TOSCA – REVIEW OF 2026 VANCOUVER OPERA PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

Vancouver Opera opened its 67^th season with a superb production of Puccini’s Tosca. Conducted by Jacques Lacombe and directed by Brenna Corner, the artistic director of Pacific Opera Victoria. The production thrilled the audience at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre which gave it a standing ovation.

Soprano Joyce El-Khoury played the tempestuous Floria Tosca with marvelous vocal tones and florid singing when jealous and emotional expressiveness when facing extreme danger. She sings her signature aria “Vissi d'arte” movingly with her gorgeous voice and then turns into a tigress when the odious lecher Scarpia tries to rape her. My only complaint about her murder of Scarpia is that she does not stab him a few times with relish.

Tenor David Pomeroy is her lover Cavaradossi, and he sings with superb sonority and control. From his first aria “Recondita armonia” about the hidden harmony of different beauties, Floria Tosca and  an unknown beauty that he is painting in a church to his final aria “E lucevan le stelle” recalling happier times before he is executed, he sings deliberately, movingly and beautifully. An outstanding performance.

Vancouver Opera’s 2026 production of Tosca. Photos by Emily Cooper.

Gregory Dahl sings the role of the lecherous and sadistic Police Chief Baron Scarpia. He seeks political enemies like Cavaradossi with vengeful obsession, and he descend to total depravity when he tries to rape Tosca. Dahl has a commanding voice and sings splendidly. On a couple of occasions, he comes close to being overwhelmed by the orchestra which seemed surprising. The first time is in church as the chorus sings and I expected him to overwhelm them. He did not. He did not fully display his viciousness and evil when he closed in on Tosca in his office and was of course murdered.

A few quibbles. When Cavaradossi is being tortured off stage we see a projection of a silhouette of a man with his hands tied up above his head. He is being tortured. Cavaradossi is screaming in agony on the right side of the stage. The silhouette is on the left side. Why are the two not on the same side of the stage?

Tosca’s reaction when she stabs Scarpia could be more dramatic. Stab him more and express greater revenge and triumph as you intone Muori dannato! Muori! (Die! damn you! Die!) over his body. We want the odious creep to feel his punishment.

The set by Set and Projection Designer Scott Reid is sparse and efficient. The Church of Sant’Andrea della Valle in Act 1 is represented by large windows with a round top and a statue of the Madonna with lighting designed by Michael Walton to give the impression of a place of worship. For Scarpia’s office in the Palazzo Farnese there is a table, a desk and a couch and they are sufficient to indicate the spacious place of his work efficiently if not grandly.

The same open space minus the furniture on the ramparts of Castel Sant’Angelo serves as the place of execution by firing squad (consisting of only four soldiers) of Cavaradossi and the parapet from which Tosca jumps uttering her last triumphal victory “O Scarpia before God.”

Jacques Lacombe conducts the Vancouver Opera Orchestra, the Vancouver Opera Chorus and the Vancouver Opera Children’s Chorus in outstanding performances. The choruses deserve kudos for performing splendidly if rather briefly in the first act. The orchestra is marvelous throughout.

Lacombe and Corner have chosen a careful and deliberate pace for the production that delivers a marvelous night at the opera.

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Tosca by Giacomo Puccini opened on October 24 and will be performed until November 1, 2026, at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre, 630 Hamilton St. Vancouver, BC.  www.Vancouveropera.ca/

James Karas is the Culture Editoe of The Greek Press, Toronto

IL TROVATORE – REVIEW OF 2026 PRODUCTION BY PACIFIC OPERA VICTORIA

Reviewed by James Karas 

Pacific Opera Victoria has staged a highly enjoyable Il Trovatore at the handsome Royal Theatre in British Columbia’s capital. Even if you are an occasional visitor to the opera, Verdi’s operatic potboiler is a “must see.” For seasoned opera goers it is a “don’t miss” any opportunity to see it.

Pacific Opera’s production directed by its Artisitc Director Brenna Corner gives ample evidence of the opera’s appeal so don’t let any snooty critic try to convince you otherwise.

