When he was 20, Anthony Roth Costanzo realized that not everyone loved opera, the art form to which he’s devoted his life, as much as he did. Since then, he’s made it his mission to bring opera to new audiences, by presenting opera programming to New York City public school students; staging impromptu pop-up concerts all around the city with musicians from the New York Philharmonic during the height of the pandemic; and most recently curatinging the “Authentic Selves: The Beauty Within” festival, also with the New York Philharmonic.
And then there is his “real” work—on the stage. This spring, Costanzo stars once again in Philip Glass’s “Akhnaten,” the sold-out show that returns to the Metropolitan Opera in New York on May 19th, and runs through June 10th. Akhnaten’s sonorous librettos and arias, and its subtle commentary on issues of religion, power, and gender, notes Costanzo, are revealed again with each performance. “In the experience of the people I know who’ve gone many times, it rewards repeat viewing,” he said. For those who can’t make it to New York, Costanzo’s first album, Glass/Handel, alternates arias by Philip Glass and George Frideric Handel. His second album, “Only An Octave Apart,” a collaboration with the cabaret artist Justin Vivian Bond, was released earlier this year to much fanfare and sold-out shows at St. Ann’s Warehouse in New York.
This summer marks a triumphant return to some sense of normalcy for opera, which like so much theater has been hugely impacted by the pandemic. Costanzo has seen and performed in opera programs around the world; here, he shares his insider picks on innovative, surprising, and creative opera events to check out this summer, along with some up-and-coming talents to watch out for.
May 12-13
Jazz at Lincoln Center
Grammy Award-winning MacArthur genius Cécile McLorin Salvant, a vocalist whose style and repertoire defies genre, will be debuting her new album, Ghost Song, in New York this spring. It opens with a cover of Kate Bush’s Wuthering Heights that “will blow your mind,” Costanzo says. “I would literally go anywhere to see her.” May 12-13.
May 27-June 12
Spoleto Festival USA
The Spoleto Festival USA brings Umbria, Italy’s world-famous music festival to Charleston, South Carolina. This year, Omar, a new opera based on the life of an enslaved Muslim man who was transported from West Africa to Charleston, by Rhiannon Giddens, will have its world premiere. Costanzo has performed at Spoleto USA almost ten years in a row; every year, he is impressed anew by violinist Geoff Nuttall’s “fantastic” chamber music curation. “You think chamber music is boring until you’ve seen what they’re putting on,” said Costanzo.
May 27-October 22
Death of Classical
Have you always wanted to hear an opera performance in a crypt or a catacomb? No? Even so, says Costanzo, consider this one-of-a-kind festival, which typically takes place in the Crypt Chapel underneath the Church of the Intercession in Harlem. On July 21st, as part of the festival, Costanzo will be performing in a different, but no less creepy, location — the Catacombs in the Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn. “This is a really intimate way to experience music in a setting like no other,” he said. “It’s really well-curated and thoughtfully irreverent.”
June 9-12
Ojai Music Festival
Apart from being a generally “gorgeous place to go” and see opera, Costanzo cites the imaginative, multifaceted programming chosen by this season’s music directors, the American Modern Opera Company, of which he is a founding member. “It’s the only truly interdisciplinary company that I know of,” he says, featuring diverse talents such as dancer and choreographer Bobbie Jene Smith and composer Matthew Aucoin, and opera star Davóne Tines. “You can’t call it a dance company, you can’t call it, technically, a traditional opera company; it’s more in the form of a rock band,” Costanzo says.
June 18-August 7
Caramoor Festival
Just an hour or so north of New York City, in Katonah, New York, on the historic grounds of Caramoor, formerly the country home and gardens of a successful banker and now a performing arts center, this festival always features an eclectic mix of artists, including many celebrated vocalists. The season includes opera stars J’Nai Bridges, Stephanie Blythe, and Costanzo, as well as jazz and classical music. Check their Instagram account for Costanzo’s selection of the acts he’s most excited about, as well as curated picks from six other participating artists.
