Bard SummerScape once again makes history, with the first major U.S. production of Camille Saint-Saëns’ grand opera “Henry VIII.”
A seven-week arts festival consisting of opera, dance, theater, film, music, and cabaret, Bard SummerScape is held every year on the idyllic campus of Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, NY.
In common with all of Bard’s operas, “Henry VIII” is rarely staged. In fact, you’re unlikely to encounter any of Saint-Saëns’ operas other than, of course, “Samson and Delilah.” I was lucky enough to hear this one, also at Bard, in a concert performance during a festival devoted specifically to Saint-Saëns in 2012.
This year’s fully-staged production, held at the Sosnoff Theater in the Frank Gehry-designed Fisher Center for the Performing Arts, opened on Friday. Remaining performances will take place at the following times:
TODAY AT 2 PM
JULY 26 AT 2 PM
JULY 28 AT 4 PM
JULY 30 AT 2 PM
Livestreams will also be made available on July 26 AT 2 PM and July 29 AT 5 PM.
Eleven of Bard’s past operas – again, many of them U.S. premieres – are now available for streaming, free, and can be accessed on YouTube through the festival’s archive at the link below.
2022 – Richard Strauss, “Die Schweigsame Frau” (“The Silent Woman”)
2021 – Ernest Chausson, “Le roi Arthus” (“King Arthur”)
2019 – Erich Wolfgang Korngold, “Das Wunder der Heliane” (“The Miracle of Helen”)
2018 – Anton Rubinstein, “Demon”
2017 – Antonin Dvořák, “Dmitrij”
2016 – Pietro Mascagni, “Iris”
2015 – Ethel Smyth, “The Wreckers”
2014 – Carl Maria von Weber, “Euryanthe”
2013 – Sergei Taneyev, “Oresteia”
2012 – Emmanuel Chabrier, “Le roi malgré lui” (“The King in Spite of Himself”)
2011 – Richard Strauss, “Die Liebe der Danae” (“The Love of Danae”)
Arguably, the crown jewel of Bard SummerScape is the Bard Music Festival (August 4-13), two weeks devoted to a specific composer and his or her world – their contemporaries, those they were influenced by, and those they influenced. This year (its 33rd) the focus is on none other than Ralph Vaughan Williams.
Highlights will include performances of “Job, A Masque for Dancing,” the “Sinfonia Antartica” [sic], the Symphonies Nos. 4 & 8, the Concerto for Two Pianos, the Concerto Accademico for violin and orchestra, “Flos Campi” for viola, chorus and orchestra, and a concert performance of the Falstaff opera “Sir John in Love,” alongside old favorites like “The Lark Ascending,” the “Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis,” “Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus,” and the “Serenade to Music.”
With the composer largely neglected in the United States during his sesquicentennial year, all I can say is… it’s about bloomin’ time!
Of course, there will be works by many other composers, as well, though all of the music will be connected in one way or another with RVW.
The Bard Music Festival is an intensive regimen of concerts, panels, and pre-concert talks. One basically gets out of it whatever one puts into it. If total immersion is what you desire, there’s no place like Bard for a scholarly crash course. But if you prefer to cherry-pick, and just go and casually experience some worthwhile, often rarely-heard music, you can do that, too. One thing’s for certain: the lavish program book will keep you busy for days after the festival’s end. There is also always a tie-in book of scholarly essays and many recordings available for purchase.
For more information on Bard SummerScape and the Bard Music Festival, visit here:
https://fishercenter.bard.edu/whats-on/programs/summerscape/
If you’re an opera lover and you’ve got a lazy Sunday afternoon or evening ahead, consider streaming one of the operas today!
Fisher Center at Bard
PHOTO: Still from Bard’s “Henry VIII”
