Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead at Norton Hall

ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD

Workshop Presentation with Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra

Public Presentation Date: August 7th, 2025 / 3:15 pm / Norton Hall
Composer & Librettist: Herschel Garfein
Based on the play by Tom Stoppard
Conductor: Steven Osgood
Rosencrantz: Keith Phares

In Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Grammy award-winning composer and librettist Herschel Garfein has created the first ever operatic adaptation of a play by Tom Stoppard. Chautauqua Opera Company’s young artists will be joined by internationally heralded baritone Keith Phares and the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra for a ten-day workshop of the complete opera, which concludes with a public presentation of excerpts and panel discussion with Garfein and Phares. Reviewing excerpts presented at Fort Worth Opera’s Frontiers Festival, the Wall Street Journal said, “composer-librettist Herschel Garfein set the diamond-bright dialogue of the Tom Stoppard play with clarity and wit, heightening the comedy through skillful ensemble writing and characterization.”