“Opera's Place in Society: Going or Gone?” - In Conversation with Conrad L. Osborne & Will Crutchfield
Thursday, September 24, 7pm - 8:30pm EDT
IN CONVERSATION SERIES
Members - FREE
Non-Members - $35
Join the American master of opera critics, Conrad L. Osborne, and Teatro Nuovo’s General and Artistic Director, Will Crutchfield, for a lively discussion about the future of opera in our current society.
This discussion will take place over Zoom. Participants are invited to send questions in before to be considered for discussion during the live conversation.
After the Guest Speaker discussion, attendees will be invited to speak more informally amongst themselves, Crutchfield and Osborne about the topic.
Meet Our GUEST SPEAKERS
The American master of opera critics, Mr. Osborne’s career is of course legendary, as an opera critic, teacher, singer, actor, performing arts consultant, and acclaimed author. His first published writings in 1959 were articles and performance reviews for Opera News, and recordings reviews for High Fidelity. Over the years since then, he has written for Musical America, Musical Newsletter, Opus, Keynote and the Sunday New York Times. For several years, he was also the New York music critic for London’s Financial Times, filing a couple of columns per month during the season. The summation of this lifetime of accumulated knowledge, experience and critical exposure to thousands of recorded and live performances, may be found in Osborne’s masterwork, Opera as Opera, The State of the Art (Proposito Press, NY, NY 2018). According to the publisher, the author argues that we cannot solve the [current] problem unless we recognize and define it, and that we cannot hope to envision the artform’s future unless we first come to terms with its past. Osborne examines all elements of recent operatic practice as revealed in performance.
Mr. Crutchfield is General and Artistic Director of Teatro Nuovo, the acclaimed young organization devoted to cutting-edge interpretation of classic Italian opera.
He has divided his opera career between conducting, musicology, and education. As Director of Opera for the Caramoor International Music Festival from 1997 to 2017, he has conducted over 30 operas with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s and major soloists. He also served as Music Director with the Opera de Colombia (Bogota) and Principal Guest Conductor of the Polish National Opera (Warsaw), and has made guest appearances with many theaters around the world.
For Ricordi and the Fondazione Rossini he prepared the critical edition of Aureliano in Palmira, also conducting the production at Pesaro that won first place as “Best Rediscovered Work” in the 2015 International Opera Awards. In the same year he was named a Fellow of the Guggenheim Foundation in recognition of his operatic work, and in 2017 he was named as one of Musical America’s thirty “Movers and Shapers” for his leadership in innovative training and performance.