News for R. B. Schlather Fans

Known to us for bringing opera to the Hudson Opera House--The Mother of Us All in 2017, Handel's Rodelinda in 2023, and Handel's Giulio Cesare earlier this year--the very talented R. B. Schlather is directing the Heartbeat Opera production of an adaptation of Samuel Barber's Vanessa at the Williamstown Theatre Festival this summer. Nine performances take place from July 17 to August 3. 

The following is quoted from the press release received today:

In this thrilling reimagining of Vanessa, Heartbeat Opera's Artistic Director Jacob Ashworth, together with "one of our more ambitious and effective younger directors (The New York Times) R. B. Schlather, strip away showiness that was present in original productions, highlighting the palpable emotions of the characters. Samuel Barber is one of the most celebrated American composers of the twentieth century, and Vanessa was a hit upon arrival at the Metropolitan Opera in 1958; it also won the Pulitzer Prize in Music. It should have remained in the canon as one of the great American operas of all time, but over the following decades the piece receded into near-obscurity. Ashworth asks, "Was it too sensationalist for the academic tastes of the time? Was the criticism that it was 'uncategorizable' just a veiled dig at its queer authors? Or is American opera simply doomed to second class citizenship in the operatic canon forever?" Heartbeat tackles the piece's troubled reception history head on, questioning the piece in ways that previous revivals have not dared to. Paring the opera down to five singers and a tight, intermission-less 100 minutes, Heartbeat's adaptation dives deep into the subtext of the atmospheric libretto to reveal the riveting extremes of the characters.

Vanessa is directed by the inventive opera director R. B. Schlather, known for his stunning work, immersive installations, and unconventional stagings, Schlather's recent production of Handel's Giulio Cesare at Hudson Hall in Hudson, NY, received national acclaim for its community-fueled "locavore" essence, garnering both an in-depth preview story and a glowing review in The New Times.

Of Vanessa, Schlather says: "I am struck by the cyclical quality of this work. These characters feel suspended in some kind of emotional isolation, replaying cycles over and over. They are dealing with existential ideas about who they are, what their destinies are, what to do with the material of their pasts, how to face their futures. They feel like people out of Greek Drama, completely tragic, pathetic, and poetic. I'm haunted by the atmosphere of the piece--eerie, stark, seductive, repressive, and also raw and brutal. It really pulls you in, gets under your skin. I'm particularly interested in what gets inherited, especially from woman to woman: trauma, silence, expectations. It's not about the past, it's about patterns. It exists out of time. That's what elevates it for me to something mythic, tragic, monumental."

For more information about the performance and to purchase tickets, click here.