The weekend’s cultural highlights in the region include two new-music festivals; an unusual daughter-father folk duo featuring a semi-famous rocker; a rarely staged opera; several world premieres; cabaret, comedy and a whole lot more.
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 in North Adams on Saturday at 8pm, as part of the the 15th annual Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival. The groundbreaking work – one of my all-time personal favorites, which I listen to every time I fly on a plane - will be given an expanded performance that includes an orchestra of festival fellows.
ZviDance performs its new, evening-length work, “Escher/Bacon/Rothko,” in the Doris Duke Theatre at Jacob’s Pillow in Becket, Mass., tonight through Sunday. This riveting, mixed-medium program draws inspiration from distinguished visual artists of the 20th century to question notions of modernity.
Judd Hirsch stars in the world premiere staging of “The Stone Witch” by ShemBitterman at the Fitzpatrick Main Stage at Berkshire Theatre Group in Stockbridge, Mass., running tonight 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.
For one night only, cabaret megastars Ann Hampton Callaway and Amanda McBroom will share the spotlight in “Divalicious” at Barrington Stage Company in Pittsfield, on Monday, July 25, at 8pm. In addition to being great vocalists, Callaway and McBroom are also acclaimed songwriters.
The U.S. premiere of “Dream of the Song,” for countertenor, women’s voices – which will be supplied by the Lorelei Ensemble - and orchestra, 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, where the festival runs all weekend. The Festival will also feature two world premieres: Harold Meltzer’s Variations on a Summer Day, and a new commission by American composer Erin Gee for voice, violin, viola, and double bass.
Comedy Central star Lynne Koplitz will bring her raucous, live stand-up comedy to the Barn at the Egremont Inn in South Egremont tonight 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.
A new, fully staged production of the rarely produced opera “Iris” (1898), a darkly expressionistic forerunner of “Madama Butterfly” by Puccini’s close contemporary, PietroMascagni, will have five performances in the Fisher Center at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y., as part of Bard SummerScape, tonight through Sunday, July 31.
Cabaret-rock star Amanda Palmer brings her duo tour with her father, Jack Palmer, to a conclusion at Basilica Hudson on Saturday at 7pm. The Palmers have recorded a duet album, “You Got Me Singing,” featuring the father-daughter duo on a selection of traditional, modern, and contemporary folk songs, including numbers by Melanie Safka, Richard Thompson, Phil Ochs, and Sinead O’Connor.
Seth Rogovoy is editor of Berkishire Daily and the Rogovoy Report, available online at rogovoyreport.com