In Monday’s (7/15) New Haven Register (Connecticut), Donna Doherty writes, “What’s more romantic than a picnic on the Green, and two talented young women singing some of opera’s most beloved arias to the accompaniment of the New Haven Symphony Orchestra? NHSO Music Director William Boughton … can’t wait to open the Music on the Green free concert series Saturday.” The evening will feature soprano Jamilyn Manning-White and mezzo-soprano Toby Newman performing arias with the NHSO. “ ‘It’s been a while since we’ve done any opera on the Green, so that was the rationale behind choosing this particular program, and with the combination of two sopranos, there are some wonderful duets,’ says Boughton.” Among the things Boughton says create a “sense of excitement” at an outdoor concert are the weather, “ ‘which one has absolutely no control over at all. If it’s windy, it can affect the microphone.… Heat sends strings flat and winds sharp. There are constant adjustments all the time, music flying off stands all the time,’ he says. Inclusion is always paramount for Boughton, who says that his mail after such events always ‘shocks me and brings me back down to Earth that there are people that just don’t attend classical concerts, and are blown away by them.’ … ‘It’s all nonstuffy,’ he says.”
Posted July 16, 2013
