Welcome Chautauqua!  Welcome back, welcome home, and welcome to Chautauqua Opera’s 2021 season, which once again includes live voices and instruments going directly into your eyes and ears without first passing through the internet. 

The past 16 months have been devastating across the world, throughout the arts and in our opera community. Far too many loved ones have been lost. The emotional blows and economic toll felt everywhere have been profound and will continue to affect our lives for years to come. And through it all we have witnessed the resilience of humanity, and the humanity of artists as they have struggled to continue making their art. I have been deeply moved on countless occasions to witness this creative energy, and it has inspired me in the planning of our 2021 season. It has inspired me to both adapt, and to embrace new opportunities.

The Performance Pavilion on Pratt is the most obvious example of a new opportunity at Chautauqua this summer—a chance to bring opera and theater to a shared stage with one of the most beautiful backdrops imaginable! And our mainstage productions of Scalia/Ginsburg and As the Così Crumbles: A Company-Developed Piece each represent a clear tactic for planning during a pandemic—remain as nimble as possible through months when in a traditional season we would be locking in final plans. We knew that a production of Scalia/Ginsburg in which the singers had to remain socially distanced would remain hysterically funny and deeply moving. Imagine how thrilled we were to decide with our cast that it was safe to sing and dance right next to each other! As the Così Crumbles is quite literally still being created even as we are here at Chautauqua, so we are embracing these new opportunities every day in the rehearsal room.

While last summer’s virtual season was extraordinarily challenging, there were some discoveries we made that we did not want to lose in this summer’s return to in-person programming. Throughout June we traveled the Institution’s grounds filming our singers in beloved Chautauqua locations, singing the arias they love. We plan to release these Opera Invasion videos along with Afternoon of Song recital segments we are recording in McKnight Hall over the entire summer, and then in compilation videos in the Fall. We hope to bring as many people to Chautauqua virtually this summer as we did in 2020 and give these sides of our programming a longer life and broader reach through the CHQ Assembly.

Last summer Frances Pollock wrote the 20 new a cappella songs which ultimately became the film In Our Silence. This summer Frances will be our Composer-in-Residence who is actually in residence at Chautauqua and will be one of the three composers creating As the Così Crumbles. Joining Frances are our company’s two inaugural Composer Fellows—Sage Bond and Jasmine Barnes. Sage and Jasmine bring a wealth of musical experience to our company and community, and our hope is that this immersion in Chautauqua Opera’s season and the Chautauqua community at large will enhance their creative work for years to come. Frances, Sage and Jasmine represent, in so many ways, the future of opera, and I am incredibly pleased to share our season with them.

With seven mainstage performances and a host of recorded Opera Invasions and recitals, this summer will be familiar to what we know from 2019 and before. The cautious protocols we have put in place to assure the safety of our company and audience however mean that our direct interaction with Chautauqua and Chautauquans are limited. There are staff members who have given decades to Chautauqua Opera who we have not been able to engage this summer, and we miss them dearly. This is a transitional year. We are back in person and delighted to be singing directly to you once again. And yet, we miss the ease of communing with you, and the completeness of our company. Let us celebrate our ability to be in person this summer. Let us respect the profound challenges that other parts of the world are still facing and the privilege that allows us to be more relaxed. And let us look forward to 2022 and beyond.

Welcome Chautauqua. Welcome back and welcome home!