Bard Music Festival
Program Five • Women in Berlioz’s Circle
August 11
As Program Five discovers, Pauline Viardot was one of several women to stake a serious claim in the previously all-male province of professional music. Berlioz helped stage La Esmeralda, an opera by fellow Reicha student Louise Bertin, to whom he dedicated the first version of Les nuits d’eté. One of the Romantic era’s most distinguished pianists, Clara Schumann is finally also winning recognition today for her own compositions, including the piano collection Soirées musicales. She was among the attendees of the first performance of Viardot’s Le dernier sorcier. This little-known rarity—a two-act chamber opera set to a French libretto by Ivan Turgenev, the composer’s lover—will be performed in a semi-staged production of Viardot’s original salon arrangement for voices and piano. Also on the program are two Berlioz works for female voice—Le mort d’Ophélie, inspired by Hamlet, and La captive, which Viardot sang in London—together with a Rossini aria made famous by Viardot’s sister, legendary singer Maria Malibran.
Program
2:30 pm • Preconcert Talk with Hilary Porris
3 pm • Performance: Laquita Mitchell, Monica Yunus, and Camille Zamora, sopranos; Rebecca Ringle Kamarei and Adriana Zabala, mezzo-sopranos; Noah Stewart, tenor; Babatunde Akinboboye, baritone; Anna Polonsky and Lucy Tucker Yates, piano; Sharyn Pirtle, director of Le dernier sorcier; and others
Hector Berlioz (1803–69)
Le mort d’Ophélie, Op. 18, No. 2 (1842)
La captive, Op. 12 (1831–32)
Pauline Viardot (1821–1910)
Le dernier sorcier (1869)
Works by Gioachino Rossini (1792–1868); Louise Bertin (1805–77); Clara Schumann (1819–96); and others
Plan Your Visit
Eat & Stay
Nearby villages and towns in the Hudson Valley boast a large selection of restaurants, as well as a variety of hotels, motels, inns, and bed & breakfasts.
Eat & StayDirections
Bard College’s main campus is located in Annandale-on-Hudson (a hamlet of Red Hook), New York, on the east bank of the Hudson River, about 90 miles north of New York City and 220 miles southwest of Boston. The Taconic State Parkway and the New York State Thruway provide the most direct routes to our campus. Click the Google map below, or get directions by entering the following address into your GPS: 60 Manor Avenue, Red Hook, NY 12571.
From the East
If you are traveling from east of the Hudson River in New York State, take the Taconic State Parkway to the Red Hook / Route 199 exit, drive west on Route 199 through the village of Red Hook to Route 9G, turn right onto Route 9G, drive north 1.9 miles, turn left onto Annandale Road, then turn right onto Manor Ave.
From the West
If you are traveling from west of the Hudson River, take the New York State Thruway (I-87) to exit 19 (Kingston), take Route 209 (changes to Route 199 at the Hudson River) over the Kingston-Rhinecliff Bridge to Route 9G, turn left onto Route 9G, drive north 3.5 miles, turn left onto Annandale Road, then turn right onto Manor Ave.
About the Venue
Sosnoff Theater
Accessible Seating
Wheelchair-accessible seating is available in all seating areas for patrons in wheelchairs and their companions. There is an elevator to all levels of the Sosnoff Theater and a wheelchair lift is used to access front-row wheelchair seating.
Wheelchair-Accessible Restrooms
Restrooms at all locations are wheelchair accessible. Single-use restrooms are available at most locations.
All-Gender Restrooms
Bard College and the Fisher Center support guests of any gender identity/expression in using the restroom of their choice. Additionally, all-gender restrooms are available at all venues.
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