Dave Read

Talk sex with Dr. Ruth, July 2 Barrington Stage benefit

Have a question for Dr. Ruth? Join America’s favorite sex therapist Dr. Ruth Westheimer, Monday, July 2 at 7pm, BSC Mainstage, for a brief talk followed by a Q&A as she answers all your most pressing questions. Anonymous question submissions will be accepted at the theatre before the talk begins.

Tickets: $35 and $25. Purchase VIP tickets, $75, and join us for a special post-show Chocolate & Champagne reception with Dr. Ruth. All proceeds will benefit BSC’s New Works Initiative.

Mark St. Germain’s world premiere play, Dr. Ruth, All the Way, directed by Julianne Boyd, starring stage, film and television actress Debra Jo Rupp (That 70s Show), runs now through July 21 at St. Germain Stage (formerly Stage 2) at the Sydelle and Lee Blatt Performing Arts Center, 36 Linden Street, Pittsfield. >> Barrington Stage Co. 2012 schedule and contact info.

James Levine’s Tanglewood debut as BSO Music Director

July 8, 2005 Tanglewood concert review by Dave Read

James Levine’s Tanglewood debut as music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, July 8, 2005, was a stunning success, his tenure heralded by a majestic performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 8, (reprising his Symphony Hall opening last October) that was received most enthusiastically by the dressed-up audience in the Shed and by a handful of diehards huddled under trees on the damp lawn after a rainy day.

Dubbed “The Symphony of a Thousand” when Mahler performed it in 1909 in New York with an orchestra of 171 and 858 singers, there were 361 musicians onstage for thiss performance, which was just the 3rd time it has been performed at Tanglewood. In addition to the BSO, the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, and the American Boychoir, there were 8 soloists, sopranos Susan Neves, Deborah Voigt and Heidi Grant Murphy, mezzo-sopranos Yvonne Naef and Jane Henschel, tenor Johan Botha, baritone Eike Wilm Schulte and bass-baritone John Relyea.

With Mahler’s composition being built around the ninth century Pentacostal hymn Veni, creator spiritus and the final scene from Goethe’s Faust, this was a program that could sanctify the occasion, as well as edify (and entertain) the audience.

Once the orchestra and singers were in place, all dressed in white, Maestro Levine, wearing a tuxedo, entered to a great roar of applause, which he acknowledged with a little kiss-blowing gesture before taking his seat on the podium.

An instant later the organ rang out and the singers sent their call heavenward:

Come, Creator Spirit
visit these Thy souls,
Fill them with heavenly grace
Whom Thou hast created of Thy spirit.

Some twenty-five minutes later an off-stage brass septet blew a brilliant accentuation to the movement-closing “Glory be…” being sung and played in rapturous fashion – and thus, the Tanglewood tenure of James Levine was begun. The second movement, lasting about twice as long as the first, was testament that the opening prayer had been answered. It seemed something whole, rather than a sum of several parts; something of ineffable beauty and complexity that moved this way and that so that it was made apparent in any number of tones and hues to evoke the gamut of emotion.

One scanned the white sea of musicians and singers as the aural locus shifted, even up above the acoustical panels where soprano Heidi Grant Murphy sang the truly high notes. And one always returned to the calm black-clad figure at the center of it all, the seated maestro conducting it all with an absolute minimum of movement.

He used his left hand for little more than to turn the pages of the score and the baton he barely raised above or beyond his shoulder. Except toward the end when he laid aside the baton and used both hands, sometimes with coaxing gestures; and he was most demonstrative, almost in conversation with, first violins Malcom Lowe and Tamara Smirnova during a sublime passage just before the finale.

And so the great inter-regnum has come to a close, nearly four full years since Seiji Ozawa ended his tenure as BSO Music Director on August 4, 2001 with a performance of Richard Strauss’ Salome, Opus 54.

Hotels near Tanglewood

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Berkshies transportation

For how to get to the Berkshires and public transportation within Berkshire county, see this page: Amtrak and Peter Pan bus schedules.

Tanglewood tickets and box office information

Tickets for Tanglewood concerts are available through Tanglewood’s website, www.tanglewood.org, SymphonyCharge at 888-266-1200, and at the Symphony Hall Box Office at 301 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston MA. Download the 2018 Tanglewood season brochure.

Taylor Swift scheduled for July 2 James Taylor concert at Tanglewood

Appearing on James Taylor’s July 2 Tanglewood show will be Taylor Swift, who was named after him! Ms. Swift was named the Country Music Association’s 2011 Entertainer of the Year as well as the American Music Award’s Artist of the Year. Over the years, Mr. Taylor has performed at Tanglewood with a variety of guest musicians. Last year, his guest were Amy Grant and Vince Gill, which followed the wildly popular tour with longtime friend and collaborator Carole King. Here is a video of Taylor Swift:

Barrington Stage Company discounts June 15-17 Fiddler on the Roof tickets

Barrington Stage Company is selling discounted tickets for opening weekend, June 15, 16, 17 performances of Fiddler on the Roof. Tickets may also be purchased at 30 Union Street in Downtown Pittsfield, by calling the Box Office at 413-236-8888, or buy tickets online. Barrington Stage Company 2012 schedule details.

