Press Contact: Ben Robinson
ben@operaithaca.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Opera Ithaca Festival
Following a successful launch of the Opera Ithaca Festival in 2022 and its second iteration in November 2023, the company is continuing its innovative and groundbreaking programming. The 2024 Opera Ithaca Festival builds on the inaugural event and highlights the creativity, ingenuity, and cultural strength of our region. The result is something that is nationally unique: a fall performing arts festival that focuses on the confluence of the arts and social justice issues. This year, Opera Ithaca will focus on the representation of women in opera.
The centerpiece of the Festival is a new production of Mozart’s Così fan tutte, with the story being set on the soundstage of a soap opera in the late 1980s. The internationally acclaimed cast includes soprano Andrea Baker as Fiordiligi, Sarah Nordin as Dorabella, new Ithaca College voice faculty Lisa Williamson as Despina, Leroy Davis as Guglielmo, and Tyler Putnam as Don Alfonso. Tenor Charles Calotta returns to Opera Ithaca following his star turn in the title role of Opera Ithaca’s 2023 production of Orpheus in the Underworld. Ithaca College Director of Opera and Musical Theatre, Christopher Zemliauskas will conduct and Artistic Director Ben Robinson is the stage director. Performances will be at the Hangar Theatre on October 4 at 7:30 pm and October 6 at 2:00 pm.
On October 5, Opera Ithaca will partner with Cinemapolis to present a screening of its 2020 vaunted film, Gianni Schicchi, the pandemic project which went on to be viewed in 8 countries and 33 states. Following the screening of the opera, co-directors Ben Robinson and Ithaca College alum, David Kossack, will present a discussion on the project’s genesis, including the unique, completely-isolated circumstances in which the filming occurred.
Opera Ithaca Studio Artists will be performing a free concert at The Gallery at South Hill September29th at 3pm. Rachel Philipson's exhibit of photographs "The Streets Of..." will be on display in the gallery. Collaborative pianist Richard Montgomery will be joined by Ithaca College soprano, Emma Commisso and recent alum, mezzo-soprano Athena Rajnai in songs of Libby Larsen contrasted with the music of Giacomo Puccini.
Tickets for the Opera Ithaca Festival are available at www.operaithaca.org.
