Bard SummerScape returns to the Hudson Valley June 23–August 14 with eight weeks of live dance, theatre, music, and opera performances.
To celebrate Molière's 400th anniversary, SummerScape 2022 will present the world premiere of a new version of the French playwright's 1665 tragicomedy Dom Juan with a feminist twist. The production, running June 23-July 17, will use a new translation by scholar Sylvaine Guyot and Fisher Center Artistic Director Gideon Lester. Director Ashley Tata blends 17th century France with late 1970s America as she upends the play's gendered power structures through her casting choices.
Another world premiere will be the collaborative dance commission from Fisher Center's inaugural Choreographer-in-Residence Pam Tanowitz and Grammy-winning composer David Lang. Delivering their take on the biblical Song of Songs, Tanowitz explores her Jewish identity through a proscenium ensemble dance set to Lang's choral interpretation of the text. Performances with live musical accompaniment will play July 1-3.
The Bard's Spiegeltent returns after two years to provide an environment for live music and dancing on weekends throughout the festival. The pavilion of mirrors and stained glass will be the venue for returning highlights such as Black Roots Summer, the curated celebration of Black roots music by Michael Mwenso and Jono Gasparro; and a first look at the commissioned adaptation of Scott Joplin's 1911 opera Treemonisha by Pulitzer-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks, Obie-winning director Lileana Blain-Cruz, and Rome Prize-winning composer Courtney Bryan.
The Bard Music Festival will present a deep look into Russian composer, musician, and conductor Sergei Rachmaninoff in Rachmaninoff and His World, a series of 12 concert programs, pre-show talks, and panel discussions set for the last two weekends of SummerScape, August 5-7 and August 12-14.
SummerScape will also present a new production of The Silent Woman by Richard Strauss, a contemporary of Rachmaninoff. The comic opera, set to a libretto by Stefan Zweig, who based it on Ben Jonson's Epicœne, or The Silent Woman, tells the story of a retired British admiral wanting the quiet life, his nephew Henry, Henry's wife Aminta, and a barber who intervenes between the latter two. The opera will run July 22-July 31 with production and set design by Christian Räth. Italian bass singer Andrea Silvestrelli will sing the part of the retired admiral Sir Morosus, tenor David Portillo will sing Henry, soprano Jana McIntyre will sing Aminta, and baritone Edward Nelson will sing the barber.
Bard's Montgomery Place Campus will also host Summer Enchanted Evening—a special gala to benefit the Fisher Center and Bard Music Festival—July 16.
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