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Ulster County’s Kingston To Be Site

of First-in-the-World Drive-In Opera

Maybe you went to a drive-in movie when you were a kid, and

maybe you’ve attended live performances of grand opera. But you have

never experienced anything like what you’ll have a chance to see and

hear on Saturday, August 29, right here in Ulster County: one of the

grandest of operas, Puccini’s Tosca, performed live on stage and

simulcast to you on giant Jumbotron screens and with the most advanced

sound system in history as you relax in the safety and comfort of your

car.

You have never experienced such a thing because no one ever

has. It has simply never been done before.

But when the Covid-19 pandemic made it necessary to re-assess

the annual three-day, multi-event Phoenicia Festival of the Voice, the

idea of this first-of-a-kind spectacle was born. And thanks to Ulster

County Executive Pat Ryan and his indefatigable staff, this unique

performance will take place in the west campus of Kingston’s Tech City,

will accommodate as many as 600 cars, and will scrupulously adhere to

all safety measures to protect audience, performers, and staff against the

virus.

Opera at the Drive-In

How will it work? Ticket-holders can drive into the site as early

as 5:00pm and picnic or tailgate in their appropriately distanced parking

slot. When the performance begins at 8:30, audience members will hear

it through open windows or via their car’s FM radio-or both-as they

watch the live action both onstage and simulcast on four 20-feet-x-20-

feet Jumbotron screens.

And what will you see and hear? One of the classics of the opera

repertory, Tosca boasts some of the most passionate music ever

composed. From its famously dramatic opening chords, this opera has it

all: love, lust, politics, deception, sacrifice, and sheer evil. The

performance will be staged by Festival Director Maria Todaro, noted for

her highly creative, fresh thinking in directing a range of operas, and the

orchestra baton will be in the hands of the exciting French conductor

Audrey Saint-Gil.

A cast of world-class singers leads the roster-soprano Joyce El-

Khoury in the title role, tenor Dimitri Pittas as her lover, Mario

Cavaradossi, and bass-baritone Kyle Albertson as the villainous Baron

Scarpia-supported by a cast and chorus of diverse backgrounds and

singular expertise.

What’s more, this drive-in production, in another first, will add to

all that the use of enhanced Augmented Reality. This technology,

typically used in science-fiction films/ video games, offers a level of

immersion that greatly enhances the audience’s feeling of "presence." As

designed and executed by the Festival’s highly skilled and creative

production and tech team, for example, the famous Act I finale of the

opera, a show-stopper at any time, will offer the audience of August 29 a

whole new level of "involvement:" Set in a church, as a growing crowd

of worshipers intones the Te Deum hymn, Scarpia simultaneously

soliloquizes his sinister intention to kill the hero and bring Tosca into his

arms. In music, action, and, thanks to enhanced AR, in audience

involvement, the sacred and the profane meet thunderously and with

particular intensity. Not to be missed.

Safety First

But with up to 600 spectator-filled cars, full cast, chorus and

orchestra members, and a staff of 35 , how do you ensure health and

safety? One helpful plus is that the performance will be outdoors in the

fresh air. In fact, although Tech City is in the middle of the city of

Kingston, its west campus is surrounded by hills and greenery that make

it a downright pastoral setting-much like the one the Festival of the

Voice is accustomed to in its hometown of Phoenicia.

As for distancing, director Todaro says creativity makes it

possible to stage action without individuals being "unsafely close."

And production manager Dan Jobbins has implemented strict

procedures for performers and crew during the rehearsal period and right

up to and including the night of the performance.

With personal safety for all assured, what could be better than a

great opera on a summer night at the drive-in in Ulster County’s Tech

City?