What can you watch this weekend? Musicals old and new; an innovative approach to live performance of a play; three classical music concerts; two operas and one opera recital; a dance film festival where every film was shot with mobile devices plus a revival of a classic work of dance from the 1970s.

If that isn’t enough, we’ll remind you of two jazz concerts, three more operas and a marathon audio stream of Richard Wagner’s Ring Cycle.

To access any of the on-line events, click on the title of the individual event you want to see.

So what will you watch? Here are this weekend’s Best Bets at Home: July 24th – July 26th:

She Loves Me – PBS Great Performances – July 24th (check local listings)

Roundabout Theatre Company’s 2016 revival of She Loves Me was one of the most enjoyable musical productions of that season. This weekend PBS is airing a film of that production which starred Laura Benanti, Gavin Creel, Byron Jennings, Jane Krakowski and Zachary Levi.

The musical was written by composer Jerry Bock with lyricist Sheldon Harnick (Fiddler on the Roof) and book writer Joe Masteroff (Cabaret). It is based on the book Parfumerie by Miklós László and tells the story of two people who have a truly antagonistic relationship at work, but don’t know they are the anonymous pen pals who are falling in love through the letters they write each other. Sound familiar? Perhaps you’ve seen The Shop Around the Corner or You’ve Got Mail.

This production (the second revival of the show) was directed by Scott Ellis with choreography by Warren Carlyle. I cannot recommend it enough. This was truly a wonderful production. See it!

The Weir – Irish Repertory Theatre – July 24th – July 25th

New York’s Irish Rep has had great success with Conor McPherson’s The Weir. Their 2013 production was nominated for Best Outstanding Revival at the Lucille Lortel Awards. The run of the show was so successful that they revived it again two years later. Now comes a version specifically designed for our pandemic age.

The play is set in a pub in Ireland. The bartender is sharing ghost stories with two regulars. They also discuss an imminent new arrival, a woman named Valerie who is renting a nearby house with the help of another former local, Finbar. Over the course of the play, with the men vying for her attention, the stories get more intense and some, deeply personal.

Dan Butler, Sean Gormley, John Keating, Tim Ruddy, and Amanda Quaid star in this new version directed by Ciarán O’Reilly – completed with all social distancing required to keep everyone safe. Critics have raved about how innovative this particular production is.

You must make a reservation to see one of the performances at least two hours in advance in order to get a link to watch The Weir. Performances are Friday, July 24th at 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT and Saturday, July 25th at 3:00 PM EDT/12:00 PM PDT. Tickets have a suggested donation price of $25.

Broadbend, Arkansas – Transport Group Theatre – Now – August 16th

Broadbend, Arkansas is a timely musical from 2019 that tells the story of a woman whose father was killed during a routine traffic stop by a police officer when she was a child. Three decades later she is now coming to grips with another attack by a police officer, this time on her teenage son.

Justin Cunningham and Danyel Fulton star in this musical which features a libretto by Ellen Fitzhugh and Harrison David Rivers. The music was written by Ted Shen, who also wrote additional lyrics. This is a film from the 2019 production.

The show was described as “jazz-infused” and paying “homage to Stephen Sondheim” by Laura Collins-Hughes in her New York Times review.

There is no fee to stream the musical. However, Transport Theatre Group is encouraging donations to the Black Theatre Network.

Orchestre National de France at Carnegie Hall – Medici.tv – July 24th – July 26th

This week’s Carnegie Hall Fridays concert on Medici.tv comes from a January 2016 performance by the Orchestra National de France. Under the direction of conductor Daniele Gatti, this concert features works by composers from the 19th and 20th century. Joining the orchestra for this performance was violinist Julian Rachlin.

The program opens with the Prelude to Act III of Richard Wagner’s The Mastersingers of Nuremberg. This was performed in tribute to conductor Kurt Masur who had passed away one month prior to this concert. One aspect of Masur’s legacy was serving as Music Director of the New York Philharmonic from 1991-2002. He was named Music Director Emeritus after stepping down in 2002.

The rest of this concert features Claude Debussy’s Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune and Dmitri Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No. 1 in A Minor featuring Rachlin. He continues with an encore of Eugène Ysaÿe’s Sonata for Solo Violin in D Minor.

After Rachlin’s encore the orchestra performs Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5 in E Minor and performs the Prélude to Gabriel Fauré’s Pelléas et Mélisande, Suite for Orchestra.

If you regularly read this column you know that Medici.tv and Carnegie Hall make these concerts available for free viewing over the weekend. However, you do need to sign up with an e-mail to access the film.

Faust – Royal Opera House – Now – July 29th

Charles Gounod’s Faust had its world premiere in Paris in 1859. The libretto was written by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré who used both Carré’s play Faust et Marguerite and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Faust, Part One as inspiration.

This oft-told story is about a man who sacrifices his soul to the devil, Méphistophélès, in order to maintain his youth and the love of Marguerite.

But you know what happens when you make a deal with the devil…it’s not going to end well.

This 2019 revival of David McVicar’s 2004 production stars Michael Fabiano as Faust, Erwin Schrott as Méphistophélès and Irina Lungu as Marguerite. Dan Ettinger conducts the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House and the Royal Opera Chorus.

This opera has five acts and runs nearly three-and-a-half hours, but reviews for this revival were very positive. 

50 Years of Mostly Mozart – Lincoln Center at Home – July 24th

In 1966 Lincoln Center launched their Mostly Mozart Festival. The original mandate was to exclusively celebrate the work of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Over the years they have expanded that mandate to include composers who influenced Mozart, who were his contemporaries and later composers who were influenced by him.

