Unusual operas and celebrations of milestone anniversaries of the births of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Dmitri Shostakovich highlight the Aspen Music Festival’s 2006 season – one of the most promising in recent memory.
More than 350 concerts, master classes and discussions will take place during the 57th edition of the internationally renowned summer event, which runs daily from June 21 through Aug. 20.
Heading the festival’s three-opera lineup is the exciting Western premiere of Ned Rorem’s operatic adaptation of Thornton Wilder’s 1938 Pulitzer Prize-winning play, “Our Town,” with a libretto by poet and writer J.D. McClatchy.
Though out of fashion for much of his career and never as widely known as some of his peers, the respected 82-year-old composer has stayed true to himself, writing well-crafted, tastefully attractive and consistently tonal music.
The Indiana University Opera Theater will present the world premiere of “Our Town” on Friday in Bloomington. The school is the lead commissioner of the new work, and the Aspen festival is one of five co-commissioners, including Opera Boston and Lake George Opera in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
The festival’s production on July 29 and 31 and Aug. 2 will feature some of the field’s most promising young singers, chosen annually to study at the Aspen Opera Theater Center, a preprofessional apprenticeship program.
Although these artists are unknown and not yet established, they consistently deliver high- quality productions with the backing of top-drawer, veteran conductors, directors and designers from across the country.
Robert Spano, the fast-rising music director of the Atlanta Symphony, will conduct Benjamin Britten’s rarely produced comedic masterpiece, “Albert Herring,” on Aug. 15 and 17. And rounding out the offerings will be the beloved classic “La Traviata” on July 13, 15 and 16.
Like many other musical organizations across the world, the festival marks this year’s 250th anniversary of Mozart’s birth and the 100th anniversary of Shostakovich’s.
Works by Mozart will be presented every week of the festival, but the celebration of the composer reaches its climax July 24-30 during a mini-festival titled “Mozart: Prodigy or Prophet?”
Featured will be his incomparable piano concertos and chamber music, as well as discussions of his personal and creative evolution, his wide-ranging oeuvre and his influence on music in subsquent centuries.
Works by Shostakovich will also be sprinkled throughout the lineup, but most noteworthy will be a mini-festival Aug. 3-15. It will offer a fascinating look at a little-known side of him, his friendship with English composer Benjamin Britten.
To celebrate the 70th birthday of the festival’s internationally recognized music director David Zinman, there will be a July 8 birthday extravaganza with an array of classical luminaries, including pianist Leon Fleisher and violinist Gil Shaham.
In addition to conducting the festival’s production of “Our Town,” Zinman will take the podium for performances of Britten’s “War Requiem” and Ludwig van Beethoven’s “Triple Concerto” with Shaham, cellist Truls Mork and pianist Yefim Bronfman.
Artists making their festival debuts include pianist and conductor Jeffrey Kahane, the Colorado Symphony’s music director; soprano Jane Eaglen, a Wagner specialist; and violinist Hilary Hahn, a Grammy winner.
Although the festival draws dedicated classical aficionados from across the country, including some who have returned every year for decades, it remains strangely underappreciated in Colorado.
Many residents don’t realize that right in their own backyard is a festival with only one true peer in the United States – the Tanglewood Music Festival in Lenox, Mass.
For anyone who enjoys classical music on whatever level, it’s impossible to beat the Aspen’s appealing summer combination of myriad outdoor activities and world-class concerts.
Ticket information is available at 970-925-9042 or aspenmusicfestival.com.
Fine arts critic Kyle MacMillan can be reached at 303-820-1675 or kmacmillan@denverpost.com.
