Clark Art Institute and The Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center presents a broadcast of The Met’s production of Vincenzo Bellini’s ‘I Puritani’
Williamstown/Great Barrington— On Sunday, January 11th at 1 p.m., the Clark Art Institute and the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center present a broadcast of The Met’s production of Vincenzo Bellini’s “I Puritani.”
For gorgeous melody, spellbinding coloratura, and virtuoso vocal fireworks, “I Puritani” has few equals. Soprano Lisette Oropesa and tenor Lawrence Brownlee are Elvira and Arturo, brought together by love and torn apart by the political rifts of the English Civil War, with baritone Artur Rucinski as Riccardo, betrothed to Elvira against her will, and bass-baritone Christian Van Horn as Elvira’s sympathetic uncle, Giorgio. In the first new Met production of Bellini’s final masterpiece in nearly fifty years, Charles Edwards makes his company directorial debut after many successes as a set designer, with Marco Armiliato conducting.
To complement the opera’s underlying theme of battle over governance, The Clark presents a pop-up exhibition of prints and drawings highlighting artists’ representations of government in its many forms. The free pop-up display will be on January 11th from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. before the broadcast.
The broadcast is on Sunday, January 11th at 1 p.m. at the Clark Art Institute, located at 225 South Street in Williamstown and the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, located at 14 Castle Street in Great Barrington. Tickets and more information can be found online: The Clark/The Mahaiwe.
***
Berkshire Opera Festival invites community to third annual sing-along
Pittsfield— On Saturday, January 10th at 2 p.m., Berkshire Opera Festival (BOF) invites the community to its third annual sing-along, a free and welcoming event for singers of all experience levels.
Led by BOF Chorus Master Luca Antonucci, the sing-along brings together local vocalists and music lovers from across the Berkshires for an afternoon of joyful music-making, featuring choruses by Verdi and Wagner from “Il Trovatore,” “The Flying Dutchman,” and more.
The free sing-along is on Saturday, January 10th at 2 p.m. at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, located at 67 East Street in Pittsfield. Singers ages 13 and up are welcome. Participants will receive music in advance—no preparation or prior opera experience required. Registration is required. Registration and more information can be found online.
***
OLLI presents a memoir workshop led by award-winning memoirist and veteran teacher Jennifer Browdy, PhD
Pittsfield— On Monday, January 12th from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m., OLLI presents a memoir workshop led by award-winning memoirist and veteran teacher Jennifer Browdy, PhD.
Explore your ancestral roots, family patterns of migration, and your own sense of being rooted or still in search of a place to call home. Expertly crafted writing prompts will help you trace back through the generations to explore your ancestral connections to particular times and places, as well as the trajectories of your family’s migrations. Moving towards the present, you’ll inquire into the places where you have felt most rooted, and your own patterns of migration, using these meditations on past experiences to reach for a more intentional rootedness in a nourishing landscape that you can call home.
Jennifer Browdy, Ph.D. is a professor of literature, writing, and media arts at Bard College and Simon’s Rock and the online global Bard Global Higher Education Alliance, with a special focus on purposeful memoir and media arts for social and environmental justice. An author of multiple books, her latest, “Purposeful Memoir as a Quest for a Thriving Future,” was a 2022 Nautilus Gold Award winner and a 2022 Gold Award winner in the Independent Press Awards. She’s written for “Yes! Magazine,” “Kosmos Journal,” “Deep Times Journal,” and many academic journals and volumes, and is the publisher of Green Fire Press.
The workshop is on Monday, January 12th from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. on Zoom. No prior memoir writing experience is necessary, just bring your writing implements and your curiosity about the past, present, and future. Registration and more information can be found online.
***
Ghent Playhouse presents a staged reading of Edith Wharton’s ‘Roman Fever’ to benefit Columbia County EMS/Education
Ghent, N.Y.— On Saturday, January 10th at 4 p.m. and Sunday, January 11th at 2 p.m., Ghent Playhouse presents a staged reading of Edith Wharton’s ‘Roman Fever’ to benefit Columbia County EMS/Education. This is the third consecutive year that the Ghent Playhouse has presented a staged reading in support of a fellow local nonprofit.
Set on a Roman terrace overlooking the Colosseum, “Roman Fever,” Edith Wharton’s beloved short story, follows two longtime friends—and rivals—as they reminisce while waiting for their daughters. What begins as polite conversation unfolds into a powerful exploration of friendship, jealousy, deception, and passion, culminating in a shocking revelation.
The readings are on Saturday, January 10th at 4 p.m. and Sunday, January 11th at 2 p.m. at The Ghent Playhouse, located at 6 Town Hall Place in Ghent, N.Y. Each performance will be followed by a cocoa and cookie buffet, inviting audiences to linger and enjoy warm conversation. Tickets and more information can be found online.
***
Friends of the Bushnell-Sage Library presents a presentation by Dr. Carole Owens celebrating the 250th Anniversary of the American Revolution
Sheffield— On Sunday, January 11th at 2:30 p.m., Friends of the Bushnell-Sage Library presents a presentation by Dr. Carole Owens, the first in a four-part lecture series that celebrates various aspects of the 250th Anniversary of the American Revolution.
Dr. Owens is a well-known journalist, author, instructor, and local historian. She was named Scholar in Residence by the Massachusetts Council on the Humanities. She’s taught at OLLI, Berkshire Community College, and Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, and she currently writes for The Berkshire Eagle, The Berkshire Edge, and her own newsletter, “Stockbridge Updates.” She has written twelve books and a collection of short stories called “Connections.” The focus of one of these deeply researched stories is Lavina Rigby Dean Fisk, born in Sheffield in 1746. Dr. Owens will speak of her and other notable women of the 18th century, particularly those of Sheffield.
The talk is on Sunday, January 11th at 2:30 p.m. at the Bushnell-Sage Library, located at 48 Main Street in Sheffield. Admission is free. Everyone is welcome. More information can be found online.
***
Taconic Learning Center to offer seven new courses this winter
Canaan/Salisbury, Conn.— Taconic Learning Center is set to offer seven new courses this winter. Taconic Learning Center provides lifelong learning opportunities to residents of the tri-state area, offering non-credit, tuition-free college level courses taught by local volunteer instructors with experience in their respective fields.
Classes start on January 12th and meet for two hours weekly and are given at Geer Lodge in Canaan, Conn. or Noble Horizons in Salisbury, Conn. For an annual tax-deductible membership donation of $60, participants can choose as many classes as they would like; there are no other fees. Registration and more information can be found online.
