IDA BY LAMPLIGHT
IDA BY LAMPLIGHT is the third chamber opera to be realized from Jerre Dye’s anthology libretto THE SUMMER PLACE, commissioned by the Chautauqua Opera Guild, which captures Chautauqua Institution’s history from its founding through today. Jeremy Gill, Chautauqua Opera Company’s 2016 composer-in-residence, will set the 20-minute score. IDA BY LAMPLIGHT invites the audience into the office of THE CHAUTAUQUAN, late one night in 1886. Ida Tarbell, managing editor of THE CHAUTAUQUAN, and Kate Kimball, an early leader of the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle (CLSC) read and answer letters to the nascent CLSC as they survey the profound effect their work is having on thousands of readers across the United States. Commissioned by Chautauqua Opera Company to celebrate The 150th anniversary of Chautauquan Daily in 2026, IDA BY LAMPLIGHT will be given a one-week workshop, capped by a public reading with piano accompaniment.

SITCOM
The neo-baroque comic chamber opera SITCOM, with music by Luke Styles and libretto by Alan McKendrick, was developed in collaboration with Opera Philadelphia and Producing Fund Partner Andrew Martin Weber. Sitcom will receive a ten-day workshop with harpsichord accompaniment at Chautauqua. As in classic television sitcoms, the opera’s four main characters are delightfully trapped in the eternal present of their own worlds. Conceived as four 30-minute “episodes,” each episode will take Max, Bettina, Joan and Vendetta on hugely transformative journeys, but crucially return each of them to their status quo for the beginning of the next episode. Chautauqua Opera will workshop 60 minutes of the score, with a public presentation to wrap up the final week of the 2025 season.