SARATOGA LIVINGThe City. The Culture. The Life.

While it was certainly great to be back at the Freihofer’s Saratoga Jazz Festival last summer, the experience wasn’t exactly what local jazz fans have come to expect from the uber-popular annual event. For one, the festival, which had skipped a year due to COVID, had a much smaller lineup than in previous years, and was also tainted by the fact that attendees were confined to their “pods”—socially distanced circles painted right on the SPAC lawn. Jazz Fest was back, but it wasn’t quite the same.

This year, however, Jazz Fest as we know it returns, and it’s going to be even bigger and better than ever. “The 45th Freihofer’s Saratoga Jazz Festival will be a grand reunion and a big party all weekend long,” says festival producer Danny Melnick. “Fun, funky, groovy groups”—a whopping 24 of them—”will keep the audience moving day and night.” One such group is New Orleans–based funk and jazz collective Galactic, which will be performing with frontwoman Anjelika “Jelly” Joseph. After getting its start in The Big Easy in 1994, Galactic dropped its first funk album in 1996 and hit the road. The core five members—Ben Ellman, Robert Mercurio, Stanton Moore, Jeffrey Raines and Richard Vogal—have been touring with a rotating cast of vocalists, including David Shaw of The Revivalists and Grammy-winning R&B artist Macy Gray, ever since. It was with the latter that the band was introduced to New Orleans native Joseph, who sang backup for Gray when Galactic was on tour in Japan several years ago. “We totally fell in love with her voice and personality,” says Mercurio, the band’s bassist.

“They asked me to lead a song,” Joseph says of the Japan performance. “I studied the song the entire flight because I was so scared—I cannot mess this up. I led the song and a few years after that they asked me to sing lead, and I was so shocked and of course super-excited, so I jumped on the opportunity to do so.” Up until that point, Joseph had been performing mainly backups, which she continues to do with another New Orleans–based band, Tank and the Bangas.

Obviously, it’s incredibly difficult to explain a band’s sound in words, so if you want a sneak peek at what’s in store for Galactic’s Saratoga Jazz Fest performance, Joseph recommends listening to songs “Dolla Diva” (“It’s like a party,” she says) or “Does It Really Make A Difference” (“funky, but so soulful”). Mercurio concurs. But, if words were all we had, Joseph would describe Galactic this way: “It’s definitely New Orleans,” she says. “It’s New Orleans to the core.”                                       

When Broadway star Carolee Carmello was growing up in Albany, she treasured her summer evenings at SPAC, taking in concerts such as James Taylor from the lawn while dreaming of performing there herself someday. That milestone was looking elusive, however, as SPAC historically hasn’t been a home for Broadway shows. But Opera Saratoga changed that last year when it brought Man of La Mancha to the amphitheater. After its resounding success, theater-lovers will this year get to see the musical thriller Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street—with Capital Regionite Carmello starring.

“I’m thrilled,” says the Broadway veteran who’s starred in shows such as Falsettos, Finding Neverland, Mamma Mia! and most recently as Dolly Levi in the touring production of Hello, Dolly. “It’s going to be nostalgic for me. SPAC is a very special place. I always dreamed of performing there but thought I’d probably never get to. My family is still in the area, plus my friends from high school. Showing them what I do is going to be great. My folks come to NYC to my shows, but this is in their backyard.”

Carmello gets to be wickedly villainous in Sweeney Todd, which uses dark humor to tell the story of the wrongly accused title character as he returns home from prison to exact his revenge. He partners up with the unassuming pie shop owner Mrs. Nellie Lovett—played by Carmello—to get rid of any potentially tasty evidence. The show plays SPAC June 29 and June 30 and is part of Opera Saratoga’s new summer festival model, which sees performances of several shows hit venues all over the Capital Region. Carmello’s co-star is internationally acclaimed bass baritone Craig Colclough, playing Sweeney Todd.

“Sweeney Todd is thrilling in a dark way,” says Carmello, a three-time Tony nominee for her work in Parade, Lestat and Scandalous. “I hope people won’t be scared of the subject matter. If people don’t know the show, it is actually really fun, not daunting. It’s so funny—really entertaining. Don’t be afraid of it!”

Carmello would know: She recently sang the part of Mrs. Lovett off-Broadway, with only three musicians and in a tiny space that allowed her to walk on the tabletops where the audience was sitting and sing without a mic.

