The American Symphony Orchestra has announced its 2024-25 season. Here is a breakdown of the vocal performances on offer. Leon Botstein conducts music by C.P.E. Bach, including the U.S. premiere of “Die Auferstehung und Himmelfahrt Jesu,” H. 777. The program features the Bard Festival Chorale. Performance Date: Jan. 24, 2025 To close out the season, Leon Botstein leads a concert performance {…}
The American Symphony Orchestra has unveiled its plans for the 2023-24 season. “As we prepare for our 62nd season, I am energized by our ongoing ability to renew live orchestral music as a vital force in contemporary American culture,” said Music Director Leon Botstein in an official press statement. “Now that we have emerged from the major restrictions of the pandemic, the ASO continues {…}
The American Symphony Orchestra is set to continue its 2022-23 season with two special performances at St. Bartholomew’s Church in New York City. First off, the orchestra will present “Organ + Orchestra,” a concert featuring Paul Brodignon and the Bard Festival Chorale. Leon Botstein conducts a program featuring Camille Saint-Saëns’ Symphony No. 3 in C minor, Op. 78 and Dame {…}
Photo: Arielle Doneson The Orchestra Now (TŌN), led by Leon Botstein, will close its Carnegie Hall season on May 12, 2022, with “New Voices from the 1930s,” a concert spotlighting seldom-heard works from the late 1930s and featuring mezzo-soprano Deborah Nansteel. Nansteel will perform in Karl Amadeus Hartmann’s Symphony No. 1, “Essay for a Requiem,” a work that speaks to conditions {…}
Chausson’s “Le Roi Arthus” is a masterpiece. The work, which the Frenchman, composed between 1886 and 1895, had its premiere in 1903, and has rarely been heard from again. Critics of the work have noted its heavy debt to the likes of Richard Wagner and César Franck, and on some level, one might be inclined to conclude that these open {…}
Fisher Center at Bard will celebrate World Opera Day on Oct. 25 with a conversation between conductor Leon Botstein and mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe. The two artists will discuss the world of opera today with a focus on its adaptation to current challenges and circumstances. “Opera is immune to technological reproduction and is a unique amalgam of the visual language and {…}
Fisher Center’s digital platform has announced its latest offerings for the remainder of July and throughout August. The company will present a 2012 production of “Le Roi Malgré Lui” by Chabrier. Leon Botstein conducts a production directed by Thaddesu Strassberg. The opera features Liam Bonner, Michele Angelini, Andriana Chuchman, Nathalie Paulin, Frédéric Goncalves, and Jeffrey Mattsey, among others. Streaming Date: {…}
The American Symphony Orchestra is launching ASO Online in collaboration with Bard’s Fisher Center. The streaming service kicked off with the 2019 production of Korngolds “Das Wunder der Heliane. The opera was conducted by Leon Botstein and starred Ausrine Stundyte, Alfred Walker, Daniel Brenna, Jennifer Feinstein, Nicholas Brownlee, David Cangelosi, Nathan Berg, Scott Conner, Michael J. Hawk, Derek Taylor, Kevin {…}
(credit: Jiyang Chen) Bard College Conservatory Orchestra is set to perform a semi-staged rendition of Strauss’s famed “Salome” on April 3 and 5, 2020. The work, which was written by Lachmann, will be directed by R. B. Schlather with Leon Botstein conducting the Bard Conservatory Orchestra. Melody Moore will headline the production and will be joined by Jay Hunter Morris {…}
I think the trickiness of reviewing this work – for me, at least – can be expressed by an exchange I had with a couple at Bard’s Sosnoff Theater during the intermission of the Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s opera, “Das Wunder Der Heliane (The Miracle of Heliane).” Apparently, a woman had noticed me taking notes during the performance, perhaps deduced I {…}
(Credit: Chris Kayden) The Bard Summerscape has been known for programming unknown works that are either rarely performed or have never been showcased in the United States. This year the festival dedicated its program to Korngold, one of the foremost composers of the 20th century. Continuing its tradition of performing one fully staged opera production, Bard is presenting the American {…}