Manassas, Va. –– Starting tonight at the Hylton Performing Arts Center, a series of new special performances begins with an old favorite.
The Castleton Festival will present three performances exclusive to the Hylton Center, starting with George Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess” opera beginning at eight o’clock at the center’s Merchant Hall.
Gershwin’s 1935 masterpiece has been hailed by countless critics as the greatest American opera and combines opera, jazz and Broadway music with a heartrending love story. Set in Charleston, S.C., the struggling occupants of Catfish Row live a life of hard work and tough times, and constantly yearn for a better life and great love. In this concert version, the Castleton Festival artists perform some of the most memorable music of all time from this cherished opera, including “It Ain’t Necessarily So,” “Bess, You is my Woman Now,” “I Loves You, Porgy,” “A Woman is a Sometime Thing,” “I Got Plenty o’ Nuttin’” and “Summertime.” Patrick Blackwell and Reyna Carguill perform the roles of lovers Porgy and Bess, while John Fulton sings Crown and Chauncey Packer portrays Sportin’ Life.
-Press release
The concert series continues at 8 p.m. Thursday, July 14 with a performance of “Il tabarro” and “Gianni Schicchi,” a series of three one-act operas.
“Il tabarro” and “Gianni Schicchi,” the first and third parts of Giacomo Puccini’s “Il trittico” (The Triptych), a series of three one-act operas featuring contrasting themes. “Il tabarro” (The Cloak) is set in Paris on a barge moored on the Seine. The quiet, brooding Michele suspects that his wife, Giorgetta, is having an affair and preparing to leave him, and his suspicions are quickly con firmed. He learns that his rival for his wife’s affections is none other than Luigi, a member of his crew and his discovery results in tragedy for this doomed love triangle. One of the funniest operas ever written, “Gianni Schicchi” is based on a chapter from Dante’s “Divine Comedy.” Set in Florence at the end of the 13th century, this darkly comic satire begins with the death of Buoso Donati, a wealthy man whose family has gathered by his side to mourn his death – but more importantly, to search frantically for his will. Upon finding it, his relatives discover that he left most of his money and possessions to the local monks. Hilarity ensues when the greedy family hires the clever and cunning Gianni Schicchi to help them find a solution to their woes, and he outwits them. Baritone Corey Crider sings the title role, and soprano Joyce El-Khoury sings the role of Lauretta, Gianni Schicchi’s beloved daughter. In a review of El-Khoury’s rendering of the famous aria “O mio babbino caro,” The Washington Post described her as “ … floating out of the gorgeous tune with aplomb.”
-Press release
The series concludes at 8 p.m. Thursday, July 21 with American music commemorating the first Civil War battle of Manassas at Bull Run, featuring Washington native Denyce Graves.
This Sesquicentennial concert features an evening of great American music, including Ferde Grofé’s “On the Trail” (from the “Grand Canyon Suite”), Aaron Copland’s “Appalachian Spring” and Leonard Bernstein’s “Symphonic Dances” from “West Side Story.” The lat ter will be conducted by Joshua Weilerstein, the 2009 winner of the prestigious Malko Competition for Young Conductors, making his Castleton Festival debut. The evening will also feature Graves performing songs by Stephen Foster with the Castleton Festival Orchestra in accompaniment. “Denyce Graves [is] a singer whose tones run from the depths to the peaks – unforced, unpushed – in tones that are beautiful and moving, and one who communicates the sense of the words that she sings.” (Financial Times of London)
-Press release
Maestro Lorin Maazel, founder of the Castleton Festival in Rappahannock County, will conduct each of the concerts.
For more than five decades, Lorin Maazel has been one of the world’s most esteemed and sought-after conductors. Formerly the music director of the New York Philharmonic, he is currently the music director of the Palau de les Arts “Reina Sofia” in Spain, and will take on this role with the Munich Philharmonic in 2012. He also guest conducts with many of the world’s leading orchestras. Maestro Maazel and his wife, actress Dietlinde Turban Maazel, established the Chateauville Foundation in 1997 and the Castleton Festival blossomed in 2009 to exceptional acclaim from the foundation’s enormously successful residency program that fosters young artists, advanced students and emerging professionals and provides a range of formal and informal performance and training activities. The Castleton Festival is held each summer at the Maazels’ bucolic farm estate in Rappahannock County, Va.
-Press release
