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 — 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…

REVIEW: “Faust” at the Berkshire Opera Festival

by Barbara Waldinger Charles Gounod’s FAUST, currently playing at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, is the Berkshire Opera Festival’s first foray (now in its ninth season) into French grand opera. Maestro Brian Garman (Artistic Director, co-Founder and conductor), explains what that entails: “intimate and heartfelt melodies, spirited and rousing choruses,…

Berkshire Opera Festival Presents Gounod’s “Faust” at the Mahaiwe

Berkshire Opera Festival has restored world-class, fully-staged opera to the Berkshires with savvy productions and superlative casts.  This summer’s mainstage opera is a reimagined French classic:  FAUST August 24 at 1PMAugust 27 at 7:30PMAugust 30 at 7:30 PM This new production of Gounod’s timeless masterpiece about a man who sells his soul to the…

Berkshire Opera Festival Announces 2024 Season

This spring, BOF proudly presents the first workshop performanceof a brand new opera from the Pulitzer Prize-winning composerof The Central Park Five and X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X: THE REEF April 10Merkin Hall at Kaufman Music Center, New York CityA new opera (Act 1) by composer Anthony DavisLibretto by Joan Ross SorkinAdapted from the…

Berkshire Opera Festival Opens Season with “Breaking the Mold” Concert at the Mahaiwe

Berkshire Opera Festival opens its 2023 summer season with Breaking the Mold: Baroque, Bel Canto, and Beyond, a concert of arias and ensembles spanning 300 years, on July 22 at Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center. The program traverses a vast range of musical eras and styles, from Handel to Heggie. The afternoon’s selections are sung by strong characters who each…

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…