Vocal music at Aspen Music Festival & School: world premiere of Siddhartha, She; Renée Fleming’s directorial debut; plus Isabel Leonard, Davóne Tines, & more (July 8–Aug 22)

(March 2025) — This summer, vocal music takes center stage at the Aspen Music Festival and School (AMFS). True to the season’s theme, “Concerning the Spiritual in Art,” the 2025 festival presents Siddhartha, She, an AMFS co-commission from Christopher Theofanidis and Melissa Studdard, whose immersive new music drama receives its staged world premiere under the baton of Music Director Robert Spano (Aug 2). Other operatic highlights include a fully staged production of Mozart’s Così fan tutte, marking the directorial debut of Aspen Opera Theater and VocalARTS Co-Artistic Director Renée Fleming (July 21, 23, & 26); a semi-staged production of Puccini’s La bohème, starring tenor Matthew Polenzani (Aug 19); and “An Evening at Café Momus,” an Opera Benefit headlined by Grammy-winning mezzo Isabel Leonard (July 8). Leonard also appears in recital (July 12), as do Broadway legend Patti LuPone (Aug 22) and, in his AMFS debut, pathbreaking bass-baritone Davóne Tines (Aug 9). Guest conductor Jane Glover leads Aspen’s first complete concert performance of Handel’s Messiah (Aug 6), soprano Ana María Martínez joins the Aspen Festival Orchestra for Ravel’s Shéhérazade (July 20), and one of the rising stars of the Aspen Opera Theater & VocalARTS program is the soprano soloist in Mahler’s Fourth Symphony (Aug 20). Completing this rich and varied vocal lineup is a concert performance of Lerner and Loewe’s beloved My Fair Lady, presented in collaboration with Theatre Aspen (July 15).

The Aspen Opera Theater and VocalARTS (AOTVA) program was launched in 2021 under the co-artistic direction of Renée Fleming and Patrick Summers. In addition to weekly masterclasses, spotlight recitals, and other performance opportunities, this summer’s AOTVA singers will participate in the Opera Benefit, Così fan tutte, La bohème, Messiah, Mahler’s Fourth Symphony, and Siddhartha, She. All the singers will receive mentorship from Fleming and Summers, and this summer – for the first time – all will receive full funding.

World premiere production of Siddhartha, She

Aspen boasts a long history of fostering new music through commissions, premieres, and performances. A centerpiece of this summer’s programming is the world premiere of Siddhartha, She, a new AMFS co-commission from composer Christopher Theofanidis and librettist Melissa Studdard (Aug 2). A ritual music drama in seven tableaux, the work offers an original, gender-swapping take on Hermann Hesse’s allegorical 1922 novel about the search for enlightenment. Theofanidis, whose “lyrical, exotic soul-searching” music (The New York Times) has twice been nominated for Grammy Awards, explains:

     “The creative team has felt this work in a deeply personal and transformative way. The reason we’re attracted to the story has to do with with its focus on both the spiritual and the artistic journey: that ultimately nobody can tell you how to be fully realized. It’s not something you can learn. It has to be awakened from within you. The character of Siddhartha represents each of our own personal journeys in art and spirit over a lifetime.”

His longtime collaborator Studdard, whose honors include an International Book Award, adds:

     "I think some people feel the spiritual path is such a pure thing that you have to be almost perfect coming to it. I just love that this story includes all of the fallibility of the characters and the mistakes they make. Even after the enlightenment, Siddhartha’s still making mistakes! It feels welcoming to me."

Theofanidis enjoys a long association with Aspen, where he has been in residence each summer since 2013, and now serves as director of the composition program. The festival makes a natural home for his new work, which has come into being after two decades of discussion with his Aspen colleagues. He confides: “The origin of this piece goes back 20 years for me and involves my closest friends and lifetime collaborators.”

These key associates include AMFS Music Director Robert Spano, a prime mover behind the project, who will conduct the world premiere in the Klein Music Tent. Anchored by the Aspen Festival Orchestra and the Denver-based Kantorei chorus, with its artistic director Joel Rinsema, the production will star sopranos Caitlin Lynch and Maya Kherani, mezzo-sopranos Kelley O’Connor and Tamara Mumford, countertenor Key’mon Murrah, and baritone Nmon Ford. These artists will grace an immersive production directed by distinguished Brooklyn-based multidisciplinary artist Anne Patterson. Featuring choreography by conceptual artist Lauri Stallings, extensive video projections by cinematographer Adam Larsen, sound design by composer and soundscape artist Patrick Harlin, and scenic installations by the director herself, Patterson’s production is designed to create a seamless experience between the performance space and its natural setting. As Theofanidis puts it: “In order to have these revelations you need contemplative space.”