It has been said that Il Trovatore requires four of the best singers in the world for a successful production. You need a tenor for the heroic Manrico, the troubadour (sung by Marcelo Puente in this production), a soprano for the lovely and desirable Leonora (Kirsten LeBlanc), a mezzo-soprano for the witch Azucena (Simona Genga) and a baritone for the villainous Count di Luna (Grant Youngblood). Well, Pacific Opera could not bring singers who fit that description, whatever that may mean and whoever they may be. But it does have a respectable array of singers, a capable chorus and in the Victoria Symphony conducted by Giuseppe Pitetraroia, a splendid orchestra.

Kirsten LeBlanc as Leonora with the nuns in Il Trovatore

Puente is vocally passionate, heroic and, as they say, strikes a fine hero of a man as the singing knight in 15^th century Spain. His counterpart Youngblood is equally passionate and murderously jealous as di Luna because his love for Leonora is unrequited.

Leonora as the love interest of two men is central to the opera and the vocal demands on her are onerous. She is generally superb, but she does have some uneven moments when transitioning to her high notes that on occasion do not materialize. Genga has the superb role of Azucena, and she gives a convincing performance, full of ferocity and desire for revenge. She also has a tender side, but hatred and vengeance define her character and Genga’s performance.

In composing the music for Il Trovatore Verdi showed that he was a master of melodies that come pouring out for more than two hours. The passionate arias of Manrico, Di Luna and Leonora are of surpassing beauty. Solos, duets, trios and martial music for the chorus and the bravado of the combatants, and the orchestral music constitute an immense aural  wealth and a major reason for the continuing popularity of the opera.

The sprawling plot deals with civil war, fanatic love and deep-seated anger and obsessive longing for revenge. The plot is not that difficult to follow but Corner has chosen to fill any gaps in our understanding of the events by providing fillers in the surtitles. Exact dates of events are provided as if we were watching a documentary. They are all fictitious, of course, but we appreciate the details.

The set by Olivier Landreville consists of four monumental structures that are easily movable to represent a castle, or a jail or a monastery or the camp of the gypsies as required. Corner makes judicious and intelligent use of projections designed by S. Katy Tucker to illustrate the background events like the fire where the witch was burned at the stake as well as the overcast or threatening sky. Corner has her own take on the execution of Manrico, and you should see the production to witness it.

The costumes by Martin Pakledinaz resemble the attire of medieval solders and the gowns for the upper-crust ladies. All quite suitable.

There were some glitches and unevenness in the singing, but the pacing and overall execution was marvellous. A highly responsive and appreciative audience is always a nice bonus and the response in the Royal Theatre was spontaneous, warm and generous.

Giuseppe Pietraroia conducted the Victoria Symphony and the Pacific Opera Chorus in a superb performance of Verdi’s score.

Pacific Opera Victoria will produce Hansel & Gretel on February 19 to 27 and The Magic Flute on April 2 to 10 2027.

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Il Trovatore by Giuseppe Verdi was performed on October 16, 22, 18 and 24, 2026 at the Royal Theatre, Victoria B.C. For more information: www.pacificopera.ca

James Karas is the Culture Editor of The Greek Press, Toronto

COSI FAN TUTTE – REVIEW OF 2026 PRODUCTIONS BY THE MET AND COC

Reviewed by James Karas

On October 3, 2026, the Metropolitan Opera of New York launched its 20^th season of Live in HD transmissions to movie theatres around the world with a production of Cosi Fan Tutte. On the same day the Canadian Opera Company premiered this year’s production of the same opera in a revival of Atom Egoyan’s 2019 reading. That left me with no choice but to see both productions on the same day. The Cosi from the Met is a revival of Phelim McDermott’s 2018 production.

MET PRODUCTION LIVE FROM NEW YORK

McDermott produced a highly imaginative Cosi by setting it on Coney Island, New York, in the 1950’s.

Coney Island is famous for its beaches and amusement parks and it is as much a legend as it is a real destination for people seeking a place in the sun and the pleasures of a circus. McDermott  makes full use of the reputation of Coney Isand and marries it to Mozart’s opera lovers.

During the overture a large box is opened and colourful people emerge from it. Little people, big people, people carrying signs, characters in gaudy costumes, in fact a whole circus jumps out. That is not all.  There is a snake charmer with a real boa constrictor, a fire eater, two sword swallowers, a fortune teller, a contortionist and other acts that may have slipped my mind. They all actually perform and the set resembles very much the fairground of a beach town where  circus performers play an important part.

