Blow-Me-Down Farm. Summer Is Coming.

Can’t wait? Sing with We The People next Sunday.

News of the reglazing of some old windows may not sound like music to the ear, but it is. It’s the most recent step by Opera North in the rehabilitation of the historic buildings at the Blow-Me-Down Farm in Cornish NH, all part of its plan to reimagine the Farm as a new center for the arts in the Upper Valley.

For the moment, restoration is centered on the property’s Charles Beaman farmhouse. Beaman is credited with enticing his friend Augustus Saint-Gaudens to relocate to Cornish to become part of the then-growing Cornish Artists Colony. According to Opera North:

The most visible work now complete . . . is the repair and reglazing of half of the original 96 windows, consistent with preservation standards from the Secretary of the Interior. The next steps will be to complete the window restoration, paint the exterior and to conduct a review of the electrical service and system safety. Phase Two will include a new roof, new plumbing, limited interior repair on the first floor and of the eight bedrooms and chimney repair.

The mash-up of opera and circus arts under the Big Top at the Farm startled and delighted audiences a few years ago, and the unlikely (until you see it) combination will continue this summer with Havana Nights, one of three productions scheduled for Opera North’s Summerfest 2021.

Puccini’s La Bohème is this year’s traditional opera. The third production of the summer program is Extraordinary Women, a semi-staged concert of opera selections by ON’s Resident Artists, “a highlight reel of great performances by strong, resilient, unforgettable women who persisted.”

Summerfest 2021 tickets are now on sale here. More information (with beautiful photos) about the Blow-Me-Down Farm and its connection to Saint-Gaudens and the Cornish Colony can be found here.

Meanwhile, in another unlikely pairing, Britain’s English National Opera is working with medical professionals at a London hospital to help COVID-19 “long haulers” re-learn how to breathe. “Opera is rooted in breath,” [Jenny] Mollica, [ENO’s outreach worker] said. “That’s our expertise. I thought, ‘Maybe E.N.O. has something to offer.’” For more information on this intriguing program, click here.

Maybe summer is too long a wait and you need to hear some choral singing, or your own voice in song. The Upper Valley theater company We The People led by Perry Allison (1776, Working) is inviting you to a Driveway Choir Sing-Along on Sunday, February 28 at 2:00 pm at 2 Buck Road in Hanover NH with a tech assist from the Choral Arts Foundation of the UV. Stay in your car tuned to a designated radio station; you will be provided a microphone. Broadway standards and songs from We The People’s past shows. Too shy? You can also go just to listen. To get an idea of how this works, click here to see a driveway sing-along last week in nearby Massachusetts. It could tug at your heart.

(Photo, top, by Susan B. Apel, barn at Blow-Me-Down Farm)

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Welcome! You’re reading Artful, a blog about arts and culture in the Upper Valley and occasionally beyond, and I hope you’ll subscribe and then share this with your friends and on your social media. And in case you are wondering . . .

Susan B. Apel shuttered a lifelong career as a law professor to continue an interest (since kindergarten) in writing. Her freelance business, The Next Word, includes literary and feature writing; her work has appeared in a variety of lit mags and other publications including Art New England, The Woven Tale Press, The Arts Fuse, and Persimmon Tree. She connects with her neighbors through Artful, her blog about arts and culture in the Upper Valley. She’s in love with the written word.