Glimmerglass Festival 2022, Zambello’s final season, blends tradition and innovation

By Linda Loomis for the Syracuse Post-Standard

Members of the Glimmerglass scenic art team test the shipboard gymnasium set constructed for Ken Ludwig’s new opera “Tenor Overboard,” one of four mainstage shows this season. Ludwig, creator of the hit musicals “Lend Me a Tenor” and “Crazy For You,” has built his first opera around some of the lesser known music of the 19th century opera genius Gioachino Rossini. Photo courtesy of Russ Rundell.

Francesca Zambello, in a recent Facetime conversation, spoke about her 12th and final season as artistic and general director of the Glimmerglass Festival. She also said she was excited to launch the first productions in the Alice Busch Opera Theater since the summer of the 2019.

The global pandemic shuttered live performances entirely in 2020, and in 2021 the company offered an innovative series of outdoor shows in “Glimmerglass on the Grass.”

The 2022 season, opening July 8 and continuing through Aug. 21, comprises four mainstage operas, a youth opera, and an expanded version of “The Passion of Mary Cardwell Dawson,” which was introduced last year. Planning program details takes all year; work on sets and scenery has been ongoing throughout the spring, and now rehearsals gear up for the shows.

“When our young artists arrived (end of May), we all experienced the thrum and thrill of seeing our performance space come alive again,” Zambello said. “We are bringing world class entertainment to our audiences, as we always do, and the entire season is enhanced by the delight we feel in coming together again.”

Zambello will direct Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “The Sound of Music,” which opens the season, and, with Brenna Comer, co-direct the world premiere of “Tenor Overboard,” with book by America’s most celebrated comic playwright, Ken Ludwig, and music from Rossini.

TENOR OVERBOARD

Zambello says that right now, audiences not only seek joy, they also want laughter. That’s why she invited Ken Ludwig to create a light opera with a story line involving passengers on a cruise ship. Ludwig has already won acclaim for integrating well-known music into an original play. “Crazy For You,” the three-time Tony Award winning stylish musical set in the 1930s, uses some of the best songs of George and Ira Gershwin in a madcap tale that is credited with revitalizing the popularity of Broadway musicals. Ludwig will miss opening night of “Tenor Overboard” (July 19) because he’ll be in London for the revival of “Crazy For You.”

Ludwig said he developed his love of theater while growing up in York, Pennsylvania. Although opportunities there were limited, his parents often went into New York City for entertainment. After they had seen Richard Burton in “Hamlet,” they purchased the cast recording for Ludwig, thinking their young son would enjoy the performance.

“I wore out those four LP records, playing them over and over again until I knew every part,” he recalls. “I have a brother I’m very close to, and his passion is for business and all the ways he can help others through his talent in that profession. My passion turned out to be stage art, and that’s where I’ve found I can make my greatest contribution.”

Ludwig is the very definition of a “Renaissance Man.” After earning his baccalaureate degree at Haverford College, he graduated from Harvard University, where he studied music with Leonard Bernstein, then went on to Harvard Law School and Cambridge University. He says he is a big fan of the “screwball comedies” of the 1930s and 1940s movies, which influence his style, and he is absolutely intrigued by comic opera.

“Comedy is an art form,” Ludwig said. “one that is often overlooked. I jumped at the chance to write “Tenor Overboard” and to collaborate with Francesca for the 2022 Glimmerglass season.”

Set in the 1930s on a cruise ship, “Tenor Overboard” offers glamour, cross-costume hijinks, and an overall joyful spirit. The plot will elicit laughter, and some of the lesser known music of the great Italian genius Gioachino Rossini (1792 - 1868) will be welcomed by those who know his work (“The Barber of Seville,” “William Tell,” “La Cenerentola,”etc.) and new comers alike.