Glimmerglass Fest Premieres

‘Stomping Grounds’ In County

COOPERSTOWN – Warming up for its summer season, The Glimmerglass Festival is bring a world-premiere hip-hop opera, “Stomping Grounds,” to Otsego County and Upstate New York over the next few weeks, beginning at 7 p.m. Monday, May 8, at SUNY Oneonta’s Center for Multi-Cultural Experiences.

Another local performance will be at 7 p.m. Wednesday, May 10, at the Cooperstown Farmers Market.  No tickets are required for either show.   Performances are also planned at Cherry Valley-Springfield and Cooperstown central schools, and Oneonta Middle School.

The troupe will be back this summer to perform on Aug. 1, 3 and 7 at the 2017 Glimmerglass Festival.

The show is written entirely in verse, written by librettist, director and choreographer Paige Hernandez, who will also lead a discussion as part of the performances, and Victor Simonson.

“This partnership with Glimmerglass will be innovative in its fusion of hip-hop and opera and the inclusion of artists of color throughout the entire process,” Hernandez said. “’Stomping Grounds’ aims to honor each art form in ways that are modern, inventive and authentic.”

The story of “Stomping Grounds” emerges from the gentrification of a neighborhood, the disruption of sacred land and the fracturing of tradition and history by contemporary realities.