The Bard Summerscape has announced its 2018 festival programming and will present three operatic selections.

Since its inception, the festival has been committed to reviving important but neglected operas and this year will be no different.

In 2018, the festival will present a new American production of  “The Demon” by Anton Rubinstein The opera will be headlined by Olga Tolkmit and Efim Zavalny in an all-Russian cast. American director Thaddeus Strassberger will stage the work. Leon Botstein will lead the American Symphony Orchestra in all five performances between July 27 and August 5, 2018.

SummerScape 2018 will also showcase two of Rimsky-Korsakov’s seldom-staged operas. First, the festival will perform “Mozart and Salieri” on August 18, starring tenor Gerard Schneider and Grammy Nominee bass Mikhail Svetlov.

Then on August 19, the festival will present “The Tsar’s Bride.” The semi-staged production will feature The Orchestra Now, Bard’s graduate training orchestra, under Leon Botstein. Lyubov Petrova will sing the title role of Marfa with Andrey Valentiy as Marfa’s father. The cast will also include Gerard Schneider, Ivan Likov, Efim Zavalny, Nadezhda Babintseva, and Joel Sorensen.