For the last installment of our Opéra-ballet Salon Series (more below), this session will discuss how Dance was an essential part of all French operas of the 18th century. Rebecca Harris-Warrick and Hedy Law will discuss what the inclusion of dancing meant to these operas, the multiple ways in which it functioned within a primarily vocal environment, and how the emergence of pantomime offered a new paradigm, both aesthetic and intellectual, to French conceptions of choreographed movement.

ABOUT THE FULL SALON SERIES

In preparation for our performance of Opéra-ballet: Rameau’s Io and de La Garde’s Léandre et Héro (coming to Washington, DC May 2 & 3, 2023 and NY on May 9, 2023), Opera Lafayette and guest scholars will be hosting a Salon Series for three weeks in March, on Wednesdays the 1st, 15th, and 29th at 6 PM EST.  Join us as we delve further into the Rococo influences of Madame de Pompadour, who is the inspiration for our 2023 musical season (get tickets). Each session of this Salon Series will feature a unique look into our upcoming production.

Part of our Opéra-ballet Salon Series (more below), this session focuses on a discussion of the Rococo and its afterlives in the twenty-first century, including work by contemporary artists who have engaged directly with this artistic mode in a variety of media. It will also feature a conversation with Rameau’s costume designer, Machine Dazzle, hailed as a “theatrical genius” (The New Yorker), and “renowned, multifaceted artist” (Vogue).

ABOUT THE FULL SALON SERIES

In preparation for our performance of Opéra-ballet: Rameau’s Io and de La Garde’s Léandre et Héro (coming to Washington, DC May 2 & 3, 2023 and NY on May 9, 2023), Opera Lafayette and guest scholars will be hosting a Salon Series for three weeks in March, on Wednesdays the 1st, 15th, and 29th at 6 PM EST.  Join us as we delve further into the Rococo influences of Madame de Pompadour, who is the inspiration for our 2023 musical season (get tickets). Each session of this Salon Series will feature a unique look into our upcoming production.

Part of our Opéra-ballet Salon Series (more below), this session features a discussion about the Rococo as an eighteenth-century mode that encompassed the visual arts, material culture, fashion and music, providing context for Rameau’s Opéra-ballets, and include some discussion of the culture of the opera-comique, the ballet, and its generative qualities.

ABOUT THE FULL SALON SERIES

In preparation for our performance of Opéra-ballet: Rameau’s Io and de La Garde’s Léandre et Héro (coming to Washington, DC May 2 & 3, 2023 and NY on May 9, 2023), Opera Lafayette and guest scholars will be hosting a Salon Series for three weeks in March, on Wednesdays the 1st, 15th, and 29th at 6 PM EST.  Join us as we delve further into the Rococo influences of Madame de Pompadour, who is the inspiration for our 2023 musical season (get tickets). Each session of this Salon Series will feature a unique look into our upcoming production.

Photo in Header: Fabiola Jean-Louis, Marie Antoinette Is Dead, From the Rewriting History series, Archival pigment print, unframed, 24in x 31in, © image: Artist Website.

INDIGENOUS STYLE & CLAIMS OF THE COMMON LANDS
GUESTS SILVAIN COSTUME DESIGNER PATRICIA MICHAELS & TAOS PUEBLO MEMBER

Wednesday, May 25, 6 p.m. EDT / 4 p.m. MT
VIRTUAL

Patricia Michaels, a Taos Pueblo native, and the costume designer for our production of Silvain, “took on the project of designing in part to incorporate a part of New Mexico culture she has been eager to explore through fashion. Informing her designs for the opera is the art of Spanish colonial New Mexico, ranging from carved and painted woodworking of santero artists (makers of religious imagery) to wool and cotton techniques of colcha embroidery, offering a contemporary interpretation of life and fashion during the state’s territorial period” (Hyperallergic). Joining her will be another member of the Taos Pueblo who will speak about Blue Lake and the Blanca Peak acquisitions and the culture, policies, and reclamation of common lands by Indigenous peoples. 

LAND RIGHTS OF TODAY
GUEST SCHOLAR MARIA MONDRAGON-VALDEZ & MEXICAN FILMMAKER / SILVAIN STAGE DIRECTOR TANIA HERNÁNDEZ VELASCO

Wednesday, May 18, 6 p.m. EDT / 4 p.m. MT
VIRTUAL

Maria Mondragon-Valdez (a multi-generation resident of the Sangre de Cristo Land Grant) talks to artists in the opera project about the specific ongoing land rights issues between the people of San Luis and the private owners of the Sangre de Cristo land grant, and relate it to the drama in our opera. Joining her will be Tania Hernández Velasco, known for her international, award-winning film, Titixe (2018), that will be screened May 26th at the Taos Center for the Arts (learn more).  This film follows the last harvest her family attempted before having to let go of their small piece of land, continuing the discussion of land taken from the indigenous. Silvain is her first exploration as an opera stage director, where she approaches social themes and visual motifs that dwell in her cinematic work.