McDermott grafts the opera onto this setting quite expertly and my complaint is that the circus performers were so good that I tended to be drawn into their activities instead of watching the actual opera performance.

In addition to the Coney Island set, we see the interior and exterior of the Skyline Hotel. Tom Pye’s set design is very versatile and, for example,  the panel showing an interior is turned around and we get an exterior. Very good stuff.

Federica Lombardi as Fiordiligi. Photo © Marty Sohl | Met Opera 

Don Alfonso (Gerald Finley) is sitting at a café with two smartly dressed naval officers, Ferrando (Duke Kim) and Guglielmo (Andrey Zhilikhovsky). The men protest that their fiancées, Fiordiligi (Federica Lombardi) and Dorabella (Samantha Hankey) are beautiful and virtuous and faithful sisters until death. Alfonso replies “BS” in polite Italian and he bets that all women are like that. The naval officers will go away and be replaced by two Albanians (never mind how – this is opera) and attempt to seduce the girls. Now you know what will happen in the next two and a half hours of sumptuous music, beautiful songs leading to the inevitable.

The cynical Alfonso is sung by British baritone Gerald Finley who does superb vocal work and plots the assault on the two ladies with the help of the maid Despina sung by Puerto Rican soprano Ana Maria Martinez. At 53, she still does an energetic and funny Despina and she has two other roles. She sings and overacts hilariously as Dr. Magnetico who comes to cure the men from the poison that they are supposed to have taken. Near the end she appears as a Notary to wed the two couples and she is hilarious again. Despina is a juicy role and Martinez does fine work.

The ardent lovers as naval officers or Albanians are Moldovan baritone Andrey Zhilikhovsky as Guglielmo and American tenor Duke Kim as Ferrando. They are lovable, passionate. ridiculous and funny as they are rebuffed by their targets. Remember Guglielmo is engaged to Fiordiligi but when he changes identity he pursues Dorabella and vice versa.  

Sara Erde as Revival Director brings Phelim McDermott’s production to full and varied life in all its bravura and wild imagination. Nimrod David Pfeffer conducts the Met Opera Orchestra and Chorus in a lively and wonderful performance

THE CANADIAN OPERA COMPANY AND ATOM EGOYAN

Several hours after seeing the Met’s production. I saw the COC’s revival of Atom Egoyan’s production. The two productions give us Mozart’s fabulous music, arias, ensembles and humour. But they are worlds apart.

The first thing you see on the stage when you take your seat in The Four Seasons Centre is Frida Kahlo’s Two Fridas. What does that painting have to do with Mozart’s great comic opera? What is Egoyan telling us?

Egoyan and Set and Costume Designer Debra Hanson set the opera in a private school where the four lovers are students and Don Alfonso is a professor. The set has a large and prominent display case at the back, several tables on stage and a lectern. Fiordiligi and Dorabella wear white blazers and short skirts looking like attractive students. There are paintings of butterflies all over and we see people with huge nets trying to catch live butterflies. I am not sure what the school teaches.  

Egoyan wants us to laugh and he adds comic touches including giving the less serious sister Dorabella (mezzo soprano Martina Myskohlid) a penchant for fainting or just falling. Despina (soprano Tracy Dalh) is a spitfire of energy and vocal atrocities as the doctor and the notary and a comic character in general. Well delivered comedy from both.

Scene from the Canadian Opera Company’s Così fan tutte. 
Photo: Michael Cooper

But the comic is blended with the serious where the two sisters who are passionately in love, Fiordiligi (Lauren Fagan) with Guglielmo (baritone Joel Allison) and Dorabella with Ferrando (tenor Laurence Kilsby), face the moral dilemma of being unfaithful to them. Their lovers disguised as Albanians mount serious assaults on their fidelity including feigning illness and possible death. Dorabella’s fidelity crumbles but Fiordiligi holds on longer until she too succumbs.   

Guglielmo’s and Ferrando’s faith in the steadfastness of their lovers is put to the test by a wager with the old bachelor Don Alfonso (Canadian bass-baritone Daniel Okulitch).

The music, the arias, from solo to duets, quartets, quintets, sextets  and choruses are of surpassing beauty and they are performed gorgeously. The performances are not all equally successful but I do not want to be churlish about a performance that I thoroughly enjoyed. The Canadian Opera Company Orchestra and Chorus conducted by Johannes Debus was superb,

Kudos to Atom Egoyan for the outstanding work in staging this opera. But what is Kahlo’s The Two Fridas looking at us during the second act in the place of the display case?