BSC Mainstage – Fiddler on the Roof

Barrington Stage Company’s 2012 schedule features Fiddler on the Roof, the Tony award winning play based on characters and stories created by Sholom Alecheim. Fiddler on the Roof is about the milkman Tevye and his family told by way of one of the most popular scores in the American theatre, Tradition, Matchmaker, Matchmaker, Sunrise, Sunset, and Far from the Home I Love..

Jun 13, 2012 – Jul 14, 2012 – Press opening: Sun. June 17, 5pm
Tues/Wed: 7pm – Thurs-Sat: 8pm – Sun 5pm | Wed/Fri: 2pm (excluding 6/13 and 6/15)
Brad Oscar as Tevye and Joanna Glushak as Golde
Book by Joseph Stein
Music by Jerry Bock
Lyrics by Sheldon Harnick
Directed by Gary John LaRosa; Music direction by Darren R. Cohen

Hancock Shaker Village events with Knesset Israel June 26 & August 12

Hancock Shaker Village schedules collaborative events with Knesset Israel Congregation June 26 & August 12

Hancock Shaker Village and Knesset Israel Congregation will present two collaborative events exploring the shared customs from the Shaker tradition and from Judaism, two cultures of peace.

“Shaker Soul and Jewish Neshama: a Spiritual Bond Conversation” panel discussion between Rabbi David Weiner of Knesset Israel, Pastor Kim Kie of New Hope United Methodist Church, and Professor Jane Crosthwaite of Mt. Holyoke College’s religious studies department will take place on Tuesday June 26 at 7:30pm at Congregation Knesset Israel Synagogue (16 Colt Road in Pittsfield, Mass.). Light refreshments will be served. “These ‘Shaker Shalom’ conversations offer good opportunities to unearth and to explore common roots and the continuing common interests of these two religious traditions,” said Professor Crosthwaite. This event is open to the public by reservation; $5 suggested donation. RSVP to Knesset Israel at 413.445.4872.

“Shaker Shalom: A Gala Celebration and Concert,” a joint fundraising event with proceeds equally benefiting Hancock Shaker Village and Congregation Knesset Israel Synagogue, will take place on Sunday August 12 at 5:30pm at Hancock Shaker Village. It will include cocktails and an elegant Shaker-inspired kosher picnic created by Chef Michael Roller, followed by a Shaker-Jewish fusion concert by clarinet virtuoso Paul Green and his Neshoma Klezmer Ensemble and auction in the Round Stone Barn. Concert-only tickets are $36; Gala tickets range from $150 to $1000. Tickets may be purchased by calling Hancock Shaker Village at 413.443.0188 or online at www.hancockshakervillage.org.

In conjunction with these two events, Hancock Shaker Village will also present “Shalom: Weaving Threads of Peace Mixed Media Assemblages by Wendy Rabinowitz” in the Poultry House Gallery. This exhibition will run from Saturday, August 4 through Sunday, August 26 from 10:00am to 5:00pm daily. Pittsfield-based artist Wendy Rabinowitz relates the Shaker ideals of peace with Jewish ideals of Shalom in her artwork that combines weaving and textile arts with other visual arts, graphics, and the written word, resulting in mixed media assemblages. The exhibition is free to HSV members and included with general admission.

WTF names cast for The Importance of Being Earnest and Blue Deep

Williamstown Theatre Festival announces the full cast and creative teams for the first two productions of the 2012 season: The Importance of Being Earnest will be presented on the Main Stage from June 26 through July 14 (opening June 28) and the World Premiere of The Blue Deep will grace the Nikos Stage from June 27 through July 8 (opening June 28).

Oscar Wilde’s quintessential comedy of manners, The Importance of Being Earnest, is directed by David Hyde Pierce, whose portrayal of Niles Crane for 11 seasons on NBC’s “Frasier” earned him four Emmy Awards. The cast features Marylouise Burke (Fuddy Meers) as Miss Prism, Louis Cancelmi as Algernon Moncrieff, Helen Rita Cespedes as Cecily Cardew, Sean Cullen (South Pacific) as Lane, Emmy and Tony Award winner Tyne Daly (“Cagney and Lacey”, Master Class, Gypsy) as Lady Bracknell, Glenn Fitzgerald (The Sixth Sense) as Jack Worthing, Paul Anthony McGrane as Merriman, Amy Spanger (Elf, Rock of Ages) as Gwendolyn Fairfax, and Henry Stram (WTF’s R Shomon) as Chasuble with Charlotte Bydwell, Julian Cihi, Alexander Seife, and Ariana Seigel.

The creative team includes Allen Moyer (Scenic Design), Ben Stanton (Lighting Design), Michael Krass (Costume Design), and Jill BC Du Boff (Sound Design). Eileen Kelly is the Production Stage Manager.

The World Premiere of The Blue Deep by Lucy Boyle is directed by Bob Balaban (Bernard and Doris, Tennessee and Me). The new play stars Becky Ann Baker (WTF’s Our Town), Emmy and Tony Award winner and WTF veteran Blythe Danner (WTF’s The Seagull, “Meet the Parents”), Jack Gilpin (WTF’s Design for Living), “Boardwalk Empire” regular Heather Lind (former WTF Non-Equity Company), and Finn Wittrock (Broadway’s Death of a Salesman).

Rounding out the creative team is Takeshi Kata and Andrew Boyce (Scenic Design), Matthew Richards (Lighting Design), Mimi O’Donnell (Costume Design), and John Gromada (Sound Design and Composer). Libby Unsworth is the Production Stage Manager.