The Art and Opera Trip is Sold Out
Please contact us at info@connconcertopera.org if you would like
to receive an invitation to next year's trip.

Join us as we journey to the foothills of the Adirondacks for some art, some opera, some good eats, and some great camaraderie!

With a noon departure on Friday July 17th, we’ll have a light catered lunch on board as the trip takes us first to the new Arkell Museum in Canajoharie, New York (above) for some bubbly and a guided docent tour of the Winslow Homers (and other well-known American artists), then up to Sharon Springs for dinner with our old friends Doug and Garth at the American Hotel, and over to Cooperstown for two nights.

We will have Michelle guide us through the new major exhibit at the Fenimore Museum of Art on Saturday morning July 18th. Called America’s Rome, the exhibit includes 80 paintings of 19th Century Rome, painted by prominent American artists of the time.

Included, for example, is George Inness’s Roman Campagna (Roman Countryside, 1858) on loan from the New Britain Museum of American Art, right. This is one of the largest exhibits ever mounted in Cooperstown, bringing together other American paintings we have never had the opportunity to see.

A highlight of the trip is the excitement of opening night Saturday for the Glimmerglass Opera’s 2009 season, with Hartford’s favorite soprano Mary Dunleavy (left) as Violetta in Verdi’s tuneful masterpiece “La Traviata”. Mary created a sensation at the Bushnell with Connecticut Opera in her brilliantly sung and acted Lucia in Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor. We will meet Mary Dunleavy in a reception after the opening night performance.

Our lodgings Friday and Saturday night will be at The Inn at Cooperstown (left) and The Cooper Inn, two fully restored Victorian inns, and both on the National Register. The two inns are directly across Chestnut Street from each other and are only one block from Cooperstown’s Main Street, and three blocks from the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Sunday morning we have a 10 AM tour of Hyde Hall, a neoclassic manor house on the north shore of Lake Otsego, started in 1817 (right). With 50 rooms and sweeping vistas down the Lake from its front lawns, this house museum gives us a glimpse of an early 19th century country estate.

After our Hyde Hall tour we head to the Otesaga Hotel where their famous Sunday buffet will be spread out awaiting our arrival. It is hard to resist sampling all the choices which look so tempting!

Following the brunch, we return to the Glimmerglass Opera’s Alice Busch Theater to see Rossini’s sparkling comedy La Cenerentola (Cinderella). Singing the role of Angelina will be the brilliant young Canadian mezzo soprano Julie Boulianne who recently sang Rosina in Opera Montreal’s production of Rossini’s Barber of Seville.

The dashing American tenor John Tessier, right, will sing Don Ramiro. Tessier, no stranger to us at Glimmerglass, (Così fan Tutte 2005, Barber of Seville, 2006, I Capuleti e I Montecchi 2008) has an impressive resume, with appearances at Washington Opera, English National Opera, the Royal Opera House London, Opera Montreal, and others.

Following the closing curtain of La Cenerentola, our motor coach meets us at the circle adjacent to the Alice Busch Theater to take us back to Connecticut. Wine, soft drinks, cheese and crackers will accompany the conversation as we head for home.

Alice Busch Theater, Glimmerglass Opera	Fenimore Art Museum