Opera Saratoga (until January 2011, named the Lake George Opera) is a professional opera company based in

Saratoga Springs, New York Saratoga Springs is a city in Saratoga County, New York, United States. The population was 28,491 at the 2020 census. The name reflects the presence of mineral springs in the area, which has made Saratoga a popular resort destination for over 2 ...

. It performs an annual summer festival of three fully staged

operas Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libretti ...

and

operettas Operetta is a form of theatre and a genre of light opera. It includes spoken dialogue, songs, and dances. It is lighter than opera in terms of its music, orchestral size, length of the work, and at face value, subject matter. Apart from its s ...

. The company and its associated Lake George Opera Festival were founded in 1962 by Fred Patrick, a New York-based singer/actor and

Juilliard The Juilliard School ( ) is a private performing arts conservatory in New York City. Established in 1905, the school trains about 850 undergraduate and graduate students in dance, drama, and music. It is widely regarded as one of the most elit ...

graduate, and the husband of

Jeanette Scovotti Jeanette Scovotti (born December 5, 1936 in New York City) is an American coloratura soprano. Life and career In 1956 Scovotti was in the ensemble of the original Broadway cast of ''Li'l Abner''; the only Broadway production she ever appeared in. ...

, a soprano who sang at the

Metropolitan Opera The Metropolitan Opera (commonly known as the Met) is an American opera company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, currently situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The company is operat ...

. Early performances took place at Diamond Point on the shores of Lake George in upstate New York and later moved to the nearby town of Queensbury.

John Balme John Balme (born 1946) is an American conductor, opera manager and pianist. He served as general director of Boston Lyric Opera from 1979 to 1989 and the Lake George Opera Festival from 1988 to 1992. he was also music director of the Liederkranz ...

was the General Director from 1988 to 1992. Since 1998, Lake George Opera's performance base has been the Spa Little Theater at the

Saratoga Performing Arts Center Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC) is a large amphitheatre located in Saratoga Springs, New York, on the grounds of Saratoga Spa State Park. It presents summer performances of classical music, jazz, pop and rock, country, comedy, dance, opera, ...

. Conductor John Douglas served as the company's chorusmaster and director of the LGO's young artist program from 2002 until his death in 2010. July 1, 2014, Lawrence Edelson became the ninth General and artistic director. Several well-known opera singers performed with the company early in their careers, including

Catherine Malfitano Catherine Malfitano (born April 18, 1948) is an American operatic soprano and opera director. Malfitano was born in New York City, the daughter of a ballet dancer mother, Maria Maslova, and a violinist father, Joseph Malfitano. She attended the ...

Diana Soviero Diana Soviero (born March 19, 1946, in Jersey City) is an American operatic soprano of international stature, a recipient of the Richard Tucker Award in 1979. Soviero studied at the Juilliard School of Music with Florence Berggren, Marinka Gure ...

Eric Halfvarson Eric Halfvarson (born December 1, 1951 in Aurora, Illinois) is an American operatic bass. He made his professional debut in 1973 with the Lake George Opera (now the Opera Saratoga) as Don Basilio in Rossini's ''The Barber of Seville''. Since then ...

and

Jerry Hadley Jerry Hadley (June 16, 1952 – July 18, 2007) was an American operatic tenor. He received three Grammy awards for his vocal performances in the recordings of ''Jenůfa'' (2004 Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording), ''Susannah'' (1995 Grammy Awar ...

. The company celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2011.

World premieres

World premiere productions staged by the company include: *

David Amram David Werner Amram III (born November 17, 1930) is an American composer, arranger, and conductor of orchestral, chamber, and choral works, many with jazz flavorings.

's ''Twelfth Night'', based on Shakespeare's ''

Twelfth Night ''Twelfth Night'', or ''What You Will'' is a romantic comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written around 1601–1602 as a Twelfth Night's entertainment for the close of the Christmas season. The play centres on the twins Vio ...

'' (1968) *Robert Baksa's ''Aria da Capo'' (1968) *José Bernardo's ''The Child'', based on

José Martí José Julián Martí Pérez (; January 28, 1853 – May 19, 1895) was a Cuban nationalist, poet, philosopher, essayist, journalist, translator, professor, and publisher, who is considered a Cuban national hero because of his role in the libera ...

's poem ''La Niña de Guatemala'' (1974) *Alva Henderson's ''The Last of the Mohicans'' based on

James Fenimore Cooper James Fenimore Cooper (September 15, 1789 – September 14, 1851) was an American writer of the first half of the 19th century, whose historical romances depicting colonist and Indigenous characters from the 17th to the 19th centuries brought h ...

's novel, ''

The Last of the Mohicans ''The Last of the Mohicans: A Narrative of 1757'' is a historical romance written by James Fenimore Cooper in 1826. It is the second book of the '' Leatherstocking Tales'' pentalogy and the best known to contemporary audiences. '' The Pathfinde ...

'' (1977) *Glenn Paxton's ''The Adventures of

Friar Tuck Friar Tuck is one of the legendary Merry Men, the band of heroic outlaws in the folklore of Robin Hood. History The figure of the jovial friar was common in the May Games festivals of England and Scotland during the 15th through 17th centur ...

'' (1983) *Mark Houston's ''Hazel Kirke'' (1987), based on

Steele MacKaye James Morrison Steele MacKaye ( ; June 6, 1842 – February 25, 1894) was an American playwright, actor, theater manager and inventor. Having acted, written, directed and produced numerous and popular plays and theatrical spectaculars of the day ...

's 1879

play Play most commonly refers to: * Play (activity), an activity done for enjoyment * Play (theatre), a work of drama Play may refer also to: Computers and technology * Google Play, a digital content service * Play Framework, a Java framework * Pla ...

References

;Notes {{Reflist ;Sources
Opera Saratoga: The history of the Organization
Accessed 4 February 2015.

External links

Opera Saratoga official website
Opera festivals Musical groups established in 1962 1962 establishments in New York (state) Saratoga Springs, New York