Lake George Opera Festival Exhibition

“Lake George Opera Festival: The First Fifty Years”, curated by Public Historian and Librarian Tisha Dolton and Community Engagement Coordinator Frieda Toth, focuses on the years 1962-2011 with programs, photographs, articles, souvenirs, and ephemera from the Lake George Opera collection at the Folklife Center, as well as from private collections.

Lake George Opera Festival began in 1962 when Fred Patrick decided to bring opera to the Adirondacks by way of an old barn in Bolton Landing. Over the years, the Festival grew and moved to the auditorium of Queensbury High School, bringing world renowned opera singer to Upstate New York. The Festival also offered an apprentice artist program from young soloists to gain experience performing lead roles. They fostered a love of opera in the next generation by encouraging children and teens to participate either as singers in the Kinder Core or as non-singing extras.

Sixty-three years later, the Festival still lives on, though a few miles south, as Opera Saratoga in Saratoga Springs. 

The exhibition is open to the public during regular library hours and will run through August 29, 2025. The Folklife Gallery Hall is located on the basement level of Crandall Public Library, 251 Glens St. Glens Falls, NY.

The Folklife Center at Crandall Public Library is an award-winning program created in 1993, charged with the mission to research and present the cultural traditions of the upper Hudson Valley and southern Adirondacks of upstate New York. Its core programs–Special Collections, Exhibitions, and Cultural Events–are largely supported by grants, and have attracted a large, diverse regional audience to its gallery, research room, and cultural programs.