The painting shows two different Fridas. One shows her dressed in a traditional costume and the other in a modern dress. We see the heart of Frida in both portraits. In the modern dress side, the heart is cut and torn and we see a vein going to her lap where it is cut and bleeding on her dress. In the traditional portrait her heart is intact but a vein connects both portraits.

What is Egoyan telling us? I am stumped. Are the two Fridas a portrait of Fiordiligi and Dorabella? And how does Cosi Fan Tutte end? In the beginning Fiordiligi loves Guglielmo and Dorabella love Ferrando. During the opera they succumb to the lover of her sister. In the end do they go to their original fiancées or to the other one, the Albanian? That is the ambiguous end of the opera and Egoyan may be giving us a modern teaser lest we jump too easily to the “wrong” conclusion.

Think about it.
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Cosi Fan Tutte by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart with libretto by Lorenzo da Ponte was transmitted Live in HD on October 3, 2026 at various Cineplex theatres across Canada.  For more information and reprises go to: www.cineplex.com/events   

Cosi Fan Tutte by Mozart opened on October 3 and will be performed a total of seven times until October 18, 2026, at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, 145 Queen Street West, Toronto, Ontario. www.coc.ca

James Karas is the Culture Editor of The Greek Press, Toronto

LA TRAVIATA – REVIEW OF CANADIAN OPERA COMPANY 2026 PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

The Canadian Opera Company is reviving its 2015 production of La Traviata for the second time. The redoubtable production by Arin Arbus was last revived in 2022 and Mo Zhou is the current revival director.

There are two casts for the major roles and by happenstance I saw the performance with the alternate cast on September 26. They will sing two more performances on October 2 and 9.

Canadian soprano Andriana Chuchman leads the cast as the courtesan Violetta who finds love and happiness briefly with Alfredo Germont. She gives a superb performance as someone who goes from a self-confident and independent woman (“Sempre libera”) to one who is deeply in love and gives up all to live in the country with her lover. All crumbled when Alfredo’s father appeared and begged her to abandon Alfredo to save his daughter’s marriage. Having a courtesan in the family is bad news for the Germonts in rural France in the 19^th century.

As if that were not bad enough, Violetta is suffering from tuberculosis and in the final act she dies from it after a brief reconciliation with Alfredo. Chuchman takes us through all those stages in her life with vocal splendor and emotional conviction. She expresses joy in the drinking song “Libiamo” with Alfredo and the chorus, strength and compassion in her scene with Germont. At the end of Act II, after being humiliated and flung to the floor, she comes to herself at the conclusion of “Di sprezzo degno se stesso” where Alfredo is roundly condemned for his conduct, Violetta sings “Alfredo, how should you understand all the love that's in my heart?” Her voice trembles with emotion and beauty. 

A scene from the Canadian Opera Company’s production of 
La Traviata, 2026 © Michael Cooper

In the final scene where she dies, the weak Violetta sings with extraordinary pathos, hope and happiness to come with Alfredo. She sings her final aria “Se una pudica vergine” wishing that Alfredo will find love with another woman. She dies with the word “gioia” on her lips. Chuchman performance is a joy to watch and hear.

Tenor Luke Norwell sings a good Alfredo but he did not display many vocal flourishes.  He did a fine job with “Oh mio rimorso!” where he promises to expiate his disgraceful conduct towards Violetta. In the final act he and Violetta were splendid.

Reginald Smith, Jr. sang the role of Germont, Alfredo’s father. He has a rumbling baritone voice that may do well in some roles but in La Traviata he needs to appeal to Violetta’s decency when he pleads for her to give up her lover. He has to do the same with Alfredo with the gorgeous aria “Di provenza il mar il suol” to convince him to return home to Provence and give up Violetta. He must make deeply emotional appeals and unfortunately Smith’s vocal talents fell short of emotional conviction and intensity. He sounded aggressive when he approached Violetta and he may be better able to do roles that require belligerence or antagonism.

La Traviata requires three sets and designer Riccardo Hernandez provides them as needed. In the first act we have the parry at Violetta’s posh mansion with tables for dining and men in tuxes and the women in beautiful gowns courtesy of Costume Designer Cait O’Connor. The second act in Violetta’s country home  shows large panels of rural life that look just fine but with only a couch and a desk in them we get the message that they are financially broke. Her bedroom in the final act is baren with a bed and a chair.