SILVAIN IN 18TH CENTURY FRANCE 
GUEST SCHOLARS JUDITH MILLER & SYLVIA RODRIGUEZ 

Wednesday, May 11, 6 p.m. EDT / 4 p.m MT
VIRTUAL

Judith Miller (Emory University) joins Sylvia Rodriguez (Taos, UNM) to introduce land rights issues involving common lands first in late 18th century France (the original setting of the opera) and then during the European colonization of the southwest (the context of our updated setting of the opera).

Join Opera Lafayette and host Julia Doe, for this three-part online Salon Series about Marie Antoinette, an incredible woman in history who shaped much of French musical tastes in the 18th century and inspired our 2022 musical season (get tickets). Each session will feature a unique look into her life, led by different guest scholars weekly.

MARIE ANTOINETTE'S MUSICAL LEGACIES - WITH GUEST SCHOLAR REBECCA GEOFFROY-SCHWINDEN

Wednesday, April 20, 2022, 6 PM EST

This presentation will explore the political repercussions of Marie Antoinette's musical practices during her lifetime and beyond. We will begin with a discussion of how the Parisian public interpreted her musical choices on the eve of the French Revolution. Then, we will meet her first lady-in-waiting, Madame Campan, who, after narrowly escaping the guillotine, dared to carry on Marie Antoinette's musical legacy in an elite school for girls. Finally, we will delve into the personal and practical significance of music-making for women in the wake of Marie Antoinette's death, as Napoleon tried to silence them legally and literally. In this context, Marie Antoinette became an icon as well as a cautionary tale, and we shall learn how music was implicated in both.

Join Opera Lafayette and host Julia Doe, for this three-part online Salon Series about Marie Antoinette, an incredible woman in history who shaped much of French musical tastes in the 18th century and inspired our 2022 musical season (get tickets). Each session will feature a unique look into her life, led by different guest scholars weekly.

MUSIC AT MARIE ANTOINETTE’S VERSAILLES – WITH GUEST HOST JULIA DOE

Wednesday, April 13, 2022, 6 PM EST

This presentation will offer a deeper dive into Marie Antoinette’s activities as a musical performer and patron. We’ll first detail how music infused Marie Antoinette’s private life at Versailles, addressing the queen’s vocal and instrumental training, her salon concerts, and her participation in amateur theatricals at the Petit Trianon. We’ll then consider how Marie Antoinette’s artistic preferences influenced the broader evolution of French musical style, examining her relationships with key composers of the Enlightenment, and her impact on the ceremonial repertory of the Bourbon court.

Join Opera Lafayette and host Julia Doe, for this three-part online Salon Series about Marie Antoinette, an incredible woman in history who shaped much of French musical tastes in the 18th century and inspired our 2022 musical season (get tickets). Each session will feature a unique look into her life, led by different guest scholars weekly.

MARIE ANTOINETTE, QUEEN OF FASHION – WITH GUEST SCHOLAR CAROLINE WEBER

Wednesday, April 6, 2022, 6 PM EST

This presentation will focus on Marie Antoinette’s role as a tastemaker across a variety of media, extending from music to fashion and the decorative arts to garden design, and it will examine the changing political backdrop against which her stylistic choices were made. 

Praised by The Washington Post, Washington Parent, and on Austin Public Radio, Opera Starts with Oh Online! is back.

This free family program by Opera Lafayette was created to introduce young audiences to the magic of opera! Led by teaching artist, choreographer, and dancer Tamrin Goldberg, and featuring new guest artists every unit, Opera Starts with Oh! is perfect for families with children three and up!

About this Unit: How the West was Sung featuring Philidor’s The Blacksmith

Join Tamrin Goldberg (teaching artist, choreographer, and dancer) with a soon-to-be-announced guest artist for this session exploring Opera Lafayette’s production of The Blacksmith. Adapted and translated from an 18th-century French opera comique called Le maréchal ferrant, this light-hearted, cowboy tale is now set in the 19th-century American West and incorporates sing-along American folk songs alongside French arias.

ADMISSION IS A PAY WHAT YOU CAN STRUCTURE.