Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Fisher Center

Bard’s Fisher Center Lost Letter Mystery

As an amusing addendum to this year’s recently-concluded Bard Music Festival: last week, I shared a photo of myself, standing before a life-size poster of Bohuslav Martinů outside the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts. It was only later that I revisited the image and noticed something a little peculiar. If you look down at the bottom of the photo, on the concrete at the base of the poster gallery is a perfectly visible letter “F.”

This was on the first weekend of the festival. I determined to look for it when I returned for the second weekend, and can you believe it, THE “F” WAS STILL THERE! I picked it up and held it in my hand for a moment, considering whether or not I should have it mounted on a chain so that I could wear it around my neck gangsta-style. But the angel on my shoulder prevailed, and I turned it in at the Fisher Center Box Office.

I wonder how long it lay there unmolested? The photo at the bottom right was posted by someone else in May. Clearly, at that time, the “F” was still mounted in its rightful place.

What the “F?”

Fisher Center at Bard

August 21, 2025
Fisher Center at Bard: Martinu Documentary Find

I’ve been looking all over the internet for “My Life with Bohuslav Martinů,” a 2021 “feature documentary” (it’s only an hour long and looks more like a dramatization), and I’ve finally found it – in Czech!

There are no English titles, so if you’re interested and you’re not a native speaker, you’ll have to employ an external program for translations. I haven’t watched it yet, but I’m looking forward to doing so before this year’s Bard Music Festival, devoted to “Martinů and His World.”

https://www.ceskatelevize.cz/porady/11670494623-muj-zivot-s-bohuslavem-martinu/

Here’s the trailer:

“Martinů and His World” will be held over two weekends, August 8-10 and 14-17, at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, NY. More about it here:

Bard Music Festival

I’ll be heading up there today, departing within the hour, as a matter of fact, to “Czech out” the first fully-staged U.S. production of Bedřich Smetana’s 1868 opera “Dalibor.” I previewed it more extensively in another post earlier this week.

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=1608573393395051&set=a.883855802533484

Remaining performances will take place at Bard College’s Fisher Center for the Performing Arts today at 2 p.m., July 30 at 2 p.m., and August 1 at 4 p.m.

If it sounds enticing, but you can’t make it, the July 30 matinee will be available for livestreaming, in real-time, with an encore broadcast on August 2 at 5 p.m. You can learn more here:

https://fishercenter.bard.edu/events/dalibor/

No time to smooth this. Gotta run!

Fisher Center at Bard

July 27, 2025
T-Shirt Style at Fisher Center Bard

I’m not really a t-shirt guy, but today I’m stylin.’

Fisher Center at Bard

August 19, 2024
Bard Music Festival Berlioz Finale

I’ve got a full day of travel ahead, so again, I’m afraid I will have to postpone sharing my most favorable impressions of the charming Sing for Hope production of Pauline Viardot’s fairy tale opera “Le dernier sorcier” (“The Last Sorcerer”) that capped the first weekend of this year’s Bard Music Festival, “Berlioz and His World,” with a performance at Bard College’s Fisher Center for the Performing Arts last Sunday. I got a good start on it this morning, but I want to make sure to do it justice. So watch for my reminiscences and assessments tomorrow!

As a singer, pianist, collaborator, friend, and confidante, Viardot was a major contributor to the artistic milieu of Berlioz’s time. I can’t wait to write more about her.

In the meantime, all good things must come to an end. Today is the final day of the festival. Program Ten, “Berlioz’s Transformation of the World of Sound,” including works ranging from Berlioz to Steve Reich (!), will be presented at the campus’ Olin Hall at 11:30 this morning (with a pre-concert talk at 11:00).

The festival will conclude with Program Eleven, “Faust and the Spirit of the 19th Century,” featuring Berlioz’s “The Damnation of Faust,” at 3:00 this afternoon (with a pre-concert talk at 2:00). The latter performance will also be available for streaming.

To learn more, visit https://fishercenter.bard.edu/whats-on/programs/bard-music-festival/

Now, if you’ll excuse me, it’s time for my personal ride to the abyss!

Fisher Center at Bard

Delacroix, “Faust and Mephistopheles Galloping through the Night of the Witches’ Sabbath” (1828)

August 18, 2024
Bard Music Festival Livestream Berlioz

I still have a few posts about the Bard Music Festival left in my quiver, which I promise to share in the coming days. One aspect of the festival I do want to mention – which so far I have failed to do – is that evening concerts at the Fisher Center for the Performing Arts are available for livestreaming. Keep that in mind when taking a gander at this weekend’s schedule. These include Programs Seven (a more intimate lead-in to Weekend Two, the most prominent offering being Liszt’s transcription of Berlioz’s “Harold in Italy” for viola and piano), Nine (featuring Louise Farrenc’s Symphony No. 3 and Joachim Raff’s Symphony No. 10 “Autumn”), and Eleven (a complete performance of Berlioz’s “The Damnation of Faust”). No need to bargain your soul in following the link:

https://fishercenter.bard.edu/whats-on/programs/bard-music-festival/

“Berlioz and His World” will continue at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, through Sunday.

Fisher Center at Bard

August 16, 2024

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