#Lindsay Ohse

[larryland]

(Cambridge, NY July 31, 2017) Hubbard Hall is pleased to once again bring opera to Washington County! L’elisir d’amore (The elixir of love) is the twelfth orchestra production to grace the Hubbard Hall stage since 2008. Bringing back the dream team that brought you 2013’s The Barber of Seville, conductor Maria Sensi Sellner and director Andrew Nienaber have joined forces once again to bring Donizetti’s romantic comedy right into your lap! The entire opera is set in a nightclub cabaret where Nemorino, a local villager played by the stunning tenor Christopher Lucier, will do anything to gain the affections of the beautiful and brilliant Adina, played by crystal clear soprano Lindsay Ohse, even when a sergeant with status, Belcore, played by robust & steady baritone Patrick McNally, has set his sights on her. The premium seating at cabaret tables sets the audience right in the middle of the action, a truly rare opera-going experience!

  Mr. Lucier, Ms. Ohse, and Mr. McNally have performed these roles under the same conductor and director previously at Resonance Works, a company founded by Ms. Sensi Sellner, in Pittsburgh. After discussing the possibility of revisiting the production, Hubbard Hall’s Executive and Artistic Director David Andrew Snider was thrilled to bring this unique opera experience to the Hall. “This opera is fun, in your face, and thrilling, with some of the most gorgeous Italian you’ll ever hear,” says Snider.  “It’s accessible AND gorgeous – the best of both worlds. I know our audiences are going to love it.”

Rounding out the main cast, we welcome back the dynamic and hilarious Andrew Adelsberger (last seen at the Hall in 2014’s Gianni Schicchi) as Dulcamara, the seller of the “love potion” purchased by Nemorino and newcomer to the Hall, soprano Rebecca Shorstein joins the cast as Adina’s trusted friend Gianetta. The chorus is made up of local talent who also function as the night club’s waitstaff and our 17 piece local orchestra will be set on the stage overlooking the action.

Director Andrew Nienaber

Conductor Maria Sensi Sellner

Guests at our premium seating will not only be in the middle of the events unfolding, but will also enjoy nibbles and wine provided by the Roundhouse Café.

Opera performances are: Friday, August 11 at 7pm Opening Night

Saturday, August 12 at 7pm

Wednesday, August 16 at 7pm

Friday, August 18 at 7pm

Sunday, August 20 at 2pm

For those unavailable to attend the opera but who would still like a chance to see these amazing artists perform, you are welcome to attend our outreach opportunity in Saratoga! On Saturday, August 5 at 2pm, the cast will be performing selections for the Saratoga Springs Public Library at 49 Henry St. in Saratoga Springs.

Premium Packages for the opera are available through our website or our box office at 518-677-2495 ext. 311. For $150, individuals can enjoy a premium seat, dinner or breakfast at Round House Bakery Cafe, and a room at Motel Cambridge ($250 for couples).  Tickets are $60 for Premium Seating with complementary charcuterie and wine, $45 for Riser Seating, $25 for Students and can be purchased online, through our Box Office at 518-677-2495, or at the door until we are sold out. Tickets are already going fast, so to ensure that you are not turned away, please reserve your tickets in advance!

About Hubbard Hall Center for the Arts and Education Since 1878 Hubbard Hall has developed, produced, and presented theater, music, dance and the visual arts. From 19thcentury vaudeville and traveling troupes performing Shakespeare to today’s newest developing artists, the Hall has long been a home for theater, opera, dance, and music and in recent years has developed into a world-class development center for new work. Through classes in dance, theater, music, movement, puppetry, fencing, and even gardening, Hubbard Hall gives students of all ages an opportunity to learn, collaborate and grow. By offering arts education programming in schools and throughout our region, we connect more deeply with our community and give students throughout the region the opportunity to learn and grow through the arts. Recognized as a leading arts institution in the state of New York, Hubbard Hall is a national model for community-based arts organizations. Hubbard Hall is located at 25 East Main Street in Cambridge, NY. For more information on this and all of our programs, or to purchase tickets, register for classes, make a donation, and/or become a Hubbard Hall Pass carrier please visit www.hubbardhall.org or call (518) 677-2495.

Hubbard Hall Presents Donizetti’s Opera “L’elisir d’amore” (Cambridge, NY July 31, 2017) Hubbard Hall is pleased to once again bring opera to Washington County! 

