Bard Summerscape 2004 Season Announcement - all Russian program

Mon Jun 21 21:09:13 UTC 2004

BARD SUMMERSCAPE 2004 SEASON ANNOUNCEMENT
THE SECOND SEASON OF BARD SUMMERSCAPE, EXPANDED TO RUN FROM 

JULY 8 TO AUGUST 22, OFFERS AN EXTRAORDINARY NEW SEASON OF OPERA, MUSIC, THEATER AND FILM

SUMMERSCAPE 2004 FEATURES THE FIFTEENTH ANNUAL BARD MUSIC FESTIVAL - "SHOSTAKOVICH AND HIS WORLD" - EXAMINING THE RUSSIAN COMPOSER OVER TWO WEEKENDS OF CONCERTS, PANEL DISCUSSIONS, AND OTHER SPECIAL EVENTS

SHOSTAKOVICH'S RARELY HEARD COMIC OPERA, THE NOSE, GETS A NEW PRODUCTION DIRECTED BY FRANCESCA ZAMBELLO, WITH STAGE DESIGNS BY RAFAEL VIÑOLY; SHOSTAKOVICH'S MUSICAL, MOSCOW: CHERRY TREE TOWERS, RECEIVES ITS U.S. PREMIERE; FURTHER HIGHLIGHTS: A CELEBRATION OF GOGOL, INCLUDING Valery Fokin's production of The Inspector General; A NEW CHAMBER OPERA BY MEL MARVIN - GUEST FROM THE FUTURE; PUPPETS FROM ST. PETERSBURG; films FROM RUSSIA, AND MORE

bARD COLLEGE'S CELEBRATED nEW FRANK GEHRY--DESIGNED rICHARD B. FISHER CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS IS SUMMERSCAPE'S PRIMARY VENUE

Annandale-on-Hudson NY, February 5, 2004 - Bard College has announced the second season of its diverse SummerScape festival, featuring an astonishing array of opera, music, theater, dance and film, and the 15th annual Bard Music Festival: "Shostakovich and his World," in a newly expanded season running from July 8 through August 22. This year's Bard Music Festival - focusing on Russian composer Dmitrii Shostakovich (1906 -1975) - will take place over two concentrated three-day weekends between August 13 and 22, with 11 concerts ranging from chamber works to full orchestral programs.  

SummerScape highlights include Shostakovich's rarely heard comic opera The Nose (based on a Gogol story) and his only musical, Moscow: Cherry Tree Towers, a Soviet Rent, following the lives of new residents of a Muscovite paradise - a communal housing project.  Francesca Zambello will direct both works in her double debut at Bard. SummerScape will place a second great Russian creative talent under the magnifying glass this year - Nikolai Gogol (1809 - 52), many of whose extraordinary stories are to be presented in various forms, including performances of his two-act play, The Inspector General, and theatrical versions of his stories The Overcoat and Nevsky Prospekt.   SummerScape will also feature a new chamber opera, Guest from the Future, by Mel Marvin; and a Russian film festival featuring films with scores by Shostakovich and stories by Gogol.  Among the guest artists will be several companies from St. Petersburg, including the Alexandriinsky Theatre, and an international roster of soloists, chamber musicians, directors, and actors. The American Symphony Orchestra, under its music director, Leon Botstein, is in residence.

The SummerScape box office, which begins selling tickets on May 1, 2004, can be reached at 845-758-7900. Tickets will also be available on the websites.

www.summerscape.bard.edu    and    www.bard.edu/bmf/2004/    

15th ANNUAL BARD MUSIC FESTIVAL 

SHOSTAKOVICH AND HIS WORLD: August 13-15 and August 20-22

The Bard Music Festival was founded in 1990 to promote new ways of understanding and presenting the history of music to contemporary audiences.  Under its founder and artistic director, Leon Botstein, the 2004 festival promises a concentrated examination of Soviet composer Dmitrii Shostakovich (1906-75) two years before the centennial of his birth.  Complete details will be published separately.

Works by Shostakovich, his contemporaries and predecessors, his successors and his followers, will be performed.  There also will be lectures, panel discussions, and symposia.

Some of the scheduled themes of panels and programs are: Shostakovich's Character and Career, his Public and Private Personas, and From Success to Disgrace: The Early Career. Other topics will cover Ideology and Individualism, Art and Culture in the Soviet Era, Out of the Shadow of 1948, and Soviet Popular Music.  

Shostakovich's works to be played in concert include Suite for Jazz Orchestra No. 1; late String Quartets; Symphonies Nos. 1, 4, 10 & 14, some of the solo Piano Preludes; and choral and other vocal works.  Other composers to be performed include Prokofiev, Skriabin, Glazunov, Miaskovsky, Kabalevsky, Khachaturian, Denisov, Shebalin, Krennikov, Dzerzhinsky, Gnesin, and Popov.

Guest-scholars will include Shostakovich experts Laurel E. Fay and David Fanning, as well as Caryl Emerson and others. 

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Bard SummerScape Box Office Phone: (845) 758-7900

Websites: www.summerscape.bard.edu    and    www.bard.edu/bmf/2004/

SummerScape Press contact: Mark Primoff (845) 758-7412, primoff at bard.edu

21C Media Group contact: Glenn Petry (212) 625-2038, gpetry at 21cmediagroup.com

4.29.04

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