by Fred Baumgarten Panopera’s presentation of La Traviata at the Academy of Music in Northampton straddled the line between professional quality and amateur production. On the strength of some good singing, sincerity, and charm, let’s call it a win. La Traviata (roughly, “The Fallen One”), arguably Giuseppe Verdi’s most popular opera and certainly…
by Fred Baumgarten For nearly three hours last Saturday afternoon, you could hear a pin drop inside the Colonial Theatre in Pittsfield at the Berkshire Opera Festival’s presentation of Verdi’s classic tragedy, Rigoletto. That, and the sounds of splendid music, which the audience drank in with rapt attention. So good was…
by Fred Baumgarten The best way to appreciate Leonard Bernstein’s 1983 opera, A Quiet Place, is through the music. At Tanglewood last week, this infrequently performed work was given a spirited defense by the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra and Vocal Fellows under the baton of Stefan Asbury, in a 2013 version…
Great Barrington, MA – Berkshire Opera Festival (BOF) is proud to present Giuseppe Verdi’s masterpiece, Rigoletto for its third season, with performances August 25, 28, and 31 at the historic Colonial Theatre in Pittsfield. The production is conducted by Artistic Director Brian Garman and directed by General Director Jonathon Loy. As with the first and second…
The four critics who review for BerkshireOnStage.com – Gail M. Burns, Roseann Cane, Macey Levin, and Barbara Waldinger – have each listed their favorite regional theatre productions of the past calendar year. Because for the most part we all see and review different shows, there was no sense trying to…
The Berkshire Opera Festival returns to the Colonial Theatre in summer 2017 for Ariadne auf Naxos.
Bei-Bei Guan sang the title role superbly, in this tragic opera where a Navy captain who leaves his “wife” and child behind after a fraudulent marriage returns at last.
Rigoletto is possibly the most popular tragic opera in the repertory – and it was a whole new adventure for our theatre critic, Gail Burns. She marveled at its big sound in the intimacy of Hubbard Hall in Cambridge, NY.
