A Message from Artistic Director Lorin Maazel
Artists can relax and enjoy a swim or take a canoe...
CASTLETON gave birth to itself.
Parthenogenesis.
In the Spring of 2006, on a 500-acre Virginia estate, “God’s country,” amidst rolling hills under the distant protection of blueish mountains, a Happening happened.
Hand-picked musicians, burgeoning opera singers chosen by audition, a staging team, scenic and lighting designers joined forces to make an opera, Benjamin Britten’s Turn of the Screw.
It was performed twice in Castleton and once in Washington, DC, at the Terrace Theater at the Kennedy Center. A stunning artistic success…but what emerged during the three-week preparation period spawned a concept of breathtaking vitality.
In the Great Room adjacent to the state-of-the-art private theatre stage, the young artists, tomorrow’s stars, interacted with their peers in associated disciplines. The second violinist shared concerns with the assistant scene designer, the tenor with the lighting assistant, the auditing conductors with the stage manager. Total exchange.
By dress rehearsal time, everyone’s horizons were stretched exponentially. With one voice, all the participants stated that the experience had dramatically changed their lives.
One year later, to celebrate the Theatre’s tenth anniversary, a second Britten opera was staged and performed: The Rape of Lucretia, this time under the guidance of mentors, established artists who shared their performing expertise with their young counterparts.
CASTLETON became a living entity with the potential for a future perhaps un-paralleled in the Arts. A place where the future (exceptional pre-professionals) interact with the present (the stars of today).
CASTLETON has some of the elements of workshop, master class, young artist residency, performing arts festival, post-graduate program; but is NONE of the above.
CASTLETON is one of a kind.
Totally participant-friendly. Non-self-serving. (It’s about the participants, not about the organizers.) An enriching experience well-nigh impossible to verbalize.
CASTLETON is here to stay.
Lorin Maazel