Castleton Festival returns in 2010

Conductor Lorin Maazel has announced a second season of the Castleton Festival at Maazel's Castleton Farms in Rappahannock County in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in northwestern Virginia.

The second season, which will run from July 2-18, 2010, will present two new chamber-opera productions and a revival of one of the four Britten operas being staged this summer. Programming will be announced later.

In the current economic downturn, "we should have been deterred, but we weren’t," Maazel said in a prepared statement. Castleton events "have been packed all the way through the festival, and we look towards the future with confidence knowing that there are people out there who appreciate what we’re doing and that love us and as much as we love them," he added.

For details on the current Castleton Festival, running through July 19, visit www.castletonfestival.org