“SPAC is completely the opposite,” she says. “You’re far from the audience, and there’s a full orchestration. I loved doing the role, so doing it again on a big open-air stage is exciting.”

The music and lyrics for Sweeney Todd were written by the great Stephen Sondheim, who is known for a particular style of complicated rhythms that make it sound almost as if the actors are both singing and talking at the same time.

“Sondheim is tricky to learn, but once you have it in your body, it starts to feel more natural,” Carmello says. “When you’re doing Sondheim, you want your audience to be on a ride with you. I’m having a flashback to my first performance of Sweeney Todd in New York City. Sondheim came to our very first performance. We could have used a little more time to settle in before he came! It is already challenging to do Sondheim, even more so when Sondeheim is in the audience!”

The legendary composer and lyricist passed away last November, which makes this performance even more poignant and impactful for Carmello.

“It’s a great way,” she says, “to honor Sondheim and his memory the year of his passing.”  

In a comeback classical season that’s about as buzzed-about and fanfare-filled as it could possibly get, there’s no denying that Yo-Yo Ma’s return to SPAC is the boldest headline. Not only is the world-renowned cellist the most famous name on the marquee, but he also made the news during COVID for his comforting impromptu performance at a vaccination clinic in nearby Massachusetts. And now the famously positive and smiley musician will bring his healing powers of music to SPAC’s outdoor amphitheater August 5, in what is sure to be an especially meaningful experience for the virtuoso.

“There’s nothing like creating music in nature,” Ma says of SPAC’s location in the Spa State Park. “The natural world, like the best music, engages all of our senses, demanding that we use our head, our heart, and our hands. In my experience, it’s when we use all three that we form the most enduring memories, that we can understand who we are and how we fit into the world. That’s the purpose of music.”

Ma’s performance will be a highlight of the Philadelphia Orchestra’s residency, which features the full orchestra for the first time since 2019. The residency runs from July 27 to August 13 and also features the return of Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin (in four programs including a finale featuring Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony) and violinist Joshua Bell (alongside star soprano Larisa Martinez on July 29). Ma will perform Camille Saint-Saëns’ Cello Concerto No. 1, an emotional and dramatic solo that’s written in one continuous movement with a final section that is especially demanding.

“Saint-Saëns’ first cello concerto is so full of joy and sparkle,” Ma says. “It is beloved for good reason, and I hear it always as a celebration of nature and human nature. It is fitting music for such a beautiful place and such extraordinary musical company.”

Ma’s passion for the arts began at an extremely young age; as a 7-year-old prodigy he performed for President John F. Kennedy after a rousing introduction by the great composer Leonard Bernstein. Since then, the 19-time Grammy Award winner has become a household name by appealing to about as diverse a crowd as possible, having performed for children on Sesame Street, with friend James Taylor on a range of projects and even with Miley Cyrus on a (charity) Metallica tribute album. But while his dedication to a diverse repertoire of music has certainly helped make him the most famous cellist in the world, it’s his mind-blowing mark on the classical music realm that has garnered him esteemed awards, appointments and accomplishments the world over.

“There is no artist better than Yo-Yo Ma to embody the essence of this summer—joy, community and celebration of the human spirit,” says SPAC president and CEO Elizabeth Sobol. “Summer 2022 will be a season like no other as we welcome our audiences and resident companies home to SPAC and the park after several long years of yearning.”

Ma has a long history of performing with the Philadelphia Orchestra and says he is excited to reunite with them on the SPAC stage (he was on-hand for the Orchestra’s first post-COVID performance at their home theater, Verizon Hall, where he also performed Saint-Saëns’ Cello Concerto No.1). “The Philadelphia Orchestra always plays with the very fullest commitment,” he says. “Its musicians sound extraordinary every time I hear them—and as an institution, the orchestra has a remarkable, almost magical ability to pass on its love of music and performance from generation to generation.”  

If you grew up in Saratoga Springs, chances are that you grew up on concerts at SPAC. Whether you climbed the fence to sneak into The Grateful Dead circa 1985, had your first beer at Bon Jovi circa 2003, or met a Tinder crush at Matchbox 20 circa 2014, memories of a SPAC concert stick with you. And the thing about growing up on concerts at SPAC? You don’t outgrow them.

