Opera Review: One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

Handel's Atalanta bows at Caramoor. 
by Paul J. Pelkonen

The Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra with Nicholas McGegan at its center.
Photo by Suzanne Karp.

When an arts festival goes through a major change of direction, there are always bumps and bruises. At Caramoor, which has operated on the Rosen estate in Katona New York for seventy-three years, those bruises are starting to show. There is a new artistic administrator on the campus: Kathy Schuman, formerly of Carnegie Hall. Gathering places and social areas are being renovated. And the festival's crown jewel, its opera series, has undergone the most rigorous change of all.