Castleton Festival approved
By Nicholas M. Horrock Special to the Rappahannock News
Maazels discuss plans for 2009 music event
For their first offering at the Castleton Festival, Lorin Maazel has chosen three operas by Benjamin Britten, a 20th century English composer, including the “Rape of Lucretia,” published in 1946; “Albert Herring,” published in 1947; and an adaptation of “The Beggar's Opera,” presented in 1948, according to Maazel's wife, German actress Dietlinde Turban, who is the planner of many of the festival events.
The unanimous approval of the Castleton Festival on Monday by the Board of Supervisors, allowed the Maazels to fully discuss in an interview with the Rappahannock News their plans for this major music event.
Final approval by the supervisors for the Maazels' plan came after it received strong backing from the Planning Commission and County Administrator John McCarthy. The Maazels were lauded for their contribution to the children of the county and for the well-known musicians and performers that the festival will bring to Rappahannock County.
After the vote, members of the Board of Supervisors told the Maazels' lawyer Douglas K. Baumgardner that this was the finest proposal he had ever presented to the board. As Baumgardner basked in this approval, Supervisor S. Bryant Lee, Hampton District, jokingly warned that, of course, "Now the only way was down."
The meeting brought endorsements from several groups who had backed the festival at the Planning Commission and laudatory statements from the members of the board. Lee wished all the applications "would be that easy" and come in unopposed.
The first session of the Castle ton Festival will begin on July 3, 2009 and run to July 19. The Hazels are converting a large barn on their property to a theater able to seat some 200 people. In addition to local patrons, Ms. Turban said she sees music lovers coming from "Europe, New York, all over the place." Maazel's renown in Asia is likely to bring Japanese visitors to the festival. The Maazels plan to sell "packets" of tickets and to recommend bed and breakfast accommodations in Rappahannock County. There are no motels or commercial hotels, though the world famous Inn at Little Washington, does accept a limited number of guests.
The Maazels feel that the organic farming, the Shenandoah National Park and many of the art galleries will give patrons who come for several days ample activities besides the music.
The Maazels are planning "master classes," in music and opera productions for students and for local residents.
The Maazels are creating a separate Web site on the Internet to allow patrons from all over to sign up for tickets and reservations.
The couple has long had a smaller theater at the farm that seats 120 persons. Though both theaters will be used at the festival, they will be engaged on separate nights, Ms. Turban said, to keep the volume of traffic down.
The Maazels have engaged members of the Rappahannock volunteer firefighters and local farm workers to provide valet parking of all cars. The cost will be paid for by the Maazels, though patrons may tip the valet parking drivers.
The layout planned for the barn, Ms. Turban said, will mean all seats have both good vision and good acoustics and the Maazels will charge $40 per seat. Considering the hundreds of dollars it would cost to see these productions in New York, London and Tokyo, the Maazels' price is actually minuscule, several county residents have said.
Ms. Turban told the board meeting Monday that they want to hold down the price. "We don't want it to become exclusive,” she said.
Benjamin Britten, the composer the Maazels have chosen, died in 1976 at age 63 after a career that brought him to the United States during the early 1940s. All three of the compositions the Maazels have chosen for the festival are well known and Americans will recognize “The Beggar's Opera” as the same story Berchtold Brecht and Kurt Weill used in the “Three Penny Opera,” the story of "Captain Macheath," or "Mack the Knife." Britten took John Gay's 1728 opera and created a new score, still, of course, the story of the highwayman and robber "Captain Macheath."
Fall productions
On Oct. 11 and 12 at their present theater, the Maazels plan two productions of Albert Heering, a comedy about a young grocery clerk who is chosen as the town's "King" for a day and then disappears after drinking up all the prize money. The opera will be performed Saturday night and again as a matinee on Sunday, Oct. 12.
On Sept. 27, the Maazels will show a film made of “The Beggar's Opera” on an outdoor screen at Avon Hall in Washington, Va. There will be no charge for this film.