The festival traditionally kicks off with a weekend of dance. This year the featured company will be the ensemble Compagnie Fêtes Galantes, known for wedding Baroque dance to contemporary choreography. The troupe will perform the American premiere of its acclaimed program of dances set to the music of J. S. Bach, Let My Joy Remain (Que ma joie demeure), in the Fisher Center’s Sosnoff Theater. There will be evening performances on July 6 and 7 and a matinee on July 8. Admission ranges from $25 to $55.
Next comes a theatrical piece, and this year’s SummerScape offering gives lovers of classic French farce something to cheer about: The Imaginary Invalid (Le Malade Imaginaire), the final work (1673) from the quill of that country’s greatest satirical playwright, Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, a/k/a Molière. Erica Schmidt directs. Performances in Theater Two will take place in the evening on July 13, 14, 19, 20 and 21, matinees on July 14, 15, 18, 21 and 22, with a uniform ticket price of $45. The July 14 performance will be preceded by the SummerScape gala benefit dinner in the Spiegeltent, and supporters get to party with the cast afterward.
The Gallic mode continues with an opéra comique by Saint-Saëns contemporary Emmanuel Chabrier. The King in Spite of Himself (Le Roi Malgré Lui) concerns Henri de Valois, a sixteenth-century French nobleman elected by the people of Poland to be their king despite his great reluctance to be away from France. Directed by Thaddeus Strassberger, this staging will be a co-production with Ireland’s Wexford Festival Opera. There will be evening performances in the Sosnoff Theater on July 27 and August 3 and matinees on July 29, August 1 and 5. Admission ranges from $30 to $90.
The main attraction, “Saint-Saëns and His World,” comes along on the weekends of August 10 to12, examining “Paris and the Culture of Cosmopolitanism,” and August 17 to 19, “Confronting Modernism.” The music festival schedule is absolutely jam-packed, so we’ll just mention a few highlights. Opening-night dinner on August 10 in the Spiegeltent will be followed by an all-Saint-Saëns program in the Sosnoff Theater. Most other concerts in the series will also include works by the composer’s contemporaries, those who influenced him and were influenced by his output.
Saturday mornings are set aside for free panel discussions that are open to the public. Concerts on Sunday mornings and both afternoons typically feature vocal and/or chamber music. Tickets go for $30 to $35. Evenings are reserved for the big extravaganzas, with a price range of $25 to $75. The all-Saint-Saëns program on Saturday evening, August 11 will include one of the composer’s masterworks, his third symphony. “Zoological Fantasies: Carnival of the Animals Revisited” is the kid-friendly theme for Sunday evening, August 12. The program on Friday, August 17, “Proust and Music,” should appeal to the literati. The last concert, on Sunday evening, August 19, called “Out of the Shadow of Samson and Delilah: Saint-Saëns’ Other Grand Opera,” ends the two-weekend blowout with a bang with a performance of Henry VIII.
This looks like fun. Where can I get more information? We usually just stay with our local sun valley resort, but wed like to try somewhere new. 🙂