View will present a preview of the 2014 Glimmerglass operatic production of An American Tragedy at Gould Hall on Tuesday, August 20th.
This free performance, which will be presented from 5:30 to 7 p.m., is sponsored by Friends of View and Glimmerglass Opera of Cooperstown. It will feature singers from the 2013 Glimmer-glass season and a discussion with Francesca Zambello, general and artistic director of the Glimmerglass Opera Festival.
The opera, written by Tobias Picker with libretto by Gene Scheer, is an adaptation of Theodore Dreiser’s 1925 novel of the same name.
Picker was commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera House as part of the 100 year anniversary remembrance of the actual events that took place in Big Moose. An American Tragedy is the fictionalized version of the murder of Grace Brown, whose body was found in Big Moose Lake in July of 1906.
The subsequent trial became known as “the trial of the century” and was made into a 1951 film, A Place in the Sun, starring Elizabeth Taylor, Montgomery Clift, and Shelley Winters.
The opera program will begin with a small reception at 5:30 p.m. The one-hour preview will begin at 6 p.m., followed by a question and answer session with Zambello.
The opera premiered at the MET in December 2005 and was directed by Zambello. The opera has not been restaged since.
The program at View will feature songs from the original opera as well as a new aria.
Anticipated performers Soprano Beth Lytwynec of Ilion, NY and Soprano Deborah Nansteel of Okinawa, Japan are both participants in this year’s prestigious Glimmerglass Young Artists Program.
Zambello is an internationally recognized director of opera and theater who has won awards both nationally and internationally, and is artistic advisor to the Washington National Opera.
Following the performance she will talk about the process of bringing the acclaimed opera to the MET and the revisions that will be premiered at the Glimmerglass Festival in 2014.
Linda Cohen of Old Forge is helping to create support for this event. She commended View and local opera appreciator Deke Morrison for their assistance in building an audience for opera in the North Country.
The opera program will begin with a small reception at 5:30 p.m. The one-hour preview will begin at 6 p.m., followed by the informational session with Zambello.
