REVIEW: The Berkshire Opera Festival Presents “La Traviata” at the Mahaiwe

by Barbara Waldinger To celebrate their tenth anniversary, the Berkshire Opera Festival has selected one of the most beloved, most frequently produced operas in the Verdi canon:  LA TRAVIATA.   According to Maestro Brian Garman, Conductor, Artistic Director and Co-founder of the company, Berkshire audiences have often requested this masterpiece, and now the BOF has delivered…

Berkshire Opera Festival Launches 10th Anniversary Summer Season

Great Barrington, MA â€” Having succeeded in restoring world-class, fully-staged opera to the Berkshires, the “innovative, clever and thoroughly professional” (Bachtrack) BERKSHIRE OPERA FESTIVAL (BOF) is now busy rehearsing and producing its tenth anniversary season in Great Barrington, MA. The only company of its kind in the Berkshire region, BOF produces opera at the highest level under the vision of…

Berkshire Opera Festival Announces “La Traviata” & More for 10th Anniversary Season

BERKSHIRE OPERA FESTIVAL (BOF), the ambitious company, which has restored world-class, fully-staged opera to the Berkshires with savvy productions and superlative casts,  mounts a new mainstage production of Verdi’s masterpieceLA TRAVIATA on August 23, 26, 29Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, Great Barrington, MA Soprano VANESSA BECERRA – Violetta ValĂ©ryTenor JOSHUA BLUE – Alfredo GermontBaritone DARREN DRONE – Giorgio GermontMezzo-soprano JOANNE EVANS – Flora BervoixTenor MAXIMILLIAN JANSEN –…

REVIEW: Berkshire Opera Festival’s “Don Giovanni”

by Barbara Waldinger In the age of Harvey Weinstein and Jeffrey Epstein, how is a director embarking on a production of one of the many versions of the Don Juan story to approach the lasciviousness of the main character?   Beginning in the Middle Ages, across multiple genres and cultures…

Berkshire Opera Festival Presents its 2022 Mainstage Production “Don Giovanni”

On August 20, 23, and 26, Berkshire Opera Festival‘s 2022 season culminates with the summer’s most ambitious undertaking: a new staging by BOF co-founder Jonathon Loy of Mozart’s comedy-tragedy masterpiece DON GIOVANNI at the historic, intimate Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington, MA. BOF Artistic Director and co-founder Brian Garman, called a “wizard” with complex scores by Bachtrack, conducts the Berkshire Opera…

REVIEW: “Rigoletto” at the Berkshire Opera Festival

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…

Berkshire Opera Festival Schedules “Rigoletto” for 2018

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…