It was at another such space in 2013 that the composer first met Studdard, Patterson, and Harlin, when all four were in residence at Florida’s Hermitage Artist Retreat. Harlin was there as the inaugural recipient of the Hermitage Prize in Composition, an award now bestowed annually at AMFS.

Così fan tutte and La bohème

Now in her fifth season as Co-Artistic Director of the Aspen Opera Theater and VocalARTS program, superstar soprano Renée Fleming steps into a new role this summer when she makes her directorial debut with a fully-staged new production of Così fan tutte in the historic Wheeler Opera House. Featuring the rising stars of AOTVA under the baton of Co-Artistic Director Patrick Summers, Fleming’s version reimagines Mozart’s comedy in a 1980s high school setting (July 21, 23, & 26). Fleming says:

     “Così fan tutte poses dramaturgical challenges today, beginning with the title, ‘All Women Are Like That.’ However, universal truths remain, and Mozart’s glorious music guides the way. I’ll be presenting his opera as a coming-of-age scenario in Yarmouth, MA, at the beginning of the wrestling craze.”

An AMFS student herself in the 1980s, Fleming remembers the decade fondly; it was in Aspen’s 1984 production of Le nozze di Figaro that she gave her first performance as Countess Almaviva, the vehicle for her subsequent Metropolitan Opera debut.

Opera lovers will also have the chance to see another beloved classic at Aspen this summer. After wowing audiences in the title role of Mozart’s Idomeneo at the 2023 festival, Opera News Award winner Matthew Polenzani – a tenor known for his “wonderfully fresh and robust voice, with clarion top notes and a gift for sweet phrasing” (San Francisco Chronicle) – returns to star as Rodolfo in Puccini’s La bohème. Directed by Katherine M. Carter for one night only at the Klein Music Tent, the semi-staged production will feature singers from AOTVA under the leadership of Spanish-born Italian conductor Enrique Mazzola, Music Director of Lyric Opera of Chicago, in his festival debut (Aug 19).

Opera benefit

This year’s annual Opera Benefit, “An Evening at Café Momus,” presents three-time Grammy-winning mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard and rising stars of the AOTVA program in selected operatic scenes and arias, as well as song and showtune favorites, at the Klein Music Tent, with both Renée Fleming and Patrick Summers in attendance (July 8). Celebrated for her “passionate intensity and remarkable vocal beauty” (Santa Fe Reporter), Leonard is the toast of the foremost opera houses and concert stages worldwide.

Vocal recitals: Isabel Leonard, Davóne Tines, and Patti LuPone

Three of today’s most compelling vocalists appear in recital at Aspen this summer. Acclaimed in repertoire ranging from Vivaldi and Mozart to Nico Muhly and Thomas Adès, Isabel Leonard returns for a solo performance in the superb acoustics of Harris Concert Hall (July 12).

Next, supported by pianist John Bitoy, bass-baritone Davóne Tines makes his AMFS debut in Harris Concert Hall with Recital No. 1: MASS, a thoughtfully curated solo program spanning composers from J.S. Bach to Margaret Bonds, Tyshawn Sorey, and Caroline Shaw (Aug 9). A trailblazing musician who uses his art to address social injustice, Tines is “changing what it means to be a classical singer” (The New Yorker).

Finally, in her new concert program, “Patti LuPone: A Life in Notes,” three-time Tony-winning Broadway sensation LuPone shares her life story with the Klein Music Tent audience through a program of evocative songs, dating from the 1950s to the present day. Conceived and directed by Scott Wittman, with music direction and arrangements by the singer’s longtime musical collaborator Joseph Thalken, this special program was written for LuPone by three-time Emmy winner Jeffrey Richman (Aug 22).

In concert: Messiah, Shéhérazade, Mahler’s Fourth Symphony, & My Fair Lady

Representing something of a summer rarity, Aspen presents its first complete concert performance of Handel’s Messiah – the most beloved oratorio in the repertoire – in Harris Concert Hall. Chicago’s Music of the Baroque chorus and its Music Director, the venerable British conductor Jane Glover, join forces with the Aspen Festival Ensemble and four rising stars of the AOTVA program: soprano Jennifer Robinson, mezzo-soprano Ashlyn Brown, tenor Jonghyun Park, and bass-baritone Jared Werlein (Aug 6).

