Berkshire on Stage

Sail the ocean blue and mend broken hearts with W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan’s first big hit. which is still as popular as when it was written in 1896.

Alternately rambunctious and spine tingling, this opera is breathtaking in its sheer depravity.

An evening of Puccini’s La Boheme by candlelight? Heaven on earth.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about Valley Light Opera is their dedication and tenacity. Each year a constantly shifting group of community members come together in Amherst to celebrate a different era, this time choosing Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Sorcerer to put on their stage. Since it is a neglected…

The Ring cycle continues to be repeated with transmissions on May 16 with Wagner’s Siegfried, the third of the four Ring Cycle Operas. Read More…

Comments by Gail M. Burns, July 2009 Let’s talk about place. As real estate agents say, its all about location, location, location. Where something happens is as important as when or how. Often events are very site specific, in other words they literally couldn’t have happened anywhere else. Location influences…

Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, August 2008 Let me state right up front that I know NOTHING about opera. While they have the same roots and opera is very theatrical, it is not theatre. There are big differences between what we now call opera and what Variety calls “Legit” theatre.…

Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, August, 1999 “These are the mountains that give us such beauty,There are the meadows that give us such summer.”– Joan Vail Thorne When Margaret Lattimore and Michael Chioldi sang these words last night my eyes filled with tears. What a lovely, moving tribute to our…