A highly selective preview of cultural events taking place this weekend in the greater Berkshire region, including two new-music festivals; cutting-edge dance; theatrical premieres; cabaret; comedy; plus a whole lot more.
Bang on a Can All-Stars (photo Peter Serling)
BANG ON A CAN to PLAY ENO’S ‘AIRPORTS’ at MASS MoCA
(NORTH ADAMS, Mass.) – The Bang on a Can All-Stars will perform Brian Eno’s pioneering ambient work, “Music for Airports,” in the Hunter Center at MASS MoCA on Saturday, July 23, at 8pm, as part of the program for the 15th annual Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival. The groundbreaking work will be given an expanded performance that includes an orchestra of festival fellows. The concert will also feature new entries in the All-Stars’ Field Recordings project – new music interwoven around archival recordings – including works by Roomful of Teeth’s Caroline Shaw, Jóhann Jóhannsson, Gabriella Smith, Rene Lussier, and more.
ZviDance
ZVIDANCE BRINGS PAINTER-INSPIRED DANCE to PILLOW
(BECKET, Mass.) – ZviDance performs its new, evening-length work, “Escher/Bacon/Rothko,” in the Doris Duke Theatre at Jacob’s Pillow from Wednesday, July 20, through Sunday, July 24. This riveting, mixed-medium program draws inspiration from distinguished visual artists of the 20th century to question notions of modernity. “Escher/Bacon/Rothko” provides an intelligent visual experience for audiences as it seamlessly transforms one-dimensional artwork into a three-dimensional performance.
Judd Hirsch
JUDD HIRSCH STARS in WORLD PREMIERE of ‘THE STONE WITCH’ at BTG
(STOCKBRIDGE, Mass,) – Judd Hirsch stars in the world premiere staging of “The Stone Witch” by Shem Bitterman at the Fitzpatrick Main Stage at Berkshire Theatre Group, running from Thursday, July 21, through Saturday, August 20.
In the play, Peter, an aspiring children’s book author is sent to the cabin of his idol, Simon, a reclusive award-winning author and illustrator of children’s books (played by Hirsch), to help him finish what might be his last book. Desperate to save his own career, Peter hopes to discover the secret of Simon’s genius, but first he must accept the impossible task: helping Simon confront the monsters that populate the woods inside his mind. This darkly humorous play questions the cost of success.
Ann Hampton Callaway
AMANDA McBROOM and ANN HAMPTON CALLAWAY TEAM UP FOR BARRINGTON STAGE CABARET
(PITTSFIELD, Mass.) – For one night only, cabaret megastars Ann Hampton Callaway and Amanda McBroom will share the spotlight in “Divalicious” at Barrington Stage Company on Monday, July 25, at 8pm. In addition to being great vocalists, Callaway and McBroom are also acclaimed songwriters, and the pair will be accompanied by yet another great songwriter, Michele Brourman.
Lorelei Ensemble
TANGLEWOOD NEW MUSIC FESTIVAL FEATURES PREMIERES by BENJAMIN, GEE AND MELTZER
(LENOX, Mass.) – The U.S. premiere of Dream of the Song for countertenor, women’s voices – the Lorelei Ensemble – and orchestra, a TMC75 commission by English composer George Benjamin, is a highlight of the 2016 Festival of Contemporary Music at Tanglewood. The piece will be performed in the festival’s concluding concert on Monday, July 25, at 8pm, in Ozawa Hall. The festival runs Thursday, July 21-Mon, July 25.
The Festival will also feature two world premieres: Harold Meltzer’s Variations on a Summer Day, and a new TMC commission by American composer Erin Gee for voice, violin, viola, and double bass. In addition, the 2016 FCM will include the U.S. premiere of Joseph Phibbs’s String Quartet No. 1 and the East Coast premiere of Steven Stucky’s Chamber Concerto.
‘Country Road’ by Marguerite Bride
TWO ARTISTS, TWO MEDIUMS, ONE GALLERY in OLD CHATHAM
(OLD CHATHAM, N.Y.) – Works by Marguerite Bride and Karen S. Jacobs are featured in “Berkshire Visions: Two Artists, Two Mediums,” at the Old Chatham Country Store & Café through Wednesday, July 27. The exhibition features representational watercolors by Bride and abstract oil paintings by Jacobs.
Talise Trevigne as Iris (photo Todd Norwood)
RARE STAGING of MASCAGNI’S ‘IRIS’ at BARD SUMMERSCAPE
(ANNANDALE-on-HUDSON) – A new, fully staged production of the rarely staged opera “Iris” (1898), a darkly expressionistic forerunner of “Madama Butterfly” by Puccini’s close contemporary Pietro Mascagni, will have five performances in the Fisher Center at Bard College as part of Bard SummerScape from Friday, July 22, through Sunday, July 31.
Conceived expressly for SummerScape 2016, Bard’s original production is the creation of James Darrah – a recent Musical America New Artist of the Month – whose successes include a staging of “Peter Grimes” that the Wall Street Journal proclaimed “one of the strongest, most theatrically imaginative, musically and dramatically compelling productions of the work.”
