RENOWNED CASTLETON-BRED ARTISTS TO PERFORM IN FESTIVAL’S 5th ANNIVERSARY SEASON

Otello, The Girl of the Golden West, La Voix Humaine;
Mahler, Britten, Tchaikovsky, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Chamber Music, new works, and more
WEDNESDAY, JULY 3 — SUNDAY, JULY 28, 2013
Tickets On Sale Monday, April 1

WASHINGTON and CASTLETON, VA – World-renowned singers, many of whom launched their performance careers at the Castleton Festival, will appear in the Festival’s fifth anniversary season, July 3 – 28, 2013. The Festival, held at Castleton Farms in the rolling hills of Rappahannock County, Virginia, will feature more than 20 performances this summer. Although it has grown rapidly since its founding in 2009, the Castleton Festival has maintained its core ideals as a unique collaboration where emerging talent and established artists come together in a beautiful setting to present music, opera, and theater with fresh energy. Many selections in the 2013 program honor two esteemed anniversaries this year: Benjamin Britten’s centenary, and Guiseppe Verdi’s bicentenary. The Festival’s operatic offerings explore contrasting themes of love, forgiveness, and betrayal, and are titles closely associated with Artistic Director Lorin Maazel’s career-long expertise in the Italian repertoire and historic productions which he has inspired in the world’s greatest opera houses and on film. *
Maestro Maazel will conduct a new production of Puccini’s The Girl of the Golden West (La Fanciulla del West) directed by renowned Italian stage director Giandomenico Vaccari and the Sir Peter Hall/Glyndebourne Festival production of Verdi’s Otello in the 648-seat Festival Theatre. La Voix Humaine (The Human Voice) appears as a double bill, pairing for the first time the Cocteau play and the Poulenc opera, conducted by Malko Competition co-winner Antonio Méndez, in the intimate 138 seat Theatre House.
In the 2013 Castleton premiere of Verdi’s Otello, festival alum Joyce El-Khoury will take the stage as Desdemona, after receiving critical acclaim for her international appearances as Violetta in La Traviataand Mimi in Castleton’s 2011 and 2012 productions of La Bohème. El-Khoury also performed in the 2010 Castleton productions of Il Trittico and Gianni Schicchi. Maestro Lorin Maazel has also cast new faces in this production of the dramatic opera Verdi composed near the end of his career: tenors Frank Porretta and Kirk Dougherty will share the demanding title role. Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program’s Javier Arrey will sing the arch-villain, Iago.
Also returning to the stage is Castleton-alum tenor Jonathan Burton as the flawed but romantic anti-hero Dick Johnson in Puccini’s operatic western, The Girl of the Golden West. Burton previously appeared as Rodolfo in Castleton’s production of La Bohème and recently received rave reviews for his performance in Turandot at the Sarasota Opera. Other former Castleton artists appearing in Puccini’s tuneful homage to the American Wild West include Paul LaRosa, as Sheriff Jack Rance and Russian soprano Ekaterina Metlova, as the gutsy heroine Minnie in The Girl of the Golden West. She appeared in the title role of Carmen during the 2012 Castleton Festival. Andrew Stuckey, who debuted at Castleton in Il Tabarro in 2011, will sing the role of Sonora. Kirk Dougherty (as previously mentioned as Otello, Cassio) will sing the role of Nick the bartender.
The first-ever pairing of the Cocteau play and the Poulenc opera in a double bill of La Voix Humaine will mark the return of soprano Jennifer Black, who will sing the role of Elle in the Poulenc opera, conducted by Malko Competition co-winner Antonio Méndez. Award-winning actor and Castleton co-founder and co-artistic director Dietlinde Turban-Maazel will perform as Elle in the Cocteau play.
