Article: Summer Season"NJOT Gears Up for Ambitious Summer Festival"Courier Post (Robert Baxter) Precise planning and attention to detail are essential if an opera festival is going to grow and thrive, says Scott Altman. For proof, the co-founder of New Jersey Opera Theater points to a bucket of bolts and a pile of casters. Survivors from NJOT's first season two years ago, the nuts and bolts are reappearing in the company's productions of Mozart's Cosi fan tutte, Donizetti's L'Elisir d'Amore and Puccini's Gianni Schicchi this month in McCarter Theatre Center's Berlind Theatre. "We save everything," comments Altman. "We don't waste $100,000 on a set that we toss out at the end of the season." New Jersey Opera Theater offers more than fancy sets or expensive costumes. Festival productions leap off the stage of the intimate Berlind Theatre with vital impact. "Our audiences connect with our singers – they're sitting barely 25 feet from the stage – and they see the joy jumping across the footlights," explains Altman. "The wonder of what we do is the exuberance and energy that pop off the stage. It's electrifying." Altman mixes young talent with a few veteran singers in the casts. This season, he auditioned more than 300 singers in New York, Philadelphia and Memphis and listened to more than 100 tapes of other voices. During six weeks of rehearsals and performances, the NJOT singers face a grueling rehearsal schedule. They also take part in master classes and coaching sessions with opera professionals. A traditional production of Cosi rounds out the festival's three-season survey of the Mozart-Da Ponte operas. Schicchi is also receiving a traditional production, but Donizetti's L'Elisir is being updated to the American Midwest in the 1950s. Altman compares David Grabarkewitz's production to "I Love Lucy in Technicolor." Children will race on stage on scooters. The chorus will dance a hoedown. Puccini's comedy is being paired with a contemporary work by Michael Ching. Buoso's Ghost picks up where Gianni Schicchi leaves off, says Altman. The new opera has been performed in Indianapolis and Memphis but is receiving its East Coast orchestral premiere. Altman calls Ching's 45-minute score "tonal and modern." Since it started four years ago, the New Jersey Opera Theater's budget has shot up from $17,000 to $825,000. Altman expects to top $1 million in 2007. Highlights of the upcoming season are concert performances of Puccini's Turandot in March at McCarter Theatre and the State Theatre in New Brunswick. The title role is taken by Sharon Sweet, who joined the faculty of Westminster Choir College several years ago after singing leading soprano roles at the Metropolitan Opera. Turandot will be performed in McCarter's large, 1,000-seat auditorium. Altman says NJOT will continue to perform its summer festival in the more intimate Berlind Theatre. "Our audiences love being so close to the stage they can see the expression on the singers' faces," says Altman. Still, if ticket demand continues to grow, he says NJOT may have to move some of its productions to the larger space in McCarter. Ticket sales are already ahead of last year's for a season that has 14 performances in place of 11 in 2005. In addition to staged opera performances, NJOT has an extensive outreach program. On July 18, the company brings 17 singers to Atlantic City for an evening of Broadway show tunes in Dante Hall. |
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