Vocal soloists also feature prominently in two of the summer’s orchestral concerts, both presented in the Klein Music Tent. Soprano Ana María Martínez, a Grammy and Opera News Award winner who regularly headlines productions at the world’s leading opera houses, is the soloist in Ravel’s orchestral song cycle Shéhérazade, led by French conductor Fabien Gabel, in his AMFS debut (July 20). A month later, a soprano selected from AOTVA will join the Aspen Conducting Academy Orchestra for “Das himmlische Leben,” the finale of Mahler’s Fourth Symphony, which depicts a child’s vision of heaven (Aug 20).

Marking its sixth annual musical theater co-production with Theatre Aspen, AMFS presents a one-night-only concert performance of Lerner and Loewe’s My Fair Lady, led by eminent musical theater conductor Andy Einhorn in the Klein Music Tent (July 15). Einhorn is currently drawing rave reviews for his musical direction of Gypsy on Broadway.

Download high-resolution photos here.

 

Aspen Music Festival and School: vocal 2025

July 8
Klein Music Tent
Opera Benefit: “An Evening at Café Momus”
Isabel Leonard, mezzo-soprano
Renée Fleming & Patrick Summers, co-artistic directors

July 12
Harris Concert Hall
Recital: Isabel Leonard, mezzo-soprano

July 15
Klein Music Tent
Theatre Aspen collaboration / Andy Einhorn, conductor
LERNER & LOEWE: My Fair Lady (in concert)

July 20
Klein Music Tent
Aspen Festival Orchestra / Fabien Gabel, conductor (debut)
R. STRAUSS: Death and Transfiguration
RAVEL: Shéhérazade (with Ana María Martínez, soprano)
MENDELSSOHN: Piano Concerto No. 1 (with Seong-Jin Cho, piano)
RAVEL: Suite No. 2 from Daphnis et Chloé

July 21, 23, & 26
Wheeler Opera House
Aspen Opera Theater and VocalARTS / Patrick Summers, conductor
Director: Renée Fleming (directorial debut)
MOZART: Così fan tutte (fully staged)

August 2
Klein Music Tent
Aspen Festival Orchestra / Robert Spano, conductor
Christopher THEOFANIDIS: Siddhartha, She (world premiere of AMFS co-commission; staged)
Libretto by Melissa Studdard
(With Siddhartha: Caitlin Lynch, soprano; Govinda: Maya Kherani, soprano; Kamala: Kelley O’Connor, mezzo-soprano; Dharuna: Tamara Mumford, mezzo-soprano; Gotama: Key’Mon Murrah, countertenor; Abinaswar: Nmon Ford, baritone; Kantorei choir / Joel Rinsema, chorus director)

August 6
Harris Concert Hall
Aspen Festival Ensemble; Music of the Baroque chorus / Jane Glover, conductor
With AOTVA soloists
HANDEL: Messiah

August 9
Harris Concert Hall
Recital No. 1: MASS
Davóne Tines, bass-baritone (debut); John Bitoy, piano
Caroline SHAW: Kyrie
J.S. BACH: “Wie jammern mich doch die verkehrten Herzen,” from Vergnügte Ruh, beliebte Seelenlust
Caroline SHAW: Agnus Dei
Tyshawn SOREY: “Were You There” from Songs for Death
BONDS: “To a Brown Girl, Dead”
Tyshawn SOREY: “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” from Songs for Death
Caroline SHAW: Credo
J.S. BACH: “Mache dich, mein Herze, rein” from St. Matthew Passion
Caroline SHAW: Gloria
TRAD., arr. HOGAN: “Give Me Jesus”
Caroline SHAW: Sanctus
EASTMAN: Prelude to The Holy Presence of Joan d’Arc
Igee DIEUDONNÉ, arr. Davóne TINES: VIGIL

August 19
Klein Music Tent
Aspen Chamber Symphony / Enrique Mazzola, conductor (debut)
PUCCINI: La bohème (semi-staged)
With Matthew Polenzani, tenor; soloists from AOTVA; Katherine Carter, director

August 20
Klein Music Tent
Aspen Conducting Academy Orchestra
TBA: Piano Competition Winner
MAHLER: Symphony No. 4 (with soprano soloist from AOTVA)

August 22
Klein Music Tent
Patti LuPone in Concert: “A Life in Notes”

[All programs subject to change.]