Bard Announces Summerscape 2021

[lennygoran]

SummerScape 2021
July 8–August 22

“SummerScape has adapted to current circumstances without downsizing the breadth of its programming. This is an ambitious festival, as our audiences have come to expect. From the Fisher Center’s main stage to the parkland of our Montgomery Place campus, this year the festival extends from traditional performance spaces to the stunning landscape of the Hudson Valley.”—Gideon Lester, Artistic Director

• • • • •

This July and August, Bard SummerScape returns with a full season of live music, dance, opera, and performance, culminating in the 31st annual Bard Music Festival, Nadia Boulanger and Her World.

Productions will be staged for limited in-person audiences both indoors and out, across Bard’s idyllic 1,000-acre campus, adhering to rigorous health and safety protocols while celebrating the joys of live performance and the beauty of the Hudson Valley.
The full SummerScape 2021 program will be announced in late April, complete with details of all health and safety protocols.

• • • • •

Preparing for the summer season in these uncertain times is no simple task. Your support will make it possible. Please help bring back SummerScape and the Bard Music Festival with a contribution today.
Donate Now

Jessie Montgomery by Jiyang Chen; Pam Tanowitz by George Etheredge

Dance
I was waiting for the echo of a better day
World Premiere

A new commission from Bard’s Fisher Center Choreographer-in Residence Pam Tanowitz and Bernstein Award-winning composer Jessie Montgomery. Performed with live musical accompaniment, this large-scale dance work marks Tanowitz’s return to SummerScape after the resounding success of her Four Quartets, a Fisher Center commission that premiered at the 2018 festival.



31st Season
Bard Music Festival
Nadia Boulanger and Her World

The Bard Music Festival returns for its 31st season with an exploration of the life and work of Nadia Boulanger (1887–1979), the pioneering Parisian pedagogue, composer, conductor, pianist, organist, and indomitable personality who shaped more than a generation of American musicians. Through a series of themed concert programs, lectures, and panel discussions, Nadia Boulanger and Her World pays tribute to one of the most important female figures in the history of classical music.

Norman Garrett as King Arthur; photo by Maria Baranova

Opera
King Arthur
by Ernest Chausson

The first fully-staged North American production of King Arthur (Le roi Arthus), the only opera by Boulanger’s compatriot and near-contemporary Ernest Chausson, conducted by festival founder and co-artistic director Leon Botstein.

Montgomery Place

A series of concerts will take place at Bard’s Montgomery Place campus, a designated National Historic Landmark set amid rolling lawns, woodlands and gardens against the spectacular backdrop of the Catskill Mountains and adjacent to the College’s main campus.

Thank you for Joining Us

Our heartfelt thanks to all who joined us for the first virtual member meet and greet of 2021! It was wonderful to see you and toast to your generosity.

[maestrob]

Good morning, Len!

OperaKing Arthurby Ernest Chausson

The first fully-staged North American production of King Arthur (Le roi Arthus), the only opera by Boulanger’s compatriot and near-contemporary Ernest Chausson, conducted by festival founder and co-artistic director Leon Botstein.

I have a CD of King Arthur, which Botstein recorded about 15 years ago. Of course, Purcell's more famous work by the same title has been on CD with innumerable versions. The Chausson may be worth your while, Len. If you're interested in this French composer, you might look up his major work, his Symphony in B-flat, which he struggled with for many years and finally perfected, as well as his Concert for Violin, Piano & String Quartet. Being an avowed Francophile, I enjoy his music very much, and you may do so as well.

He also wrote some lovely songs, btw. His Poeme de l'amour et de la mer, for voice and orchestra, is a beautiful 23-minute work you may also enjoy. My favorite version right now is by Veronique Gens, also below:

[lennygoran]

I have a CD of King Arthur, which Botstein recorded about 15 years ago. Of course, Purcell's more famous work by the same title has been on CD with innumerable versions. The Chausson may be worth your while, Len. If you're interested in this French composer, you might look up his major work, his Symphony in B-flat, which he struggled with for many years and finally perfected, as well as his Concert for Violin, Piano & String Quartet. Being an avowed Francophile, I enjoy his music very much, and you may do so as well.

