Catherine Malfitano Delivers Master Class For Opera Preservation

"The American Lyric Theater was founded in 2005 to foster the creation of operas by matching composers to librettists and offering them training and workshops to help them develop new works. Last year it also commissioned three operas from participants. Those operas are at the center of the InsightALT festival being presented at the JCC in Manhattan. The festival, where audiences can get a glimpse of the craft that underpins the art of opera, opened on Tuesday with a public master class led by Catherine Malfitano. A venerated soprano, Ms. Malfitano has, over the course of three decades, created roles in nearly a dozen new operas. In recent years she has also built up a portfolio of directing credits. 'The ultimate test of whether a piece is going to last is whether you can make an emotional connection with the audience and make them come back for more,' she told the participating singers, urging them to take the creation of new operas seriously. 'What we are doing is of the utmost importance for the future of this art form. Because at some point people will get sick of the museum.'" Read more at the New York Times Blog by clicking here.