Join us for a celebration, Denim & Diamonds: The Blacksmith at Wolf Trap! The evening will boast a performance of La Maréchal ferrant / The Blacksmith , pre-show cocktails, a special opening performance by Grammy and Emmy-winning banjo artist Dom Flemons, and a post-show champagne and dessert celebration where we will unveil our 2022 season.
Presenting
Le Maréchal Ferrant / The Blacksmith (1761)
François-André Danican Philidor, Composer
English Translation By Nick Olcott
Adaptation By Nick Olcott and Ryan Brown
From the French Libretto By François-Antoine Quétant
Recapturing the humor and immediacy of the original, Nick Olcott and Ryan Brown have adapted Philidor’s opéra comique Le marechal ferrant into the late 19th-century American West. Opéra comique originally integrated French vaudeville songs, allowing for audience sing-alongs. Honoring this, Brown has woven in popular American folk songs of the time. This fully-staged production bridges country and city, celebrates rural themes, and invites the audience to participate by joining in singing familiar folk songs. Do not miss what Opera Canada dubbed, “Ninety welcome minutes of charm and cheer.”
The production features the return of Joshua Conyers, Dominique Côté, Pascale Beaudin, Arnold Livingston Geis, and Frank Kelley each of whom will reprise their roles for this Washington, DC premiere. New to the cast and making her Opera Lafayette main stage debut is Ashley Marie Robillard. The orchestra features Ryan Brown on his fiddle, Grammy-winner Dom Flemons, guitar, Denver native Dylan Kober, guitar, and Doug Balliett, contrabass, previously heard with Opera Lafayette in An Evening of Monteverdi. This performance is like “…nothing you have ever seen from Opera Lafayette, or anyone else for that matter,” writes Mike Rogers of Opera Gene.
