“The Lord of Cries” is an unusual melange of two literary works written two millennia apart.  The more recent is Bram Stoker’s “Dracula,” which has been used as the basis for operas before, but none have entered the repertoire.  Adamo concludes that Stoker must have known the other contributing piece, Euripides’s “The Bacchae.” 

Shakespeare’s frequent conceits include mistaken identities, confused love matches, supernatural interventions, play-within-a-play, and multiple plot lines, but “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” embraces them all, and more.  Several  threads are interspersed and overlapping throughout the play and opera’s narrative that may cause confusion to the uninitiated.

Martin Mugar posted this in 2005 to the site Art Deal. Overcoming many physical and emotional handicaps Chuck Close prevailed leaving a daunting legacy of work.

A remarkable program features Insight with Andrea Brachfeld. The quartet represents a who’s-who of today’s jazz scene. Headed by the acclaimed award-winning flutist Andrea Brachfeld, Insight includes Bill O’Connell, piano; Harvie S, bass; and Jason Tiemann, drums. The repertoire will feature “If Not Now, When,” Andrea’s original composition, made possible by a New Works grant from Chamber Music America.

“Eugene Onegin” not only represents the greatness of Russian opera but is one of the fine representatives of the whole operatic idiom. Director Alessandro Talevi marshals the creative team to give a look that blends traditional and modern elements. 

Tanz im August (no translation necessary) opened the way for live performances with and for the public after Covid-19 had stopped all cultural activities since late last year.

On Saturday, September 4, at 4 pm, the renowned Knights Orchestra returns to the Clark as part of its programming to highlight Norwegian culture in celebration of its Nikolai Astrup: Visions of Norway exhibition.

Elektra, the stage drama that underlies the opera Elektra, was written by Hugo von Hoffmansthal for a theatre venue run by Max Reinhardt in Berlin. Reinhardt would go on to found the Salzburg Festival in 1920. After a hundred years, this Festival is inarguably one of the world’s most satisfying. Their new production of Elektra is classic and thrilling.

Sandra Oh stars as The Chair in a six episode comedy on Netflix. Set on small college Pembroke it is a broad and hilarious satire of cancel culture on campus. While played for laughs the hit comedy has evoked a dialogue about its uncanny, over the top, accuracy. It's the truth that makes this hilarious series sad and all too compelling.

These two sisters, 103 and 101 at the time of the play, regale us with incidents and observations on their lives and opinions. And what experiences they are. They talk about their family’s history (and photos are projected) of slavery and freedom.

The Clark took a chance in featuring an unknown artist as its major summer exhibition. By word of mouth momentum has built for "Nikolai Astrup: Visions of Norway." The work of the artist was as narrow and deep as the fjords of his native Norway. While beloved in his native land he is unknown to all but a few art historians and specialists of 20th century Scandinavian art.

Sweet Land by a consortium of artists formed by the adventuresome Los Angeles company The Industry has won the award for best new opera in 2020 from the Music Critics Association of North America.  Music by Du Yun and Raven Chacon. Libretto by Douglas Kearney and Aja Couchois Duncan . Directed by Cannupa Hanska Luger and Yuval Sharon.

SchifferNolandStudio will be the featured artist for the September/October show with Blue Heron Gallery Online. The show will run from September 13 until October 14. Peggy Schiffer and Sam Noland are the two-person collaborative known as SchifferNolandStudio, and their creative practice includes photography, digital media, painting, and other elements

The program has had a good long run of 16 years. It was a writing program for people who wanted to write about art, with an emphasis on literature, philosophy, the relation between aesthetics and politics, and the history and future of the image.

The press release for fall programing at American Repertory Theatre contained a signifying statement.

After a two block walk, the audience arrives at the lawn of the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum for The Caterers by Tony Menses. At least you can understand why a museum dedicated to recent art was chosen, since the play takes place sometime after 2030.

Angela's Ashes: The Musical is a new musical adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Frank McCourt memoir. The award-winning, Off-Broadway Irish Repertory Theatre will stream the show from Sept. 9 through Sept. 22. The online production follows an in-person, critically-acclaimed run in Ireland in 2017.

The Impracticality of Modern-Day Mastodons is a new play by Rachel Teagle receiving its world premiere production at Florida Atlantic University's Theatre Lab. The professional company's production runs through Sept. 19. Jess the Mastodon seeks to find her place in a world in which she seems out of place. A Mastodon is a large, extinct elephant-like mammal.

Organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), Fabric of a Nation: American Quilt Stories showcases 50 remarkable works created by women and men, known individuals and those yet to be identified, urban and rural makers, and members of the Black, Latinx, Indigenous, Asian and LGBTQIA+ communities.

Works & Process will resume its signature behind the scenes Artist-driven programs, uniquely blending performance highlights with insightful artists discussions all prior to premiere.

'Memories of Atrocities to Come:' Written at night, edited at daytime - published in remembrance of 9/11 - atrocities of WWII - and of today....

The nighttime streets are dark and shadowy, elegant in rubble and 19th century buildings. Cobblestones glisten in the light from street lamps. Carol Reed’s 1949 film, The Third Man, shows us a visually stunning Vienna, a masterpiece of the noir realm, and probably one of the greatest films of all time.

Opera simply is not supposed to be this much fun. Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Ruth Bader Ginsburg were judicial titans representing the opposite ends of the political spectrum. Most opera goers would find Composer/Librettist Derrick Wang’s one-hour confection distinctive, entertaining, and evocative.

Patricia Hills, Professor Emerita, Boston University, writes on art and politics in American art and African American Art from the nineteenth-century to the present.  Her book Alice Neel (1983) and Painting Harlem Modern: The Art of Jacob Lawrence (2009) have been source books for recent exhibition curators.  Her Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné Website was launched on July 29.  For several years she has been researching work by Joyce Kozloff.

The long hiatus from indoor concerts has given Berkshires Jazz, Inc. an opportunity to reflect on the many aspects of our programming. As a result, we have re-scheduled the Pittsfield CityJazz Festival from mid-October to late April which is celebrated nationally as Jazz Appreciation Month.