2024 Opera Conservatory

Alcina  

Music by George Frideric Handel 
Libretto by Antonio Marchi 

Performance Dates: July 16 & 18 in McKnight Hall 
Stage Director: John Matsumoto Giampietro 

Welcome to the island of illusions. Peer beyond the palms to discover the beautiful Alcina, a sorceress skilled in the art of seduction. Her passion burns red hot–until she tires of her conquests and turns them into wild beasts or stone. When dashing knight Ruggiero succumbs to this femme fatale‘s dangerous charms, his fiancée Bradamante takes on a daring disguise to free her betrothed and break the curse. But is Alcina finally falling for the man of her dreams?  

I due timidi  

Music by Nino Rota 

Performance Date: July 29 in Chautauqua’s Amphitheater    
Stage Director: John Matsumoto Giampietro 
Conductor: Timothy Muffitt 

Nino Rota’s one-act romantic/comic opera I due timidi  is the story of two young people who, having seen each other from across the courtyard, have fallen madly in love and are desperate to find the courage to speak to each other. When calamity befalls Raimondo, namely a window-shutter falling on his head and knocking him out, he feels the need to reveal his emotions to his beloved. What happens next is a charming, bittersweet love story about Raimondo and Mariuccia, who are too shy to speak to each other, too timid to let their feelings be known, and the grim consequences of the failure to communicate our true feelings.