The Bard Summerscape 2018 season has been announced with a program that celebrates the life and times of seminal Russian romantic Rimsky-Korsakov.

The festival will include a number of programs celebrating Russian music and an opera production. For this article, we only concentrate on the operas that will be presented throughout the festival.

The Demon 

This year the festival will showcase Anton Rubinstein’s rarely performed work “The Demon” in a new production by European Opera Prize-winner Thaddeus Strassberger. The opera will star Olga Tolkmit in the female lead opposite award-winning baritone Efim Zavalny. They will head an all-Russian cast, with traditional Georgian dance from the Pesvebi troupe, and Leon Botstein leading the Bard Festival Chorale and the American Symphony Orchestra.

Performance Dates: July 27-August 5, 2018 (Five performances)

The Tsar’s Bride

The festival will also perform a concert performance of Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera “The Tsar’s Bride” as part of their celebration of Rimsky Korsakov.

Performance Date: August 19, 2018