Chautauqua Opera Company and Conservatory, the resident opera company and conservatory of Chautauqua Institution, announced today its 2025 season. Chautauqua Opera Company For its 2025 season, Chautauqua Opera continues its 95-year history of producing opera at Chautauqua Institution while also strengthening its commitment to developing new opera. Alongside a production of Puccini’s La bohème in Chautauqua’s Amphitheater, the company will conduct workshops of three new operas. Ranging from chamber operas to large-scale pieces, these workshops will feature Chautauqua Opera Company’s 16 Young Artists collaborating with celebrated composers and librettists. Chautauqua audiences will have the exclusive opportunity to experience these new...
Every week, Chautauqua Opera is sharing the incredible work of our former Young Artists. Make sure to follow us on social media to stay up to date. SarahAnn Duffy This week we are highlighting 2023 Studio Artist SarahAnn Duffy! While at Chautauqua SarahAnn sang Young Woman in the staged piano/vocal workshop of LOVE, LOSS AND THE CENTURY UPON US with music by Rene Orth and libretto by Jerre Dye. She also covered the role of Mrs. Lovett and sang in the Ensemble of SWEENEY TODD. “My time at Chautauqua Opera was both exciting and deeply formative,” SarahAnn shared. “The highlight...
Chautauqua today announced the appointment of internationally acclaimed mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves-Montgomery as Artistic Advisor and distinguished baritone Jonathan Beyer as Director of the Chautauqua Opera Conservatory. Together, they will help shape the program’s future during a pivotal time of transition and growth, building upon the 44-year legacy created by the late Marlena Malas. Graves-Montgomery will set the vision and priorities for the Opera Conservatory. Beyer will help shape and execute that vision, both through a close partnership with Graves-Montgomery in the planning phases and in overseeing the Conservatory’s day-to-day operations. Graves-Montgomery will bring her unparalleled prowess and vision to the Opera...
Chautauqua Opera Company and Conservatory, the resident opera company and conservatory of Chautauqua Institution, announced today its 2024 season. Chautauqua Opera Company’s 2024 season will feature two productions. Opening the season is Love and Longing by the Lake, a trio of chamber operas, including two world premieres from The Summer Place, music by Rene Orth and Kamala Sankaram, and libretto by Jerre Dye. Four performances of this triple bill will be staged down the hill from Chautauqua’s Athenaeum Hotel. Engelbert Humperdinck’s beloved Hansel and Gretel will receive one performance in the Amphitheater with the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra. Chautauqua Opera Conservatory...
Chautauqua Institution and its opera company and conservatory, like performing arts organizations industry-wide, are navigating challenges and uncertainties as the field emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic. This is a period of deep reflection about the future of opera in America, including at Chautauqua which hosts North America’s oldest continuously operating summer opera company and 4th oldest opera company in the nation. The current model for opera at Chautauqua requires subsidy from Institution operations on an annual basis that has been controlled historically to the extent possible through repeated production modifications. As expenses continue to grow due to rising labor, housing,...
The Chautauqua Opera Company and Conservatory, the resident opera company and conservatory of Chautauqua Institution, today announced its 2023 Season. The Chautauqua Opera Company’s 2023 productions will feature Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, and La Tragédie de Carmen — Peter Brook, Jean-Claude Carriere and Marius Constant’s adaptation of Bizet’s beloved opera. Both will be conducted by Steven Osgood and staged in Norton Memorial Hall. The Opera Conservatory, led by Director Marlena Malas and Associate Director John Giampietro, will mount three productions. Giacomo Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi and Suor Angelica will be staged in Chautauqua’s Amphitheater in...
CHAUTAUQUA, NY — The Chautauqua Opera Company and Conservatory, the resident opera company and conservatory of Chautauqua Institution, today announced the first season of its newly unified program under the leadership of General and Artistic Director Steven Osgood and Conservatory Director Marlena Malas. The company and former Chautauqua Voice Program unified in fall 2021. The Chautauqua Opera Company’s three 2022 productions will be Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca; Kamala Sankaram and Susan Yankowitz’s chamber opera Thumbprint; and The Mother of Us All, by Virgil Thomson and Gertrude Stein. The Opera Conservatory will produce Don Giovanni by Lorenzo Da Ponte and Wolfgang Amadeus...
