BARD SUMMERSCAPE 2007 SEASON

2007 BARD SUMMERSCAPE TICKETS GO

ON SALE TUESDAY, MAY 1

TICKETS MAY BE OBTAINED IN ANY OF FIVE WAYS:

• ONLINE at: www.fishercenter.bard.edu

• BY PHONE: 845-758-7900, Mon.–Fri, 10 am – 5 pm

• BY MAIL: Fisher Center, Box 5000, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY 12504

• BY FAX with credit card details: (845) 758-7910

• AT THE FISHER CENTER BOX OFFICE on the Bard Campus in Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y., Mon-Fri, 10 am – 5 pm

SummerScape FESTIVAL runs for seven weeks—Thursday, July 5 through Sunday, August 19

ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.—Tickets for the fifth annual Bard SummerScape Festival will go on sale on Tuesday, May 1 at 10 am. SummerScape opens on Thursday, July 5 with a world premiere performance by Doug Varone and Dancers, set to music by Edward Elgar – a new commission by Bard’s Fisher Center. The Festival continues for seven weeks, through August 19, presenting opera, theater, dance, music, cabaret, and more. The 18th annual Bard Music Festival, “Elgar and his World,” takes place on the final two weekends of SummerScape (August 10–12 and August 17–19), with 11 concert programs and numerous other events.

In addition to presenting the extraordinarily varied presentations of all types of performing arts, Bard offers some of the most affordable festival ticket-pricing policies in the country: films are only $7.50, opera starts at $35, and Bard Music Festival events start at $20. Subscription discounts are available throughout the season, and children are admitted to Family Fare events on weekend afternoons for

only $5.

Bard SummerScape has been described by the International Herald Tribune as “seven weeks of cultural delight” and by the Los Angeles Times as “the most important American music festival since Lincoln Center started its summer festival.” SummerScape’s 100-plus events will be presented in Bard College’s celebrated Frank Gehry-designed Richard B. Fisher Center and other campus venues, including Bard’s popular “Spiegeltent,” which returns with a nightly line-up of cabaret, dining, and dancing as well as family shows on the weekends. On July 6 Susan Marshall and Company present a new dance world premiere – Bard’s second in two days. SummerScape’s wide-ranging, thematically linked array of music, theater, cabaret, film, and other cultural offerings has been widely acclaimed. Some highlights of the 2007 season are listed below.

Subscriptions: SummerScape is now offering make-your-own subscriptions, at a substantial discount from the single-ticket price. Subscribers save 20% on orders for tickets to four or more different events. Those ordering subscriptions before June 1 will be given priority seating; orders will be filled in the sequence in which they are received. Subscription orders must be received at least seven days before the date of the first performance in the subscription.

SummerScape 2007 Highlights

The Bard Music Festival:  A major highlight of the fifth annual Bard SummerScape Festival is the Bard Music Festival, which in 2007 celebrates “Elgar and His World” (August 10-12 and August 17-19). The Bard Music Festival, now in its 18th season, had already earned world renown when SummerScape was launched in 2003, with it’s unique thematic programming featuring orchestral, chamber, and recital concerts, preconcert talks, panels, symposia, and other special events. It is now presented on SummerScape’s last two weekends. Ticket prices vary according to the type of event, and full details are available on the website (see below).

Opera and Music Theater:  The Dwarf and A Florentine Tragedy, two Alexander von Zemlinsky operas based on works by Oscar Wilde, are receiving their first U.S. joint professional production, staged by Olivier Tambosi, founder of the Neue Oper Wien. Tambosi has worked at the world’s greatest opera houses, including the Metropolitan Opera, where he directed Janácek’s Jenufa. Sets and costumes are by the “Edwardian” design team of McDermott & McGough. The operas will be sung in German with English surtitles, for five performances between July 27 and August 5, with prices starting at $35.

On the lighter side, what could be more entertaining than a wonderful English Gilbert & Sullivan romp?  Erica Schmidt will stage G&S’s first full-length comedy, The Sorcerer, in a new production, opening on August 3, with seven additional performances through August 12. General admission tickets are $45 each.

