Berkshire Review for the Arts

A Singer’s Notes 116: the Wonderful Frank Kelley’s Schubert, Peter Schaffer and Paul Rudnick in Vermont

Keith Kibler — Sun, 13 Sep 2015 16:40:39 +0000

Let me say at the outset that Frank Kelley is one of my favorite singers. His sound is his own. Valuable singers sound like themselves, and no other. Mr. Kelley is a generous performer He gives it all he's got. In this regard he reminds me of the great Norman Treigle. It was a frightening experience to be on stage with Treigle. So great was his concentration, you feared for him, and you feared for yourself. Mr. Kelley is a born story-teller....

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A Singer’s Notes 115: Red Velvet and Claire de Lune on the Radio

Keith Kibler — Tue, 01 Sep 2015 15:05:32 +0000

Another first-rate show from The Comedy of Errors actors at Shakespeare and Company. With effortless mutability the bunch took up a drama of great seriousness by Lolita Chakrabarti. John Douglas Thompson, great actor that he is, joined and performed the role of Ira Aldridge to perfection. Wonderful about this production was the way theatre itself became the story, and the story became theatre. The post A Singer’s Notes 115: Red...

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From Summer Opera…an Answer to the Opera Houses’ Predicament?

Michael Miller — Mon, 31 Aug 2015 06:10:51 +0000

Permit me to indulge in a one-sided argument…or a rant, as I believe it's called in the blogging world—which is not ours at New York Arts and The Berkshire Review! Opera in the United States is particularly unsettled at the moment, if not in trouble. Both audiences and sources of funding are on a downward curve, although the better-managed companies seem to be coping. The biggest beast of all, The Metropolitan Opera, compromised by the bad...

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Mike Bartlett’s “An Intervention” at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, closing August 23

Michael Miller — Fri, 21 Aug 2015 03:13:41 +0000

British playwright Mike Bartlett's fast-paced short play, An Intervention, closes with a black slapstick routine worthy of Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd. In the final scene, Character A, as she/he is called, brings out a ladder. Since we know A to be a troubled alcoholic, the conclusion we are meant to draw is obvious. A mounts the ladder experimentally, then retreats. Character B arrives. A scene ensues. A, fortified by tequila chugged...

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Tanglewood in Wonderland: The 2015 Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary Music

Lloyd Schwartz — Mon, 17 Aug 2015 21:56:19 +0000

This year’s Festival of Contemporary Music at Tanglewood was celebrating the 75th anniversary of the founding, by legendary BSO Music Director Serge Koussevitzky, of the Tanglewood Music Center, one of the great arts educational projects in this country and still going strong. Curated by composers and Tanglewood gurus John Harbison, Michael Gandolfi, and Oliver Knussen (who couldn’t attend or conduct as scheduled because of a visa problem), it...

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