The Chautauqua Opera Company will perform its annual Sing-In at 6:30 p.m. tonight in Norton Hall. The Sing-In is Chautauquans’ opportunity to meet the talented artists who will perform throughout the Opera Company’s programming, including La Bohème and workshops presentations for Lincoln in the Bardo, Ida by Lamplight and Sitcom.
The Opera Company’s Young Artists are composed of both apprentice and studio artists, providing emerging artists the opportunity to work alongside professionals in the field.
This opera season’s apprentice artists are baritone Joel Balzun, soprano Cara Bender, tenor Eric Botto, bass Robert Feng, soprano Victoria Lawal, bass-baritone Seoyong Lee, countertenor Chuanyuan Liu and baritone Erik Tofte.
The studio artists this year are tenor Carlos Ahrens, baritone Joel Clemens, soprano Kathiana Dargenson, tenor Antonio Domino, mezzo-soprano Rosamund Dyer, soprano Emily Finke, tenor Lwazi Hlati and mezzo-soprano Lindsey Weissman.
Workshops for Ida by Lamplight and Sitcom are also set to be jointly presented on Aug. 8. Ida by Lamplight will feature Weissman, Dargenson, Lee, Dyer and Lawal. Sitcom will be presented by Liu, Dargenson, Tofte, Ahrens, Clemens, Finke, Weissman, Domino, Dyer, Hlati and Feng.
Chautauqua Opera Company General and Artistic Director Steven Osgood said workshopping “serves the artform in a very unique way.” With new opera, workshops can provide valuable insights into what an opera is on stage, as opposed to the score and libretto. Those participating in the workshop have the chance to perform in that opera, and composers and librettists can hear their work.
From the audience’s end, workshop presentations provide unique opportunities for Chautauquans to dip their toe into the operatic water. At workshop presentations, artists do not present the full opera but rather a splice of it, which are typically less than an hour each.
For the workshop for George Saunders’ Lincoln in the Bardo, the Opera Company is joining forces with the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra and the Chautauqua Opera Conservatory, which held its annual Sing-In last week to kick off their six-week season. Artists from across these programs will be workshopping this week and next, culminating in a public presentation of the opera next Friday.
All the Young Artists will participate in the Lincoln in the Bardo workshop as well as in La Bohème, which will be performed on Aug. 6 in the Ampitheater.
