DEATH AND THE KING’S HORSEMAN - REVIEW OF 2022 STRATFORD FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas 

For the latter part of its season The Stratford Festival has chosen an extremely difficult but phenomenal play that is both timely and overdue. It is Death and the King’s Horseman by Nigerian playwright Wole Soyinka, and it receives exemplary treatment at the Tom Paterson Theatre.

Death and the King’s Horseman is a complex, poetic play based on a true story. The king of the Yoruba tribe, Nigeria, dies and his horseman, a high ranking official, must commit suicide in order to help his former employer in the next world. This is an entrenched, venerable, highly honourable and honoured tradition that brooks no argument. It is part of the lifeblood of the Yoruba people.

Soyinka has dramatized the incident that occurred in the 1940s, transposed it to the time of World War II and put his stamp on it. Elesin, the Horseman to the King, is preparing to die but goes to the boisterous marketplace for the last time. The Praise Singer questions the Horseman who plans to end his life but also wants to enjoy his last night on earth with a woman that is not his wife.

Anthony Santiago (foreground) as Elesin with (from left) 

Ijeoma Emesowum as Ariyike, Celia Aloma as Olabisi, 

Akosua Amo-Adem as Iyaloja, and Espoir Segbeaya as Wuraola 

in Death and the King's Horseman. Stratford Festival 2022.

Photo by David Hou.

The first scene lasts about 40 minutes of the recitation of poetry by Elesin, boisterous antiphonal exchanges with a chorus of seven women and a chorus of seven men as well as exchanges with the Praise Singer. Much of the scene consists of recitation of poetry with rich language and complex images that would be difficult to understand and appreciate fully. But the production gave us an added problem Much if not most of what was said was incomprehensible.

The Yoruba patois of which most of the audience was unaware was difficult to decipher. At first, I thought of this as unacceptable, but the program informs us that the production has a Yoruba Dialect Coach (Wole Oguntokun). The meaning of the exchanges was fairly clear even if the words were not all understood and Soyinka and director Tawiah M’Carthy clearly intended us to hear the text in its authentic cadences.

In the early 1940s, the time of the play, Yoruba a was a British colony and Simon Pilkings (Graham Abbey) was the District Officer. He is a classic example of an imperial overlord. arrogant, bigoted to the point of being unable to consider the natives as people let alone appreciate their culture. He and his wife wear a native costume that is offensive, but they refuse to remove it because they want to win a prize at a costume ball. But he will not permit Elesin to die because he considers it barbaric. 

The District Officer has Elesin arrested and with an obtuseness that will not allow any argument he does not permit Elesin to fulfil his pr-ordained and honourable duty, his death, an act that has significance far deeper that the Englishman can even begin to understand.

I will not disclose the tragic end of the play in the belief that most people may not know it.

The performances elicited by director M’Carthy are models of superb acting in exceedingly difficult roles. Anthony Santiago as Elesin, the King’s Horseman recites the sometimes tortuously difficult poetry and can project the man of honour, the man who wants to enjoy his last hours on earth and the tortured being who may be denied his ultimate duty as a human being. His performance is superb for the depths of feeling that he displays and the many challenges that he faces.

Amaka Umeh is the lithe Praise Singer who displays vocal and physical agility giving a simply outstanding performance Akosua Amo-Adem plays Iyaloja, Mother of the Market. She is the leader of the seven women who react to Elesin’s poetic recitation and are involved in the rest of the play. One cannot praise her enough for the forcefulness of her acting, her humanity and utterly memorable performance.

Graham Abbey gives a superior performance as the District Officer as does Maev Beaty as his wife Jane, who is a more sympathetic person towards the natives than him.

Maev Beaty (left) as Jane Pilkings and Graham Abbey 

as Simon Pilkings. Photo by David Hou.

There is a riveting scene between Elesin, representing the deeply rooted ethos of the Yoruba and the representatives of supposed civilized ideas of the English who are slaughtering people and being slaughtered in the war in Europe while showing utter ignorance of the convictions and traditions of their conquered subjects.

Rachel Forbes’ set shows the marketplace in the first scene and then switches to a balcony for the finely attired colonial masters including the visiting English Prince. They are having a costume ball and are almost impervious to the actions of the natives, including possibly a riot. The final scene takes place in a holding cell where Elesin is held to prevent him from fulfilling his life’s work.

