Glimmerglass Festival

The Festival invites you to immerse yourself in myth, mystery, and adventure as the repertory for the 2024 season explores the connection between identity and illusion.

Festival Schedule:

12pm: Lyrics on the Lawn

The Glimmerglass Festival’s commitment to community continues to evolve with our brand new outdoor performance series, Lyrics on the Lawn. Offered to the public and at no cost, Lyrics on the Lawn is a series of outdoor concerts that will take place one hour before performances of Pagliacci.

Get to know the characters of Pagliacci with the help of Holly Adams, The Glimmerglass Festival’s “clown-in-residence,” as she guides audiences on a captivating journey through several scenes that will introduce the audience to traditional commedia dell’arte characters. Each performance will follow a similar story arc with the unique twist of rotating casts and music selections directly from our Young Artists.

Packed with humorous antics and lively music, you won’t want to miss your chance to witness the magic of opera in a beautiful setting! These 40-minute concerts are weather permitting. Attendees are encouraged to bring chairs or blankets for seating on the lawn.

1:00pm: Pagliacci

When passions ignite among a troupe of traveling players, the offstage drama spills into the performance in this new production of Pagliacci. Ruggero Leoncavallo’s comedy/thriller, inspired by a true crime report, contains two complete and overlapping stories in one compact work: a farce performed by a troupe of “pagliacci,” or clowns, and an all-too-real drama of jealous love. Our new production of this beloved opera adds a third frame, placing the opera within our immersive Festival with a pre-opera picnic performance - Lyrics on the Lawn - on our outdoor stage. What is real, and what is show?

MUSIC | Ruggero Leoncavallo
LIBRETTO | Ruggero Leoncavallo
SUNG IN | Italian
PROJECTED TEXT | English
OUTDOOR PICNIC PERFORMANCE | 40 minutes (begins one hour before curtain)
MAINSTAGE PERFORMANCE | 1 hour and 45 minutes

CONDUCTOR | Joseph Colaneri
DIRECTOR | Brenna Corner
CHOREOGRAPHER | Eric Sean Fogel
SET DESIGNER | James Rotondo
COSTUME DESIGNER | Erik Teague
LIGHTING DESIGNER | Robert Wierzel
HAIR & MAKEUP DESIGNER | Tom Watson
CHORUS DIRECTOR | Katherine Kozak

7:30pm: The Pirates of Penzance

The 2024 Festival will open with Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance in a vibrant production directed and choreographed by Seán Curran and conducted by Music Director Joseph Colaneri, featuring set and costume designs by James Schuette and lighting by Robert Wierzel. A Gilbert & Sullivan classic, combining soaring vocal lines and slapstick comedy, returns to Glimmerglass for the first time in nearly 20 years. This colorful, family-friendly production features elegant Victorian ladies and an aristocratic band of pirates stuck in perpetual adolescence. Curran’s hit production from Opera Theatre of Saint Louis kicks it up a notch at Glimmerglass with the addition of a corps of professional dancers.

MUSIC | Sir Arthur Sullivan
LIBRETTO | W.S. Gilbert
SUNG IN | English
PROJECTED LYRICS | English
RUN TIME | 2 hours and 25 minutes

CONDUCTOR | Joseph Colaneri
DIRECTOR | Seán Curran
CHOREOGRAPHER | Seán Curran
SET DESIGNER | James Schuette
COSTUME DESIGNER | James Schuette
LIGHTING DESIGNER | Robert Wierzel
HAIR & MAKEUP DESIGNER | Tom Watson
CHORUS DIRECTOR | Katherine Kozak