Director Arin Arbus has produced a solid, traditional Traviata that still looks great more than ten years later. The Canadian Opera Company Orchestra and Chorus were conducted by Paolo Carignani in a superb production of one of the most popular operas in the repertoire.   

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La Traviata by Giuseppe Verdi opened on September  18 and will be performed a total of ten times until October 17, 2026, at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, 145 Queen Street West, Toronto, Ontario. www.coc.ca

James Karas is the Culture editor of The Greek Press, Toronto

COSI – REVIEW OF 2026 GLIMMERGLASS FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

COSI refers to Cosi Fan Tutte and it is an adaptation of Mozart’s opera by Kelley Rourke. He brings the opera to a 20^th century American college where Fiordiligi, Dorabella, Guglielmo and Ferrando are students. The philosopher Alfonso is a cleaner at the college, Despina is there as well, of course and lots of college students.

I first met them in productions as rich, aristocratic ladies, dressed in gorgeous gowns living in a beautiful mansion overlooking an extant, green countryside from their balcony or with a view of the sea. But they have been all over the place, so to speak, by imaginative directors and designers. They were found in an upscale school run by Alfonso as clean-cut students dressed in white blazers and taking fencing. That was nothing like Rourke imagined them. They have lived on Coney Island in the 1950’s, in a slum in Africa and lots of other places.  

The current production as an adaptation and translation in English goes beyond all those venues and it is a proper extension of the opera. Whether you like it or not is a different matter of personal taste.

A quick reminder of the plot. Guglielmo (Gregory Feldmann) and Ferrando (Travon D. Walker) are football players and bosom friends who are deeply, desperately and eternally in love with Fiordiligi (Amanda Batista) and Dorabella (Michelle Mariposa). The ladies are equally in love with them. The cynical Alfonso (Kevin Burdette) has a more down-to-earth view of love and in fact tells the two men that love is fickle. Wanna bet? The young men are to disappear and return forthwith as strangers and woo the ladies. They will be unfaithful, says Alfonso. Let’s bet, say all.

Ensemble members in The 2026 Glimmerglass Festival production of Così.
Photo Credit: Brent DeLanoy/The Glimmerglass Festival

There is a Halloween party and the men return in disguise to woo each other’s love. Guglielmo goes after Dorabella and Ferrando goes after Fiordiligi. They fail but we  have a performance that lasts about three hours and we need to fill  it up. They are egged on by Despina (Keely Futterer), and Alfonso to keep trying. How about lovesickness leading to suicidal thoughts?  

If you are at the Glimmerglass Festival, you almost certainly know that thanks to the shenanigans of Alfonso and Despina, the Resident Advisor, and the ardour of the men, the ladies succumb.

Soprano Amanda Batista sings a superb Fiordligi. She must deliver the tortuous “Come scoglio immoto resta”  (Like a rock, we stand immobile) with its high and low notes and arduous paces and does so adroitly. A first-rate performance. Mezzo Michelle Mariposa has a beautiful voice with some superb low-notes that are a vocal marvel.

Tenor Walker’s? Ferrando is full of passion and gorgeous singing even in his ridiculous disguise as a body builder with grotesque muscles. Baritone Feldmann as Guglielmo sang with all due passion to convince Dorabella to break her vow of fidelity. He was convincing vocally but dressed as a clown with a huge bulb nose, he did not look like a convincing lover.

Bass Kevin Burdette was convincing vocally as the cleaner Alfonso, and a man that convinced the lovers that he is wiser that his job would indicate. Soprano Futterer has the juicy role of Despina, plus Judge and she has comic and vocal talent to give a superb performance.

The set by designer James Rotondo represents a two-story dorm with bedrooms above and a common area below suitable for the Halloween party and drunken happenings. That is how ridiculous costumes are justified. Beth Goldenberg’s costumes reflect the same milieu and, in both cases, they meet the requirements of the adaptation handsomely.

Director Eric Einhorn was faithful to the adaptation and the production of a college-based Cosi without the Fan Tutte. Without Mozart’s music it would have been a second-rate sitcom. The question whirling in my mind then and now is “was it worth it?” Did the colloquial English make that much difference? Could we have had a production in English without adapting the guts out of the original?

