Saratoga Springs, NY - “This summer’s festival will transport audiences around the world for two sensational classics which give young singers a chance to shine” says General and Artistic Director Mary Birnbaum, “and two new operas which challenge audiences’ notions of what opera means today. We’ll go on an exhilarating, romantic journey from Saratoga Springs and back again.”

Offenbach, Meilhac & Halévy’s sparkling, witty, and electric La Vie Parisienne takes us to the heart of the demi-monde in 1860s Paris where two bachelors play tour guide to a Swedish Baron and Baroness. They showcase the Paris of their imagination, complete with visits to dives that they claim are fancy palaces and meetings with friends who are disguised as aristocrats. La Vie Parisienne is social critique at its most hilarious. You will leave the theater humming catchy patter songs and raucous party numbers.

With four performances at Universal Preservation Hall:

June 20, 26 & 28 at 7:30 pm and June 22 at 2:00 pm

Offenbach’s romp runs in repertory with Bock, Harnick & Masteroff’s jewel-box musical She Loves Me. Famous for tunes like “Vanilla Ice Cream”, “She Loves Me”, and “It’s Been Grand Knowing You”, this sweet story focuses on two employees in a Budapest parfumerie who are sworn enemies during the day but unsuspecting lonely hearts penpals at night. “After the success of Guys and Dolls last summer,” said Birnbaum, “it was clear to me that young singers have something important to say within the canon of musical theater, and our audiences loved that new energy was infused into these timeless pieces.”

With five performances at Universal Preservation Hall:

June 21, 25, 27 at 7:30 pm and June 28 & 29 at 2:00 pm

Earlier in the month, the company will produce a site-specific installation version of In a Grove composed by Chris Cerrone with libretto by Stephanie Fleischmann. This operatic adaptation of Akutagawa’s classic short story “In a Grove” which inspired the plot of Kurosawa’s renowned film Rashomon, offers a searing investigation into the impossibility and elusiveness of truth. The New York Times deemed the opera: “A vividly immersive thriller about the nature of truth and memory. Not a word or note is without dramaturgical purpose.”

With four performances at the Ferndell Pavilion in Saratoga Spa State Park:

May 28 at 5:00 pm, 7:00 pm, and May 29 at 5:00 pm, 7:00 pm

Rain date: May 31 at 5:00 pm and 7:00 pm

Finally, the company will present a work-in-progress showing of composer Emma O’Halloran and librettist Naomi O’Connell’s A Mass for Women in Bathrooms. This opera-theater work for three singers, an actress and electronic sound design by Alex Dowling reframes the structure of the Irish Catholic Mass to tell an intimate family story of three sisters and their mother. A story born from personal experience, A Mass for Women in Bathrooms examines themes of infertility, reproductive rights, and dementia, while reclaiming bodily autonomy for women in a historically violent space. This project is funded in part by the Arts Council of Ireland.

With two work-in-progress performances at Universal Preservation Hall:

June 22 at 7:30 pm and June 27 at 2:00 pm.

Festival special events will include family performances of songs and scenes from La Vie Parisienne and She Loves Me, Festival Artist Portrait Concerts, Opera Saratoga’s Gala, and a Great American Songbook concert at The Mansion of Saratoga. Dates for festival events will be forthcoming.

Subscriptions will be on sale December 1, 2024

More information about subscription packages will be available on operasaratoga.org

To buy ticket packages, visit Proctors.org or call 518-346-6204

Single tickets will be available February 1, 2025

For more information, email [email protected]

Locations:

Universal Preservation Hall

25 Washington Street

Saratoga Springs, NY 12866

Ferndell Pavilion

Spa State Park

North South Road

Saratoga Springs, NY 12866

ABOUT OPERA SARATOGA:

Opera Saratoga, formerly known as Lake George Opera, began with a production of Die Fledermaus at the Diamond Point Theatre on July 5, 1962, playing to an audience of 230. The Company now calls Saratoga Springs home and performs for more than 25,000 people annually. Opera Saratoga celebrates its 60th Anniversary this season. The company serves the communities of Saratoga Springs, the Lower Adirondack and New York State Capital areas by providing access to world-class opera through the production of an annual Summer Festival, as well as year-round activities including extensive educational programs, mentorship of emerging operatic artists, and unique opportunities for the public to experience opera in both our home theater and non-traditional venues that leverage and embrace the unique cultural, historic, and natural resources of the area. To date, the company has performed 108 different fully staged works by 69 different composers, including 44 works by American composers and 15 premiere productions. In 2023, the company hired its 10th Artistic and General Director, Mary Birnbaum. For more information, visit www.operasaratoga.org

ABOUT MARY BIRNBAUM:

Mary Birnbaum has directed opera and music theater around the world, including critically acclaimed productions of Rossi’s?L’Orfeo (NYTimes Best of Classical Music 2021) Missy Mazzoli’s Proving Up, and?Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin at The Juilliard School and?The Classical Style?at Carnegie Hall.?In 2024, Birnbaum debuted at the New York Philharmonic (Émigré) and the Lyric Opera of Chicago (Rigoletto). Birnbaum has also directed productions at Santa Fe Opera (La bohème, 2019), Seattle Opera, Bard Music Festival, Kentucky Opera, Virginia Arts?Festival,?Ojai Festival, Montclair Peak Performances, and Boston Baroque in the US, as well as in Opera Holland Park, Opéra de Versailles (Dido and Aeneas), Taiwan (with the National Symphony Orchestra), Central America (National Theatre of Costa Rica and Guatemala), Australia, and Israel. In demand for her skills as a collaborator on new works, Birnbaum has created world premieres by contemporary artists including Jeremy Denk, Steven Stucky, Frank London, Elise Thoron, Mark Campbell, Kristin Kuster, and Megan Levad. She directed the world premiere of In A Grove by Christopher Cerrone and Stephanie Fleischmann at Pittsburgh Opera. As a faculty member of The Juilliard School since 2011, Birnbaum teaches acting to singers and serves as Dramatic Advisor to the master’s degree candidates. She also coaches acting in the Lindemann Young Artists Program at The Metropolitan Opera.?A graduate of Harvard College, Mary Birnbaum trained professionally in physical theater at?L’école Jacques Lecoq?in Paris.

If you are interested in learning more about Opera Saratoga’s 2024 season, visit www.operasaratoga.org.

IN A GROVE is presented by arrangement with Schott Music Corporation, New York, publisher and copyright owner.

She Loves Me is licensed by Music Theater International (MTI).

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