiveness in the world, and to create a space where we can all come together and disagree thoughtfully, and with compassion is my fondest wish, I think for every person right now.”
This summer will mark Birnbaum’s first as a curator, director and producer with Opera Saratoga. As a director and an educator who who teaches at Juilliard School, Birnbaum shared that she has come up to Saratoga a couple of times under the auspices of the Orchard Project, which is a generator and accelerator that develops theater projects in the area, and fell in love.
“I noticed how many different organizations there were to support and promote and create art,” Birnbaum said. “When this job became available a couple of years ago, I thought that it would be a dream place to live and to work and to spend time creating work within a community that already knows the arts. Where everyone is so thoughtful and sophisticated. So it’s a real honor to be here.”
Something unique that is coming to Saratoga Opera this summer is a world premiere opera that is being devised and composed entirely during the summer season by Composer-In-Residence inti figgis-vizueta, which is set to explore the “Transformative power of group improvisation and play” while working to “reconcile historical aesthetic and experimental practices with Trans and Indigenous futures.”
This will take place at Universal Preservation Hall on June 30 at 7 p.m. and July 5 at 2 p.m.
“It’s new to Saratoga, but it’s also new to her since she’s never made it before,” Birnbaum explained. “So that’s really special, and you only get to hear it here.”
Opera Saratoga will also put on free family shows this summer, presenting favorite scenes and songs from “Guys and Dolls” as well as “ Cosi fan tutte” by Festival Artist at a variety of locations and dates. These include June 15 at 11 a.m. at Saratoga Springs Public Library, June 19 at 3:30 p.m. at the Saratoga Farmers Market, June 23 at 11 a.m. at Saratoga Arts and June 29 and July 2, both at 11 a.m., at UPH.
Those who attend the UPH shows are asked to bring non-perishable food items or hygiene products (shampoo, deodorant, laundry soap, feminine hygiene, etc.) which will be delivered to the Franklin Community Center.
At the kickoff event, Saratoga Springs Commissioner of Finance Minita Sanghvi presented Opera Saratoga with a check for $15,000 to help support the family programming as a part of the second cycle of the city’s Participatory Budgeting program.
“This is going to be a great initiative where young kids will now learn more about it and give more access to arts and cultures to our wonderful city,” Sanghvi said. “It’s not just us helping Opera Saratoga and forwarding the love of the arts for families in our City, but also all the other local communities that get impacted by this in a very positive way.
“So we are really excited to present this wonderful check.”.
Opera Saratoga’s President of the Board of Directors Steve Rosenblum shared that the idea for this kickoff event came from wanting to make sure the word got out about Opera Saratoga’s upcoming season and drew inspiration from the wealth of ribbon cutting he’s been a part of and witnessed.
“We’ve been here more than 60 years, it’s our 63rd season and people don’t know about us,” Rosenblum explained. “It’s amazing to me, when I have conversations with people, and they’re like, ‘Oh, I didn’t know we had an opera company in Saratoga.’ While it hasn’t been in Saratoga the whole time, it started as Lake George Opera, but even so, it’s been 15 years in Saratoga, and people still don’t know about it, so I wanted to do something that would get us noticed, in the community.”
And for those that have never been to the opera and are interested, or are one of the members of the community that had no idea about it – Rosenblum’s advice is to come and try it out.
“You know, everyone at first says, ‘Oh, I don’t like opera’ until they go to an opera, and then they kind of enjoy it a little bit more,” Rosenblum said. “It can be a little daunting to go to an opera if you’ve never been, but I say give it a try – especially something like Mozart that’s so accessible for everyone. The music is beautiful.
“It’s a little different than what we’re used to when we go to musical theater, but I think people will enjoy it if they come.”
Birnbaum agrees that everyone interested should come and check out what Opera Saratoga has to offer. With the cheapest ticket running at $30, she shares it is the non-profit’s goal to make opera accessible to everyone and to give everyone a chance to experience it.
“I would say, if you like music, if you’d like to laugh, if you’d like to be moved, come test it out with us and buy a ticket,” Birnbaum said. “The cheapest ones are 30 bucks, and you can see if you’d like it. If you don’t, no pressure to return, but if you do, we welcome you into the community and I would love to share the music that we’re making.”
Along with the showcased performances, there are many other events that Opera Saratoga is presenting like Cabaret at the Mansion, Opera Saratoga Gala, Listen to This Concert and more.
For more information about performances and Opera Saratoga as a whole, as well as to buy tickets, visit https://www.operasaratoga.org.
