Scene from ‘Stardust’ Scene from ‘Stardust’ (photo Steve Gunther)
DANCE-THEATRE WORK ‘STARDUST’ by DAVID ROUSSÈVE/REALITY PREMIERES at JACOB’S PILLOW
(BECKET, Mass.) – Bringing a contemporary variation on the traditional coming of age story, David Roussève/REALITY comes to Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival with the world premiere of the company’s latest dance-theatre work, Stardust, running from Wednesday, August 6, through Sunday, August 10, in the Doris Duke Theatre. The 80-minute piece explores the world of a young, gay, African-American man through arresting choreography; video projections including unanswered text messages sent by the work’s protagonist; original music by hip-hop fusion composer d. Sabela grimes; and classic songs interpreted by Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole, and Johnny Mathis.
Franz Schubert (by W.A. Rieder, 1825)
BARD MUSIC FESTIVAL CELEBRATES ‘SCHUBERT AND HIS WORLD’
(Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y.) — The world-renownedBard Music Festival, now celebrating its Silver Jubilee with an exploration of “Schubert and His World,” opens Friday, August 8, with Weekend One: The Making of a Romantic Legend, featuring five themed concerts including orchestral and chamber concerts, recitals, operetta, plus talks, panel discussions, and commentary, at the Fisher Center on the campus of Bard College.
MASS MoCA INSTALLATION MARKS CENTENNIAL of PASSENGER PIGEON EXTINCTION
(NORTH ADAMS, Mass.) – Eclipse, a site-specific installation at MASS MoCA on view beginning Saturday, August 9, evolved from a series of conversations between New Yorker writer Elizabeth Kolbert and artist duo Sayler/Morris (Susannah Sayler and Edward Morris). The exhibition examines species extinction through the passenger pigeon, whose once-massive population disappeared 100 years ago. Eclipse combines video, sound, and text to create an immersive and contemplative exhibition in a newly conceived exhibition space – a dramatic lightwell at the center of the MASS MoCA campus. The exhibition is on view beginning August 9, with an artist reception at 5:30pm, and officially opens on September 1, 2014, the centenary of the death of the last known passenger pigeon, Martha.
Joanna Rakoff (photo David Ignaszewski)
(LENOX, Mass.) — Authors Andre Dubus III, Joanna Rakoff, Scott Stossel, and Jennifer Finney Boylan will take part in “Touchstones,” a new interview series at The Mount featuring celebrated journalist Kate Bolick in conversation with leading writers. The one-hour conversations will take place on four successive Friday evenings: August 8, August 15, August 22, and August 29. All events are at 6 pm.
The Rogovoy Report will be giving away free pairs of tickets to each of these events. Stay tuned for further details.
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RINGE TROUPE BRINGS LOW-FI ‘PLAY WITH MUSIC’ to WTF
(WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass.) – The PigPen Theatre Company brings its critically acclaimed, low-fi, original music-theater production, “The Old Man and the Old Moon,” to the Nikos Stage at the Williamstown Theatre Festival from Wednesday, August 6, through Sunday, August 17. The “play with music,” as the troupe of seven — all of whom met at Carnegie Mellon School of Drama in 2008 — calls it, is a low-tech multimedia extravaganza, blending traditional storytelling – think myths and legends – with burlap sacks, shadow screens, puppetry, flashlights, and original live music recalling Mumford & Sons and central European cabaret played by the actors on real instruments and found sounds.
John Cariani
ROMANTIC COMEDY by MARK ST. GERMAIN GETS WORLD PREMIERE at BSC
(PITTSFIELD, Mass.) – “Dancing Lessons,” the new romantic comedy by playwright and BSC associate artist Mark St. Germain, receives its world premiere at Barrington Stage Company (BSC) from Thursday, August 7, through Sunday, August 24. Directed by Barrington Stage artistic director Julianne Boyd, “Dancing Lessons” stars John Cariani and Paige Davis. The play centers on a young man (Cariani) with high-functioning autism (Asperger’s syndrome), seeking the instruction of a Broadway dancer (Davis), now sidelined with injuries. As their relationship unfolds, they’re caught off-guard by the surprising discoveries – both hilarious and heartwarming – that they make about each other.
Leonard Slatkin
NEW BOLCOM WORK CELEBRATING LEONARD SLATKIN at 70 to PREMIERE at TANGLEWOOD
(LENOX, Mass.) – Among the highlights of this weekend’s programs at Tanglewood is the world premiere of Pulitzer Prize-winning composer William Bolcom’s Circus Overture, commissioned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra to celebrate conductor Leonard Slatkin’s 70th birthday, on Friday, August 8, in a program featuring violinist Gil Shaham and BSO principal oboe John Ferillo performing works by Barlow, Barber, and Elgar, in addition to the new Bolcom piece. Bolcom was the conductor’s own choice for the commission.
