FULL Central Park Triptych (Drattell, Torke, Beaser) Glimmerglass NY 2000
Information on the Performance
- Work Title: Central Park Triptych: The Festival of Regrets by Deborah Drattell; Strawberry Fields by Michael Torke; The Food of Love by Robert Beaser
- Composer: Deborah Drattell, Michael Torke, Robert Beaser
- Libretto: Wendy Wasserstein, Terrence McNally, A.R. Gurney Libretto Text, Libretto Index
- Venue & Opera Company: Glimmerglass Festival, Cooperstown, New York State
- Recorded: August 2000
- Type: Staged Opera Live
- Singers: unknown
- Conductor: unknown
- Orchestra:
- Stage Director:
- Costume Designer:
Information about the Recording
- Published by: PBS
- Date Published: 2000
- Format: Broadcast
- Quality Video: 3 Audio:3
- Subtitles: yessubs, ensubs
- Video Recording from: ok FULL VIDEO
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE
Festival of Regrets takes place at Central Park’s Bethesda Fountain (a popular locale for playwrights; Tony Kushner’s “Angels in America” ended its journey at the fountain). There, a rabbi leads his congregation in the ceremony of Tashlich, also known as the Festival of Regrets, in which people throw bread into a flowing body of water to rid themselves of their sins. At the ceremony, a middle-aged divorcee encounters her ex-husband; the two proceed to reexamine their marriage.
Strawberry Fields concerns an elderly old lady who lives at the Dakota apartment building on Central Park West. Every day, she visits her favorite park bench, which, to her clouded mind, is a seat at the opera. As her son struggles to move her to a nursing home, the lady befriends a young student whom she mistakes for her late husband.
The zoo is the setting for The Food of Love, in which a homeless woman tries in vain to give her baby away to the various visitors and employees at the park.