Artistic & General Director Rob Ainsley is back with this month’s edition of Rob’s Ramblings! Scroll down to read the full blog.
Slowing Down and Planning Ahead
As if to allow the leaves’ annual display of kaleidoscopic color to take center stage, our theater has quietly transformed back to its traditional black, leaving us only with rosy recollections of the summer. Like the theater, the company is also re-centering itself, with September being a slower month for the company as we take some much-needed time to recoup. For me, it is a month for planning and preparation for the season ahead.
Yet against the colorful dual backdrops of the beautiful Central NY fall and the glowing memories of our red stage, we have also experienced a very hard couple of weeks for the nation — and certainly a time of stark contrasts to the principles of community, free expression, civil discussion, and collaboration that Glimmerglass strives to uphold. As we embark on America’s 250th anniversary year, we find the great American Experiment to be at an inflection point, and this extraordinary nation to be more divided than it has been in many years. What is next for America? How can we stem this terrible wave of political violence? How can We the People bridge our divides to come together for the greater good of all, not merely for the few? How can we become the nation we want to be?
After 50 years, what’s next?
And so our 2026 season will ask us to come together and to think about what it means to be American. From the plains of Oklahoma to the halls of power in Washington D.C., from cowboys to wide-eyed Ellis Island immigrants in pursuit of the American Dream, from the beginnings of Golden Age American musical theater and the Great American Songbook to living American composers and writers — every performance will reflect on this great nation and its role across the world.
While Oklahoma! remains the quintessential American musical and a nostalgic celebration of Broadway’s immense contribution to modern culture, it also asks some hard questions about class division, jealousy, and obsession – with Francesca’s brand new production ensuring the piece speaks with fresh energy and insight. The high-energy capers of Act I of Così will be at their most boisterous in a contemporary American collegiate setting — but how will the humanity and betrayal we confront in Act II find (or fail to find) resolution in that modern-day setting?
Not everything we see will be celebratory: Madame Butterfly forces us to confront the tragic consequences of America’s exploitation of the East around the time of Japan’s opening and asks us what our responsibility as the world’s most powerful nation should be — with great power comes great responsibility. Fellow Travelers, a modern masterpiece and at its core a heartbreaking love story, is set amidst the paranoia and hysteria of McCarthyism and the Lavender Scare — do we really want to hunt down and persecute people for whom they love or for who they are, or perhaps more pertinent today, for where they come from?
Our two Pavilion projects might be less familiar, but you won’t want to miss either of these gems. Vignettes: Ellis Island is a first-person virtual tour of the American immigrant experience, from getting on the boat, to crossing the Atlantic, to processing at Ellis Island, to the first morning in a new American home — by turns funny, touching, poignant, and deeply moving, it draws on verbatim transcripts of Ellis Island immigrants to recreate the emotions of coming to America for the first time.
Happy End is a new undertaking for Glimmerglass and the beginning of a new partnership with our colleagues at Opera Saratoga. We will tour this sleek new mini-production around the state before it plays in both of our summer seasons, bringing opera to audiences (like you!) right in their own communities. The work of three American immigrants — Kurt Weill, Bertolt Brecht, and Elisabeth Hauptmann — Happy End is a much more hopeful take on the American Experiment than the cynical, nihilistic Threepenny Opera. While Happy End has always lived in the shadow of that earlier masterpiece, the charm of its affable, bumbling mobsters and saintly yet surprisingly malleable Salvation Army officers is no less infectious — it lies in their inherent contradictions and their shared humanity. For all our differences, it points out, we are much the same.
Hope Moves Us forward
Above all, this coming season is about HOPE: hope for each other, in our ability to bridge our differences, and in our future as a nation. While art cannot directly solve any of our current society’s divisions, our stages bring us together and contribute to the solution. Our theaters are one of the few forums left in public life where we regularly come together as a community. At the theater, we are overcome with awe at the heights we can reach as human beings; we experience in real time what greatness we are capable of when we work together towards a common goal, and we are free to interpret what we experience as individuals. We need more of this in our world. We need more empathy.
A season to remember
Thank you for making this past summer such a successful season, full of joy, community, and awesome art — your support was invaluable in making this 50th anniversary season so special. Start planning for your next summer by booking your ticket packages and accommodations now. Call the Box Office at 607-547-2255 to renew your ticket package or wait for a few days when new packages go on sale on October 6.
As further recognition of our hard work, we are delighted that our 2025 production of Sunday in the Park with George has been nominated for the International Opera Awards in the Musical Theatre category.
Many congratulations to Director Ethan Heard, Maestro Michael Ellis Ingram, and our remarkable crew and cast on this well-deserved accolade. The results will be announced at a gala in Greece on November 13, and regardless of the outcome, we are honored to be included in this illustrious list of nominees.
And speaking of hope, one happy ending we’re closing in on is that our 50th anniversary campaign, “Destined to Glimmerglass,” is now over 95% toward our goal of $7.5 million, with less than $400,000 still to raise. Why not be part of doing something truly good for your community by helping to ensure Glimmerglass is around for another 50 years’ time?