I have four festivals for you in Best Bets: July 6th – July 12th. I also have two world premieres, one a musical and the other a concerto by the 87-year-old woman who was the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music.
FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA OF LINCOLN CENTER – David Geffen Hall – New York, NY – July 8th – August 8th
In addition to have some great programming this year, one compelling reason to plan to attend one of this year’s concerts by the Festival Orchestra of Lincoln Center is that every concert is Choose-What-You-Pay.
This includes The Beethoven Effect on July 10th and 11th where Unsuk Chin’s subito con forza (composed for Beethoven’s 2020 anniversary celebrations) opens and is followed by Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 (with Alice Sara Ott as soloist) and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5. Jonathon Heyward conducts.
Hymn and Reformation on July 17th and 18th with Chloé Van Soeterstède leading the orchestra in Valentin Silvestrov’s Hymn – 2001, Max Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1 (with Simone Lamsma as the soloist) and Felix Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 5 “Reformation.”
A Mother’s Love on July 31st and August 1st with Heyward on the podium to perform William Grant Still’s Mother and Child; Jessie Montgomery’s These Righteous Paths with Abel Slaocoe on cello (this is the US premiere of the work) and Johannes Brahm’s Symphony No. 2.
For tickets and more information for those three shows, click on the names of them. For tickets and more information on the whole season, please go HERE.
Check back on Wednesday for my interview with Jonathon Heyward.
SUMMER PLAYWRIGHTS FESTIVAL – The Road Theatre Company – North Hollywood, CA – July 10th – July 19th
The Road Theatre Company’s Summer Playwrights Festival is billed as “largest playwright’s festival in the U.S” It’s hard to argue with them since they will present readings of 25 new plays over the course of ten days.
Amongst the most intriguing shows (based on the website) are:
Sopan Deb’s The Emergency which finds an American reporter working in India in 1975 to understand how Indira Gandhi, the first female prime minister of India, turned the country away from democratic principles and created a dictatorship instead.
Mike Bencivenga’s Compromised tells the story of a journalist and his wife who assist a young couple in need to help. What they learn about that couple would make a great play and the journalist attempts to make that happen. But he didn’t get their consent. What each couple learns about the other gets put in play unless the play doesn’t get produced.
Brian Hohlfeld’s Orson & Walt in a Bar in Rio which imagines what a meeting between Orson Welles and Walt Disney might have been like in 1941 when the former was battling RKO over The Magnificent Ambersons.
For tickets and more information on the full line-up, please go HERE. For the three shows selected above, click on the title.
GIULIA: THE POISON QUEEN OF PALERMO – Perelman Performing Arts Center – New York, NY – Now – July 26th
OPENING NIGHT: July 10th
This musical with book, music and lyrics by Jennifer Nettles, depicts a woman in the late 1600s in Sicily who gave out a tasteless poison to women to use to rid themselves of their abusive husbands.
As Nettles said in the New York Times on June 30th, “We’ve got a woman here’s who’s responsible for killing people and yet I believe her heart is in the right place. This is one question that’s posed in the musical: ‘Have you ever done something wrong for all the right reasons?’”
Nettles plays Giulia and the rest of the cast includes Matthew Amira, Quentin Earl Darrington, Emily Fink, Bre Jackson, Andrew Kober, Aubrey Matalon, Christopher M. Ramirez, Didi Romero, Jamila Sabares-Klemm, Naomi Serrano and Sam Simahk.
Mary Zimmerman directs.
For tickets and more information, please go HERE.
GLIMMERGLASS FESTIVAL – Cooperstown, NY – July 10th – August 17th
Amongst the highlights of this year’s festival are:
Oklahoma (July 10th – August 15th) directed by Francesca Zambello with Shereen Pimentel as Laurey; Michael Adams as Curly; Erik Nordstrom as Jud; Holly Twyford as Aunt Eller; Kate Morton as Ado Annie; Peter Murphy as Will Parker and Gregory Sliskovich as Ali Hakim.
Cosí – July 17th – August 14th) Mozart’s opera is given an updated English language adaptation by Kelley Rourke in this production directed by Eric Einhorn. Amanda Batista sings Fiordiligi; Michelle Mariposa sings Dorabella; Travon Walker sings Ferrando; Gregory Feldman sings Guglielmo; Kevin Burdette sings Don Alonso and Keely Futterer sings Despina.
Fellow Travelers (July 18th – August 16th) This opera by Gregory Spears and Greg Pierce is based on the novel by Thomas Mallon that spawned the Paramount + television series.) Kevin Newbury directs with Colin Aikins as Timothy Laughlin and Joseph Lattanzi as Hawkins Fuller whose romance is at the center of this historical drama.
For tickets and more information, please go HERE. For the three shows selected above, click on the title.
DAPHNIS AND CHLOÉ – Brevard Musical Center – Brevard, NC – July 12th
This is one of those concerts where, as much as I love Maurice Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé, Suite No. 2, that isn’t the reason I’ve selected this concert.
After Morton Gould’s Cowboy Rhapsody opens the concert (a work that is only occasionally performed), audiences will get to hear the world premiere of a viola concerto composed by Ellen Taafe Zwilich.
Her name is likely unfamiliar but shouldn’t be. She was the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music. She received the award in 1983. That she is 87 years old and still writing music is, at the very least, inspirational.
Paul Neubauer is the soloist.
After the concerto, the program closes out with Albert Roussel’s Bacchus et Ariane, Suite No. 2 and then the Ravel.
JoAnn Falletta conducts.
For tickets and more information for this concert, please go HERE. To look at the rest of the Brevard Music Center summer season, please go HERE.
That’s all for Best Bets: July 6th – July 12th.
Enjoy your week and go see a show (or two)!
Main Photo: Key art for Giulia: The Poison Queen of Palermo (Courtesy the production)