Berkshire on Stage

The spirited and ambitious Berkshire Opera Festival opens its 2022 summer season with a compelling new production of Jake Heggie‘s intimate THREE DECEMBERS on July 21 and 23 at PS21 in Chatham, NY, conducted by Christopher James Ray and directed by Beth Greenberg. This contemporary American opera is based on Tony Award-winning playwright Terrence McNally’s original script for Some Christmas Letters. It marks BOF’s 2nd Second Stage event, following Tom Cipullo’s…

by Barbara Waldinger Who would have believed that here in the Berkshires we would have our own opera festival showcasing talent from all over the world, including the MET and Italy’s La Scala?  Thanks to co-founders Brian Garman (Artistic Director) and Jonathon Loy (Director of Production), Berkshire Opera Festival presented…

Top (L to R): Sebastian Catana, Tamara Wilson, Thomas GlassMiddle: Alissa Anderson, Jasmine Habersham, Jonas HackerBottom: Joanne Evans, Jeremy Harr, Lucas Levy Berkshire Opera Festival‘s mainstage show will be Giuseppe Verdi‘s brilliant comic opera FALSTAFF, which was adapted by Arrigo Boito from Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor and Henry IV. One of only two comedies written…

by Fred Baumgarten Comedy, arguably one of the two greatest human gifts – the other being music – is a timeless art. Picture an arrow pointed on two sides, flying through spacetime, picking up a Greek comedy here, a courtly farce there, a Gilbert and Sullivan here, a Seinfeld there,…

by Barbara Waldinger What is the purpose of producing a classic play that has already been revived many times onstage and on film?  Some people say that it’s to give a new generation of theatregoers the opportunity to see an important work.  Others insist that it’s to give a director…