Dance:  In addition to the opening night performance on July 5 by the outstanding Doug Varone and Dancers, Bard presents the edgy Susan Marshall & Company the following evening, in a second world premiere commission by the Fisher Center – choreographed by Ms. Marshall expressly for performance in the Spiegeltent. Doug Varone and Dancers’ “irresistibly dancey” performances are on July 5, 6, 7, and 8, with tickets starting at $20. Susan Marshall & Company will perform in the Spiegeltent on July 6, 7, 8, 12, 14, and 15; all tickets are $35.

Theater:  George Bernard Shaw’s classic Saint Joan, one of the greatest plays of the 20th century, will be directed by Gregory Thompson, artistic director of AandBC and 2006 recipient of the Jerwood Director Award from England’s Young Vic. Eight performances in LUMA Theater are scheduled between July 12 and July 22. General admission tickets are $45.

Film:  British postwar film is a stand-alone chapter in cinema history, and Bard’s festival-within-a-festival presents 10 of the finest – from The Third Man, Carol Reed’s 1949 classic, to such Ealing Comedy gems as The Man in the White Suit (1951). Also included, as a postscript, is Mike Leigh’s hilarious 1999 Gilbert and Sullivan sleeper hit, Topsy-Turvy. Screenings are on Thursdays and Sundays at 7 pm, and all tickets are $7.50.

Spiegeltent:  Bard is bringing back last year’s celebrated Spiegeltent by popular demand. A recreation of a 19th-century European “pleasure-dome,” this dramatic “tent of mirrors” is the essence of old-world opulence. Inside it, entertainment ranging from Susan Marshall & Company to cabaret, dancing, dinner shows, and family fare will be presented. On Thursdays through Sundays from 10 pm, the SpiegelClub is open with no cover charge, under the auspices of madcap emcee Ken Roht and his Orphean Circus.

Cabaret:  From July 5 to August 19, the Spiegeltent will be home to acts ranging from the Wau Wau Sisters, Professor Louie and The Crowmatix, Iva Bittová, and Trio Loco to The Blackamoor Angel by Carl Hancock Rux, “God Bless the Music Hall,” and Dzul Dance.

Family Fare:  Bard’s daytime events for families on weekends are always a big hit. The hilarious Bindlestiff Family Circus will be back by popular demand, this year in residence at the Spiegeltent, where The Deedle Deedle Dees, Ken Roht and his Orphean Circus, Audra Rox, and Goat on a Boat will also entertain and amuse. Performances are on weekend afternoons, with children’s tickets at $5 and adults’ at $15.

SummerScape’s website offers details on performances and performers, information on transportation and hospitality, driving instructions, and additional tips about the historic and lovely Hudson River Valley.

For additional information visit www.fishercenter.bard.edu.

Bard SummerScape 2007:  Chronological Overview

The Bard Music Festival

8/10–8/12          Weekend 1: 18th Annual Bard Music Festival

8/17–8/19          Weekend 2: 18th Annual Bard Music Festival

Opera and Music Theater

7/27–8/5            Alexander von Zemlinsky: A Florentine Tragedy and The Dwarf

8/3–8/12            Gilbert and Sullivan: The Sorcerer

Dance

7/5–7/8              Doug Varone and Dancers

7/6 – 7/15          Susan Marshall & Company

Theater

7/12–7/22          George Bernard Shaw: Saint Joan

Film

7/8–8/9              British Postwar Classics

Spiegeltent

7/5–8/19            Spiegeltent Cabaret

7/15–8/12          Spiegeltent Family Fare

Critical acclaim for Bard SummerScape and the Bard Music Festival:

“The most intellectually ambitious of America’s summer music festivals.”

• Times Literary Supplement (London)

“Bard College’s SummerScape festival, housed in the Fisher Arts Center, Frank Gehry’s Bilbao-in-the-woods, is only three years old, but it has quickly become one of the major upstate festivals.”

• New Yorker

“With the addition of the Fisher Center at Bard … the Hudson River Valley is on its way to becoming one of the premier cultural destinations in the nation.”

• Boston Globe

“Seven weeks of cultural delight.”

• International Herald Tribune

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(04.25.07)