This is theatre at its best and is worth seeing more than once. I hope the production will be videotaped for watching again in the near future.

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Death and the King’s Horseman by Wole Soyinka opened on August 27, 2022, and will run until October 29, 2022, at the Tom Patterson Theatre as part of the Stratford Festival in Stratford, Ontario. www.stratfordfestival.ca

James Karas is the Senior Editor - Cultre of The Greek Press 

TENOR OVERBOARD – REVIEW OF 2022 GLIMMERGLASS FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

When it comes to opera, you can have something new or something old but is there any reason why you cannot have both at the same time.  Francesca Zambello, the Artistic and General Director of The Glimmerglass Festival will tell you that you can have both and that is what she has done. Tenor Overboard is a classic comedy by Ken Ludwig. Two women dress up as men and go on board a ship as members of the all-male Sicilian Singers group. Yes, you may think of the movie Some Like It Hot with Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis.

The comedy is fine but The Glimmerglass Festival produces opera and we need some bubbly, melodically terrific music and lyrics to supplement to play. Call Giacomo Rossini. He provides the sung parts in the original Italian (well, mostly) while the comedy advances the silly plot in English.

Meet sisters Gianna (Reilly Nelson) and Mimi (Jasmine Habersham) in Little Italy, New York in the 1940s. They are on the run from their overstrict and overbearing father Petronio (Stefano de Peppo), and sneak on a ship heading for Sicily, disguised as Joe and Jerry and join The Singing Sicilians. The four-person group has only two members left, Luca (Armando Contreras) and Dante (Fran David Laucerica). Guess who loves whom? Not  to hold you in suspense, the sisters’ father also boards the ship as does the movie star Angostura (Keely Futterer) and her agent Cedric (Gregory Feldmann). We also have a funny and fine-voiced Captain (Matthew Pearce). Broad comedy needs a selection of characters, you see and Ken Ludwig, knows how to provide them.

The four lovers, the overprotective father, the crazy actress, the abused agent and the bumbling Captain are a splendid collection of people for this type of comedy and the actors deserve nothing less than a standing ovation.

 Fran Daniel Laucerica as Dante, Jasmine Habersham as Mimi,
Reilly Nelson as Gianna and Armando Contreras as Luca in
The Glimmerglass Festival's 2022 production of "Tenor Overboard."
Photo: Karli Cadel/The Glimmerglass Festival. 

But this is a comic opera and we need arias, duets and ensemble pieces. Go for the best, Rossini. Ludwig’s collaborators scavenge through more than a dozen of Rossini’s works for appropriate pieces to “fit” the story line of the Tenor Overboard. They filch music and lyrics (when suitable) from  familiar operas like The Barber of Seville, L’Italiana in Algeri, Cenerentola and La gazza ladra to less well-known operas like William Tell, Semiramide, La donna del lago and Tancredi.

We get high Cs on the high seas as Francesca Zambello told us.

Mezzo soprano Reilly Nelson playing Gianna and soprano Jasmine Habersham jump into pants roles with the expected hilarity and the delightful rendition of Rossini’s high notes. They are lovers and we love them.

Tenor Fran David Laucerica as Dante  and baritone Armando Contreras as Luca are the other lovers and we want them to get together and all obstacles be damned. Both singers  are members of Glimmerglass’s Young Artists Program and they displayed versatility, vocal agility and enthusiasm that made them a delight to watch and hear.

    Gavin Grady as Cabin Boy, Gregory Feldmann as Cedric

 and Keely Futterer as Angostura. 

Photo: Karli Cadel/The Glimmerglass Festival

Soprano Keely Futterer gets the juicy role Angostura, the movie star who is allowed to overact and provide laughs. But she has a fine, ringing voice and is a member of the Young Artists Program with multiple opportunities for comic acting and excellent singing.

Baritone Gregory Feldmann was Futterer’s sidekick, the agent Cedric. He is also a member of the Young Artists Program and a rising star in his profession.

Bass-baritone Stefano de Peppo played Petronio, the foolish father, standing in the way of youth and love. He seems like an expert in handling such roles which are plentiful in opera buffa.

Tenor Matthew Pearce is the bumbling ship’s captain who when asked to perform a wedding ceremony starts reciting the funeral mass. A fine performance and a fine tenor voice. He too is a member of the Young Artists Program.

