2025 was an exciting and innovative season—a mix of new plays and classics, chock full of exceptional performances, directors and designers. Barbara Waldinger’s Top Ten Plays For first rate ensemble performances: Other Desert Cities by Jon Robin Baitz, directed by Robert Egan. Dorset Theatre Festival The Piano Lesson by August…
PITTSFIELD, MA (October 14, 2025) – The Board of the Berkshire Theatre Critics Association (BTCA) has presented the 2025 Berkshire Theatre Critics Awards, colloquially known as The Berkies, on Monday, November 10, at Zion Lutheran Church in Pittsfield. This is the ninth time in ten years that these awards have…
PITTSFIELD, MA (October 14, 2025) – The Board of the Berkshire Theatre Critics Association (BTCA) has announced the nominees for the 2025 Berkshire Theatre Awards, colloquially known as The Berkies. The awards will be presented on the evening of Monday, November 10, 2025, at Zion Lutheran Church in Pittsfield. This…
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…
Great Barrington, MA — 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…
Great Barrington, MA — The “innovative, clever and thoroughly professional” (Bachtrack) BERKSHIRE OPERA FESTIVAL (BOF) is proud to announce the appointment of Natalie Johnsonius Neubert as its new President and CEO. Johnsonius Neubert comes to BOF with long and extensive experience in all facets of arts administration, with particular focus on development and marketing. Most recently, she served four…
Cambridge, NY, March 28, 2024 After a five-year hiatus, opera is returning to Hubbard Hall. On May 19 at 3:00 p.m., singers from the Brandon, VT-based BARN OPERA will perform a concert of popular arias duets and ensembles from La Traviata, The Barber of Seville, Die Fledermaus, Madama Butterfly, Carmen, and more. …
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…
