Francesca Zambello: Artistic and General Director, The Glimmerglass Festival Francesca Zambello brings the beauty and pageantry of opera to Cooperstown, NY’s acclaimed Glimmerglass Festival as its Artistic and General Director. Set on the bucolic shores of Otsego Lake, the company stages four new productions every July and August, a demanding schedule that Zambello relishes. An internationally renowned director, she has produced operas at the world’s premier stages, including the Metropolitan Opera, Teatro alla Scala, the Bolshoi, Paris Opera and the Washington National Opera (where she was recently appointed Artistic Advisor). Zambello has also staged plays and musicals on Broadway and at the Kennedy Center, the Royal National Theatre and BAM, among many others. She’ll travel to Australia next spring to direct a new production of La Traviata at the famous Sydney Opera House. “In opera and theater we can create strong visual worlds with the ability to address certain issues and raise awareness,” Zambello says. “The arts not only entertain, but inform and enlighten as well. I enjoy creating new pieces, as we did this past summer at The Glimmerglass Festival with the commission of the new opera A Blizzard On Marblehead Neck, and building new audiences—finding a way to connect with the community. That’s really what this is about—connecting and building a stronger community—around art, around music.”
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