Norton Memorial Hall, home of the Chautauqua Opera.
The Chautauqua Opera is the resident summer opera company of the Chautauqua Institution in Chautauqua, New York. It is one of the oldest continuously active summer opera companies in the U.S, having been founded in 1929 as the Chautauqua Opera Association, and it has produced several operas during the Institution's nine-week summer season every year since. Generally opera productions are performed in English in Norton Memorial Hall, usually on specific Monday and Friday evenings throughout the season. Recently, however, Chautauqua opera has increasingly been performed in concert productions at the Chautauqua Amphitheater.
The first production director of the company was Alfredo Valenti, who began Chautauqua's rich opera tradition with Flotow's "Martha" on July 19, 1929. Henry Ford and Mrs. Thomas A. Edison were in the audience. Valenti, who served as director for twenty-eight years, championed young American singers such as Rose Bampton, who performed that season and in 1930 and who, like many other stars at Norton Hall (such as Charles Kullman and Helen Jepson) went on to fame at the Metropolitan Opera and elsewhere. Currently, the Chautauqua Opera is under the general direction of Jay Lesenger. The 2014 season included performances of Puccini's Madama Butterfly and Moore's The Ballad of Baby Doe. The former was performed at the Amphitheater, along with two "pops" concerts; "The Ballad of Baby Doe" was performed at Norton Hall. This indicates a significant contraction of opera productions, which require substantial resources to rehearse and put on, and also suggests that Norton Hall is becoming less of the home for opera at Chautauqua; this pattern was repeated in 2015, with Verdi's Macbeth performed at the Amphitheater, and Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin performed at Norton Hall. In contrast, there were six separate productions at Norton Hall during the 1967 season.
In addition, the Chautauqua Opera runs the Young Artists Program, training highly talented young singers who plan to pursue careers in operatic music. Members of the Young Artists program present recitals on Thursday afternoons at the Institution's Hall of Christ, as well as two concerts with the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra, and two revue performances during the summer season.
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Chautauqua is an adult education and social movement in the United States that peaked in popularity in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Chautauqua assemblies expanded and spread throughout rural America until the mid-1920s. The Chautauqua brought entertainment and culture for the whole community, with speakers, teachers, musicians, showmen, preachers, and specialists of the day. U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt is often quoted as saying that Chautauqua is "the most American thing in America". What he actually said was: "it is a source of positive strength and refreshment of mind and body to come to meet a typical American gathering like this—a gathering that is typically American in that it is typical of America at its best." Several Chautauqua assemblies continue to gather to this day, including the original Chautauqua Institution in Chautauqua, New York.
The Chautauqua Institution is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit education center and summer resort for adults and youth located on 2,070 acres (840 ha) in Chautauqua, New York, 17 miles (27 km) northwest of Jamestown in the western southern tier of New York state. Established in 1874, the institution was the home of, and provided the impetus for, the Chautauqua movement that became popular in the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The Chautauqua Institution Historic District is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and was further designated a National Historic Landmark.
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The Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra (CSO) is an American orchestra, and the resident summer orchestra of the Chautauqua Institution in western New York State. Founded in 1929, the ensemble plays concerts on most Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday nights throughout the Institution's nine-week summer season, in the Amphitheater of the facility. The CSO draws its members principally from US professional orchestras. In addition to standard concerts, the CSO also accompanies programs with the Chautauqua Ballet Company and the Chautauqua Opera Young Artists.
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Camellia Johnson was an American concert and opera singer. She began her career performing works from the mezzo-soprano repertoire, but after encouragement from the staff at the Metropolitan Opera retrained her voice as a soprano. She successfully made that transition after winning the Young Concert Artists competition in 1993. She went on to perform as a leading soprano with orchestras and opera companies internationally.
The Sundance Festival of the Chamber Arts was a cultural summer festival that took place for several years during the 1960s in Upper Black Eddy in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. It was the brainchild of the noted harpsichord builder/entrepreneur Wolfgang Zuckermann.
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