2006 BARD SUMMERSCAPE TICKETS ON SALE MONDAY, MAY 1

TICKETS MAY BE OBTAINED IN ANY OF FOUR WAYS: ONLINE AT http://www.fishercenter.bard.edu BY PHONE AT (845) 758-7900, MONDAY-FRIDAY, 10 A.M. - 5:00 P.M. BY FAX with credit card details to 845-758-7910 Or At The FISHER CENTER BOX OFFICE On The Bard Campus in Annandale-on-Hudson, NY SummerScape runs for seven weeks, from Thursday, June 29 through Sunday, August 20 Tickets for the fourth annual Bard SummerScape Festival – "Franz Liszt and His World" – will go on sale on Monday, May 1 at 10:00 a.m. SummerScape opens on Friday, June 29 with a performance by the Donna Uchizono Company, with guest artist Mikhail Baryshnikov, and the Festival continues for seven weeks through August 20. The 17th annual Bard Music Festival weekends (August 11–13 and August 18–20) comprise the final performances of SummerScape, with 12 concerts and programs. In addition to putting on one of the most varied programs of entertainment, serious art and family fare available in America’s summer festival season, Bard has one of the most high quality, affordable box offices in the country: tickets for films are only $7, opera starts at $35 and Bard Music Festival events start at $20! Bard SummerScape has been described by the Los Angeles Times as "the most important American music festival since Lincoln Center started its summer festival.” Its nearly 80 performances this season will be given in the celebrated Frank Gehry-designed Richard F. Fisher Center at Bard College, and elsewhere on the campus in the beautiful Hudson River Valley at Annandale-on-Hudson. SummerScape’s wide-ranging, thematically linked array of music, theater, cabaret, film and other cultural offerings has been widely acclaimed. Some highlights for the 2006 season (June 29-August 20) are listed below. Subscriptions: For the first time, SummerScape is offering not only make-your-own, but offering them at a substantial discount! Subscribe and save 20% on orders for tickets to four or more different events (except film and SpiegelClub events). Subscribers who order before June 1 will be given priority seating; subscriptions are seated in the order in which they are received. Subscription orders must be received at least 7 days before the date of the first performance in the subscription. The Bard Music Festival: A major highlight of the fourth annual Bard SummerScape Festival is the Bard Music Festival, which focuses in 2006 on "Franz Liszt and His World" (August 11-13 and August 18-20), and lends its imprimatur to all the events of SummerScape. The renowned Bard Music Festival, which preceded the advent of SummerScape, is now in its 17th year. Opera: Robert Schumann's only opera – the virtually unknown Genoveva – will be given its first fully-stage professional production in the US at Bard, staged by one of Europe's hottest young directors, Kasper Bech Holten. Holten says: "Genoveva is wonderfully operatic with its wild, German high romanticism, and it reminds me of a mixture between Lohengrin and Freischütz … It's a dream of love that turns into a nightmare. It is all about obsession – and what happens when you are obsessed with love." Genoveva will be performed five times, July 28-August 5, with soloists and the American Symphony Orchestra conducted by Leon Botstein. Writing about Genoveva Franz Liszt observed, “Of the operas that have been produced over the last 50 years it is certainly the one I prefer (Wagner excepted—that is understood).” Operetta: On the lighter side, what could be more entertaining than three short comic operas by the king of French operetta, Jacques Offenbach? LA's remarkable choreographer and performance artist Ken Roht is staging the comedies with one ensemble for an entire evening of fun. Eight performances from July 28 to August 12. Dance: The charismatic Donna Uchizono Company opens SummerScape with two dance premieres, including a commission with piano music by Franz Liszt, and a world premiere with dancers Mikhail Baryshnikov, Hristoula Harakas and Jodi Melnick. Uchizono emerged rapidly from the downtown scene after her choreographic debut in 1988, and is known for her spicy movement, wit, and rich invention. Three performances, June 29-July 1. Theater: "Camille," the mysterious French courtesan whose story was based on a real character who was said to be one of Franz Liszt's many lovers, lived an incandescent, brief and tragic life described in the novel La Dame aux Camélias by the younger Alexandre Dumas. Neil Bartlett's new English-language adaptation of the Dumas novel – staged by the cutting-edge young director Kate Whoriskey, already a buzzname in the theatrical world – will be performed ten times, beginning with a preview on July 6. Family Fare: Bard launches a brand new undertaking this year – daytime events for families on weekends. Included will be the hilarious Bindlestiff Family Circus, Vit Horejs and his Czech Puppets (with a comic version of Faust) an acrobatic troupe called LAVA, stories by Hans Christian Andersen (an acquaintance of Franz Liszt!) and much more. Film: The enigmatic, legendary, and too little-known filmmaker Max Ophuls is the inspiration for this year's Bard Film Festival. The German-born cinematic genius was the ultimate virtuoso of 20th-century filmmaking, who still influences today's younger generation. Five of his last masterpieces will be screened: Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948), The Reckless Moment (1949), Caught (1949), La ronde (1950), and The Earrings of Madame de… (1953). Thursdays and Sundays, July 6–August 6. Other films with programmatic themes will also be screened. SpiegelPalais: Don't know what a SpiegelPalais is? For the first time, Bard’s SummerScape will premiere a SpiegelPalais – a recreation of a 19th-century European "pleasure-dome" where all manner of entertainment ranging from FamilyFare to late-night DJ dancing and cabaret will be presented. This legendary "tent of mirrors" is the essence of Old-World opulence and will serve as an additional performance venue as well as a festival club for artists and audiences to gather to share a meal and celebrate SummerScape. Among the SpiegelPalais highlights: "Romano Drom" – the Hungarian Gypsy Band (beginning on opening night, June 29); Bindlestiff Family Cirkus (beginning June 30); keyboardist "Blue" Gene Tyranny (July 6); blazing virtuoso accordionist Guy Klucevsek (July 7); DJ Spooky (July 8); Vit Horejs and his Czech puppets (beginning July 13); and Carl Hancock Rux (July 15). From June 29 to July 30, the SpiegelPalais will be offering an à la carte dinner menu from 5:30 to 7:30 pm, Thursday through Sunday. Beverages – including micro-brew beers and locally made ice cream – will be available whenever the SpiegelPalais is open. SpiegelPalais event ticket prices are: FamilyFare adult/child $15/$12; and adult/child $5/$4, depending on the event; Cabaret at 8.30pm: $25 / $20; SpiegelClub at 10.30pm $10 at the door only. The SummerScape web site offers complete details on performances and performers, along with transportation and hospitality information, driving instructions and additional information about the historic and beautiful Hudson River Valley. http://summerscape.bard.edu/welcome/ 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 # # #

This event was last updated on 06-14-2006

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