Great Barrington, Mass. — Berkshire Opera Festival (BOF) launches its first virtual concert comprised of musical selections from across the operatic spectrum and beyond. The concert will feature performances from the internationally-renowned cast of BOF’s (recently canceled) 2020 production of Don Giovanni.
This concert will feature André Courville, praised by Opera News for his “splendid, lush bass-baritone,” bass Erik Anstine, soprano Laura Wilde, a 2019 Richard Tucker Foundation Career Grant recipient, tenor Joshua Blue, who sings frequently at Washington National Opera, soprano Joanna Latini, legendary bass and Berkshire resident John Cheek, soprano Natalia Santaliz, and baritone Brian James Myer.
Hosted by BOF’s Co-Founders Brian Garman and Jonathon Loy, the hour-long concert will feature pieces filmed from homes near and far—some from the singers’ homes, others from BOF’s home base at St. James Place in Great Barrington, MA. Video production and editing for this virtual concert is provided by Pittsfield Community TV, with funding support from the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation.
BOF has approached this online concert with its usual spirit of resilience and optimism for the future, striving to maintain its high artistic standards for performances and programming in alternative ways that reduce health risks to the performers, staff, and audiences according to the public safety guidelines developed by the State of Massachusetts.
Tickets are $20 per device and can be purchased at www.BerkshireOperaFestival.org/2020-Virtual-Concert. The concert will premiere on Vimeo on Friday, August 28, 2020, at 7:30 pm, and will be available for on-demand viewing through Friday, September 4, 2020.
As a special thank you, Berkshire Opera Festival is offering free passes for this virtual concert to medical professionals in the Berkshires who worked tirelessly through the pandemic lock-down, including hospital, nursing home, and EMT employees. The entire staff at Berkshire Opera Festival hopes that this concert provides a respite for the remarkable health care givers who continue to provide for our community.
For further information, please contact info@berkshireoperafestival.org.