Renowned American tenor Neil Shicoff will be featured in the Castleton Festival’s Salute to Britten/Tchaikovsky, under the baton of Maestro Maazel. Shicoff will also teach voice for two weeks as one of the 2013 CATS faculty.
Internationally renowned violinist Dmitri Berlinski will make his Castleton debut playing Samuel Barber’s Violin Concerto.
Castleton will round out its artistic program in 2013 with Mostly Mahler—four symphonic concerts, chamber music, and song recitals featuring works of Mahler, Tchaikovsky, Britten, Andrew Lloyd Webber’sRequiem and a new work, Metropolitan, by Charles Peck, the new Castleton Young Composers Forum work selected by Maestro Maazel. Soprano Jennifer Black will be the soloist in Mahler’s Fourth Symphony and Joyce El-Khoury will be the soprano soloist in Requiem. In a special concert on July 14, Malko Competition winner Rafael Payare will conduct Mahler’s Fifth Symphony, preceded by Maestro Maazel conducting Metropolitan.
The Castleton Festival and Maestro Maazel will also return to the Hylton Performing Arts Center in Manassas, Virginia 2013. On Sunday, June 30, they will perform “An Italian Extravaganza,” and on Thursday, July 18 they will bring an all-Mahler concert to the venue.
The 2013 Castleton Festival Orchestra includes 46 returning artists and 34 newcomers for a total of 80 musicians who will travel to Castleton this summer from nearby communities as well as farther-flung US states, Hong Kong, Germany, and Egypt.
As in previous years, the Castleton Festival will draw on the diverse talent from throughout the Virginia, DC and Maryland region. Orlean, Virginia native Davone Tines, who received acclaim for his role as the Captain in The Barber of Seville in 2012 and traveled to Oman’s Royal Opera House-Muscat with the Castleton production of La Bohème in November 2012, will be singing several featured roles throughout the 2013 Festival.
As previously announced, the 2013 Festival will also include song recitals and chamber concerts that showcase the young talent working on the Castleton Festival campus. The new Castleton Chamber Players, featuring violinist Eric Silberger and cellist Daniel Lelchuk, will perform three concerts in the intimate Theatre House.
In addition to singing supporting and chorus roles in the Festival’s operatic productions, the 2013 class of 55 CATS (Castleton Artists Training Seminar participants) will perform in recitals of opera scenes during the Festival. Now in its fourth year, the CATS training seminar program selects young artists to spend the summer living, training and rehearsing with Maestro Maazel, soprano Nancy Gustafson, actor Dietlinde Turban-Maazel, opera stars Denyce Graves, James Morris, Neil Shicoff and other distinguished musicians. This year’s class of CATS includes Winchester, Virginia native soprano Melissa Chavez, who also attended and performed at the Festival in 2012; Fredericksburg, Virginia native and VCU student soprano Zarah Brock; Baltimore, Maryland mezzo-soprano Elizabeth Kerstein; and Washington, DC native Sarah Philippa, along with young men and women from 19 states, Mexico, Puerto Rico and Canada.
With a wink and a nod to Virginia’s own musical heritage, Castleton welcomes internationally renowned folk duo Robin & Linda Williams and Their Fine Group to the Festival Theatre to perform on Wednesday, July 3 to kick off the Festival and celebrate July 4th with music and fireworks.
Tickets for the 2013 Castleton Festival are on sale Monday, April 1. Ticket prices range from $20-120 and are available on Castleton’s website, or by calling 866-974-0767.
* La Fanciulla del West 1991 La Scala Production – Giorgio Strehler director: http://www.amazon.com/Giacomo-Puccini-Fanciulla-Del-West/dp/B0000027IS; Otello film version, Franco Zeffirelli director starring Placido Domingo: http://www.amazon.com/Verdi-Otello-Maazel-Domingo-Ricciarelli/dp/6301161580