One thing that deserves only praise is Mozart’s music as performed by the Glimmerglass Festival Orchestra and Chorus under the capable hands of conductor Joseph Colaneri.

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Cosi by Kelley Rourke adapted from Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutte is being performed a total of seven times until August 14, 2026, as part of the Glimmerglass Festival at the Alice Busch Opera Theater, Cooperstown, New York. www.glimmerglass.org

James Karas is the Culture Editor of The Greek Press, Toronto

FELLOW TRAVELERS – REVIEW OF 2026 GLIMMERGLASS FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

The Glimmerglass Festival has produced Fellow Travelers, an opera based in the Joseph McCarthy years, dealing with one of the most diseased eras in American history. The opera is by Gregory Spears (music) and Greg Pierce (libretto) and is based on the 2007 novel by Thomas Mallon. The opera premiered in 2016.

Fellow Travelers tells a gripping story about homosexual love, pursuit of homosexuals as security risks, loyalty, betrayal and a portrait of McCarthyism. In 1953, Hawkins Fuller (in a solid performance by baritone Joseph Lattanzi) is a young man working at the State Department and he meets Timothy Laughlin (a sympathetic and well-done tenor Colin Aikins) and helps him secure a job with a senator. The two men are homosexuals, they fall in love and engage in sexual intimacy. 

McCarthy and his henchmen have decided that homosexuals employed by the government pose a national security risk and they must be rooted out and dismissed. Hawkins is fingered as a possible homosexual and interrogated under humiliating circumstances but he outsmarts the interrogators and is cleared.

The office staff is made up of the decent and faithful Mary Johnson (soprano Keely Futterer in a wonderful performance) and the treacherous Miss Lightfoot (Kaileigh Riess). Fuller later marries Lucy (Laura Santamaria), no doubt to cover his homosexuality. The cast lists a dozen other relatively minor characters with Luke Harnish playing Estonian Frank and Interrogator, Eric Nordstrom playing Tommy McIntyre and Senator Potter and  General Arlie and Bartender, played by Yichen Xuen with the Senator’s Assistant, Bookseller, Priest, Technician and Party Guest played by Jose Olivares. 

Joseph Lattanzi as Hawkins Fuller (L) and Colin Aikinsas Timothy Laughlin (R)' 
Photo Credit: Brent DeLanoy/The Glimmerglass Festival

Except for Lattanzi and Aikins, the rest of the cast is made up of Members of the Resident Artists Program or the Hupper Family Festival Artists.

The relationship between Fuller and Laughton is fraught with problems, first because of the times and second because of the characters of the men. They live in danger of being found out by McCarthy’s agents. Fuller is careless, arousing suspicions about his sexual nature and even though he does well in his interrogations, the danger is there.

The two men have different moral standards. The innocent Laughlin is a devout Catholic and the conflict between his faith and his life tortures him to the point of going to see a priest. When he meets with him, there is a large crucifix hanging behind the poor man, a devastating reminder of his sinful condition.

As if that were not bad enough, Fuller wants more adventurous sexual encounters and wants to bring a third man into their affair. That is more than Laughlin can take and he enlists in the army. After a lengthy separation he returns to the United States and wants to get a job in the Hungarian Refugee Relief to help the victims of Soviet repression. He asks Fuller to help him. In an instance of supreme treachery and ultimate irony, Fuller reveals Laughlin’s homosexuality.  Fuller wants Laughlin to know of his treachery and therefore hate him and thus bring an end to the relationship. The end of the opera is ambiguous but we realize that there is no hatred between the former lovers.

The opera is set in a park, residential apartments, offices in Washington, a Cathedral, a bedroom, a hotel, an interrogation room and a kitchen. Set designer Vita Tzykun uses moveable walls and furniture to indicate the different venues. Large filing cabinets indicate the McCarthy staff offices and the other venues are shown by turning the filing cabinets around and adding the necessary Spartan furnishing. All work efficiently and well.

Director Kevi Newbury handles the numerous scenes deftly and the performances are superb.

I found Gregory Spars music varied, at times monotonous, melodic and complex. There are repetitive notes that are sung in recitative style and melodic pieces for the small orchestra conducted by Kelly Kuo. Spears includes music spanning from Baroque to classical to Wagner and more modern composers. I had difficulty catching all those pieces and my reaction to the music on the first hearing is limited.  

