Berkshire Review for the Arts

Marlboro at 60 – a Look Back, with a Schedule of Touring Concerts 2010-11

Michael Miller — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 05:07:25 +0000

This past summer this hour's drive took me to Marlboro on several occasions, thanks to the generosity of Frank Salomon — an administrator of many years service and great knowledge of everything Marlboro — for a series of public and private concerts: a proper immersion in the school and festival, as they are today, and all seemed right with the world — very much so. Present-day Marlboro, led by Artistic Directors, Richard Goode and Mitsuko...

Here is the latest on the Berkshire Review for the Arts. Click on the headings to visit the site and read the full articles.

Old North Festival Chorus – Marblehead presents 30th Annual Holiday Concert, Old North Church, Marblehead, Sat., 12/4/2010 8 pm, Sun., 12/5/2010, 7:30 pm

The Editor — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 00:00:54 +0000

The 30th annual North Festival Chorus Christmas Concerts—presented each year as part of Marblehead’s Christmas Walk—will take place on , December 4 at 8pm, and , December 5 at7:30 pm in the sanctuary of the historic North Church Meeting House, 35 Washington Street, Marblehead. Festival Chorus highlights this year include: Cantata 191, Gloria in excelsis deo by Johann Sebastian Bach; excerpts from the Weihnachts-Oratorium BWV 248 (Christmas...

Here is the latest on the Berkshire Review for the Arts. Click on the headings to visit the site and read the full articles.

Opera America Launches the North American Opera Journal, an online scholarly journal about opera in the Western Hemisphere.

The Editor — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 19:54:48 +0000

I am quite excited to announce the publication of the inaugual issue of the North American Opera Journal (NAOJ), not least for the purely egocentric reason that it contains an article of my own about concert opera in America, above all, its musical and dramative function in our opera-going lives. It also contains “Porgy and [...]

Here is the latest on the Berkshire Review for the Arts. Click on the headings to visit the site and read the full articles.

Boston Lyric Opera, Tosca, November 16th, Shubert Theater

Charles Warren — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 05:43:49 +0000

It has been interesting to see Boston Lyric Opera’s production of Puccini’s Tosca just a few weeks after seeing Opera Boston’s production of Beethoven’s Fidelio, just down the street at the Cutler Majestic Theater. The two operas, in their very different ways, invoke a powerful atmosphere of political repression — the world in which everyone lives, the trap that everyone is caught in, the air that everyone breathes — and in both cases a woman at...

Here is the latest on the Berkshire Review for the Arts. Click on the headings to visit the site and read the full articles.

Farewell to Tankred Dorst’s Bayreuth Ring

Michael Miller — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 21:09:59 +0000

As much as I might enjoy the paradox in seeking out real situations that recall a work which is for many the ultimate in escapism, I admired Tankred Dorst's efforts to bring Wagner's mythology into our own world. Dorst recognizes that mythology and the divine are present everywhere, largely because of the consistency of human behavior.

Here is the latest on the Berkshire Review for the Arts. Click on the headings to visit the site and read the full articles.

Michael Francis debuts with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra

Steven Kruger — Sat, 20 Nov 2010 18:49:03 +0000

One of the consolations of living in a successful middle-class society, I think, is to experience the evaporation of self-consciously plug-ugly proletarian art and music. Many of the last century's early musical compositions seem today unnecessarily obsessed with wheezing 'round the campfire, banging on pots and pans, or otherwise ramming washtub crudities down the listener's throat. Even where it isn't that obvious, the blue-collar bias can be...

Here is the latest on the Berkshire Review for the Arts. Click on the headings to visit the site and read the full articles.

It’s Twilight Time With the Australian Ballet

Andrew Miller — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 05:16:28 +0000

The Australian Ballet presents three short recent ballets which would seem at the surface to have nothing in common. In At the Edge of Night, first performed in 1997, but last performed 11 years ago, Stephen Baynes sets an impressionist ballet to seven preludes by Rachmaninov. The choreography, set design and costumes share the sensibility of the music, rolling subtly between nostalgia, longing, pining, contemplation, mild remorse, occasionally...

Here is the latest on the Berkshire Review for the Arts. Click on the headings to visit the site and read the full articles.

I Grandi Veneti da Pisanello a Tiziano da Tintoretto a Tiepolo. Chiostro del Bramante (Rome) until January 30th

Daniel B. Gallagher — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 18:21:58 +0000

The temporary closure of the Accademia Carrara in Bergamo for renovations has made it possible for Rome to host a portion of its prestigious collection in Bramante’s charming urban cloister. The exhibit spans more than two centuries of Venetian painting — from Bellini and Carpaccio to Tiepolo and the vedutisti — elegantly arranged by Giovanni Federico Villa and Giovanni Valagussa, with an ambitious catalogue.

Here is the latest on the Berkshire Review for the Arts. Click on the headings to visit the site and read the full articles.

200 years in a Day: Sydney Open 2010

Alan Miller — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 03:58:05 +0000

Sydney Open is one of the best things you can do in this town. Organized by the Historic Houses Trust every two years, the event allows access to more than fifty important Sydney buildings, many of them normally off limits to the public. A City Pass allowed access to dozens of building in downtown Sydney, as well as properties run by the Trust, which are well worth visiting at any time of year. I purchased a City Pass and planned my route...

Here is the latest on the Berkshire Review for the Arts. Click on the headings to visit the site and read the full articles.

A Grand Tour Part 4: Urban Limericks

Alan Miller — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 06:05:17 +0000

A famous flâneur and me, Sat down one day for tea, He observed with a grin, That the the line is drawn thin, Between cities which look and which see.

Here is the latest on the Berkshire Review for the Arts. Click on the headings to visit the site and read the full articles.