The opening concert of this season’s Castleton Festival comes to the Music Center at Strathmore direct from Toronto, where it inaugurated the brand new Black Creek Festival. The program unites world-famous conductor Lorin Maazel and icons Helen Mirren and Jeffrey Irons in an unprecedented performance of “Music Inspired by Shakespeare.” The Castleton Orchestra and the women’s voices of the Castleton Festival Chorus perform excerpts from “Romeo and Juliet” by Prokofiev and Tchaikovsky and Mendelssohn’s incidental music to “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” The actors will speak Shakespeare’s verses from the latter.
The Castleton Festival, held for the past three summers on the Rappahannock County estate of Maazel and his wife, Dietlinde, has gained international attention for its operas and orchestral programs performed by rising resident artists on the brink of important careers. This season, it taps two new local venues, Strathmore and the Hylton Center in Manassas.
| Onstage |
| The Castleton Festival Orchestra |
| Where: Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda |
| When: 8 p.m., Thursday |
| Info: $25 to $150 (concert only) at 301-581-5100 or strathmore.org. |
| Post-performance Soir?e: $250 at 202-721-0020 or [email protected] |
| Information about Castleton Festival in Rappahannock County: 540-937-4969 or castletonfestival.com. |
“The Shakespeare program at Strathmore happened by chance,” said Dietlinde Maazel. “My husband has a long history with Jeremy Irons. He was the speaker of Big Brother’s voice in my husband’s opera ‘1984’ performed in London, and he also was the narrator in a program they did together of a Chinese legend about an emperor and philosopher.”
The Castleton Festival in Rappahannock County spans four weeks of operas and concerts. This season, 87 instrumentalists ages 17 to early 30s were chosen to become apprentices in the old-fashioned sense. They and 70 chorus members ages 17 to 32 receive in-depth training in voice, acting, movement and German, Italian and French languages.
While residents in their master’s home, the apprentices eat and rehearse together, immersed in a variety of collaborative staged performances and concerts as all are shaped and molded to go forth in their individual fields.
Opera highlights on the estate this season are Puccini’s “La Boheme,” Ravel’s “Enfant et les Sortileges” and Kurt Weill’s “Seven Deadly Sins.” Past favorites, Stravinsky’s “Soldier’s Tale” featuring violinist Jennifer Koh and de Falla’s “Master Pedro’s Puppet Show,” will also be performed. A special event, along with the operas and orchestral concerts, is “Subject to Change,” the one-woman show of Grammy-winning soprano Sylvia McNair.
“First and foremost, we’re developing the stars of the future,” Dietlinde said. “My husband could spend his summers relaxing on our estate, but he believes in mentorship and is committed to helping young musicians meet their career goals. Together, we are teaching and passing the baton to the next generation of artists.”
