This year’s festival moved outdoors due to Covid-19 and included ‘The Magic Flute,’ ‘Gods and Mortals,’ ‘Il Trovatore’ and ‘The Passion of Mary Cardwell Dawson.’

By Heidi Waleson

Aug. 18, 2021 1:37 pm ET

Cooperstown, N.Y.

Francesca Zambello, the general and artistic director of the Glimmerglass Festival, knows how to improvise. With Covid-19 restrictions on live performances and gatherings still in flux as she planned her summer season, she shifted the operation outdoors onto the lawn next to the company’s theater. There was a large, uncovered stage with an elaborate amplification system ( Andrew Harper did the sound design), socially distanced “squares” of lawn, each accommodating up to four patrons, and a semicircle of more expensive, partly enclosed “boxes” beyond them. Performances went on at 11 a.m. and 6 p.m., rain or shine; attendees were encouraged to bring much-needed sunscreen, hats, umbrellas and lawn chairs.

Each of the six productions—three operas, two concerts, and a play with music—ran a maximum of 90 minutes, with no intermission. The operas were trimmed, slightly reorganized, and performed with tiny choruses. Orchestrations were adapted for smaller forces, and the orchestra played live inside the theater, its sound piped out to the stage and the lawn. While not the ideal way to experience opera, Glimmerglass on the Grass, as the season, which ran July 15-Aug. 17, was branded, , proved an enjoyable, more casual experience, revised to work in an unsettled time.

I had planned to catch five of the six offerings during the final weekend; unfortunately, “Songbird”—Offenbach’s comedy “La Périchole” reimaged with a 1920s New Orleans jazz sound—was scrubbed due to lightning on Friday evening, only the second cancellation of the 28-performance season. Of those I saw, “The Magic Flute” and “Gods and Mortals,” a concert of Wagner arias, were the most successful.

The adapted “Flute”—with a witty English translation by Kelley Rourke and a deft, transparent orchestration by Joseph Colaneri, the festival’s music director—compressed much of the dialogue and some of the action into a narration spoken by bass-baritone Eric Owens in the character of Sarastro. A handful of musical numbers were jettisoned, and the Three Ladies doubled as the guardian Spirits, necessitating a bit of plot revision, but the result was fleet and entertaining, foregrounding the piece’s human interactions rather than its grander pronouncements. NJ Agwuna’s lively direction fit neatly into Peter J. Davison’s festival unit set—a copse of tree trunks at stage right, an array of colored lightbulbs above—and Christelle Matou’s handsome, sculptural costumes made a clear visual statement. Daylight for all the shows meant that lighting was limited to occasional flashing effects.

Apart from Mr. Owens’s fatherly Sarastro, “Flute” was cast with capable, bright-voiced members of the company’s Young Artists Program. Helen Zhibing Huang’s clear soprano made her an enchanting Pamina; Emily Misch ably navigated the Queen of the Night’s coloratura; Michael Pandolfo was an amusing Papageno; and Kameron Lopreore, who stepped in at the last minute as Tamino, acquitted himself well. Victoria Lawal, Ariana Warren and Maire Therese Carmack were a fiery trio of Ladies.

Glimmerglass normally does very little Wagner, so “Gods and Mortals” was a chance to showcase three impressive young dramatic voices in this repertory. Tenor Ian Koziara and soprano Alexandria Shiner, who were supposed to headline last summer’s canceled “Die Feen,” sang appealing numbers from that obscure early piece and teamed up for heavier work as Siegmund and Sieglinde (“Die Walküre”). While it’s tricky to assess Wagnerian prowess with amplification, both displayed robust, attractive voices with easy power and excellent breath control. Ms. Shiner’s thrilling vocal range in “Traft ihr das Schiff,” Senta’s ballad from “Der Fliegende Höllander,” and Mr. Koziara’s yearning “Dir töne Lob,” from “Tannhäuser,” were also highlights. Mezzo Raehann Bryce-Davis made an arresting Fricka spitting out her disdain for her husband in “So ist den aus” from “Walküre,” and a furious, vengeful Ortrud in “Entweihte Götter” from “Lohengrin” A sextet of Young Artists supplied a diverting “Ride of the Valkyries,” and veterans Mark Delavan (“Höllander”) and Mr. Owens (“Ring”) ably rounded out the show, but the young soloists were the stars, and Mr. Colaneri’s orchestral accompaniment supported them splendidly.

Ms. Bryce-Davis was also the star of Verdi’s “Il Trovatore.” The opera was reordered to start with Azucena’s story—the murdered mother, the baby tossed in the fire—and Ms. Bryce-Davis sang the role with richness and pathos. However, this blood-and-thunder piece suffered from being abridged. The succession of high-voltage arias, with little rest in between, felt relentless, and the amplification exacerbated some pitch issues for Latonia Moore (Leonora), while pushing the sound of Gregory Kunde (Manrico) and Michael Mayes (Count Di Luna) into stentorian territory and sending Mr. Colaneri’s orchestra into audio overdrive. Ms. Zambello and Eric Sean Fogel collaborated on the efficient directing; Ms. Matou’s costumes featured traditional Romani looks, although the program and English supertitles referred to Azucena’s band as nomads.

“The Passion of Mary Cardwell Dawson,” a 70-minute play by Sandra Seaton, commissioned by the festival, made a worthy effort to bring attention to the now-forgotten story of the National Negro Opera Company and its founder, Mary Cardwell Dawson. However, the clunky script was mostly a scenery-chewing opportunity for mezzo Denyce Graves. As Dawson, she agonized about whether to move an outdoor concert threatened by rain into a segregated concert hall or cancel and face financial disaster; coached three young singers (Victoria Lawal, Mia Athey and Jonathan Pierce Rhodes ) through scenes from “Carmen”; and lectured them about the difficulties of life as Black singers. Ms. Graves thankfully dropped her diva act for a heartfelt final song (by Carlos Simon ), and the “Carmen” performances were agreeable. Kevin Miller was the versatile music director and onstage pianist, Kimille Howard directed, and Jessica Jahn supplied the World War II-era period costumes.

—Ms. Waleson writes on opera for the Journal and is the author of “Mad Scenes and Exit Arias: The Death of the New York City Opera and the Future of Opera in America” (Metropolitan).