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

MADAME BUTTERFLY – REVIEW OF 2026 GLIMMERGLASS FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas 

You are watching a baseball game at Rogers Stadium and the Blue Jays are facing the Yankees in the final game of the World Series. Mark Carney is pitching a perfect game for the Blue Jays and our hitters are getting home runs grand whatever-it’s-called. The billion-dollar pitcher can’t toss a ball that is not shot into the stands by the all-Canadian team.

Your wife wakes you up because you have a performance coming up at the Alice Busch Opera Theatre. You are soaked in perspiration because you have never been to a baseball game but walking by the Baseball Hall of Fame and the ten thousand baseball memorabilia stores in Cooperstown have caused you to have a nightmare. I think it is Nightmare by Osmosis.

You are in Cooperstown to go to the Glimmerglass Opera.   

Thank all the deities in the world for the Glimmerglass Festival on the delightful setting on the shore of Otsego Lake outside Cooperstown, New York. It is in full swing and you can go to the opera and recover your equilibrium. For its 51^st season the Festival offers four major opera productions plus Robin Hood, a children’s opera. You can see Puccini’s Madame Butterfly, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma!, an adaptation by Kelley Rourke of Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutte titled Cosi and Fellow Travelers, a modern opera by Gregory Spears (music) and Greg Pierce (libretto). I was able to see all four productions on a weekend and be back in Toronto for the August Monday Holiday without stepping into a single baseball shop.

Eri Nakamura as Cio-Cio-San and Eric Taylor as 
Lt. Pinkerton in the 2026 Glimmerglass Festival production. 
Credit: Kayleen Bertrand/The Glimmerglass Festival

Madame Butterfly opens on a hill overlooking Nagasaki harbour but director Francesca Zambello has changed the setting to the American consulate. It is an ordinary office except for the oversize American flag and the Pledge of Allegiance in English and Japanese. The scene changes to Cio-Cio-San’s house on the hill quickly and seamlessly. There is no furniture and some diaphanous curtains suffice for the scenes there. 

The love scene that follows between Lt. Pinkerton (Eric Taylor) and Cio-Cio-San  (Eri Nakamura) with no props except a mat on the floor is emotionally moving, passionate and brilliant.  It ends with Butterfly singing that “In an ecstasy of love, the sky is smiling!”

In Act II everything has changed. Pinkerton told Cio-Cio-San that he will return when the robin builds his nest. She asks the Consul Sharpless (Michael Mariposa) if American robins build their nests less frequently in America. It is one of many heart-wrenching moments.

She does not  lose faith. In the beautiful aria “Un bel di vedremo” Butterfly imagines how one day she will see Pinkerton’s ship in the harbour, he will run up the hill and they will be reunited. In the middle of the aria, she lowers her voice as if she were hiding from him before he sees her. She imagines how she will hide and he will find her and her happiness will be restored. The hope, the anticipation, the longing and the depths of her emotion are expressed with surpassing vocal beauty.

Troy Cook as Sharpless is a man of decency and principles. When Cio-Cio-San asks if the robins do not build their nests every year in America as they do in Japan, he lets out a laugh that I found unacceptable from a man like him. He is a diplomat and would not have laughed in the face of a girl that he knows is deceived. Aside from (blame the director) that Cook gives superb performance.

At the end of the performance, as we all know, Cio-Cio-San stabs herself and we hear Pinkerton utter her name as he rushes on stage and puts her in his arms. She embraces him and dies as the little boy runs on stage and jumps on his father’s back. A red curtain drops. It is all blood as the lights go off and the heart-wrenching opera is over.

This production was originally directed by Francesca Zambello and the revival director is Joshua R. Horowitz. The sets were designed by Michael Yeargan, the costumes by Anita Yavich, and the lighting by Robert Wierzel.
The Glimmerglass Orchestra and Chorus were conducted by Joseph Colaneri  in a superb performance rounding off an outstanding night at the opera.
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Madame Butterfly by Giacomo Puccini opened on July 11 and will be performed a total of nine times until August 17, 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 Cukture Editor of The Greek Press, Toronto