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2011 Castleton Festival

In late June and throughout the month of July, Classical WETA 90.9 FM will present magnificent orchestral concerts and opera performances recorded at Virginia’s Castleton Festival. This year’s festival takes place June 25–July 24, and Classical WETA staff will be on hand to record performances for broadcast on Classical WETA 90.9 FM and VivaLaVoce.

Castleton Festival logo

Featured on Classical WETA 90.9 FM and VivaLaVoce during June and July

Classical Conversations from the Castleton Festival

Classical WETA was able to sit down with several of the talented musicians participating in this year's Castleton Festival, including co-founder Lorin Maazel. For more interviews, be sure to check out our Classical Conversations page. Enjoy!

Lorin Maazel 4x3

Lorin Maazel

The Castleton Festival continues through July 24th, 2011. Classical WETA's David Ginder spoke with the Festival's Artistic Director, Lorin Maazel, about their new opera house, branching out to the Hylton Center in Manassas, and a new focus for La boheme.

Joyce El-Khoury

Joyce El-Khoury

Soprano Joyce El-Khoury returns to the Castleton Festival to reprise her role as Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi, and to make her debut as Mimi in Puccini's La Boheme.  A graduate of both the Met Opera's Lindemann Young Artist Development Program and the Academy of Vocal Arts, Miss El-Khoury has already made her Met Opera debut as Frasquita in Carmen and Esmerelda in The Bartered Bride under James Levine.  She spoke with Classical WETA's Deb Lamberton about what happens when you have a role like Mimi, which requires you to both cough and sing.

Brian Jagde

Brian Jagde

Brian Jagde spent nine years as a baritone until he finally decided to check out why so many folks thought he was a tenor.  Turns out they were right, and the past two years have launched Brian on a new career path as a lyric tenor.  He joins the Castleton Festival for the first time this year, singing the role of Rodolpho in Puccini's La Boheme.  Classical WETA's Deb Lamberton spoke to him about changing his fach from baritone to tenor, and about what he thinks when playing Rodolpho.

Festival Highlights on Classical WETA 90.9 FM and VivaLaVoce

Castleton Festival Performances will be broadcast on Classical WETA 90.9 FM in June and July as part of our weekly programs, Front Row Washington, Classical WETA Opera House. In addition, VivaLaVoce will feature festival performances on "Castleton Tuesdays" from June 14 through July 26.

Highlights:

  • On the Monday, June 27 Front Row Washington previews this year’s festival with an all-Beethoven program performed by the Castleton Festival Orchestra, recorded by Classical WETA last July at the 2010 festival. Festival Associate Conductor Han-Na Chang conducts Leonore Overture No. 3, and two Beethoven symphonies: No. 8 in F Major and No. 3 in E-flat Major, “Eroica”.
  • The five Front Row Washington broadcasts that follow in July and on August 1 will feature concerts from the Festival Tent at Castleton as well as those from the Hylton Performing Arts Center.
  • Each Saturday in July at 1 p.m., Classical WETA Opera House airs operas staged at the Castleton Festival, starting with a reprise of last year’s critically acclaimed production of Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi. Classical WETA will also feature La Bohème and a concert performance of Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess from the Hylton Center.
  • VivaLaVoce's “Castleton Tuesdays” present Castleton performances from June 14 through July 26. These broadcasts feature seven operas recorded from the 2010 and 2011 Castleton Festivals as well as two vocal recitals presented at The Theatre at Washington, Virginia.

NOTE: Many of the concerts are yet to be recorded, so the Classical WETA schedule may be subject to change.

About the Festival

Castleton Farm. Photo by Leslie Maazel.

Launched in the summer of 2009, the Castleton Festival grew out of the Castleton Residency program for young artists run by The Châteauville Foundation, founded by Lorin Maazel and his wife, Dietlinde Turban Maazel, in 1997. The Foundation’s mission is to nurture young artists, foster collaborative artistic enterprise and create opportunities within the community for shared cultural experience.

Castleton Festival performances at Castleton Farms are held in the intimate 140-seat custom-built Theatre House — which has welcomed world-renowned artists such as Mstislav Rostropovich, José Carreras, Emanuel Ax, and Itzhak Perlman, alongside rising classical music stars and figures from world music, jazz, dance and theatre — and in a 400-seat festival tent. Performances this year will also extend beyond the farm to other venues, including the Hylton Performing Arts Center in Manassas, the Music Center at Strathmore in Bethesda, and The Theatre at Washington, Virginia.

Festival Offerings

Lorin Maazel portrait.

Presentations at the festival will include new productions of Puccini’s La Bohème, Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges, and Kurt Weill’s Seven Deadly Sins — in addition to returning Castleton productions that include Puccini’s Il Tabarro and Gianni Schicchi, de Falla’s Master Pedro’s Puppet Show and Stravinsky’s A Soldier’s Tale.

Orchestral concerts include an all-Gershwin program featuring excerpts from Porgy & Bess, an all-Bizet program featuring excerpts from Carmen, and four orchestral concerts that will feature works by Bernstein, Bizet, Copland, Chabrier, Gershwin, Grofé, Maazel, Prokofiev and Ravel.

Interview with the General Manager

Nancy Gustafson

Nancy Gustafson Previews the 2011 Castleton Festival

The Third Annual Castleton Festival, Lorin Maazel, Artistic Director, starts in June and continues through the end of July at Castleton Farms in Virginia. Seven operas, seven concerts, and some of the finest young singers and instrumentalists anywhere are all part of this year’s Festival. General Manager Nancy Gustafson stopped by the Classical WETA studios to chat with Marilyn Cooley about what’s new, what’s returning, and many of the highlights of this year’s Festival.