I mention the artists who come from the Young Artists Program to give due credit to The Glimmerglass Festival for  promoting and training young artists, including an Assistant Conductor Robert Kahn and Assistant Director Nora Winsler. The production was co-directed for the fun of it by Francesca Zambello and Brenna Corner.  

The sets were designed by James Noone and we get a street in New York in front of the YMCA, the interior of the Y and on board the brightly lit ship with its three smokestacks. Well done.

Joseph Colaneri conducted The Glimmerglass Festival Orchestra at a spritely pace.

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Tenor Overboard by Ken Ludwig (book) Giacomo Rossini will be performed seven times in repertory until August 18, 2022, at the Alice Busch Opera Theater, Cooperstown, New York. www.glimmerglass.org

James Karas is the Senioir Editor - Culture of The Greek Press. This review appeared in the newspaper.

THE RED PRIEST – REVIEW OF 2022 GUILD FESTIVAL THEATRE PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

The Red Priest (Eight Ways To Say Goodbye) is a play by Canadian playwright Mieko Ouchi. It was her first full-length play and it premiered in 2003. The Guild Festival Theatre of Toronto, in its 11^th season,  has produced this intricate and delicate play with considerable success.

The Red Priest of the title refers to the composer Antonio Vivaldi who in fact had red hair and was an ordained priest. The only other character is simply called The Woman. She is a French aristocrat in Paris in May 1740 during the reign of Louis XV. 

David Whiteley gives a superb performance as Vivaldi, the priest, the outstanding composer, the consummate violinist and man-about-town that all women pined for. He knows he is different and better than anyone in society and that lends him some arrogance but he also has to deal with aristocrats and he must needs be humble or pretend to be in front of them. At times he even has to grovel to The Woman.

Sierra Haynes and David Whiteley 

Sierra Haynes as The Woman is a creature of another world, the world of the wealth and nobility. Her head held high, her nose up in the air, we might say, she exudes hauteur and high-class manners but she wants to please her husband and and thinks that learning to play the violin is one way of doing it.

I should note that the play is as much a series of monologues by the two characters and of course dialogues as it’s a concert of  Vivaldi’s music. We hear samples of a wide variety of his works and leave the theatre with his music in our ears. The good audio system of the Guild Theatre made listening to the music an extraordinary pleasure.

The woman tells us that she thinks of her husband and his ambition to create the perfect garden. We see Vivaldi is with a prostitute, drunk, telling her that his playing is so extraordinary that people think his talent comes from the Devil himself.

Both have more than one list of eight ways to say goodbye. But more importantly she wants to please her husband who is willing to become Vivaldi’s patron. Would he compose something in humour of her husband? Could he teach her to play the violin? Can he teach her to play well enough in six weeks for her to play for the Court? He has made a bet with the King about her ability to learn and perform. These are high stakes.

Sierra Haynes and David Whiteley 

The dynamics of the relationship between the aristocratic Woman and the lowly violinist change to teacher/pupil because he is in control now and dictating to her how to play the violin. There is friction between them and they both hate what they are doing. He wants patronage and has descended to instructing the Woman something for which she may have no desire or talent. He is desperate for money.

The Red Priest is replete with references to painting, Greek mythology and the music and especially operas of Vivaldi. The relationship between Vivaldi and the Woman changes in wonderful and moving ways. They reach out to each other through music, performance and art. It becomes beautiful human contact in a beautiful play that is done well by Haynes and Whiteley under the judicious direction of Helen Juvonen.

The Guild Festival Theatre performs outside, under the columns of the Greek Theater in Guild Park & Gardens in Scarborough. There is no set to speak of and the threat of a thunderstorm the evening that I attended prevented them from putting what little they have. The Greek columns are very forgiving and the play flows well.

A concert of Vivaldi’s music and a lyrical, subtle intricate and moving play about a famous composer/violinist and an aristocratic lady is a pleasure to see and hear.

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The Red Priest (Eight Ways To Say Goodbye) by Mieko Ouchi played until August 7, 2022, at The Greek Theatre, Guild Park & Gardens, 201 Guildwood Parkway, Scarborough, Ontario. www.guildfestivaltheatre.ca/

THE SOUND OF MUSIC – REVIEW OF 2022 GLIMMERGLASS FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

The Glimmerglass Festival’s staging of The Sound of Music is a great production of a great musical.

