Berkshire Opera Announces Season

The "innovative, clever and thoroughly professional" BERKSHIRE OPERA FESTIVAL (BOF) announces its 2023 season in Great Barrington and Pittsfield, MA, and for the first time in New York City. The only company of its kind in the Berkshire region, BOF produces opera at the highest level under the vision of esteemed co-founders Brian Garman (Artistic Director) and Jonathon Loy (Director of Production). The festival has "destination" status. Others write: "No longer need we confine our opera-going to HD films—now we have the highest quality productions and performers in our own backyard." 

For its 2023 season, BOF mounts a mainstage production of Giacomo Puccini's beloved opera LA BOHÈME, which comes to the Colonial Theater—Pittsfield's Gilded Age jewel of a venue—on August 26 and 29 and September 1. The season also features two concerts that survey the vast operatic repertoire on April 16 at Great Barrington's Saint James Place and on July 22 at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center. On November 16, the company travels to New York City to give a workshop performance of Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Anthony Davis's THE REEF, a new opera written in collaboration with librettist Joan Ross Sorkin.

In a recent interview Brian Garman and Jonathon Loy talk about their vision for BOF. Garman says, “If we intend to keep this art form alive and draw new audiences into opera, we can't treat these operas like museum pieces. Our first goal is always to try and find the best possible artists to perform these roles, but we also try and have a fresh take on all the operas that we produce.”