Opera Lovers Enraged in New York What Will Happen Here?

If you read about the fracas (i.e. lengthy booing precipitated by director Luc Bondy and his design team) at the Metropolitan Opera at the opening of the new production of Puccini’s “Tosca†last month and would like to see what all the fuss was about, there are two theaters in our area showing the HD live broadcast on Saturday, Oct. 10, at 1 p.m. This new edition by Bondy in his house debut, stars Karita Mattila in her first performance of the title role outside her native Finland, and Marcelo Ãlvarez as Cavaradossi. James Levine conducts. HD host: Susan Graham.

    At the Bardavon in Poughkeepsie, you can hear a pre-opera lecture at 11:30 a.m. and have lunch beforehand at a participating restaurant. Information at bardavon.org or 845-473-2072.

   At the Mahaiwe in Great Barrington there is a pre-opera lecture at 10:45 a.m. by Juilliard faculty member Scott Eyerly. Information at 413-528-0100.

   The Bardavon is also home to the Hudson Valley Philharmonic, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. Music director Randall Craig Fleischer will open the season with a “Mozart à la Marsalis†program on Saturday, Oct. 17, at 8 p.m., with renowned violinist Anne Akiko Meyers performing the Mozart’s Concerto No. 3, K. 216, in G Major, with cadenzas written by Wynton Marsalis. The concert will also feature Verdi’s “La Forza del Destino†overture and Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra. Ticket holders are invited to a preconcert talk with Fleischer one hour prior to the performance.

   The success of the Metropolitan’s HD program has inspired other opera venues to present video broadcasts as well. Mozart’s “Don Giovanni†(from Salzburg) will be presented

Sunday, Nov. 8, at 3 p.m. and Tuesday Nov. 10 at 7:30 p.m. Mozart’s “Cosi Fan Tutte†(also from Salzburg) is scheduled for Sunday, Nov. 15 at 3 p.m. and Tuesday, Nov. 17 at 7:30pm. in Dolby Surround Sound at the Warner’s Nancy Marine Studio Theatre. Tickets $20 from warnertheatre.org or 860-489-7180

   Close Encounters’ Conversations With… series opens Sunday, Oct. 11, 2 p.m., at Ventfort Hall in Lenox, with Music Rooms of the Gilded Age. Harvey Rosenberg, professor of the history of interior design and architecture at FIT/SUNY for 25 years, and frequent lecturer at Parsons, Pratt and the New School of Interior Design, will present a slide show on European design principles incorporated into the Berkshire “cottages†of the Gilded Age. Tickets are $25 and include light refreshments. Information at www.cewmusic@aol.com or 800-843-0778. Ventfort Hall is at 104 Walker St., Lenox, MA.

   Looking for some artistic Halloween entertainment? To commemorate the 40th anniversary of Woodstock and the legendary music, musicians, and community feeling of that event, Columbia Arts Team in Hillsdale invites you to dress up as your favorite ’60s musician or pop culture icon, rock out to live Beatles and ’60s songs with special guest John Lennon aka Tom Raider and more, win prizes, enjoy light fare buffet, a costume contest, a Chinese auction, and mingle at the“Cat-Stock†’60s costume and concert party. Date: Friday Oct. 7 at 7:30 p.m. at Mt. Washington House in Hillsdale on Route 23. Tickets are $15 (includes entrance into costume contest, light fare buffet, and live concert); advance tickets $10 (must purchase by Oct. 25). Cash Bar. See www.columbiaartsteam.org for more details.

   The Fisher Center at Bard College presents the opening concert of the 2009–10 season of the American Symphony Orchestra (ASO) series, Friday, Oct. 16 and Saturday, Oct. 17 at 8 p.m. In the first program of the series the American Symphony Orchestra performs Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1 in C Major, Op. 21 and Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op. 36; Shulamit Ran’s The Show Goes On, Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra (U.S. premiere), Laura Flax, clarinet; and Harold Farberman’s Concerto for Timpani and Orchestra, Jonathan Haas, timpani. A preconcert talk by Richard Wilson, composer in residence with the ASO, begins at 6:45 p.m. Individual tickets are $20, $30, and $35. A subscription to the three-concert series is $80 per person. Call 845-758-7900 or visit the Fisher Center Web site at fishercenter.bard.edu for further information.

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