Brian thanks-this was the work we had planned to see which they had to cancel from last year due to corona-we've been going to Bard every year now for sometime--I listened to the opera-could have been youtube-I liked what I heard and I'm gonna check out these other works you've recommended. Regards, Len

[maestrob]

I have a CD of King Arthur, which Botstein recorded about 15 years ago. Of course, Purcell's more famous work by the same title has been on CD with innumerable versions. The Chausson may be worth your while, Len. If you're interested in this French composer, you might look up his major work, his Symphony in B-flat, which he struggled with for many years and finally perfected, as well as his Concert for Violin, Piano & String Quartet. Being an avowed Francophile, I enjoy his music very much, and you may do so as well.

Brian thanks-this was the work we had planned to see which they had to cancel from last year due to corona-we've been going to Bard every year now for sometime--I listened to the opera-could have been youtube-I liked what I heard and I'm gonna check out these other works you've recommended. Regards, Len

OK!

The first version of the Concert for Violin, String Quartet and Piano, as played by my ex-client at the NYAC, Jorge Bolet, with Itzakh Perlman and the Juilliard String Quartet on Columbia, is the first youtube that comes up when you search for "Chausson Bolet youtube" on Google. It's one of his best recordings.

Enjoy!

[lennygoran]

He also wrote some lovely songs, btw. His Poeme de l'amour et de la mer, for voice and orchestra, is a beautiful 23-minute work you may also enjoy. My favorite version right now is by Veronique Gens, also below:

Brian I created a spotify playlist with alot of his work including the opera-he might not have done that much nut I'm finding it simply super! This guy is a real find. Regards, Len

[maestrob]

He also wrote some lovely songs, btw. His Poeme de l'amour et de la mer, for voice and orchestra, is a beautiful 23-minute work you may also enjoy. My favorite version right now is by Veronique Gens, also below:

Brian I created a spotify playlist with alot of his work including the opera-he might not have done that much nut I'm finding it simply super! This guy is a real find. Regards, Len

Enjoy!

[lennygoran]

Enjoy!

That Bard opera was just one of a number of items we were scheduled to see where we booked before corona hit-just one of the items we got our money back on-there was glimmerglass, the Met, a Broadway play, hotel accommodations, etc. Yeah the opera was to be seen by us Sunday Aug 2, 2020. Now that Bard is doing it for this Summerscape it may be harder to get seats since I'm assuming people won't be sitting right next to each other-of course Sue and I will have to determine if it's even safe enough for us to attend. Regards, Len

[maestrob]

Enjoy!

That Bard opera was just one of a number of items we were scheduled to see where we booked before corona hit-just one of the items we got our money back on-there was glimmerglass, the Met, a Broadway play, hotel accommodations, etc. Yeah the opera was to be seen by us Sunday Aug 2, 2020. Now that Bard is doing it for this Summerscape it may be harder to get seats since I'm assuming people won't be sitting right next to each other-of course Sue and I will have to determine if it's even safe enough for us to attend. Regards, Len

Depends on what happens with the variants, I would say. Due to the uncertainty there, we're not going to make any plans for socializing until we've also had a shot to protect against variants as well.

There have been too many horror stories about long-term covid from people with mild or even no initial symptoms, and we don't want to take any chances. Better safe than sorry.

[lennygoran]

Depends on what happens with the variants, I would say. Due to the uncertainty there, we're not going to make any plans for socializing until we've also had a shot to protect against variants as well.

There have been too many horror stories about long-term covid from people with mild or even no initial symptoms, and we don't want to take any chances. Better safe than sorry.

Brian sounds like good advice for right now! There's a show I'll be DVRing tonight on CNN that looks quite interesting. Regards, Len

https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/26/health/c ... index.html

[maestrob]

Without assigning intentionality, Redfield told me he believes the origin of the pandemic is a lab in China that was already studying the virus, exposing it to human cell cultures."Most of us in a lab, when trying to grow a virus, we try to help make it grow better, and better, and better, and better, and better, and better so we can do experiments and figure out about it. That's the way I put it together."It is a controversial, politically charged theory -- one the World Health Organization calls "extremely unlikely," and there has been no clear evidence to support this "lab leak" theory. Yet, more than a year after the outbreak, a team of WHO scientists inside Wuhan has still been unable to determine the definitive origin of the virus. At this point, it is not clear they ever will.

Len, this is a bombshell theory. Our relations with China are already at an ebb. This may well blow things up.

I'll be watching too.

[lennygoran]

Len, this is a bombshell theory. Our relations with China are already at an ebb. This may well blow things up.

I'll be watching too.

Brian I want to hear what all of them say-I hope they can indict trump's lack of truthfulness-afaiac he's got blood on his hands! Regards, Len