“This will be my 25th year going to Dave Matthews with my mother,” Piper Boutique owner Alessandra Bange-Hall says. “She took me to my first Dave show when I was 12—she drove me and my friends. And then every year, even when I could drive, my mom always went to the show with us. My friends, the same friends that I’ve gone with year after year after year, are like, ‘Is Clare going this year?’ It’s so funny.”

Of course, perennial Saratoga favorite DMB is just one of 34 pop, rock and country concerts Live Nation is presenting at Saratoga’s historic outdoor amphitheater this summer—the most in more than two decades. And, following a concert-less 2020 and dialed-back 2021, Capital Region music-lovers are here for it. This past spring, when it seemed like a new concert was announced every other day—The Lumineers, Jason Aldean, Chris Stapleton, Sting—group chats from Glens Falls to Glenmont and beyond were blowing up. “Everyone is talking about the SPAC schedule,” Bange-Hall says. “The lineup is amazing. I think it’s going to knock it out of the park.”

As is evidenced by Bange-Hall’s quarter-century DMB streak, for most concert-goers, it doesn’t matter how many times they’ve seen an act at SPAC before. Bands like Dead & Company, Goo Goo Dolls and, until this year, Phish, come to Saratoga as consistently as horse racing’s top trainers, and the crowds don’t stop showing up to see them. Another favorite act returning to SPAC this year is country superstar Luke Bryan, who, in 2019, welcomed members of the Saratoga County Sheriff’s Department on stage to film a CBS special called Lip Sync to the Rescue. The deputies performed a choreographed dance to “Knockin’ Boots,” while Bryan provided vocals from out of view. “It was one of the greatest experiences for the deputies,” says Sheriff Michael Zurlo, who helped coordinate the rehearsals and performance but shied away from performing himself. “Everybody’s a fan of Luke, and a lot of our people are going to go again to his concert.”

Other locals want more than just a ticket to a 2022 show—they want actual face time with the stars. “The dream is to interview a member of Steely Dan, be it front man Donald Fagen or a member of the touring company,” says Niskayuna native and Syracuse resident Michael Held, who co-hosts Time Out Of Mind, a podcast that’s working its way through The Dan’s entire discography—a whole 50 years’ worth—dedicating each episode to the study of a different song. “And you can bet your bottom dollar that we’ll be recording an episode about their SPAC performance.” (For those younger SPAC fans who may be unfamiliar with Steely Dan, Held’s co-host, Saratogian Ryan Burke, describes the band’s on-stage presence this way: “Imagine if DaBaby, Slipknot and Hootie and the Blowfish shared the stage for 90 minutes. It’s a lot like that.”)

Latham-based financial planner Tim Graney’s also got his eye on more than tickets for an upcoming show. His daughter Erin is getting married at the Hall of Springs on July 2, and is hoping for a special guest appearance at the reception. “We’ve got to get Josh Groban to sing a song at their wedding,” he says. (The “You Raise Me Up” crooner is playing a show right next door that very night.) “It would be awesome.”

So whether you’re a longtime deadhead who’s holding on to that 1985 magic vis-à-vis John Mayer; have recently been binge-listening to America’s next top bluegrass banjo-er Billy Strings; or are a Morgan Wallen superfan ready to turn it up down, up down, up down, this summer’s Live Nation season is going to be one you tell your kids about. Or, if you’re Clare Bange-Hall, one you’ll bring your kid to, once again.  

Opera fans may remember that last year, due to concerns about performing indoors during the COVID-19 pandemic, Opera Saratoga took its 60th Anniversary Season on the road, performing al fresco at SPAC, Pitney Meadows and Columbia Pavilion in the Spa State Park. This year, as the Spa Little Theater is undergoing renovations, the
multi-venue model is back again—and now reaching a summer audience beyond the borders of Saratoga. 

“Our education and community programs have always had a wide geographic footprint, serving people in seven different counties across Upstate New York,” says Lawrence Edelson, Artistic and General Director of Opera Saratoga. “The closure of our home theater got us thinking about how we could serve the region more robustly during the summer, and the answer was to bring our performances to more people in different cities, rather than always asking them to come to us.”

