Tanglewood

When Frank Gehry was asked to design Walt Disney Hall in Los Angeles, he made one condition: that Yasuhita Toyota be hired as the acoustician. He was not going to build a hall for musical performance that did not have fabulous acoustics. Disney Hall is an acoustical dream and its warm, intimate seating encircling the musicians and performers is mirrored perfectly by real surround sound. Under the baton of Gustavo Dudamel, the LA Phil shines.

Highlights of the 2016 Tanglewood season include BSO Music Director Andris Nelsons leading Boston Symphony Orchestra in Acts 1 & 2 of Verdi’s Aida with Kristine Opolais in the title role (8/20); Mahler’s Ninth Symphony (7/29); Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony (7/30); and music from Prokofiev’s Romeo And Juliet (8/21), plus music of Berlioz, Corigliano, Mozart, Saint-Saëns, Sibelius, and Tsontakis, as well as the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra’s annual Leonard Bernstein Memorial Concert (7/31), an All-Brahms Program pairing the Symphony No. 1 and Piano Concerto No. 1 with Paul Lewis as soloist.

For the third evening of their triptych at Carnegie Hall, conductor Andris Nelsons presented the Russians at their bipolar best: dark battles and wild dances. Nelsons introduced himself at Tanglewood two years ago with a performance of the Symphonic Dances. He and the Boston Symphony exceeded themselves at Carnegie.

In 2014 Nelsons conducted Strauss' Salome at Carnegie. What a reprise Elektra is. Experience at Bayreuth may give the Maestro the ability to bring out the Wagner in Strauss, and then go far beyond to the condensed emotional pitch of Strauss and to his sheer beauty. Christine Goerke, fresh from her triumph in Turandot at the Metropolitan Opera, gave a performance for the ages.

Strauss's early operatic masterpiece follows its Greek model closely to reveal the neurosis at the heart of modern life. Andris Nelsons led a white-hot BSO performance of a lurid, fin-de-siecle masterpiece. The cast, led by Christine Goerke, Jane Henschel and Gun-Brit Barkmin, was stellar.

Mingus and Monk were stone cold gone. Another way of saying total out there genius.

The last time Harry Connick, Jr. performed at Tanglewood there was a monsoon. Last night was a picture perfect evening as Connick and his nine piece band tore the roof off of the shed in a barn burner to close out the season during Labor Day weekend.

After a two year hiatus, Harry Connick, Jr returns to the stage at Tanglewood for a much anticipated Labor Day show on Friday evening, September 4th. Connick is a crowd favorite that hails from the 'Crescent City' (New Orleans).

The circus came to town joining the Pops for perhaps the most fun and entertaining evening of summer at Tanglewood.

With the opening of Red Velvet at Shakespeare & Company behind him John Douglas Thompson had time for a leisurely breakfast in Lenox. It was the latest in a series of interviews about his classical and contemporary roles that started with Othello in 2006. This is the first of two parts of that recent dialogue

The Berkshires' premier wine & food festival was a hit to the 1,000 plus patrons who wined and dined on local food and international wine.

By all accounts from the audience to musicians and critics the BSO has never sounded better than under its young artistic director Andris Nelsons. The BSO has departed Tanglewood earlier than usual to start a European tour on August 22 through September 5. The BSO opens its fall season in October.

Three time Oliver Award winner Mike Bartlett's An Intervention is having its American premiere anchoring the Nikos Stage programming of the Williamstown Theater Festival. The clever and verbose two hander is being staged with two rotating casts. We saw it with Josh Hamilton and Justin Long.

The list of vendors for the 10th Annual Tanglewood Wine & Food Classic is part of the slide show. For foodies this is August 15 event is eagerly anticipated.

While director of the Williams College Museum of Art Tom Krens initiated plans for Mass MoCA. When he left for a 20 year career at the Guggenheim Museum in New York that project moved forward under Joe Thompson. Now Krens, a Williams graduate and Williamstown home owner, is proposing to create a for profit museum on leased land fronting the high traffic corridor between MoCA, Williams College and the newly expanded and renovated Clark Art Institute.

A highlight of the Berkshire season is the annual day long event Tanglewood On Parade culminating in a concert in the Shed. A perennial participant, composer/ conductor John Williams, was unable to travel from his home in LA. His music was heard including a Tanglewood debut of Andris Nelsons as a substitute conductor of the Pops. A good time was had by all.

The week of August 2nd to 6thh is one of the most exciting weeks at Tanglewood,located in Lenox, Massachusetts. If you are a fan of conductor Andris Nelsons and Yo-Yo Ma, this is your week of enjoyment.

Candlelit dining, gourmet food and a historic presence make this unique New England Inn special in every way.

Blantyre in our backyard, is only minutes from Tanglewood and the arts of the Berkshires. Rooms are beautiful and wine and gourmet food is affordable.

Known for her recent role as Billie Holiday, multiple Tony award winning actress and singer, Audra Mcdonald takes center stage at Tanglewood on July 19.

Sample hundreds of wines paired with gourmet food at Tanglewood's 10th Wine & Food Classic on August 13th-16th.

On August 20, 2012 Wynton Marsalis shared an appearance at Tanglewood with bass player Christian McBride. Last night he returned to Ozawa Hall with Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. This superb group of New York based musicians presented a program of traditional big band music from the 1930s and 1940s in the first half and works by members of the orchestra, including Marsalis, in the second.

Heavyweight bass-baritone Bryn Terfel wows the audience at Ozawa Hall

Determined to add new audiences to Tanglewood, the BSO has created an All Star lineup of Musical Acts for the Historic 2015 Season.

In 2013 The Blues Project with Dorrance Dance and Toshi Reagon with BIGlovely premiered at the smaller Doris Duke Theatre. With word of mouth and rave reviews it sold out as it did again in 2014. This season the stunning tap ensemble was presented to sold out audiences in the Ted Shawn Theatre of Jacob's Pillow Dance. We were thrilled by every moment of an ecstatic performance,