This concert from 2016 features Mozart’s first and last symphonies.

Symphony No. 1 in E-Flat Major was written when Mozart was just eight years old. His final symphony is nicknamed Jupiter Symphony and is formally known as the Symphony No. 41 in C Major.

Music Director Louis Langré leads the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra in this performance. Pianist Richard Goode joins the orchestra for a performance of Mozart’s Piano Concert No. 12 in A Major.

Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra Summerfest Concert #2 – Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra – July 25th – 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT

This second of Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra’s newly filmed concerts features Joshua Ranz, the orchestra’s principal clarinetist. Each concert in their Summerfest series was filmed practicing social distancing behavior on the stage of Zipper Hall at the Colburn School.

The centerpiece of this second concert will be Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet.

Written in 1789, this is the composer’s only finished clarinet quintet. The work calls for two violins, a viola and cello in addition to the clarinet.

Joining Ranz in this performance are Tereza Stanislav and Cheryl Norman-Brick on violin; Robert Brophy on viola and Andrew Shulman on cello.

The concert will open with a performance of Florence Price’s Adoration. Ranz arranged her composition for Clarinet and String Quartet. You can read about Price in our preview of LACO’s first concert in this series here.

If you are unable to watch the performance as it debuts, it will be archived at LACO’s website.

The Makropulos Case – SF Opera – July 25th – July 26th

Czech composer Leoš Janáček wrote this opera between 1923-1925. It was his penultimate opera. He also wrote the libretto which was based on Karel Čapek’s play Věc Makropulos. The opera had its world premiere in Brno in late 1926.

The story is rather convoluted in The Makropulos Case.

It involves a nearly century-long lawsuit, a missing will, an opera singer admired by many men, a bastard son, allegations of forgery, suicide and a life-extending potion.

San Francisco Opera gave the American premiere of this opera in 1966. This production, directed by Olivier Tambosi, is from 2010 with Jiří Bělohlávek conducting. The cast includes Thomas Glenn, Miro Dvorsky, Susannah Biller and Karita Matilla.

Reviews were overwhelmingly positive for this production and all singled out Matilla who made her role debut in this production.

Mobile Dance Film Festival – 92Y Harkness Dance Center – July 25th – August 31

This is the third year of the 92Y Harkness Dance Center’s Mobile Dance Film Festival. All of the films showcased in the festival were shot on mobile devices.

Films from Europe (Germany, Hungary, Italy); South America (Brazil, Uruguay); Asia (Indonesia, Japan) plus Russia, Australia and Papau New Guinea are included with American entries.

Some of the films in the festival are part of a Quarantine Screen section which features films made during the Covid-19 pandemic. There is also the first-ever documentary film. Bent But Not Broken is a film that looks at dancers with scoliosis.

You need to register to access the Mobile Dance Film Festival and there is a $5 fee for doing so. That will give you full access to four hours of programming from July 25th through August 31st.

Lawrence Brownlee and Friends – Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Facebook Page – July 26th 7:00 PM EDT/4:00 PM PDT

Opera singer Lawrence Brownlee has assembled a talented group of friends for this live concert on Sunday. The tenor, who made his Metropolitan Opera debut in a 2007 production of Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia, will be joined by alumni from Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Ryan Opera Center.

They include soprano Whitney Morrison, mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges and baritone Will Liverman. Three current students at the Center will also participate. Craig Terry, Chris Reynolds and members of the Lyric Opera Orchestra will also perform from their homes.

The purpose of this concert is to celebrate Black artistry. Not only is Brownlee performing, he is also the artistic advisor of this concert.

Lawrence Brownlee and Friends will stream live on Lyric’s YouTube and Facebook channels.

Dougla – Dance Theatre of Harlem YouTube Page – July 26th

For those of a certain age, Geoffrey Holder is known for directing the original Broadway production (and its 1984 revival) of The Wiz and for directing the 1978 musical Timbuktu! Or you might know him from his 7-Up commercials from the 1970s advertising the soft drink as the “uncola.”

Holder was also a prolific choreographer and Dougla, which the Dance Theatre of Harlem revived in 2018, is one of his best-known works. It was first performed in 1974 and this revival was carefully overseen by Holder’s song, Leo and his widow, Carmen de Lavallade.

Trinidad was were Holder was born and the word Dougla refers to people of both African and South Asian descent. Specifically in his ballet, Dougla depicts a wedding between a couple where one partner is of Indian descent and the other is African.

The music was written by Holder and Tania León and primarily utilizes flutes and percussion. For this 2018 production, León directed the live performance of the music.

That’s this week’s Best Bets at Home: July 24th – July 26th.

Want more? How about a few reminders before we go:

Cécile McLorin Salvant and Sullivan Fortner are the featured concert on this week’s Fridays at Five from SFJazz. You can read our preview published earlier this week here.

The Ron Carter Trio performs live on July 24th and 25th from the Village Vanguard in New York. You can read our preview from earlier this week here.

LA Opera audio-streams their 2010 complete Ring Cycle by Richard Wagner on Saturday beginning at 11:00 AM EDT/8:00 AM PDT. For our complete preview please go here.

Metropolitan Opera’s streaming productions this weekend are Verdi’s Falstaff on Friday; Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier on Saturday and Puccini’s La Fannciula del West on Sunday. For details you can go here.

That’s officially it for our Best Bets at Home: July 24th – July 26th. Enjoy your weekend! Enjoy culture! And if you like what you read here at Cultural Attaché, be sure to tell your friends!

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