Opera buffs will enjoy a visit to the Marcella Sembrich Opera Museum in Bolton Landing, former summer home of the Polish soprano who lived from 1858 to 1935.
By Jill Nagy
The Marcella Sembrich Opera Museum on the shores of Lake George is celebrating its 75th anniversary with the addition of a newly refurbished building; a full schedule of more than 25 concerts, films and lectures; and a gala on the museum grounds.
The museum is the former summer home and teaching studio of Marcella Sembrich, a Polish soprano who performed around the world in the late 19th and early 20th century, including the inaugural season of New York’s Metropolitan Opera in 1883. She lived from 1858 to 1935 and spent summers on Lake George from 1922 to 1934. Before that, she summered at Lake Placid for six years. She was also a pianist, violinist, teacher and art collector. She taught voice at the Julliard School and the Curtis Institute, among other conservatories.
The museum opened two years after Mme. Sembrich’s death. Her daughter-in-law, Julliete deCoppet Stengel, was instrumental in developing the museum, first called a Memorial Studio and now called an Opera Museum. It has been open every summer since 1937.
A 10-foot-by-10-foot structure, rather grandly titled the University of Modern Languages, was restored in the past year and moved to a central location. The ribbon cutting for the building was held when the 2012 season opened on June 15. Originally built as a place to teach the languages needed by opera singers and as a practice area for musicians, the building, really a shed, had been used as a bathhouse and as a storage shed before it was restored and moved. Family pictures, some from Sembrich’s childhood, are on display.
The museum stages new exhibits each year, drawing on the furnishings, books, musical instruments, costumes, art work, jewelry, and other items left by Mme. Sembrich, according to executive director Beth Barton Navitsky. This year’s theme is “Exploring the World of Music.” Exhibits include some of the 12-15 steamer trunks the singer used, some of them with the original shipping tags and labels still on them. Other travel items on display include jewelry boxes and jewelry, wigs, hatboxes, a tiara, and costumes. Also in honor of the anniversary, the museum’s first guestbook is on display. Each year, 2,000 – 2,500 guests sign the guestbook, Navitsky estimated, and many others visit the museum or just come to stroll on the grounds without signing the guestbook.
Recordings of Mme. Sembrich’s singing, newly remastered CD’s taken from the original wax cylinders and early discs, accompany visitors on their visits to the museum. Her 1905 Steinway grand piano, recently restored, is available for concerts. Christopher Johnson is scheduled to perform a concert of Chopin piano music September 1.
Twenty complete opera costumes and accessories are part of the museum collection. Each season, some of the fragile costumes are put on display. Others can be seen by appointment.
The Hyperion String Quartet performs August 22 and 25. The August 22 concert includes music played on the Titanic as the ship went down, 100 years ago this summer. Did Mme. Sembrich travel on the Titanic? “Thank goodness she did not,” replied Navitsky, but she traveled on many steamships as she performed around the world. Stories and songs from the Titanic will also be performed at the museum’s final concert of the season, “Unsinkable Women: Stories and Songs from the Titanic,” September 14 and 15.
Mme. Sembrich’s “passion for folk music,” indulged especially during her summer vacations, according to Navitsky, will be reflected in a concert of traditional music from Colombia’s Caribbean coast by Grupo Rebolu on August 15 and a showing of the film “Tango” at the Bolton Free Library on August 13.
Concerts and recitals are held in a space that seats 70 people or less. Navitsky describes it as “like listening in someone’s living room.” Each concert is followed by an outdoor wine reception (“non-alcoholic beverages are also available”) for the performers and guests.
Each year, the museum holds a “gala.” This year, for the first time, it will be held on the museum grounds. Monahan-Chase Catering of Glens Falls will provide food and beverages. There will be musical performances and a silent auction. Titled “Sembrich in September,” it is scheduled for September 8.
As with most arts organizations, the annual gala is a major fundraiser for the museum. Other sources of funding are memberships, donations, grants, concert ticket sales, and a “generous endowment from a benefactor.” There is no charge to visit the museum or the grounds, but “we always welcome donations,” Navitsky added. The museum teams up with Bolton Free Library for a series of free films during the season as well.
Originally a teaching venue as well as a vacation home, the museum has, in the past, included master classes in its summer program. There are none this season but there may be one next year, Navitsky said.
The museum is located on four acres of Sembrich’s 14-acre estate in Bolton Landing, on the shore of Lake George. In addition to the University of Modern Languages building, the site houses her mansion, Bay View, a teaching studio and Hilltop Cottage, a caretaker’s cottage with student dormitory space on the second floor.
Anita Richards, the daughter of the former caretaker, lives in the caretaker’s cottage and works part-time at the museum. In the past, she operated a bed and breakfast in the cottage.
Artistic director Richard Wargo, a museum employee for 23 years, also lives on the grounds, “in a tiny cottage,” according to Navitsky. Wargo is also a composer and is responsible for “growing our schedule in the performance area.”
The Marcella Sembrich Opera Museum is open June 15 to September 15, from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and from 2 to 5 p.m. The grounds are open all day. Navitsky particularly recommends visiting Hydrangea Bay, now in full bloom.
The address is 4800 Lake Shore Drive, Bolton Landing. The telephone is 644-2431. More information is on their website, www.thesembrich.org.