Rob’s Ramblings: From Memphis to the Met

Artistic & General Director Rob Ainsley is back with this month’s edition of Rob’s Ramblings! Scroll down to read the full blog.

Conferences and competitions

My last month has been a flurry of travel, spending time with patrons, meeting with Trustees, attending a fascinating range of performances of all shapes and sizes, and participating in the annual OPERA America conference in Memphis, TN.

It felt good to satisfy my wanderlust before settling in for the next three months of activity, with my travels offering a beautiful reminder of how passionate and dedicated my colleagues around the country are — and how many of them got their start at Glimmerglass! Our industry across the country is truly one big family, with Glimmerglass serving as a common thread throughout it, and I felt those ties everywhere I went this month.

I began the month in Rochester, NY. Glimmerglass has enjoyed a long partnership with the Kurt Weill Foundation, which has supported many of our artists in past seasons. Their annual Lotte Lenya Competition looks for the same “all-rounder” type of performer Glimmerglass fosters, and we have had many past Lotte Lenya Competition prize-winners and finalists on our stages in recent seasons (Christian Mark Gibbs, Jason Zacher, Magdalena Kuźma, Taylor-Alexis DuPont, Ryan Johnson, Amanda Sheriff, Katrina Galka, Charles Eaton, Kaileigh Riess, Teresa Perrotta, Reilly Nelson, Brian Vu, Meredith Arwady, and others from the last few years alone!) This year, Glimmerglass favorite Schyler Vargas gave a nuanced, visceral performance as a competition finalist at Eastman’s Kilbourn Hall, before welcoming his first child, Noah, into the world just a few days later. Congratulations, Schyler!

making my way to the met

A long drive the following day took me to the Met Opera Gala to support a much beloved member of the Glimmerglass family — our past Board Chair and Honorary Life Trustee, Betty Eveillard, who was being honored by the Met for her long service and generosity. To think that this dynamo of the arts has also overseen a major renovation of The Frick Collection (where she currently serves as Board Chair), in addition to all her other ventures, is truly humbling; we are deeply grateful for her and her husband Jean-Marie’s sponsorship of The Rake’s Progress this season.

The glitzy event was held on stage at the Met, using their new production of Aïda as a lavish backdrop. We gathered a merry band of Trustees to celebrate Betty and her husband Jean-Marie that evening (you’ll notice the back of Trustee Tom Simpson’s head in the foreground of my photo), with Betty eloquently singing Glimmerglass’s praises to a captive crowd of fellow opera lovers.

I was back at the Met the following week, this time to celebrate another beloved member of the Glimmerglass family, our Maestro and Music Director, Joseph Colaneri. Joe’s lectures on opera have garnered a large, devoted following for their wit, insight, and musical knowledge (you can catch him at Talking Opera at the Fenimore Museum at 7:00 pm on May 30!) On the night in question, the Met Opera Club was honoring him for 25 years of lectures to its members. I had the pleasure of serenading the guests that night with the incomparable Lydia Grindatto — what a Glimmerglass debut hers will be this season as Anne Trulove in The Rake’s Progress. 

opera takes memphis

A few days later, I set off for Memphis — more often thought of as the Home of the Blues and the true birthplace of Rock ‘n Roll than it is as an operatic destination — as it saw the entire opera industry descend on the famous Peabody Hotel for four days of seminars, talks, and meetings. The Peabody is best known for its grand lobby, which features an indoor fountain that is home to live ducks. There is a daily “Peabody Duck March” where an eager crowd assembles to watch the ducks march from the elevator to their favorite watering hole. 

The conference was hosted by Opera Memphis, an inventive company that prides itself on its community roots. It is run with great energy and passion by Ned Canty, one of Glimmerglass’s Apprentice Program’s most esteemed alums, shown here giving the opening address at the conference:

Ned directed the first production of La Calisto I conducted, back in Portland in 2013. His love for the piece was as enduring as mine, leading him to mount his own production during the conference. Happily, it starred Angela Yam — one of our 2025 Resident Artists — in the title role. Angela arrived in Cooperstown this week to play the important role of Celeste 1 in our production of Sunday in the Park with George. She is a consummate stage animal and was excellent as the mistreated nymph.

Back to NYC

On the way back to the Festival, I crammed in another three operas in 36 hours. I had been desperate to see the Met’s new productions of Salome and Antony & Cleopatra, and decided to take the plunge and see them both on the same day. I am a big John Adams fan: Nixon in China and The Death of Klinghoffer successfully served as my “audition pieces” for Portland Opera and Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, respectively, so I’ve spent a lot of time with his music. I much enjoyed Antony & Cleopatra, despite the somewhat tepid reviews The New York Times had offered – it is serious music, complex and multi-layered, and it demanded concentration, but paid off with some devastating moments in the second act. And of course, I was delighted to see two members of our 2024 La Calisto cast, Taylor Raven and Eve Gigliotti, as Cleopatra’s companions.

But the winner was Salome, with a remarkable performance of the punishing title role from the great Elsa van den Heever, now at the height of her powers. I had not heard a curtain call like that in a long time from the Met audience, who obviously appreciated her as much as I did.

Claus Guth’s production was haunting and horrifying, telling a difficult story of generational trauma as a partial explanation for Salome’s horrific actions. 

family far and wide

Finally, the following day, I stopped by Heartbeat Opera’s gala performance of Faust with Glimmerglass Trustee Debra Valentine, and I ran into two other former Glimmerglass Trustees who were also in attendance. Heartbeat has demonstrated phenomenal innovation in its relatively short history, producing specially commissioned adaptations of familiar works that shed new life on the classics. Happily, both its co-founders, Louisa Proske and Ethan Heard, will be directing for us this season, bringing Heartbeat’s signature innovation to our stage (you will recall Louisa’s unforgettable production of Rinaldo from 2023 if you were lucky enough to catch it). This Faust did not disappoint, packed with some of opera’s greatest tunes as it is — I couldn’t get over how much sound they coaxed out of their small but mighty forces!

Everywhere I went, members of our Glimmerglass family were using their talents to benefit their communities, working to ensure that opera remains relevant, vibrant, and accessible to everyone. Whether trustee, singer, administrator, director, craftsperson, patron, or audience member, you are all part of the family, and we cannot wait to gather you all in Cooperstown in a very few short weeks. Let’s make some opera!