What do opera people do on a day off? Truth: we usually go to the mall. But not this week! Some of us are doing a Schubertiade at Hyde Hall, a gorgeous 19th century house overlooking Lake Otsego. Piano, violin, and voice combine with a beautiful room and a stunning view. It’s very special to have your own faraway hills to look at while performing “Der Hirt auf den Felsen.” More than that, it teaches us so much to do these pieces in the kind of space they were written for. All our contemporary ideas about dynamics and articulation, all aimed at huge halls, go out the window. To play forte, you find a big emotional place, you don’t turn some dial up to eleven. And piano, soft, can be as intimate as you like.
6:30 tomorrow, Hyde Hall, if you happen to be near Glimmerglass. Admission is free. Me, violinist Heather Wittels, pianist David Moody, Singers Jeni Houser, Dan Curran, and Gerard Michael D’Emilio, and actor Wynn Harmon – music and letters of Franz Schubert. Balm for the ears and the heart!