United States Various, Caramoor Festival [1]: Kelli O’Hara (soprano), Dan Lipton (pianist, music director), Orchestra of St. Luke’s / Rob Fisher (conductor). Venetian Theater, Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts, Katonah, 20.6.2025. (DS)
The Caramoor Festival takes place about an hour’s train ride north of New York City near the charming, historically-preserved town of Katonah. Thanks to the congenial gentleman who shuttles visitors from the station to the lovely acreage, even carless city dwellers can enjoy the array of concerts that overtake the heat of the summer months.
The gala concert on opening night lucked out with a breezy, humidity-free evening, and both musicians and audience were comfortable under the outdoor canopy of the iconic, colonnaded Venetian Theater. Tony-Award-winning vocalist Kelli O’Hara joined the festival’s resident orchestra – the ever-adaptable NYC-based Orchestra of St. Luke’s (who were presenting their annual Bach Festival performances at Carnegie Hall the same week) – for an evening of Broadway fare that not only elevated spirits but, as O’Hara proposed, let us ‘use our imaginations to make a positive night’.
Leaving the actual Broadway to hear a taste of Broadway in the nearby countryside might seem redundant, but O’Hara’s voice evoked particularly sweet feelings in this lush outdoor space while her articulate skill in illuminating the texts and compositional nuances of each song were unhindered by busy theater stage sets. Even the birds quieted to her melodies (one in particular sat watching her for various lengths of time from a cord stretched above the stage).
Songs ranged from the bygone era of Cole Porter to the complex, nearly literary writings of Sondheim to today’s writers drawing on musical styles with their own creative takes, like that of O’Hara’s husband, Greg Naughton. He joined her for a duet of his ‘The Sun Went Out’, a song that builds on a mix of lounge jazz, pop and country. Their electric yet comfortable charm bubbled up on stage to the sighs of an audience grateful to be present.
While O’Hara’s star power and talent – especially in switching with ease between styles and moods – was enough to make a spectacular evening of music, it was her gracious sense of camaraderie and gratitude that really made the concert unique. Upon entering the stage, she instantly praised conductor Rob Fisher and the orchestra for their overture version of Waltz from Carousel which opened the show. Their performance had a notable balance of grand gestural phrases framed by moments of light touch, revealing the underlying symphonic power in the composition. On the piano was Dan Lipton, her long-time collaborator, whom she introduced warmly, and when orchestral principal players offered solos, she turned to look at them with approval. Midway through the evening, she requested the audience to be patient and allow her teenage children to join her for Joni Mitchell’s ‘Both Sides, Now’. No patience was needed: her son proved to be an adept jazz pianist with ears attuned to every detail and equipped with nimble accompanist instincts, while her daughter sang with a gentle, dove-like quality that softened her mother’s deep, golden timbre.
But the evening’s narrative was about O’Hara’s path. She did not become the Met Opera star she dreamed of as an Oklahoma country girl going to New York with an opera degree, but she landed in the musical theater world which made a home for her voice – namely with the first production of Light in the Piazza. O’Hara explained that playing the part of jealous Franca launched her career 20 years ago, but she now chooses to embody Margaret, the strong-willed mother. Her rendition of ‘Fable’ was powerful and drew on her operatic skill, deftly shaping the jagged modern aspects of the song into a passionate aria brimming with pick-up note motifs that she produced with an addictive sense of anticipation.
Does she hold any grudges against the opera world? Not likely. But if any do linger, she is certainly releasing them with her own satirical composition, ‘They Don’t Let You in the Opera (If You’re a Country Star)’. This was akin to a Vaudevillian gem. Not only did she perform it with humor and an exciting blend of country and operatic voices, her brand of bravado left the audience laughing (at one moment, the otherwise genteel O’Hara raised middle fingers directed at a judgmental opera patron in the song).
It was an evening imbued with humility and humanity, whether about finding one’s place in the world or giving credit to all those who helped one get there. O’Hara used her musical platform to model inclusivity, kindness and the virtue of open-mindedness. Before singing ‘La Vie en Rose’ for the encore, she reminded us that it is not about putting one’s head in the sand but about taking a moment to allow everything to glitter. Her performance had succeeded at igniting imaginations, as she had set out to do, and it left the night shrouded in a lingering, rose-colored glimmer.
Daniele Sahr
Featured Image: Kelli O’Hara, Dan Lipton (piano), Rob Fisher and Orchestra of St. Luke’s © Gabe Palacio
Rogers & Hammerstein – Waltz from Carousel (orchestral version); ‘A Cock-eyed Optimist’ from South Pacific; ‘Getting to Know You’ from The King and I
Bricusse & Newley – ‘Pure Imagination’ from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
Sondheim – ‘What More Do I Need?’ from Saturday Night
Porter – ‘So in Love’ from Kiss Me Kate
Guettel & Lucas – ‘Fable’ from Light in the Piazza
Bock & Harnick – ‘She Loves Me’ (sung as ‘He Loves Me’) from She Loves Me
Naughton – ‘The Sun Went Out’
Brown – ‘To Build a Home’ from The Bridges of Madison County
Mitchell – ‘Both Sides, Now’
O’Hara – ‘They Don’t Let You in the Opera (If You’re a Country Star)’
Lerner & Loewe – ‘I Could Have Danced All Night’ from My Fair Lady
Encore: Louiguy & Piaf – ‘La Vie en Rose’