A night at the opera, with plenty of Broadway show tunes mixed in, is in store for Plattsburgh music lovers on August 29 in a Curbside At Harborside drive-in concert showcasing some of the most beloved classics of opera and musical theatre performed by top-quality professional artists.
When former New York City Opera Principal Artist George Cordes and his wife, highly accomplished professional pianist Elizabeth Cordes, moved to Tupper Lake in 2006 to enjoy life away from the city, the North Country’s artistic life was enriched when the two seasoned pros decided to lead an effort to bring opera into their region of the Adirondacks. The result of their combined inspiration was High Peaks Opera, devoted to bringing artists into the region to provide high-quality programs devoted to opera, operetta, oratorio, and musical theatre.
George Cordes, a highly acclaimed bass-baritone, has sung more than 60 roles in operas with companies throughout North American and Japan, including working with such illustrious organizations as the Metropolitan Opera, Chicago Lyric Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Dallas Opera, Opera Boston, the Tokyo City Orchestra, and Teatro de la Opera in San Juan, Puerto Rico. During his years as a Principal Artist at New York City Opera, he was featured in PBS’s Live From Lincoln Center telecasts of Tosca and La Boheme. His critically hailed roles on professional stages range from the title role in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro to Nourabad in The Pearl Fishersto Bottom in Benjamin Britten’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream to Reverend Hale in The Crucible.
Elizabeth Cordes’ wide-ranging professional credits include seven years with Tri-Cities Opera as a vocal coach, accompanist, and director of the opera company’s education and outreach program and six seasons as the accompanist for Ohio Light Opera. She has also taught and accompanied singers as a faculty member of the Duxbury Music Festival, and served as a vocal coach and accompanist for the opera and musical theatre program at the University of Akron School of Music.
Since moving to the Adirondacks, both George and Elizabeth immersed themselves in the region’s arts scene. Elizabeth became the choral music teacher at Tupper Lake Middle/High School and the director of the school’s theatrical productions. George became the artistic director of the Adirondack Lakes Center for the Arts in Blue Mountain Lake, where he has produced the touring Summer Theatre Festival for three seasons. Both George and Elizabeth became deeply involved with Pendragon Theatre in nearby Saranac Lake, with Elizabeth running the theatre company’s “Camp Pendragon” for young actors in the summers and serving as music director for Pendragon’s productions of Sweeney Todd and Man of La Mancha, both of which featured George performing in the title role.
Their combined efforts made High Peaks Opera a new regional treasure, featured in performance everywhere in the North Country from Hill and Hollow Music to the Essex Community Concerts to First Night Saranac Lake, as well as the St. Joseph Synagogue Concert Series, the Long Lake Friends of Music Series, and, most recently, the Summer Sunset Series outdoors at the new bandshell in Tupper Lake. They have hosted an opera gala at the Lake Placid Center for the Arts with guest singers from New York City and Boston, and have led the annual “Tri-Lakes Messiah Community Sing” in Tupper Lake every winter since 2010.
Joining George and Elizabeth on stage at the August 29 concert will be professional guest artists Kasey Stewart, a mezzo-soprano who is a Plattsburgh native and a veteran performer of Tri-City Opera who recently earned her doctorate in music from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and soprano Annachristi Cordes, a recent graduate with a musical theatre degree from SUNY Fredonia who has become well-known to area audiences with her performances at recent High Peaks Opera programs. Together, they will present a gala evening of opera, operetta, and musical theatre highlights, including plenty of well-known favorites that will doubtlessly be familiar to all in attendance.
Gates open at 6:30 p.m. for this drive-in concert, with the performance starting at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $20 per carload (not per person) and will be available on the evening of the performance at the Harborside Lot entrance near the City of Plattsburgh Marina, behind the D&H Railway Station. (2 Dock Street is the best GPS address to use for finding this lot).
Vehicles will be parked first-come, first-served by the volunteer parking attendants on-site. All attendees must bring with them a face mask to wear whenever they exit their vehicles. All Centers for Disease Control and New York State requirements concerning social distancing will be observed at all times.
For more information, please contact pomerance.benjamin58@gmail.com or visit www.facebook.com/CurbsideAtHarborside.
By John T. Ryan 
