Site specific, outdoor opera!

May 28 & 29

(Rain Date: May 31)
Running Time: 1 hour
Tickets start at $30

Ferndell Pavillion

Saratoga Spa State Park

In A Grove

Show Dates

  • May 28

    5:00PM
    Saratoga Spa State Park - Ferndell Pavillion

  • May 28

    7:00PM
    Saratoga Spa State Park - Ferndell Pavillion

  • May 29

    5:00PM
    Saratoga Spa State Park - Ferndell Pavillion

  • May 29

    7:00PM
    Saratoga Spa State Park - Ferndell Pavillion

Join Opera Saratoga in the Ferndell Pavilion with a site-specific installation version of a new opera, In a Grove, composed by Chris Cerrone with libretto by Stephanie Fleischmann. This operatic adaptation of Akutagawa’s classic short story “In a Grove” which inspired the plot of Kurosawa’s renowned film Rashomon, offers a searing investigation into the impossibility and elusiveness of truth. The New York Times deemed the opera: “A vividly immersive thriller about the nature of truth and memory. Not a word or note is without dramaturgical purpose.” 

*Rain date: May 31 at 5:00 PM and 7:00 PM

Cast (by order of appearance)

  • Chase Sanders

    Leona Raines

  • Randy Ho

    Ambrose Raines

  • Sadie Spivey

    Leona’s Mother

  • Shavon Lloyd

    Luther Harlow

  • Geoffrey Schmelzer

    Woodcutter

  • Chuanyuan Liu

    Priest/Medium

  • Wagner Mauricio Pastor

    Policeman

Creative Team

  • Chris Cerrone

    Chris Cerrone

    Composer

  • Stephanie Fleischmann

    Librettist

  • Mary Birnbaum

    Director

  • Luke Poeppel

    Conductor

  • Sam Torres

    Sound Designer

As we gather in Spa State Park, we are on the lands of the Mohican, the Mohawk and the Abenaki. Native communities have remained present and have thrived here in Saratoga in spite of centuries of settler colonial violence perpetrated against their lives and livelihoods. We recognize and respect the historical Indigenous inhabitants of this land, as well as Native communities across the Americas.

IN A GROVE is presented by arrangement with Schott Music Corporation, New York, publisher and copyright owner.