Every aspect of the production works including the very important but rarely seen relationship between performers and audience. There is a type of magic when the performers have the audience in the palm of their hands or the audience is enthralled by the performance and they appreciate every move on stage the way the performers dream it would happen. That is what happened during the performance of The Sound of Music at the Alice Busch Opera Theater in Cooperstown, New York.

The production is directed by Francesca Zambello, the outgoing Artistic and General Director of the Glimmerglass Festival and it is a fitting farewell by a woman who has done outstanding work there.

Rodgers and Hammerstein’s 1959 musical has had its detractors as being sentimental and far from the standards set by say Oklahoma or South Pacific. Its enormous success has silenced many of them and Zambello’s production showed nothing but enthusiasm by the audience and critics be damned.

The Sound of Music requires a worthy Maria, the would-be nun who is sent to tutor Captain von Trapp’s seven children. Mikaela Bennett is a perfect Maria. She has a beautiful voice but just as importantly she can act. She is effervescent, lovable and just what the children and the captain need. 

L to R: Nadia Butterman as Gretl, Arianne Ajakh as Marta, Cordelia Dziuban as Brigita, Oliver Horvath as Kurt, Annie Hotz as Louisa, Gavin Grady as Friedrich and Tori Tedeschi Adams as Liesl in The Glimmerglass Festival's 2022 production of The Sound of Music. Photo: Karli Cadel/The Glimmerglass Festival.

Captain von Trapp (Michael Mays) starts as a dour martinet but guided subtly, almost imperceptibly by Maria he becomes a loving father, dumps his blonde girlfriend Elsa (Alyson Cambridge) and marries Maria. Big-voiced baritone Michael Mays handles the role with aplomb and brings in a superb performance.   

We have a monastery where Maria is taking the first steps towards becoming a nun and a convent high in the Alps, you need a Mother Abbess and soprano Alexandra Loutsion fills the role splendidly. She shows the Abbess’s humanity and sings a gorgeous ”Climb Ev’ry Mountain”.

The seven children deserve kudos for their singing and the humour that they bring to the production. They are  Liesl (Tori Tedeschi Adams), Friedrich (Gavin Grady), Louisa (Annie Hotz), Kurt (Oliver Horvath), Brigitta (Cordelia Dziuban), Marta (Arianne Ajakh) and Gretl (Nadia Buttermann). Adams is a member of the Young Artists Program and all the rest are members of the Glimmerglass Youth Ensemble.

Michael Mayes as Captain von Trapp and Mikaela Bennett as 

Maria in The Glimmerglass Festival's 2022 production of 

Rodgers & Hammerstein's "The Sound of Music." Photo: Karli Cadel.

There is a serious aspect to The Sound of Music and that is the role of the Nazis and the Anschluss which resulted in the “peaceful” annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany. It is a sickening sight to see some Austrians become collaborators and others recommend submission. Captain von Trapp and his family refuse to submit or collaborate and manage to escape from Austria. We see Nazi banners unfurl on the stage and Nazi officers guard the singers during a concert where the von Trapp family performs. The von Trapp family is spirited out and they are saved by the decency of Rolf (Marcus Lee), Lisl’s boyfriend who had become a Nazi officer but, in the end, refused to betray the von Trapps and they were able to escape to Switzerland.

The Glimmerglass Festival frequently presents workmanlike sets and I attribute it not to the lack of talent of the designers but to the amount of money available. It is wiser to spend the funds available for performers rather than expensive sets. The sets for this production were sumptuous and simply marvelous. Modular panels showed the interior of the convent with columns and paintings of religious subjects. Then we saw the Captain’s lavish house on top of the mountain. Large columns, a winding staircase and fine furniture, it was spectacular.

James Lowe conducted The Glimmerglass Festival Orchestra and Chorus adding to the splendid evening at the opera house.

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The Sound of Music by Richard Rodgers (music), Oscar Hammerstein II (lyrics) and Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse (book) is being performed thirteen times until August 19, 2022 at the Alice Busch Opera Theater, Cooperstown, New York.  www.glimmerglass.org\

James Karas is the Senior Editor - Culture of The Greek Press

CARMEN – REVIEW OF 2022 GLIMMERGLASS FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas 

The Glimmerglass Festival has created a tradition of offering something old, something new and something familiar, usually a Broadway hit. This year’s old is Georges Bizet’s classic chestnut Carmen. There is a Double Bill of one-act operas already reviewed by me and the other productions are coming up.

Carmen, directed by Denyce Graves and designed by Ricardo Hernandez is a mixed success but it does build up to a superb last scene earning it a standing ovation.