So, a brand-new Festival model emerged. Opera Saratoga will present staged performances of The Barber of Seville, a hilarious comic opera by Gioachino Rossini, at Proctors in Schenectady; Sky on Swings, a contemporary opera that explores life with Alzheimer’s Disease, at The Egg in Albany; and the Tony Award-winning musical Sweeney Todd, widely acknowledged as the late Stephen Sondheim’s masterpiece, at SPAC in Saratoga. Festival concerts including Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle at the Round Lake Auditorium, “Stars of Tomorrow” at The Charles R. Wood Theater in Glens Falls, “A Broadway Cabaret” at The Mansion of Saratoga in Rock City Falls, and “A Juneteenth Celebration” at Proctors GE Theatre will round out the 2022 season.

This Festival model also allowed Edelson to expertly mold this summer’s performance schedule to fit each of the various venues and audiences, flexing Opera Saratoga’s diverse repertoire. “For SPAC, it was clear after last summer’s performances of Man of La Mancha that there is a passionate audience for Broadway musicals during the summer,” he says of the decision to perform Sweeney Todd there. The Egg, Edelson continues, “is truly a unique venue, and it felt like an ideal place to present our contemporary offering this summer, Sky on Swings. It is an intimate space, but also has a sophisticated sound system that is allowing us to present the opera in a rather unique way, with ‘surround sound’, which we’ve never done before. The sound of memory is portrayed in this opera, and the production will be musically immersive in a rather spectacular way.” 

There’s certainly much to be excited about leading into Opera Saratoga’s 2022 Festival, not the least of which is Broadway royalty and Albany native Carolee Carmello, who will be returning to the area to star as Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd. But, when asked what he’s most excited about, Edelson says this: “To be bringing audiences back together in the theater—period. The past two years have been a real emotional roller coaster. While online performances can be very enjoyable, there is nothing like being at a live performance, and sharing that experience with others.”

New York City Ballet (NYCB) principal dancer Sterling Hyltin is preparing for her bittersweet final Saratoga performance—she’s sad to be saying goodbye but thrilled that she’ll be dancing in George Balanchine’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream as her last SPAC show before retiring next year. “It’s such a lovely way to say goodbye,” she says. “The ballet is approachable for all ages. Plus, dancing outside adds to the magic. There can be lightning bugs on the lawn while watching lightning bugs dancing on stage.” 

When Hyltin started coming to Saratoga with NYCB 20 years ago, the company’s residency was still three weeks long, and she cherishes her memories of her extended Spa City stays. “You were in a house with your friends,” she says. “It felt like we were a family there, so much more so than in the city. It felt like home.” 

Hyltin’s love for Saratoga is so strong that she and her family visited during lockdown. And it’s sitting on the SPAC lawn—as a spectator—where the new mom hopes to show her daughter, Ingrid, who was born near the beginning of lockdown, her beloved NYCB for the first time. “SPAC is so kid-friendly, with the lawn,” she says. “So I would like to show my daughter ballet there.”

From the amphitheater stage, Hyltin has certainly felt SPAC’s magic as well, most dramatically as Juliet in Peter Martins’ Romeo + Juliet, a role she originated. “One year as we were dancing, right as it got into the story, the sky got ominous,” she says. “You really get immersed in the story that way—for some ballets, being outside really enhances the story. Or sometimes you look out, and there’s a full moon in the sky. As people are watching us, we’re watching nature!”

Hyltin considers herself so blessed to have been able to do what she loves that she’s retiring in order to help her daughter find that special something for herself. “I love dancing so much,” Hyltin says. “It’s been a gift to be surrounded by passionate people. That gives you confidence. I want to inspire that in my daughter, let her teach me where she should be. And for that I need to be present for her, not off dancing all the time.”

NYCB performs at SPAC July 12 to July 16, bringing the whole company of more than 90 dancers to Saratoga for the first time since 2019. In addition to the comical and fanciful Midsummer, they will also dance a roster of contemporary works, including Merce Cunningham’s masterful Summerspace, plus a special “NYCB On and Off Stage” presentation. At press time, Hyltin was expected to dance the famous “Divertissement” pas de deux in the second act of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, a romantic piece that shows off her most ethereal qualities. She will then start her final season back in NYC, which will culminate in her grand final performance December 4 at Lincoln Center, where she will dance the coveted role of the Sugarplum Fairy in The Nutcracker. 

“Going in for my final season, I know I have to enjoy dancing everything for one last time,” Hyltin says. “I have to stop myself from thinking that I have to make every step the most perfect ever. This year, I get to just enjoy it.”