Gabriel Weber & Liz Delillo
Staff Writers
For a thematic program of “The French Connection,” Chautauqua Opera Company Music Administrator and Chorus Master Carol Rausch and Principal Pops Conductor Stuart Chafetz plan to present the best program curated by the two of them yet.
At 8:15 p.m. tonight in the Amphitheater, the Chautauqua Opera Company Apprentice and Studio Artists join the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra and Chafetz for the annual Opera & Pops concert.
Rausch put together a smart and fun program, Chafetz said, that will to provide a satisfying evening for both the audience and the eight solo singers.
Through the program, Steven Osgood, general and artistic director of the Chautauqua Opera Company and Conservatory, and Rausch also intend to honor Beth Robinson. For over 50 years, Robinson played as the CSO’s Principal Harpist; she passed away in March 2025. As the French repertoire is full of delicious harp music, Rausch said, this is a great program to highlight one of Robinson’s loves.
Beginning the program with music from Pippin by Stephen Schwartz, Rausch has curated about a 70-minute program. It will include excerpts from Georges Bizet’s Carmen, Tom Jones’ The Fantasticks, Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods and music by Giacomo Puccini, Giuseppe Verdi and more.
“There is a French connection with each piece; in some cases, it’s music by other French composers besides Bizet,” Rausch said. “Even if it’s in Italian or German, it was based on a French play or a novel, fairy tale, or is about a political situation in France.”
Chafetz is especially excited about music from South Pacific, with music by Richard Rodgers and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. For Chafetz, there is something inspiring about the music in how it resonates with him.
There will also be some special guests joining Osgood on stage for “So You Think You’re Louder Than An Opera Singer.” That piece is a continuation of the Opera Invasion at 12:30 p.m. today on Bestor Plaza, in which students from this past spring’s Opera in the Schools program will come to Chautauqua to participate, as well as contestants from today’s invasion.
“We’ll have kids from the Opera in the Schools come up and join us, but then we’ll also have people who won (the Opera Invasion) that day from Chautauqua,” Osgood said. “So we get both — we get Chautauqua County, and we get the Chautauqua Institution community.”
Among the artists coming together to put on the concert, the Opera Company’s eight Apprentice Artists will be highlighted.
“Each of our eight apprentices is one of the stars of the evening,” Osgood said. “… Everybody will be up there, but it really is about featuring the apprentices — and featuring them each in some really juicy, appropriate piece from opera repertoire, an aria or big duet or scene, and also something from the popular catalogue.”
The concert is both a celebratory affair and an opportunity for all of the Opera Company’s Young Artists to perform.
“It’s a good workout for them because they take two different approaches to singing, and to navigate how to make those switches within a program vocally, artistically, and how they attack it musically is a nice challenge for them,” Osgood said.
The featured soloists are the Chautauqua Opera Apprentice Artists and will be joined on stage by the Studio Artists for chorus backup.
“It becomes a really nice, full-company event for us, and it’s a favorite concert of Chautauquans,” Rausch said. “We usually get a really good crowd, and we love collaborating with Stu Chafetz, and he loves collaborating with us, so it’s kind of a love fest.”
Chafetz particularly enjoys working with the Young Artists, who offer a kind of verve he finds inspiring.
“It’s so new, exciting, youthful and wonderful. The energy of doing something for the first time, in many cases, with a symphony orchestra — what a cool moment,” Chafetz said. “Also, the vibe is a positive learning experience.”
This concert presents a unique opportunity to hear rising stars who stand at a pivotal moment in their careers.
“I do genuinely think that people will be sampling some voices who are going to have careers and that they’re going to see in their local opera house when they go home,” Rausch said. “We have some really excellent voices; it’s kind of like being on the ground floor of some exciting talent.”
In a typical Chautauqua fashion, the singers will have one dress rehearsal with the CSO the afternoon of the performance. The artists will head home after the run-through, dress to the nines and return for their time in the spotlight.
“It’s an invigorating process for somebody getting an opportunity to sing an aria — which they very often have done with just piano and in a recital situation, but haven’t done with the full orchestra,” Chafetz said. “It’s a totally different feeling, especially as a conductor, to be able to have to pull 70 or 80 people in one direction, rather than a pianist who can follow your every word, when you have to put this thing together in basically one run through. There’s a lot at stake and a lot of challenges that it presents, but it’s so much fun to be able to do that and watch them experience it. It brings me such joy.”
