Opera North, NPS team up for ‘Singers & Swingers’ at Blow-Me-Down Farm

Opera North, NPS team up for ‘Singers & Swingers’ at Blow-Me-Down Farm

CORNISH – Opera North has announced the cast for “Singers & Swingers,” an exciting new production featuring singers and circus acts, which will take place on the weekend of July 13 – 15 under a tent at Blow-Me-Down Farm in Cornish.

The family-friendly show is a collaboration of Opera North musical talent and circus acts from Big Apple Circus, Circus Smirkus and Cirque de Soleil. The event is one of three 2018 Opera North Summerfest 2018 productions.

Blow-Me-Down Farm is an exciting new venue for Opera North, the result of a unique partnership between Opera North and the National Park Service at the Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site, according to a press release.

The singers will include 15 Opera North resident artists – Cara Collins, Attila Dobak, Amal El-Shrafi, Derek Jackenheimer, Blake Jennings, JeeHoon Kim, Stephen McCluskey, Emily Misch, Brady Muth, Ashley Puenner, Jacob Rivera, James Smidt, Jessica Toupin, Rachel Weishoff and Jordan Wells – who were chosen from more than 700 applicants to participate in Opera North’s 2018 Resident Artist Program, a six-week intensive for young opera professionals to work with Opera North’s conductors, directors and designers as they prepare for their roles in the season’s productions. In addition, the production will also include two pianists and two assistant directors from the Resident Artist Program.

The circus artists include Andrea Murillo and Kyle Driggs for juggling and dance; Sam Ferlo on straps and as the clown; Richard Hankes and Ashlee Montague in acrobatic ballet and Lyra; and Cassady Rose Bonjo on trapeze, contortion and hula hoops

The creative team for “Singers & Swingers” will include Conductor Louis Burkot, Director Mark Lonergan and Associate Director and Choreographer Antoinette DiPietropolo. The Opera North orchestra, an ensemble of New England’s finest freelance orchestral musicians, and renowned pianist and Opera North General Director Evans Haile are also featured on the program.

Louis Burkot, conductor, was appointed artistic director of Opera North in 1987, and has conducted more than 35 productions for the company. He studied at the Yale School of Music and served as music director of Opera New England, the education / outreach arm of the Boston Lyric Opera. Now Director Emeritus of the Dartmouth College Glee Club, an ensemble he led since 1982, he continues as senior lecturer in the Department of Music, where he was the recipient of the Distinguished Lecturer Award in 2000.

Mark Lonergan, director, is a New York-based director and the artistic director of Parallel Exit, a three-time Drama Desk Award nominee for Unique Theatrical Experience. Lonergan is also the director of the past two seasons of Big Apple Circus: their 40th anniversary production, as well as The Grand Tour, both New York Times Critic’s Picks. He will return this fall to direct The Big Apple Circus’ 41st season. He is also the creative director for Vermont’s Circus Smirkus.

Antoinette DiPietropolo, assistant director and choreographer, returns to Opera North where she last choreographed “Kiss Me, Kate.”

Summerfest 2018 is Opera North’s 36th season and features a total of 12 performances of three mainstage productions – “Singers & Swingers” at Blow-Me-Down Farm, and Offenbach’s “Tales of Hoffman” and Rossini’s “Barber of Seville” at Lebanon Opera House. Tickets start at $20, with best seats going for $90.

In addition to the mainstage shows, Summerfest 2018 includes a concert series staged at landmark locations around the Upper Valley, including a Musical Soiree at Highland Center for the Arts in Greensboro Vermont; Artist Showcase at Lebanon United Methodist Church at 6 p.m. Saturday, July 21 in Lebanon, with tickets at $25 available at www.operanorth.org; the Concert on the Veranda at The Fells Historic Estate & Gardens, at 5 p.m. July 22 in Newbury, with tickets at $40 available at www.thefells.org or (603) 763-4789, Ext. 3; and a Lake Sunapee Musical Dinner Cruise, 6 p.m. July 26 in Sunapee Harbor, with tickets, at $100, available at www.operanorth.org.

Opera North is the premier professional summer music festival of the Upper Valley. Founded in 1982 and based in Lebanon, it is the only full-time professional opera company in the tri-state area of Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. Summerfest 2018 runs July 13 to Aug. 14. For more information, visit OperaNorth.com or call (603) 448-4141.