Lake George Opera
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Lake George Opera (LGO) is a professional opera company located in Sarasota Springs, NY and is a member of Opera America.[1] The company presents an anual summer festival of three fully staged operas/ operettas. To date, the Company has performed ninety different fully-staged works by fifty-two different composers, including thirty-three works by American composers and ten world premiere productions.
[edit] History
Lake George Opera was founded in 1962 by Fred Patrick (musician) and his wife, soprano, Jeanette Scovotti. The company began as a seasonal repertory company that presented opera in English and showcased young, talented American singers. The company's first season presented a fully-staged production of Die Fledermaus with two pianists providing accompaniment. The company performed the show 46 times in eight weeks at the Diamond Point Theatre.
In 1965, the Opera moved to the newly completed auditorium at the Queensbury High School in Glens Falls and the company began performing with a full orchesstra. That same year Fred Patrick died of cancer and David Lloyd became General Director of the company. Lloyd would serve as General Director until 1980. Also in 1965, LGO formed its first Board of Directors. In 1965, the company presented its first contemporary opera, Menotti's The Telephone. In 1966, the company presented its first opera by an American born composer, Robert Ward's The Crucible. In 1968, the company presented two world premiere productions, David Amram's Twelfth Night and Robert Baksa's Aria da Capo. In 1974, the company presented another world premiere, Jose Bernardo's The Child. In 1977, the company presented it's fourth world premiere, Alva Henderson's The Last of the Mohicans.
From 1981 Paulette Haupt-Nolen became General Director of LGO. Nolen served as General director until 1985 and during her tenure the company made there first performance at the Spa Little Theater in Saratoga Springs. Brian Lingham became General Director of the company briefly for the 1986-1987 season and was succeeded by John Balme who served as General director from 1988-91.
In 1991, Susan T. Danis was appointed to the newly-established post of Managing Director. In 1993, David Lloyd returned as Interim Artistic Director, and the Opera featured many alumni in three gala concerts, performing no fully-staged productions.
In 1994, Joseph Illick became Artistic Director of LGO for the next five summers, programming a variety of works that included Rossini's La Donna del Logo, Massenet's Cendrillon, Jorge Martin's Tobermory, Richard Wargo's The Music Shop, and Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream, the latter featuring the Boys Choir of Harlem as the Spirits in the Forest.
In 1999, the Company hired conductor Daniel Beckwith and stage director Marc Verzatt as Co-Artistic Directors. Shortly thereafter, William Florescu joined the company as General Director. The new team established a brand of intimate opera theater that would characterize Lake George Opera productions going forward. Important projects during this period included notable productions of Ariadne auf Naxos in the Spa Little Theater, Madama Butterfly in partnership with the Saratoga Performing Arts Center in SPAC's outdoor amphitheater, and initiation in 2000 of a five-year Opera to Go education tour cycle of operas by John Davies.
In 2002, William Florescu assumed both artistic and administrative leadership responsibilities. During the next three years, he re-introduced American operas into the repertory.
In 2005, Florescu moved to the Florentine Opera in Milwaukee, and Curtis Tucker became the Company's eighth General Director. In 2006, Tucker guided an expanded summer season that included the professional premiere of Ned Rorem's Our Town and a semi-staged Apprentice Artist performance of Menotti's The Medium. In 2007, the Company features operas set in Paris, including La Bohème, an American opera, Kirke Mechem's Tartuffe, and a fully-staged Apprentice Artist feature, La Vie Parisienne.[2]
