Grand, Mythic, and Fully Modern

July 9 - August 23, 2009

Now in its seventh season, Bard SummerScape offers a tapestry of interwoven events in the disciplines of opera, dance, theater, music, film, and cabaret, all of them keyed to the theme of the annual Bard Music Festival. The events are presented in the acoustically superb Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts, designed by Frank Gehry, and other venues on Bard College’s stunning Hudson River campus.

Bard Music Festival

Wagner and His World

The 20th annual Bard Music Festival takes stock of "Wagner and His World," with concerts, panels, and other programs explore the life and times of Richard Wagner. Leon Botstein leads the American Symphony Orchestra and a stellar assemblage of musicians in Wagner’s piano, chamber, orchestral, and operatic works, as well as works by Mendelssohn, Brahms, Bruckner, and others.

Opera

Les Huguenots

This grandest of grand operas explores the subject of religious intolerance, a matter that is all too familiar to contemporary audiences. Staged by the young American director Thaddeus Strassberger in collaboration with the Spanish photographer and filmmaker Eugenio Recuenco, Les Huguenots is majestic opera at its purest, featuring a large cast and chorus.

Dance

Lucinda Childs's Dance

Dance (1979) comprises three dances performed to Philip Glass’s score, which is the soundtrack of a film by Sol LeWitt that is projected in front of the stage. “The elements of live theater and film create the kind of instantaneous layering of time that is usually the magical province of film alone.”—Jennifer Dunning, The New York Times

Music

St. Paul

As the story of a Jew who converted to Christianity, St. Paul’s story was Mendelssohn’s as well. Audiences loved St. Paul; it was the most popular of Mendelssohn’s works during his lifetime. SummerScape 2009 is presenting one performance of this rarely performed oratorio—buy your tickets early, before they sell out!

Theater

The Oresteia

Interfamilial betrayal, murder, and equally murderous vengeance—Aeschylus’ three-play cycle, the Oresteia, narrates the downfall of the House of Atreus. This modern-dress version of Ted Hughes’s masterful translation draws parallels to war in the Middle East, the behind-the-scenes machinations of politicians, and the manipulative duplicity of the media.

Film Festival

Politics, Theater, and Wagner

Richard Wagner provides the thematic focus for the 2009 SummerScape film festival. Taking a varied and imaginative approach to this highly complex and influential figure, the festival’s curators have assembled a wide array of films that range from early silent epic fantasy to Hollywood satire, and from acknowledged film classics to more obscure offerings.

SpiegelTent

Cabaret and More

Come one, come all! SummerScape 2009 welcomes audiences of all ages to the glittering mirrored pavilion that hosts an exciting variety of productions, including singers, dancers, puppeteers, musicians, circus acts, roller-skating comedians, and everything in between, followed by late-night DJ-spun dance tunes. Dine indoors or al fresco in the lovely SpiegelGarden.