News from the Noteworthy from The Glimmerglass Festival
Opening Night Brings Conklin’s Vision to Life
On Friday, July 11, The Glimmerglass Festival opens a milestone season in celebration of 50 years of song and story by the lake. We’ve called the season “The Art of Making Art” and are celebrating the performers, dreamers, and creators who take our breath away. These often-unseen people lavish untold care and countless hours on every detail and nuance of a production—from the precise pacing of a crescendo to the color of a button to the coordination of hundreds of schedules. We’ve always invited our guests to step inside the creative process, to become part of the family. But in this 50th anniversary season, we truly celebrate those who make art.
One of those makers is John Conklin, our associate artistic director emeritus, and this season’s visionary set designer for all four productions. We lost John two weeks ago—a staggering loss for our industry and the Glimmerglass family. He was not only one of the world’s most respected theater designers, but for generations of artists at Glimmerglass and beyond, he was an artistic father—the spark igniting their future careers and ongoing fascination with our art form. For John, Glimmerglass was “home to a family of dedicated professionals who come together to learn from each other, from the operas we produce, and from the space itself.”
For Glimmerglass alone, he designed more than 40 productions. You may recall “The Glass Blowers” (2000), “Orlando Paladino” (2002), or, more recently, “The Barber of Seville” (2018). John believed that a production only exists for the performance, for the audience, for you. When asked about productions ending, John remarked, “People say, oh, isn’t it terrible? Don’t you feel terrible when the scenery or the costumes are taken away? I say no, no! It does not exist without the performance, and then it only exists in memory.”
When I approached John about coming out of retirement to design our 2025 season, I was eager to join the long list of theater professionals whose thinking has been elevated through collaborating with him. He shared that when he considered “the art of making art,” he wanted to “celebrate the stage, a frame for beguiling fantasies and mad hallucinations, a window onto strange lands and a mirror that reflects our deepest truths” and the “vital world of ‘Glimmerglass’ itself—the scenic beauty of the countryside, but also the supporters, the visitors, the audiences, the staff, the musicians, the craftsmen, the artists.” I knew he could help us envision a 50th anniversary like no other. John’s singular vision will culminate in the staggeringly original season he designed for us.
Our opening night marks both a culmination and a new beginning for Glimmerglass, as we bring John’s vision to life and usher in the next 50 years of music, art, and awe by the lake. It will be a bittersweet night, but an inspired and uplifting season. John ended his artistic career in the place he was happiest—here at Glimmerglass, sitting in technical rehearsals in the Alice Busch Opera Theater, working alongside people he dearly loved and respected. Those who knew him closely know how much this season meant to him and how much of himself he had poured into it over the last year and a half. There is no better way to remember John than through his work, and we invite you to join—you are part of our family. Come and see John’s work, revel in the makers who brought it to life, and fill our theater with your own imaginations and dreams.
Rob Ainsley is the artistic and general director of The Glimmerglass Festival.