But a funny thing happened on the road to Purchase. Mr. Crutchfield became a kind of headmaster, rather than just a conductor. In Teatro Nuovo, now in its second summer season after the farewell to his Caramoor series in 2017, he has established an unofficial academy — or call it a boot camp — of bel canto, training a rising generation of performers in what he considers an endangered art. Rather than the veteran Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the resident ensemble at Caramoor, Mr. Crutchfield now fields a handpicked, very young period orchestra with an unconventional conducting setup and arrangement of players. He and a faculty of coaches school the musicians and singers in the fading forms of idiomatic ornamentation and phrasing.

Source: New York Times July 15, 2019 16:52 UTC