Berkshire Opera
Life has a soundtrack.

…well, you know, we all want to change the world. (apologies, Mr. Lennon!)

The small things we’re doing at BerkOp to “revolutionize” our operations - web-based communication, refreshed personal contact with community leaders and businesspeople, newly creative artistic planning - pale in comparison to the real revolution behind our major work for the summer. Mozart’s NOZZE DI FIGARO comes straight out of the great revolutionary movements of the late eighteenth century. Every relationship in the piece is in flux - master/servant, husband/wife, male/female. Our director, Greg Keller, and I have been having regular New York-to-Texas discussions about the piece (we call them “geek sessions”). I love this part of the process, when director and conductor begin to imagine the world they’ll create together.

Of course, our talks are only the beginning, but it’s part of our job to create a structure, a frame, a base. Now seeing those words in print, I pause because they seem too restrictive. Nothing really begins, of course, until our artists come and infuse our structure with their our hearts and minds. Even if we know those people well, there’s no telling what they’ll bring, and in what directions a piece might be pulled! That’s why “structure” isn’t quite the right word, because the many other artists are far more than ornaments to be hung on a frame of our making. Maybe what Greg and I do as we geek out on Figaro is to make a roux for the summer’s jambalaya. How’s that for a Gulf Coast analogy!

We are beginning to pull on the threads of the piece that seem most worth emphasis to us. This will influence everything from how a violin line gets phrased to what the opening scene looks like in terms of design and lighting. Do we want the characters to look like eighteenth-century people, or more like us, and if the latter, are we transplanting the story to another specific time or making it universal in character? How does the balance of power shift throughout the piece? Which characters have known which others, and for how long? The order of the musical selections in the third act is sometimes changed: which order will we choose and why? All of this is important to every other decision. I find my musical ideas already being influenced by things Greg and I have talked about: for example, our thought that a certain character is not as old as sometimes portrayed.

The idea of revolution, overturning things, is a thread through our whole season. “Women on the Verge”, our opening concert, is a survey of moments in opera where something is broken open, decisions are taken, the past is left behind. And our recitals will be hot items this summer as well. I consider their whole format and their programming to be revolutionary! Okay, that verges on hyperbole, but any of you who love recitals know how hidebound the traditional format is. Our programs will mix visual and vocal art and cover musical ground from the Renaissance to bluegrass (and not in clean chronological order). We’re also mixing traditional jobs: it took some doing, but I convinced our General Director to take part in our recital series. He is a fine singer and nothing about his new desk job changes that, so I was determined to introduce the Berkshire community to that part of Ryan as well!

All in all, the “Uncharted Territory” season is designed to overturn any idea that classical vocal art is highbrow, remote, specialized, or unreachable. We want you at the Mahaiwe, the Clark, and the Colonial, so that we can blow your mind with our art. Okay, I’m marketing far too much in this post, but I can’t help it. I’m excited about all we have planned. Next time, I promise - we’ll geek out.

I say, it’s all right.

Just sit right back and you’ll hear a tale,
A tale of a fateful trip
That started from this tropic port
Aboard this tiny ship.

This past Monday, we went public with our schedule of performances and casting for this coming summer season. And, as you may have surmised, Berkshire Opera is now officially sailing into “Uncharted Territory”! That’s the plan anyway…

Personally, while my appointment to join Berkshire Opera is in some ways a natural extension of the work I began five years ago with SEFoS, many aspects of the position are brand-spanking new. It’s exhilarating and exhausting to feel like I’m physically and mentally running up the learning curve. Nevertheless, I’m surrounded by the opera company’s passionate, generous trustees, terrific collaborators on staff, and a phenomenal group of artists prepared to offer our audiences one stellar performance after another this July and August. Throw into the equation a largely appreciative community, visionary colleagues representing other arts and cultural organizations, and a very supportive group of local businesses and my work day-to-day is incredibly rewarding.

Not only are the company and I sailing adventurously into unmapped waters, but I hope our audience will be swept away right along with us. Our cornerstone performance for the summer will be our production of Le nozze di Figaro at the Colonial Theatre. At first glance, one might struggle to figure out what is “uncharted” about a production of this classic Mozart/da Ponte masterpiece – especially one which we intend to set in its original time period. However, in the scope of our season and within the course of the storytelling, there is much about this opera that will be unique.

