Great Barrington — Berkshire Opera Festival (BOF) has announced details of its 2024 season. Charles Gounod’s “Faust” will play at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center on August 24, 27, and 30, preceded by an April 10 workshop performance in New York City of “The Reef” by Anthony Davis, the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer of “X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X” and “The Central Park Five.” And on Sunday, June 30, BOF holds its annual season celebration and fundraiser, “BOF Gala 2024: A Faustian Fête,” which will be held at the historic Lenox Club.
Based on Carré’s play “Faust et Marguerite,” which in turn was based on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s “Faust, Part One,” Gounod’s opera tells the story of a hapless, lovesick scholar who abandons hope and faith to satisfy his carnal longing for the chaste Marguerite, selling his soul to the devil in the original “Faustian bargain.” In 1883, the Metropolitan Opera opened its first season with “Faust,” which went on to become the eighth most frequently performed opera there. Universally regarded as Gounod’s magnum opus, the memorable and timeless “Faust” arguably represents the zenith of French romantic opera.
Joan Ross Sorkin (“Strange Fruit”) based her libretto to “The Reef” on Edith Wharton’s novel of the same name. Davis and Sorkin’s retelling of the story sets the action at a sugar plantation on Martinique. The story deals with a young widow’s romantic entanglements amidst the complexities of societal expectations and the constraints imposed by class and race during the early 20th century.
BOF will present the very first workshop performance of Act One of “The Reef’,” supported by a cast of singers from local conservatories and music schools. Moderated by BOF Artistic Director and Co-Founder Brian Garman, a panel discussion with the opera’s creators will follow the April 10 performance.
If any Berkshire arts organization has the right to brag, it is Berkshire Opera Festival. In 2016, its mission was to restore opera’s place of prominence in the Berkshires. And by holding to the very highest artistic standards, BOF has succeeded. But besides fully produced opera, the company also presents recitals and other related musical events, often featuring the company’s best vocalists. For example, last month, BOF held an operatic singalong event at Zion Lutheran Church in Pittsfield.
According to BOF co-founders Brian Garman and Jonathon Loy, opera has the inherent transformative ability to greatly enhance one’s quality of life. This has been the primary assumption and driving force behind BOF’s development. They want to make opera accessible and affordable to all Berkshire area residents—so everyone can experience the power of the live, unamplified human voice in a theater.
Berkshire Opera Festival will present Charles Gounod’s “Faust” at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, 14 Castle Street, Great Barrington, on Saturday, August 24, at 1 p.m.; on Tuesday, August 27, at 7:30 p.m.; and on Friday, August 30, at 7:30 p.m. A workshop performance of Anthony Davis’ “The Reef” takes place Wednesday, April 10, 7 p.m., in Merkin Hall at Kaufman Music Center, 129 West 67th Street, New York, NY. And BOF’s annual gala is on on Sunday, June 30, at at the historic Lenox Club.
For tickets and more information about these events, visit the Berkshire Opera Festival’s website.
