Beyond NY: Opera Demon at Bard SummerScape

Rarely performed in the US opera by Anton Rubinstein is part of the SummerScape 2018 program on July 27 – August 5 at Bard College

Bard SummerScape is well known for its daring and adventurous streak offering to its audiences a delicious yet rarely performed music. Last year the program included A. Dvorak’s Dimitrij. This year it presents Anton Rubinstein’s opera Demon. Rubinstein’s work will complement the rest of the SummerScape program lineup celebrating the music of the The Mighty Five, the Russian composers of the late 19th century whose ambition was to write compositions rooted in Russian folk songs and traditional tonalities. The resulting trove of music literature enriched the sound palette and expanded the music language.

As for The Demon, with an all-Russian cast directed by Thaddeus Strassberger and accompanied by the American Symphony Orchestra with Mr. Botstein, current president of Bard College, conducting the opera will surely delight and amuse by its vibrant music and opulent choral arrangements. The performance are taking place at the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts.

Opera Demon is based on a poem of the same name by Russian poet M. Lermontov written in 1829 but published only in 1856 in Berlin. The poem was deemed sacrilegious by the censors when it was submitted for publication the first time. The tragic love story in the poem is taking place in Caucus mountains in Georgia, untamed and mysterious place at the time serenaded by the romantic poets for its pristine natural beauty and free-spirited people.

A quirk or a daring twist in the text is the Demon, the satan turned gentle lover, who seduced a grieving bride, Princess Tamara,  while she tried to escape the worldly pleasures at a secluded monastery. She chose a mastic life when the prospect of her marriage was destroyed by a murder of her groom, Prince Sinodal. The Demon was flying over the mountains, saw Tamara and fell in love luring her to follow him with promises of heavenly pleasures. But the virtue is taking reign over the vice in the face of an angel rescuing the soul of the princess from satan’s possession. The Demon is left one on one with his anger and fury when Tamara is carried to heaven. In the early 19th century, the authorities saw an elevation of the atheism in Lermontov’s verses which led to a ban on poem’s publication and in turn made the Demon the most read piece of literature at the time.

Rubinstein turned to the text of the Demon in 1871 and wrote not only the score but also an outline of a libretto which was used by P. Viskovatov for the final text. The members of the Mighty Five circle were invited to a private hearing of the opera but apparently were not impressed. However, the opera became the most famous of over 20 operas composed by Rubinstein and was hugely popular right after its premiere at Mariinsky Theater in 1875. The music in Demon had influenced many younger Russian composers such as Mussorgsky and Tchaikovsky.

With all the success and accomplishments of his prodigious career, Rubinstein was pretty accustomed to being in his own words “neither fish nor fowl”. Virtuoso pianists and an accomplished composer whose oeuvre in addition to 20 operas included 5 concertos, 6 symphonies, and many more scores, he was considered too old-fashioned by the modernists or too futuristic by the classicists. Born to a Jewish family but converted to Russian orthodoxy in his childhood, he started performing as a child-prodigy in Germany and studied in Berlin. Later he toured extensively in Russia, Europe, and North America. In addition to concert appearances, he was a formidable educator and a founder of Saint Petersburg Conservatory.

 

Bard SummerScape opera performance takes place at the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Art which is located on the campus of a picturesque Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, NY. Bard College is well known for its rigorous and diverse art education program and the best-in-class roster of summer performances in upstate NY. Only two hours away from hustle and bustle of New York City, the campus is sufficiently insulated for full concentration and study, yet affords a convenience of being accessible via train connection to the city.

The Richard B. Fisher Center is an architectural jewel in itself being designed by Frank Gehry and hosting a multitude of adventurous programs at the world-class facilities.

For tickets and dates click here.

Dates: July 27 – August 5, 2018

Venue: Richard B. Fisher Center, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY

Places to eat around Bard College.

Annandale-On-Hudson, NY is located in Dutchess County, NY is  bordering another small-town gem Rhinebeck, NY. Visit Dutchess County Tourism site to get a Great Estate Pass and more.

Planning to spend a night in Dutchess county, NY? Consider the quaint walking village of Rhinebeck, NY. Get intimate with the charms of small town life by staying at historic Beekman Arms & Delamater Inn. Ask about Delamater side of the property for a quiet room on mini estate while being still in the center of the village. For more lodging options visit Dutchess County Tourism.