Both our opening orchestra concert, “Women on the Verge,” and our collaborative music project, “Secrets of the Sky and Sea,” might be seen as dramatic variations on the themes found within Le nozze di Figaro. At any given moment of the opera, any and all of the female characters – Suzanna, Countess Almaviva, Marcellina, and even Barbarina – could be described as “Women on the Verge”. Certainly more than a few secrets are hidden and revealed through the opera’s many plot turns and twists – some of which occur out under the stars in the Almaviva’s palace garden, no less!

Figaro in its own right has a history of being a groundbreaking work, first as Beaumarchais’ biting political farce, then as Mozart and da Ponte’s cleverly styled musical retelling with the political undercurrent thinly veiled by humor and humanity. In addition to the brilliance and clarity of Mozart’s music, the ability of the story to connect with modern audiences through its poignancy and wit has secured continuing, frequent performances since its premiere over two hundred years ago.

In each production and performance this summer, you’ll see something new and different. There will be introductions to some of the greatest vocal collaborators working today, and the return of familiar faces tackling new and exciting repertoire. I can’t wait to introduce each of our artists to our audience!

There’s actually much more to tell about our journey into the unknown this summer… stay tuned for more exciting news in the weeks and months ahead! And if you’re just hopping on board… welcome to Berkshire Opera!

Hello! This is Kathy writing - many thanks to Marianne for a lovely first post. She writes from our spiffy company offices (Thanks, Larry and Joyce) above North Street in Pittsfield. I’m making my first contribution to this blog from my office above Preston Street in Houston, Texas, where the skies are clear blue and the January breeze is light. I’m a dyed-in-the-wool northerner, and have lived in Minnesota, Seattle, and New York City; never once did I imagine I’d live in the Lone Star State. But you never know where this life is going to take you…

We are, as our homepage proclaims, sailing into “Uncharted Territory” here at the Berkshire Opera. That phrase conjures up a heady mixture of anticipation for me, of thrill, of eager emotion that is not without its element of trepidation. It’s exciting to talk about new plans and directions, but how do you actually arrive in a new place without a map? Who wants to sail off the edge of the world?

Fortunately, as Mr. Columbus taught us, there is no edge to sail off! The elements that have always come together to make the Berkshire Opera compelling and vibrant are still a part of us and always will be. Great singing, amazing repertoire, and skilled orchestral playing are still our backbone. We’re continuing our progress of the last few seasons in other areas: compelling storytelling, incisive stage action, and creative design. But changes are afoot as well. You’ve hopefully noticed our stylish new site: it looks new, but more than that, it functions more efficiently and tells you more about us. And that’s what we aim to do throughout all aspects of our company - function more efficiently (effectively, responsibly), and tell you more about who we are.

Berkshire Opera has survived almost a quarter century and faced some major challenges both expected and unexpected, all the while doing good work. Because of this, we’ve referred to ourselves as “the little company that could”. But, in all honesty, we are no different in this way than many, many other arts organizations. It’s normal to face challenges and obstacles, absolutely normal to be blindsided by unexpected problems, and in any artistic, creative group’s blood to work through those situations to produce something of quality. You, our community, know this better than most, since you are immersed in artistic waters in that remarkable area. I think this company is extraordinary - but we are called to be so! Beyond that, what makes us unique? What compells our audience to come see and hear what happens on OUR stages? THAT, my friends, is what we need to tell you, and the telling of that story is the biggest change you will see in us as the coming months unfold.

Telling you our story in a more compelling way isn’t just a Berkshire Opera challenge. I also invite you to visit my other blog here. You might be interested to find that big opera companies are struggling with many of the same questions faced by Berkshire Opera - it’s something we are facing industry-wide. Classical music in America has taken too much for granted, in my opinion. That’s a big topic, too much for one blog post to address, but I will say that as fewer people have been exposed to this repertoire over the past generation, our industry has not filled the gap. In fact, we’ve marketed ourselves like some kind of high-class herbal supplement: we’re supposed to make you smarter and calmer. Why haven’t we been talking about the way a certain voice can call forth tears, how a Mozart duet can stop time, how the relationship of performers and audience in a living theater space can make magic that doesn’t exist in the same way anywhere else - not in your living room, not on your Ipod, not in a movie theater? Don’t get me wrong, I love all of those venues and enjoy music of all kinds in them, but I’m absolutely, certifiably crazy about live theater, and ready to rant about it here as long and loud as necessary. What we can do together, you and us, is life-changing. Uncharted territory.