One cannot take anything away from the gripping story of a complex love affair that started with passion and ended up in betrayal and heartbreak, and the reminder of America at its ugliest treating innocent people like criminals.

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Fellow Travelers by Gregory Spears (music) and Greg Pierce (libretto) opened on July 18 and will be performed a total of six times in repertory until August 16, 2026 as part of the Glimmerglass Festival at the Alice Busch Opera Theater, Cooperstown, New York. Tickets and information (607) 547-0700 or www.glimmerglass.org

 James Karas is the Culture Editor of The Greek Press, Toronto

OKLAHOMA!– REVIEW OF 2026 GLIMMERGLASS FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

The Glimmerglass Festival’s production of Oklahoma! is its tip of the hat to a great American musical and it gets a glorious production. Rodgers and Hammerstein’s great work premiered in 1943 and is considered a Broadway landmark in its combination of lyrics and music. Glimmerglass offers a new production directed by the inimitable Francesa Zambello. 

This is Indian Territory around 1906 and soon to become the state of Oklahoma. This has nothing to do with John Steinbeck’s Oklahoma of the 1930’s. In front of a farmhouse, the handsome Curly (Michael Adams) sings Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’ followed by The Surrey with the Fringe on Top and ends with the surrey being pulled on stage and all singing Oh, What a Beautiful Day. That’s what you call a happy ending.

But a lot happens in between that is comic, romantic and dramatic. Curley and the pretty Laurey (the vocally talented Shereen Pimentel) are, shall we say, an item. But the dark, scary and obsessive hired hand Jud (Erik Nordstrom) wants her too and that is bound to create trouble.

Then there are the comic romantic entanglements of Ado Annie (Kate Morton) whose first name sounds close to “I do” which she does. Will Parker (Peter Murphy) wants to marry her and the peddler Ali Hakim (Gregory Sliskovich) want her too. Her father Andrew (Troy Cook) wants her to get married to a man who has fifty dollars, a sizable amount in 1906. We come to the suspenseful conclusion that Will Parker does not have the money and Ali has the money and he likes Ado but let’s just say his intentions may not be honourable. How will this work out. There is a bidding war at the dance for baskets prepared the young ladies and the suspense is nail-biting. Okay, so I exaggerate.

Members of the ensemble in the 2026 Glimmerglass 
Festival production of Oklahoma! 
Photo by Kayleen Bertrand/The Glimmerglass Festival

The strength of Oklahoma! lies in its songs and music. From Oklahoma, a full-blooded paean to the newly formed state in 1907, to the romantic, People Will Say We’re in Love, to the comic, Ado’s I Can’t Say No we hear an array of wonderful songs, sung marvellously. We even get a glimpse at a hot political potato, the dispute between The Farmer and the Cowman.

The performers are outstanding from the energetic Aunt Eller (Holly Twyford) to the other principals named above and the numerous minor characters.

Oklahoma! has a generous number of dances by Choreographer and Associate Director Eric Sean Fogel. The dancers add greatly to the energy generated by the production. There is a superb Dream Ballet that adds a new dimension to Rodgers and Hammerstein’s work.  In the Ballet, Jordan Spena plays Curley and Farmer Chalmers and Madison Manning plays Laurey and Rosie as she tries to make her life’s existential decision. It is a visual and choreographic delight.

Peter J. Davison’s moveable set designs take us back to the imaginary Indian Territory/Oklahoma with various angles of Laurey’s house, glimpses of the land and the venue of the dance. Constance Hoffman’s costumes are convincing and Ken Billington’s lighting design is perfect.

James Lowe conducts the Glimmerglass Festival Orchestra and delivers a splendid performance of Rodgers’ music.

Francesca Zambello brings her masterful handling of the musical and marks a huge success for this year’s Festival. Oklahoma! may not have been the first musical to integrate book and music but it proved to be the best and most influential. A pleasure to see it again.
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Oklahoma! by Richard Rodgers (music) and Oscar Hammerstein II (book and lyrics) will be performed a total of ten times between July 10 and August 15, 2026 as part of the Glimmerglass Festival at the Alice Busch Opera Theater, Cooperstown, New York. Tickets and information (607) 547-0700 or www.glimmerglass.org

James Karas is the Culture Editor of The Greek Press, Toronto