[larryland]

by Roseann Cane

I can’t remember ever having so much fun at an opera. (Well, there was the time when an usher escorted me out of the Met for laughing, but I was a child, the opera was Aida, and the other audience members somehow didn’t share my sense of humor.)

Gaetano Donizetti, born into poverty in the Northern Italian city of Bergamo in 1797, became a leading composer of bel canto opera in the early nineteenth century. He wrote about70 operas in the course of his career, and many are, to this day, performed as standards of the international opera repertory. One of the most popular is L’elisir d’amore (The Elixir of Love).

 First presented in 1832, L’elisir d’amore, an opera buffa (comic opera), tells the story of the unrequited love of a poor peasant, Nemorino, for a beautiful landowner, Adina. Though Nemorino repeatedly declares his love for Adina, she rebuffs him with a declaration that she’d rather have a series of lovers. The heartbroken Nemorino watches a pompous solder, Belcore, court Adina. In desperation, Nemorino seeks the help of Dulcamara, a charlatan traveling through town selling a cure-all. “Dr.” Dulcamara sells a potion which Nemorino is convinced will make him irresistible to Adina, and he eagerly drinks the elixir, which is actually cheap wine.

 The brilliance of Hubbard Hall’s production, in addition to a delightful and accomplished cast and a superb orchestra, is that their L’elisir d’amore is set in a 1950s nightclub, with audience members (who’ve purchased premium-priced tickets) are seated at cabaret tables, enjoying wine and charcuterie. But rest assured, there’s not a bad seat in the house. The rest of the audience is in on the action, too, as cast members move throughout the risers as well as the tables, singing and teasing patrons.

Nemorino, who is here the club janitor, is played by tenor Christopher Lucier, who has a lush, panoramic voice, and plays his role with an irresistible comic naivete. Lindsay Ohse plays nightclub owner Adina as a fiery femme fatale with a stunning, sweeping soprano voice perfect for bel canto.As the sergeant Belcore, Patrick McNally is a chest-beating pompous womanizer with a rich, expressive baritone, and as Dulcamara, Andrew Adelsberger uses his elegant bass-baritone voice to hilarious effect. Rebecca Shorstein’s soprano is rich and radiant, and as Adina’s friend Giannetta, her birdlike busybody characterization is adorable.

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The rest of the cast, chorus girl/waitresses and supers, have strong and lovely voices, and it is a particular joy to see young singers elegantly integrated in the evening’s festivities. Kudos to Maureen Cossey, Kyra Fitzgerald, Lucy Fronhofer, Delaney Hill, Rose Hunsberger, Abby Maher, and Zian Taylor.

 Amanda Charlebois’s costumes are period-perfect, and I loved how her use of bright reds accentuated the lusty, vivid goings-on. Brittany Shemuga must have had quite a challenge designing the lighting for a show that encompassed an entire theater, and not only did she rise to it, her work brought another dimension to the action.

Stage Director Andrew Nienaber.

Conductor and Artistic Advisor Maria Sensi Sellner

Conductor Maria Sensi Sellner, who also served as Artistic Advisor, is inspired and astonishingly versatile, and her orchestra was nothing short of sensational. As for Stage Director Andrew Nienaber, who in his program note eloquently describes his desire to bring the audience “up close,” I offer my heartfelt congratulations for the great gift he bestows upon the clearly charmed audience. I know that fellow opera lovers will thoroughly savor this unique production, and I strongly suspect that those to whom the opera world is uncharted territory will find Hubbard Hall’s L’elisir d’amore a welcome introduction.

Orchestra

*principle

Violin I

Melanie Dexter*

Francois Secordel

Alyson Slack

Violin II

Kaori Washiyama*

Harriet Welther

Viola

Jimmy Bergin*

Rick Rowley

Cello

Perri Morris*

Will Hayes

Meg Harwood (08/11-12)

Bass

Mowgli Giannitti

Mike Ward (08/12)

Flute/Piccolo

James Haertel

Oboe

Ryan Klein

Clarinet

Christine Barron

Bassoon

Gerry LaNoue

Horn

Patrice Malatestinic

Trumpet

Omar Williams

Percussion

Alex Atchely

Piano

Arthur Bosarge

REVIEW: “L’elisir d’amore” at Hubbard Hall by Roseann Cane I can’t remember ever having so much fun at an opera. (Well, there was the time when an usher escorted me out of the Met for laughing, but I was a child, the opera was…