This summer, Seagle Music Colony is presenting its first-ever Baroque opera, Handel’s Giulio Cesare in Egitto (Julius Caesar in Egypt). More commonly known simply as Giulio Cesare (Julius Caesar), this Italian opera seria was composed when Handel was living in England. The opera was incredibly well received at its London premiere in 1724 and saw three revivals in England as well as productions in France and Germany during Handel’s lifetime alone. Fun fact: the music was so popular that after its premiere, Handel had the vocal score printed in pocket-size form for enthusiastic opera goers to purchase – a brilliant composer and a smart businessman to boot!

Things have, shall we say, changed a bit since Handel’s time. While Baroque opera isn’t mounted with as much frequency as say, Puccini, Giulio Cesare is still performed often in the US. Baroque opera sometimes feels like a hard sell – some listeners might argue that the stories are ancient and irrelevant, the music is repetitive, or the Italian language is hard to understand. Well folks – we’re here to tell you this simply isn’t true.

For this month’s blog, we asked the director and some of the artists to share with us why they find Giulio Cesare so compelling – from the varied music, to the plot with twists any reality show would envy, to the characters’ struggles with personal issues to which more than a few audience members will probably relate. We also asked the singers to discuss the challenges of preparing such complex characters within the strict confines of Baroque music. Read on to see what they had to say. [Read more…]

As some of you may have already seen on Facebook, we were thrilled to announce our roster of 2018 Emerging Artists back at the end of February. We can’t wait to welcome (or welcome back) each and every one of these singers to the Hill this summer. Here are some facts and figures about this year’s crop of “pumpkins”, as Darren so affectionately calls them:

• We have 2 international students this summer. Langelihle Mngxati (SMC 2016) hails from South Africa, and new artist Maria Vasilevskaya hails from Russia. Seagle is increasing its reputation around the country and the world!
• Our roster includes a countertenor for the first time in over twenty years. This rare voice type is most commonly heard in Baroque operas like Handel’s Giulio Cesare, where several roles were written for the famous (or infamous?) Italian castrati, men who could sing in a woman’s range. However, more and more new operas are including roles for countertenor (Jonathon Dove’s Flight and Thomas Adès’ The Exterminating Angel to name a few). With Seagle’s commitment to presenting new and recently composed works through the American Center for New Works Development, you might be hearing more countertenors soon.
• And lastly, some fun graphic representations of this summer’s roster:

 

Want to know more about these fantastic singers before you meet them in June? Visit www.seaglecolony.org/2018-artists.

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The American Center for New Works Development (ACNWD) at Seagle Music Colony was officially introduced to the public in 2017 with the piano-vocal premiere of Herschel Garfein’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead and the workshop of Zach Redler and Jerre Dye’s chamber opera The Falling and the Rising. (We originally mentioned it back in October with our Summer 2017 Season recap.)

            

Members of the US Army Field Band Soldiers’ Chorus in The Falling and the Rising workshop

Part of the inspiration for this project came from a desire within SMC leadership to utilize the Colony property and resources during the months before and after the summer season, as well as to contribute significantly to the expanding world of new compositions. American opera companies are introducing more new works each season, but each new work had to start somewhere – and that’s where SMC spotted its niche.

“So what is a workshop?”

After a new work has been conceived and composed, its creators need to hear and see what they’ve written down onstage. This process allows them to fine-tune music and text, solve dramatic plot holes, and streamline the overall project with the observation and advice of artistic experts not associated with the project’s inception, including stage directors, opera company administrators, conductors, and of course, singers. [Read more…]

Happy New Year! It’s #twentygreatteen, and as you might have guessed from the title, it’s still very much winter in the frozen climes of Adirondack Park. Temperatures over the last few weeks have barely crawled above freezing, but lots of beautiful snow has made Schroon Lake look magnificent (from indoors with a cup of tea and a blanket, of course). The ice on Schroon Lake is thick enough for ice-fishing, and now and then you see trucks driving out where in summer only boats would tread. Town is verrrrry quiet – the yearlong population of Schroon is only about 1,700, a fraction of what it can grow to in the height of summer.

Even though it’s the off-season, our full-time staff (Darren, Tony, and Jim Koehnle, technical director) are hard at work doing all the things that keep Seagle up and running. This includes drumming up financial support for future seasons through in-person appeals and grant writing, designing next summer’s productions, hiring directors, production staff, and musicians for the coming season, and maintaining the Colony’s presence in town as well as upkeep of our home on Charley Hill. But (perhaps) most importantly – it’s audition season!

Every January, Darren and Tony embark on their annual trip to hear auditions around the country in search of the 32 talented young artists who will be engaged at Seagle in the summer. Before these auditions take place, a few other steps have to happen. First, the season is announced via YAPTracker, a website that is well-known and love-hated by those of you pounding the audition pavement. Seagle’s advertisement for 2018 went up mid-fall. Next, applications are submitted by aspiring “pumpkins.” An application consists of a current resume, a headshot, and prescreening recordings that give us an idea of a singer’s voice and stage presence. Finally, after many hours of listening and reading and evaluating applications, a number of singers are selected to appear for live audition. In the audition singers are asked to provide a list of 3-5 arias and musical theater songs they are prepared to sing. They choose their first piece, and then the panel selects a second piece, usually one that contrasts with the first number. A door monitor, usually a Seagle alumna/-us, is at the door to escort singers in and out and to manage the flow of singers in the waiting room, and singers take heed – the door monitor hears everything you say! 😉 Seagle has already received 244 applications and counting for the 2018 season – applications will continue to be accepted through February 2.

[Read more…]