Starring Grammy Award-nominated soprano Talise Trevigne, with music director Leon Botstein leading the American Symphony Orchestra, “Iris”’s five performances take place in the Fisher Center on July 22, 24, 27, 29, and 31.
Lynne Koplitz
COMIC LYNNE KOPLITZ to BRING STAND-UP to EGREMONT BARN
(SOUTH EGREMONT, Mass.) – Comedy Central star Lynne Koplitz will bring her raucous, live stand-up to the Barn at Egremont Inn on Friday, July 22, for two shows at 7:30pm and 9:30pm. Joining Koplitz are rising star Will Garré and show host Justin Leveille, a comic and comedy filmmaker.
Maureen Keiller and Will Lyman in ‘Oh God’
ISRAELI PLAY ‘OH GOD’ COMES to CHESTER THEATRE COMPANY
(CHESTER, Mass.) – “Oh God,” by the acclaimed and beloved late Israeli playwright Anat Gov, gets its regional premiere at Chester Theatre Company (CTC) in a limited run from July 14 through Sunday, July 24. “Oh God” centers around a therapy session between a very depressed God and Ella, a therapist and single mother with doubts about her own faith. This staging is a co-production with Israeli Stage.
Alejandro Escovedo
ALEJANDRO ESCOVEDO BRINGS SOUL-ROCK to HELSINKI HUDSON
(HUDSON, N.Y.) – Legendary Texas rocker Alejandro Escovedo brings his band, the Sensitive Boys, and his distinctive catalog of original roots-rock songs to Club Helsinki Hudson on Sunday, July 24, at 8pm.
Bryonha Parham
‘LITTLE SHOP of HORRORS’ at THE COLONIAL
(PITTSFIELD, Mass.) – The rock-horror musical comedy “Little Shop of Horrors,” with book and lyrics by Howard Ashman and music by Alan Menken, runs at the Colonial Theatre through Saturday, July 23. The production features Broadway actress Bryonha Parham voicing the role of Audrey II – the infamous plant – from offstage, while onstage lip-syncing drag queen Taurean Everett will embody the plant, which is usually represented by a puppet.
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Austin Lombardi
‘FIORELLO!’ GETS REVIVAL at BTG’S UNICORN THEATRE
(STOCKBRIDGE, Mass.) – “Fiorello!,” the 1959 musical about New York City Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, who broke up the stranglehold so-called Tammany Hall had on New York City politics, is being revived by Berkshire Theatre Group at the Unicorn Theatre through Saturday, July 23. The winner of three Tony Awards, the musical, created by the legendary Broadway duo Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick, is one of only nine to have also won a Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Austin Lombardi stars in the title role. This production move to off-Broadway in Manhattan in September.
Norman Rockwell (1894-1978), “The Connoisseur,” 1961. Oil on canvas mounted on board, 37 3/4″ x 31 1/2″. Cover illustration for “The Saturday Evening Post,” January 13, 1962. Private collection. ©SEPS: Curtis Licensing, Indianapolis, IN
MUSEUM JUXTAPOSES ROCKWELLIAN REALISM with ABSTRACTION
(STOCKBRIDGE, Mass.) – For the first time ever, Norman Rockwell Museum will explore the contrast between the abstract and realist movements, placing works by Rockwell, Andrew Wyeth, and Andy Warhol side by side with Jackson Pollock, Alexander Calder, Jasper Johns, and over 40 other preeminent artists, including Walton Ford, Larry Rivers, Helen Frankenthaler, Jeff Koons, Anita Kunz, Jacqui Morgan, Robert Motherwell, Barnett Newman, Philip Pearlstein, Robert Rauschenberg, David Salle, Saul Steinberg, and Cy Twombly.
“Rockwell and Realism in an Abstract World,” on view through October 30, will examine the forces that forged the mid-century dismissal of narrative painting and illustration, as well as the resurgence of realist painting during the latter half of the twentieth century, its presence and critical consideration today, and the ways in which our contemporary viewpoints have been shaped by post World War II constructs.
Jan Brueghel the Elder (Flemish, 1568–1625), Frans Francken II (Flemish, 1581–1642), Hendrik van Balen (Flemish, c. 1574/75–1632), Jan Brueghel the Younger (Flemish, 1601–1678), and others, Sight and Smell, c. 1618–23. Oil on canvas, 69 1/4 x 103 7/8 in. © Photographic Archive. Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid
NUDES from PRADO EXHIBITION at THE CLARK
(WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass.) – “Splendor, Myth, and Vision: Nudes from the Prado,” the summer’s major exhibition at the Clark Art Institute, consisting of 28 Old Master paintings of the nude, twenty-four of which have never traveled to the United States, remains on view through Monday, October 10. The exhibition, co-organized by the Clark and the Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, examines the collecting of 16th- and 17th-century paintings of the nude at the Spanish court, exploring the histories of these works and their display in the Spanish Royal Collections, and reconsidering the significant role of the nude in European art.