Page 5 - Patrick Summers News Today

The writer of “Susannah” and other operas is remembered by a tenor, a conductor and an impresario who worked closely with him.

Like most, I came to the Aspen Music Festival this year not knowing quite what to expect. ... What we heard was as good as, and in some ways better, than usual.

As Houston arts groups and organizations slowly return to pre-pandemic form, one of the city’s most beloved institutions has announced new productions,

The most magical moment at the Aspen Music Festival so far this summer involved a piece about summer performed at Friday’s Aspen Chamber Orchestra concert by soprano Golda Schultz.

The Aspen Music Festival and School will honor and remember longtime opera program director Edward Berkeley with a concert at the Benedict Music Tent at 7 p.m. Aug. 7, the organization announced Monday afternoon. Young performers from the 2021 Aspen Opera Theatre and VocalARTS program will share works in remembrance of Berkeley at the free event. The show will run approximately 75 minutes with no intermission. Tickets are not required; attendees will be asked to respect protocols and vaccinated...

Edward Berkeley with students this month at a master class in the Wheeler Opera House. (Carlin Ma/Aspen Music Festival) Edward Berkeley with students this month at a master class in the Wheeler Opera House. (Carlin Ma/Aspen Music Festival) Berkeley with opera students in Aspen in 2016 (Elle Logan/Aspen Music Festival) Berkeley with students at a 2010 master class (Courtesy photo/Aspen Music Festival) Aspen Opera Theater director Edward Berkeley outside the Benedict Music Tent (Courtesy photo/As...

Edward Berkeley with students this month at a master class in the Wheeler Opera House. (Carlin Ma/Aspen Music Festival) Edward Berkeley with students this month at a master class in the Wheeler Opera House. (Carlin Ma/Aspen Music Festival) Berkeley with opera students in Aspen in 2016 (Elle Logan/Aspen Music Festival) Berkeley with students at a 2010 master class (Courtesy photo/Aspen Music Festival) Aspen Opera Theater director Edward Berkeley outside the Benedict Music Tent (Courtesy photo/As...

When it comes to Beethoven, violinist Stefan Jackiw, cellist Alisa Weilerstein and pianist Inon Barnatan make a good team. Thursday evening in the Benedict Music Tent, with the composer’s “Ghost” Trio, they took things up a notch or two from last Sunday’s triple concerto performance. The Piano Trio Op. 70 No. 1 got the nickname “Ghost” because of all the spooky tremolos in the expansive slow movement. Today’s audiences may not find it all that sinister, but the shifting textures a...

  Soprano and Aspen Opera Theater and VocalARTS fellow Yvette Keong at a recent opera scenes master class at the Wheeler Opera House. Baritones Ian Rucker and Joshua Conyers at a recent opera scenes master class at the Wheeler Opera House. William Guanbo Su, bass, at a recent opera scenes master class at the Wheeler Opera House. Aspen Opera Theater and VocalARTS co-directors Patrick Summers and Renée Fleming at a recent master class with students at the Wheeler Opera House. Soprano Yaritza Ve...

The Aspen Music Festival’s free annual Fourth of July concert returns to the Benedict Music Tent on Sunday at 4 p.m. Courtesy photo Back in the quarantine doldrums of May 2020, when the Aspen Music Festival and School finally canceled its summer season amid the coronavirus crisis after valiant efforts to stage a shortened one, festival president and CEO Alan Fletcher promised that he and his team were already at work on a 2021 season. At the time, he hopefully and boldly predicted it would be...