Midwinter Talking Opera with Rob February 20 at 7 PM
Missed the Watch Party? Listen here:
Rob Ainsley's 2025 Midwinter Talking Opera.mp4 - Google Drive
Photo; at the September 2024 Annual Meeting Guild Treasurer John Anagnost presents the Artistic and General Director of Glimmerglass Festival Rob Ainsley with a gift of $20,000 from the Guild.
Meet Author Sandra Cisneros
On March 13, 2025 The Guild collaborated with the Festival to bring Author Sandra Cisneros into the 3 school libraries & 3 public libraries in Otsego County so students could meet the author of The House on Mango Street. Click to hear the Zoom conversation.
Met in HD Previews with Abby Kreh Gibson
Gioacchino Antonio Rossini composed 39 operas in 21 years. The Barber of Seville premiered in February of 1816 and continues to be one of the most unique and popular operas ever written. The musical variety is amazing beginning with its overture, full of energy, spontaneity and melodic beauty. The Barber of Seville can be seen locally at Munson, 310 Genesee Street, Utica; and at the Foothills Performing Arts & Civic Center, 24 Market Street, Oneonta in the upstairs theater on the second floor. Abby will present an education program at Foothills before the May 31st 1 PM HD broadcast.
THE METROPOLITAN OPERA’SLIVEIN HDBROADCASTOF RICHARD STRAUSS’S SALOME SATURDAY, MAY 17, 2025 AT 1 PM. The biblical story of Salome and John the Baptist has long fascinated writers and composers. Oscar Wilde's 1893 play, Salome, was the basis for German composer Richard Strauss's controversial and incendiary opera first performed in December 1905. Audiences were shocked, and it was withdrawn from the Met after one performance. Salome can be seen locally at Munson, 310 Genesee Street, Utica; and at the Foothills Guild of Glimmerglass Festival’s Abby Kreh Gibson discusses this powerful opera and the Met’s production.
THE METROPOLITAN OPERA’S LIVE IN HD BROADCAST OF MOZART’S LE NOZZE DI FIGARO (THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO) SATURDAY, APRIL 26, 2025 AT 1 PM. *9/9A profoundly humane comedy, Le Nozze Di Figaro, a blend of Mozart’s genius and one of opera’s greatest librettos by Lorenzo da Ponte, can be seen locally at Munson, 310 Genesee Street, Utica. Due to a previous commitment, it can not be seen at the Foothills Performing Arts & Civic Center, 24 Market Street, Oneonta until 1 PM on May 3 in the upstairs theater on the second floor.
THE METROPOLITAN OPERA’S LIVE IN HD BROADCAST ON SATURDAY MARCH 15, 2025 AT 1 PM OF LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN’S ONLY OPERA, Fidelio, a story of tyranny and liberation, personal courage and fidelity, can be seen locally at the Foothills Performing Arts & Civic Center, 24 Market Street in Oneonta and at The Munson, 310 Genesee Street in Utica. Abby Kreh Gibson will also present a free educational program beginning at 12:15 PM the upstairs theater on the second floor of the Foothills Performing Arts & Civic Center before the 1 PM March 15 HD broadcast. The Center will open at 11:30 AM.
AIDA by Giuseppe Verdi was a Metropolitan Opera’s Live in HD Broadcast. The Guild of the Festival’s Abby Kreh Gibson discussed this unique Verdi opera, with no villains and filled with humanity and musical inventiveness, during a half-hour Zoom at 5:30 PM on Wednesday, January 22.
Abby Kreh Gibson presented a brief Zoom overview of Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca on Tuesday, November 19th beginning at 5:30 PM. Click here to view the recording.
GROUNDED, by JEANINE TESORI and GEORGE BRANT, WAS THE METROPOLITAN OPERA’S LIVE HD BROADCAST ON SATURDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2024 AT 1 PM. THE GLIMMERGLASS FESTIVAL’S WHITNEY CAMPBELL AND THE GUILD’S ABBY KREH GIBSON DISCUSSED GROUNDED, THE STORY OF JESS, A FIGHTER PILOT WHO BECOMES A DRONE OPERATOR, DURING A ZOOM OVERVIEW ON WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 16.
Abby Kreh Gibson presented a brief Zoom overview of Jacques Offenbach’s Les Contes D’Hoffmann, The Tales of Hoffmann, on Thursday, October 3 at 5:30 PM. The opera with a Prologue and Epilogue has three acts. Each act features one of Hoffmann’s past failed loves. The musical range runs the gamut of emotions and has both tragedy and humor. This first Metropolitan Opera Live HD Broadcast of the 2024-2025 Season can be seen locally at the Foothills Performing Arts & Civic Center, 24 Market Street, Oneonta and at Munson in Utica.
"Music is a moral law. It gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, a charm to sadness and life to everything. It is the essence of order and leads to all that is good, just and beautiful, of which it is the invisible, but nevertheless dazzling, passionate and eternal form."
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