THE CASTLETON FESTIVAL 2013: AT A GLANCE

WHAT: The Castleton Festival 2013: productions of The Girl of the Golden West, Otello, La Voix Humaine; concerts featuring works of Britten, Mahler, Tchaikovsky, Andrew Lloyd Webber, and the Castleton Festival’s Young Composer’s Forum; chamber music, song recitals, and Virginia folk music with fireworks.

WHEN: July 3– July 28, 2013

Robin & Linda Williams and Their Fine Group
Wednesday, July 3 – 7PM

The Girl of the Golden West
Saturday, July 6 – 7PM
Friday, July 12 – 8PM
Sunday, July 21 – 2PM

Otello
Saturday, July 13 – 7PM
Friday, July 19 – 8PM
Friday, July 26 – 8PM
Sunday, July 28 – 2PM

La Voix Humaine (double bill: Cocteau and Poulenc)
Saturday, July 13 – 3PM
Saturday, July 20 – 3PM
Saturday, July 27 – 3PM

Mostly Mahler Symphonic Concerts
Sunday, July 7 – 2PM: Mahler Symphony No. 4; Mendelssohn Symphony No. 5
Sunday, July 14 – 2PM: Mahler Symphony No. 5; Peck’s Metropolitan
*Thursday, July 18 – 8PM: Mahler program (Hylton Performing Arts Center)
Saturday, July 20 – 7PM: Andrew Lloyd Webber Requiem;
Barber Violin Concerto/ School for Scandal Overture
Saturday, July 27 – 7PM: Salute to Britten and Tchaikovsky

CATS Song Recitals
July 20 -11AM: CATS Spectacular – Opera Scenes
July 27 -11AM: CATS Spectacular – Opera Scenes
July 28 -11AM: Mahler Lieder – A CATS Song Recital (part of Mostly Mahler)

Castleton Chamber Players
Saturday, July 6 – 4PM: Chamber Music of Mahler (part of Mostly Mahler)
Sunday, July 14 – 11AM
Sunday, July 21, 11AM

Castleton Festival at the Hylton Performing Arts Center 2013:
*June 30, 7PM—An Italian Extravaganza
*July 18, 8PM –Mahler concert

*Denotes programs held at the Hylton Performing Arts Center.
WHERE: The Castleton Festival Theatre, 7 Castleton Meadows Lane, and the Theatre House, 664 Castleton View Road in Castleton, Rappahannock County, Virginia, 60 miles southwest of Washington, and 45 minutes from Charlottesville, Virginia.

WHO: Legendary conductor Maestro Lorin Maazel, Dietlinde Turban-Maazel,
Neil Shicoff, Rafael Payare, top musicians and singers of tomorrow.

TICKETS: Tickets for this season’s festival are on sale Monday, April 1. Ticket prices range from $20-120 and are available on Castleton’s website, or by calling 866-974-0767. For the first time ever, the Castleton Festival will be offering Student Rush tickets at a discounted price (walk-up sales only – day of performance).

PRESS: Members of the media interested in attending a performance or obtaining a password Castleton’s image gallery should contact Jenny Lawhorn at: 202-821-8898 or jlawhorn@scottcircle.com or Sarah Coppersmith at: 602-418-0316 or scoppersmith@scottcircle.com.

THE CASTLETON FESTIVAL 2013: FULL CALENDAR

WEEKEND ONE

Wednesday, July 3
7PM — Family Day: concert with Robin & Linda Williams
Fireworks

Saturday, July 6
4PM — Chamber Music of Mahler
5 PM — Pre-Performance — Gala Dinner
7PM — The Girl of the Golden West

Sunday, July 7
2PM — Mahler Symphony No. 4
Mendelssohn Symphony No. 5: The Reformation Symphony

WEEKEND TWO

Friday, July 12
8PM — The Girl of the Golden West

Saturday, July 13
3PM — La Voix Humaine (Double Bill: Cocteau and Poulenc)
7PM — Otello

Sunday, July 14
11AM — Chamber Music, Castleton Chamber Players
2PM — Mahler Symphony No. 5
Young Composer’s Forum – Metropolitan by Charles Peck

WEEKEND THREE

Thursday, July 18
8PM — Mostly Mahler at the Hylton Performing Arts Center

Friday, July 19
8PM — Otello

Saturday, July 20
11AM — CATS Spectacular – Opera Scenes
3PM — La Voix Humaine (Double Bill: Cocteau and Poulenc)
7PM — Andrew Lloyd Webber Requiem
Barber Violin Concerto/ Barber School for Scandal Overture

Sunday, July 21
11AM — Chamber Music, Castleton Chamber Players
2PM — The Girl of the Golden West

WEEKEND FOUR

Friday, July 26
8PM — Otello

Saturday, July 27
11AM — CATS Spectacular – Opera Scenes
3PM — La Voix Humaine (Double Bill: Cocteau and Poulenc)
7PM — Salute to Britten and Tchaikovsky

Sunday, July 28
11AM — Mahler Lieder – A CATS Song Recital
2PM — Otello