Let’s start with one of the most iconic characters in opera – the cigarette girl Carmen. Describing her as a femme fatal is not doing her justice. She is a free woman, a man-eater, a temptress and a sexual magnet. Any singer taking on the role must face those demands which come after the vocal prowess she must command.

L to R: Ensemble member Meryl Dominguez, Helen Zhibing Huang 

as Frasquita, Briana Hunter as Carmen, Lisa Marie Rogali as 

Mercédès in The Glimmerglass Festival's 2022 production 

of "Carmen." Photo: Karli Cadel/The Glimmerglass Festival

Mezzo-soprano Briana Hunter does have the requisite voice to carry the role. She does the Habanera, the histrionics, and the vocal gymnastic that Bizet demands. But Carmen needs more than that. Sexual allure is expressed with body movements and suggestive dances that can indicate as they say vertical movements of horizontal intent. Hunter cannot dance and she settles for raising her hands in the air and doing a few awkward moves. She is not a complete Carmen.

Ian Koziara was scheduled to sing Don Jose but was replaced by tenor Mathew Pearce, a member of the Young Artists Program. I hesitate to be critical of his performance under the circumstances. He has a powerful and expressive voice and a future in opera. I will leave it at that.

Soprano Symone Harcum has the juicy role of Micaela and all she has to do is sing beautifully, be pure and floor Don Jose when she tells him about his mother. She almost brings the house down when she sings “Je dis que rien ne m'épouvante” (I say that nothing frightens me). She may not be the ideal Micaela but she rises to the occasion when she must and we do enjoy what she delivers.

Richard Ollarsaba gives perhaps the best overall performance of the production as the toreador Escamillo. With a pirate’s patch over one-eye, he expresses machismo and self-assurance and sings his signature arias with exceptional bravado, vitality and clarity.

Carmen is set in Seville where we meet some bored soldiers in a square. But the soldiers in this production wear black uniforms with bullet-proof vests. Many of the women wear slacks and if we are to guess the time of the action and the location we may choose, say, present day Wisconsin as well as anywhere since there is no paraphernalia to tell us where we are. We will just go along with the story.

The sets for the square in Seville of the first scene, Lillas Pastas’ tavern that follows, the thieves’ lair in the mountains and the final encounter outside the stadium are economical workmanlike and acceptable. One needs to be sensitive to financial constraints, no doubt.   I have no doubt that the march of the children to a sprite marching tune in the opening scene has been deleted for that very reason.

Briana Hunter as Carmen and Richard Ollarsaba as 

Escamillo in The Glimmerglass Festival's 2022 production

 of "Carmen." Photo: Karli Cadel/The Glimmerglass Festival

The last scene shows a large religious poster of the Virgin Mary. It requires some comments. The opera as written opens on a square in Seville where soldiers and people mill around. Bryce adds a prologue of her own. We see a dead body on the ground. A man in a black robe stands over it and some officers enter,  remove the robe and take the man away. Is it Don Jose who just killed Carmen being arrested? We have not met him yet and if it is Don Jose what is he doing in a priest’s robe?

In the final scene when Don Jose begs Carmen to go with him, he carries a Bible in one hand as if he were a cleric who wants to save her soul. In the first scene of the opera, Don Jose tells us that he is a Christian and had thought of going into the priesthood but civilian life distracted him from doing it. Is this the justification for Don Jose appearing in priestly vestments in the first scene and carrying a bible in the last scene?. His passion for Carmen is human and what Graves brings in is at best clumsy and not exactly  supported by the libretto because it tries to raise Don Jose above the human.

When you are watching the opera, you are not picking up details like that especially in the final scene. We see Don Jose’s overwhelming passion catapult him into strangling (no knife here) Carmen in an emotionally and sexually charged scene. It got a standing ovation.

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Carmen by Georges Bizet opened on July 16 and will be performed in repertory ten times until August 21, 2022, at the Alice Busch Opera Theater, Cooperstown, New York.  www.glimmerglass.org

James Karas is the Senior Editor - Culture of The Greek Press. This review appears in the newspapaer

TAKING UP SERPENTS and HOLY GROUND – REVIEW OF 2022 GLIMMERGLASS FESTIVAL PRODUCTIONS

Reviewed by James Karas

On the shores of Lake Otsego, in the lush greenery of the rolling hills of Central New York State, a stone’s throw from Cooperstown, there is a hidden gem. It is The Glimmerglass Festival which produces an eclectic selection of operas and musicals every summer. In its 49^th season, it offers four main productions: The Sound of Music, Carmen, Tenor Overboard and a Double Bill of one-act operas, Taking Up Serpents and Holy Ground.

