We were so pleased to be asked to videotape again this year at the 2010 Castleton Festival in Castleton, Virginia in July.  To quote from their program, this Festival “creates a unique performance and training opportunity for young artists from nearly every discipline, to live together, to work together intensively in an inspiring atmosphere, to receive mentoring from professionals at the top of their respective fields, to interact and learn from each other–and then to share the fruits of this concentrated activity with an appreciative audience.”

The Castleton Festival was started in 2009 by Lorin and Dietlinde Maazel, and has become the “centerpiece program of The Chateauville Foundation.” To read more about this wonderful organization, please go to their website at castletonfestival.org.

We taped five, one-act operas this year.  The first was “A Soldier’s Tale” by Igor Stravinsky. The opera was the story of a soldier on leave, heading for his home village. He ends up making a deal with the devil, losing everything by the end of the opera. 

The second opera was “Master Pedro’s Puppet Show”  by Manuel de Falla. The story was taken from an episode in the novel Don Quixote.  This delightful opera was a “show within a show”. Don Quixote and his faithful servant Sancho Panza are watching a puppet show, narrated by a little boy, and Quixote gets a little too involved in the show. The extremely clever puppets and puppeteers were from The Puppet Kitchen in New York.

The three other operas (Il Trittico) were all written by the great Giacomo Puccini. The first was “Il Tabarro”-the story of a tragic love triangle set near Paris. The Seine river barge set was amazing.

The second opera, “Gianni Schicchi” was extremely funny and clever. Although originally set in 13th century Florence, Italy, the opera was given a modern twist which was perfect. The story is basically that of greedy relatives who are disappointed that their wealthy relative has died, leaving them nothing in his will. They call upon Gianni Schicchi to help them resolve the problem, and he does–to his advantage, of course. (When Lauretta gives a “thumbs-up” to her lover Rinuccio after singing the familiar and beautiful “Oh! mio babbino caro” to her father Gianni, the audience roared with laughter. Great touch!)

The third opera of Il Trittico was “Suor Angelica”. This beautiful opera takes place in a convent. Sister Angelica has a dark secret that is revealed by the end of the opera. The performances were extremely moving.

William Kerley (Resident Stage Director) was the director for all five of the operas. We have worked in the past with him . His creativity is always astounding to us.

Nicholas Vaughan (Scenic & Costume Designer), was over the top this year. The sets, especially for Il Trittico, were wonderful.

Rie Ono (Lighting Designer) did her usual great lighting. It was our pleasure to work with her again.

Maestro Maazel was the musical director for four of the five operas. Han-Na Chang conducted the orchestra for “Master Pedro’s Puppet Show”. The orchestras were excellent for all five operas we taped.

Congratulations on another successful festival. We can’t wait to see what the Maazels will do next year!