Author: Marc Shulgold
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Opera Colorado’s new CEO has a reason to believe
Barbara Lynne Jamison is nobody’s fool. Stepping aboard the teetering ship known as Opera Colorado, she understood what challenges awaited on her arrival. Succeeding Greg Carpenter in the dual role of general director and CEO, she voiced a mixed message as she welcomed a recent visitor to company headquarters. Opera Colorado has an uphill financial…
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Conductor Peter Oundjian and the Colorado Symphony imagining new things
The Colorado Symphony has been looking younger and hipper in recent years. There are more youthful players in its ranks and, when you scan the musical offerings, there seems to be more rock. Big shows at Red Rocks. Even in Boettcher Concert Hall this season, there are guest shots from Bruce Hornsby and DeVotchKa –…
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Opera Colorado drops upcoming production; confirms leadership transition
A major budget shortfall has forced Opera Colorado to reduce its upcoming season from three mainstage productions to two, Marketing Director Jennifer Colgan said Thursday. She also confirmed that following the 2024-25 season, the company will have its first leadership transition in two decades. “The previously announced production of Verdi’s “Il trovatore” has been removed…
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Central City Opera’s CEO makes sudden departure
Without explanation, Central City Opera on Thursday announced the unexpected exit of CEO and President Pamela Pantos in the midst of its summer season. An official statement simply stated that her relationship with the organization “has ended.” In the announcement, board Co-Chair Heather Miller wished the former mezzo-soprano “the best in her future endeavors.” Pantos…
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Central City Opera stages the other “Otello”
Seventy years before Verdi unveiled his immortal operatic treatment of Shakespeare’s “Othello,” another popular master of Italian opera had done the same – Rossini. And it was a hit … in 1816. Not so much these days. Ah, but here comes Central City Opera to revive this dramatic, tune-filled work. So where’s it been? Ashraf…
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Two composers honor Chautauqua’s 125th birthday
Opened in 1898 as part of the nationwide Chautauqua movement established by Texas schoolteachers to create extra summertime education opportunities for their ranks, Boulder’s Chautauqua Park and its spacious auditorium have since welcomed hikers, picnickers and concert-goers for a century-and-a-quarter. To open Sunday’s Colorado Music Festival concert in the auditorium, the hall’s 125th anniversary will…
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Musical remembrance of JFK’s final speech to premiere in Boulder
Boulder’s’ Neil Bicknell was there in 1963 when President John F. Kennedy gave his final speech at Amherst College in honor of Robert Frost. It was Bicknell’s idea to turn the occasion into the concert “The Last Speech,“ which will have its world premiere performance on Sunday at the Colorado Music Festival, along with a new…
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Colorado Music Festival ’23 harbors an old flame for new works
Peter Oundjian glanced over the Colorado Music Festival‘s 2023 lineup and reported with unconcealed glee, “Everybody I wanted to invite said ‘Yes.’” That pretty much sums up the music director’s enthusiasm for the annual summer event that opens June 29-30 in Boulder’s Chautauqua Auditorium. That’s when superstar violinist Joshua Bell will serve as soloist to…
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Denver production of Puccini’s opera “Turandot” tackles stereotypes
It’s a good thing that Opera Colorado’s four performances of “Turandot” are almost sold-out. This might be the last chance for locals to see Puccini’s final opera. At least, that’s what Kara Shay Thomson has been hearing. “There’s a thought in the industry that it could disappear,” the soprano said with a look of disappointment.…
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Wonderbound dancer says farewell after 14 ‘dangerous’ seasons with Denver company
As a boy growing up in a tough Baltimore inner city neighborhood, Damien Patterson fell in love with modern dance. A dangerous romance. No surprise that he didn’t find much support for it. “My family tried to talk me out of it,” he recalled, flashing an irrepressible smile under a few short dangling braids. Luckily,…