If you have been to the Festival, you do not need my recommendation. If you have not, you probably know that the Baseball Hall of Fame is in Cooperstown. If you do not want to appear hoity-toity to your sports-minded friends, pretend you are going to the Hall of Fame and sneak in a couple of operas. You can even buy some baseball memorabilia from Cooperstown’s only street which has 5000 stores selling baseball souvenirs. (So, I exaggerate. Sue me.)

The two one-act operas under review have serious religious connections. Taking Up Serpents is about a dysfunctional family of a Pentecostal preacher. The libretto by Jerre Dye includes visions, flashbacks and dreams leading to a mysterious conclusion of the work. A guide to the opera comes from the Gospel of Matthew which speaks of signs that “will drive out demons” in those who believe in Jesus, the believers will speak in tongues and “they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.” Mark 16:17-18.

Kayla (Mary-Hollis Hundley) left her parents because she was mistreated by her father, a firebrand preacher in Appalachia. He is called Daddy in the opera (sung by Michael Mays) and true to scripture he picked up snakes and was a fearless if flawed man. He is dying in a hospital bed and his wife Nelda (Jacquelyn Matava) informs Kayla.

Mary-Hollis Hundley as Kayla

Childhood memories return to Kayla of her father’s extraordinary talents as a preacher, of his snake handling and of his belittling her as a weak woman “weak as water and weak as Eve.” Her mother sings “in tongues” quite beautifully and we get a sample of the religious excitement and fervor that  can be aroused by a Pentecostal preacher.

The singing by the three principal characters is good with some major flourishes demanded of Hundley and Mayes.

Composer Kamala Sankaram has written some brilliant music that has some lyrical passages and some stentorian moments. Like much of modern music it is difficult to appreciate or pin down all its layers on a first hearing. Conductor Lidiya Yankovskaya conducts the the Glimmerglass Festival Orchestra is a spirited performance.

Holy Ground by Damien Geter (music) and Lila Palmer (libretto) was commissioned by The Glimmerglass Festival and received its premiere performance on July 29, 2022. It gives  a serious/comical version of the search for a woman worthy of giving birth to the Son of God. The search is being conducted by the Archangels Azraele (Helen Zhibing Huang), Gabriel (Taylor-Alexis Dupont), Raphael (Jeremiah Tyson) and Michael (Joseph Goodale). They are a motley crew who must find a Messiah Suitable (MS) woman. They have been remarkably unsuccessful after approaching almost 500 eligible girls and offering the position to them without any of them accepting.

Cherubiel (Jonathan Pierce Rhodes), the newest Archangel, joins them and they surf the internet. Mary (Jasmine Habersham) seems suitable but she is about to get married and her mother Ann (Alyson Cambridge) wants to see her settled with  a good husband.

The Archangels almost give up but they pursue their mission. A couple of dreams, and nightmares provide some help and Mary is finally convinced that giving birth to Jesus is not a bad idea. The comic acts of the Archangels are contrasted with Mary’s nightmares and dreams and her progression towards accepting the position of becoming the Mother of God.

The final words of Cherubiel, who greets her when she wakes are the solemn announcement “Hail Mary, full of grace.”

The same comments can be made about Damien Geter’s music as for Sankaram’s, some fine, some difficult to understand, all needing to be heard more times.

Chloe Treat directed both operas and the sets were designed by James F. Rotondo III with the costumes designed by Trevor Bowen.

Producing modern operas is a leap in the dark and an act of courage by an opera company. The opera audience is generally conservative and prefers the standard and well-worn repertoire. That is wrong. Kudos to The Glimmerglass Festival for promoting modern works and for training performers and artists to produce them.

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Taking Up Serpents  by Kamala Sankaram (music) and Jerre Dye (libretto),  and Holy Ground by Damien Geter (music) and Lila Palmer (libretto) opened on July 29 and will be performed  seven times under the title Double Bill until August 20, 2022, at the Alice Busch Opera Theater, Cooperstown, New York. Tickets and information go to: www.glimmerglass.org

James Karas is the Senior Editor - Culture of The Greek Press.