World-renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma once again takes the stage at Tanglewood on Sunday, August 10, at 2:30 p.m., this time in an all-Tchaikovsky program with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, conducted by American maestro David Zinman. Ma is featured in two works: the Andante cantabile, for cello and strings, and the Variation on a Rococo Theme, for cello and orchestra. The program also includes the Polonaise from Tchaikovsky’s operatic masterpiece Eugene Onegin and the perennial favorite Symphony No. 6, Pathétique.
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BOSTON DUO OPENS MUSIC & MORE SEASON WITH WORKS BY BEETHOVEN, SCHUMANN, AND PROKOFIEV
(NEW MARLBOROUGH, Mass.) – The Boston Duo, a husband-and wife team of Boston Symphony violinist Tatiana Dimitriades and pianist Jonathan Bass, will inaugurate the 2014 season of the Music & More chamber series at historic Meeting House on the Village Green on Saturday, August 9, at 4:30 pm. Making its festival debut, the duo will perform a stylistically varied program of sonatas by Beethoven, Schumann, and Prokofiev.
JOSHUA REDMAN and THE BAD PLUS to JAM at THE MAHAIWE
(GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass.) – Hard-driving modern jazz trio the Bad Plus joins forces with dynamic saxophonist and improviser Joshua Redman for a unique program at the Mahaiwe on Friday, August 8 at 8pm. The Bad Plus initially gained fame for its innovative jazz versions of modern tunes by rock bands including Blondie, Nirvana, the Bee Gees, Radiohead and Queen; it also tackles pre-rock standards and Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring.”
AMERICANA LEGEND JERRY DOUGLAS to BRING ROOTS MUSIC and ACCLAIMED DOBRO SOUND to HELSINKI HUDSON
(HUDSON, N.Y.) – Jerry Douglas, whose name is practically synonymous with the resonator guitar called the Dobro, and whose playing has been heard on over 2,000 albums, garnering him 13 Grammy Awards, three Country Music Association’s ‘Musician of the Year’ awards, a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Americana Music Association, performs his singular brand of roots music at Club Helsinki Hudson on Wednesday, August 6, at 8pm. In addition to being widely recognized as the foremost master of the Dobro, Jerry Douglas is a freewheeling, forward-thinking recording artist whose work incorporates elements of bluegrass, country, rock, jazz, blues and Celtic into his distinctive musical vision.
Jackson Pollock (American, 1912–1956), Number 1, 1950 (Lavender Mist), 1950. Oil, enamel, and aluminum on canvas, 87 x 118 in. (221 x 299.7 cm). National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 1976.37.1 © 2014 The Pollock-Krasner Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
(WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass.) – Roll over, Renoir, and give Monet the news – for the first time in its history, the Clark Art Institute will feature abstract paintings by the likes of Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Helen Frankenthaler and Jasper Johns, in Make It New: Abstract Painting from the National Gallery of Art, 1950–1975, running now through Monday, October 13, 2014.
The exhibition examines the different paths taken by abstract painters in the first quarter-century of the postwar period. Masterworks such as Jackson Pollock’s Number 1, 1950 (Lavender Mist), Mark Rothko’s No. 1 (1961), and Lee Bontecou’s Untitled (1962) reveal how artists in America and Europe experimented with color, geometry, and material to expand the definition of painting.
Ruta Reifen, ‘All Is Dvash’
ISRAELI ARTIST TRANSFORMS SIENNA GALLERY with SITE-SPECIFIC INSTALLATION
(LENOX, Mass.) – All Is Dvash, an on-site installation featuring the latest work by Israeli-born, Brooklyn-based contemporary jewelry artist Ruta Reifen, is on view at Sienna Gallery through Sunday, August 17, 2014. All is Dvash is Reifen’s exploration of the floral form and the joy, beauty, and raw sensuality of the natural world. Dvash, Hebrew for honey, is nectar, the promise of future fruit, the hope and potential abundance contained within each flower. Reifen captures the shapes, colors, and undulating, flowing lines of her inspiration in individually hand-sculpted, electroformed pieces, an invitation to the viewer and eventual wearer to adorn themself in beauty and rich delight.
Chita Rivera (photo Laura Marie Duncan)
CHITA RIVERA STARS in ‘THE VISIT’ at WTF
(WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass.) – Broadway legend Chita Rivera stars in “The Visit,” one of the last Kander and Ebb musicals, based upon Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s 1956 satirical play of the same name about greed and revenge, on the Main Stage at the Williamstown Theatre Festival through Sunday, August 17, 2014. The cast also includes Roger Rees, Jason Danieley, and Judy Kuhn.