Bard SummerScape
Arguably the mid-Hudson’s premier summer performing arts showcase, Bard SummerScape brings topnotch performers in the fields of music – including classical, opera and cabaret – as well as theater, dance and cinema to the Bard College campus for seven busy weeks each summer.
The extravaganza is organized around the Bard Music Festival, which each year examines the life, work and cultural milieu of a single composer through concerts of both orchestral and chamber music, pre-performance talks and panel discussions. This year’s focus will be on Igor Stravinsky. The theme of Weekend One, August 9 to 11, will be “Becoming Stravinsky: From St. Petersburg to Paris”; Weekend Two, August 16 to 18, will spotlight “Stravinsky Reinvented: From Paris to Los Angeles.” Ticket prices for Bard Music Festival events, many of which star Bard’s resident ensemble the American Symphony Orchestra, range from $25 to $75.
SummerScape typically kicks off with performances by a world-class dance company, and this year is no exception: The Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company and SITI Company will present A Rite, a new work celebrating the centennial of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, in the Sosnoff Theater at the Richard B. Fischer Center for the Performing Arts, on July 6 and 7. Ticket prices range from $25 to $55.
Next comes a major theatrical production from an internationally renowned director and cast. The stage production for 2013 will be the world premiere of János Szász and Gideon Lester’s adaptation of Mikhail Bulgakov’s novel The Master and Margarita, with Szász directing. Tickets will go for $30 for previews on July 11 and 12 and $45 for regular performances on July 13 and 14 and 17 through 21, all staged in Theater Two.
This year’s full-scale opera production at SummerScape will be the US stage premiere of Sergey Taneyev’s musical setting of Aeschylus’ Oresteia, directed by Thaddeus Strassberger. Tickets go for $30 to $90 for performances in the Sosnoff Theater on July 26, 28 and 31 and August 2 and 4.
The 2013 Bard SummerScape Film Festival, “Stravinsky’s Legacy and Russian Émigré Cinema,” will run from July 12 through August 3 and include such early Russian and French film classics as The Red Shoes, The Lower Depths, Pierrot le fou and Orpheus. They are screened in the Jim Ottaway, Jr. Film Center, and single tickets cost $12.
Hipsters at SummerScape flock to the intimate, mirror-spangled confines of the Spiegeltent for cabaret performances, food, drink and dancing throughout the festival, opening with celebrated comedian Sandra Bernhard on July 5. For much more detail on performers, programs, dates, times and prices for all Bard SummerScape events, visit https://fishercenter.bard.edu/summerscape/2013.
Bard SummerScape/Bard Music Festival, July 5-August 18, Bard College, 60 Manor Avenue, Annandale-on-Hudson; (845) 758-7900, https://fishercenter.bard.edu/summerscape/2013.
Powerhouse Theater
Nipping at the heels of Bard SummerScape in terms of sheer scope and star-power is the Powerhouse Theater, a collaboration between Vassar and New York Stage and Film that presents stage works in various phases of development, from early stages of “workshopping” to full-blown productions. This is your chance to see the creative process in action, catching dramas and musicals by heavy-hitters in the field before they hit the Great White Way.
Join the family! 
