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Berkshire Opera Festival’s season kickoff

NEW MARLBOROUGH, Mass. —Berkshire Opera Festival held its third annual fundraiser, “Café Society: A Celebration of Giacomo Puccini’s La Bohème,” at Gedney Farm on Sunday, June 11.

Conditions were perfect for good conversation and great music. More than 100 people crowded into Gedney Farm’s barn for silent and live auctions, a delicious dinner, and to enjoy musical selections performed by  marvelous guest artist Soprano Teresa Perrotta and BOF’s Artistic Director and Co-Founder, Maestro Brian Garman. Perrotta is a recent grand finals winner of the Metropolitan Opera Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition.

Accompanied by Garman, Perrotta raised the roof with “Donde lieta usci” from La Bohème; “A Stranger Here Myself” from Kurt Weill’s One Touch of Venus; and from Faust, Marguerite’s “Jewel Song.”

BOF will stage three performances of La Bohème on Saturday, August 26, Aug. 29, and Sept. 1 at The Colonial Theatre in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.

The lively fundraiser—a nod to Café Momus from the opera— raised money to help sponsor singers in the children’s chorus, costumes, and musical instruments and scores, in addition to supporting general operations. Several guests bid on and won the opportunity to appear as character actors in this year’s production.

Tickets for performances cover only about one-third of BOF’s operating costs each year, and the COVID years were challenging for the festival, so Sunday’s event was important.

For tickets, go to www.berkshiretheatregroup.org/event/berkshire-opera-festival-presents-la....

Christie’s Rachel Orkin-Ramey conducted Berkshire Opera Festival’s live auction with gusto. Photo by Max Vadakin

Gedney Farm’s main 19th-century  barn was the setting for the Berkshire Opera Festival’s Café Society fundraiser. Photo by Max Vadakin

Christie’s Rachel Orkin-Ramey conducted Berkshire Opera Festival’s live auction with gusto. Photo by Max Vadakin
Susan Hassler

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