The Rogovoy Report: Berkshire & Hudson Valley Cultural Preview

Jul 3-11, 2024

Jul 02, 2024

With so much going on culturally speaking in our greater Berkshires/Hudson Valley region, this is my highly selective, curated snapshot of some of the most promising upcoming events …

Scene from ‘Catarina and the Beauty of Killing Fascists’ (photo Joseph Banderet / courtesy PS21)

PORTUGUESE DRAMA ABOUT INCIPIENT FASCISM at PS21

The multiple award-winning drama, Catarina and the Beauty of Killing Fascists, by Portuguese playwright Tiago Rodrigues from the National Theater of Portugal and Festival d’Avignon, gets its U.S. premiere at PS21 in Chatham, N.Y., on Friday, July 5, at 8pm, and Saturday, July 6, at 7pm. Catarina is set in an imagined 2028, where a totalitarian regime has seized power in Portugal. A Portuguese family -- in retaliation for the murder of Catarina Eufémia, an agricultural laborer demanding fair wages who was shot by the Portuguese police during the Salazar dictatorship – annually kidnaps and executes a fascist. In her memory, all the family members are called “Catarina.” But this year, the appointed Catarina refuses, instead asking if we can defend democracy by violating its principles? Instead of celebrating the 50th anniversary of the end of fascism in Europe, the play makes palpable the threat that has reemerged on the European continent and beyond – right out of this week’s headlines. (Fri-Sat, Jul 5-6)

Gil Shaham (photo Chris Lee/courtesy artist)

GIL SHAHAM HEADLINES BSO OPENING NIGHT at TANGLEWOOD

Grammy Award-winning violinist Gil Shaham headlines an all-Beethoven program, performing the Violin Concerto, marking the official kickoff of the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) season at Tanglewood in Lenox, Mass., on Friday, July 5, at 8pm. Under the baton of Andris Nelsons, the BSO will also perform Symphony No. 3, Eroica, an emotionally expansive piece that redefined what a symphony was by transforming the heroic journey into symphonic form. On Sunday at 2:30pm, Nelsons will lead the BSO in all-Strauss program, featuring superstar soprano Renée Fleming. (Fri, Jul 5; Sun, Jul 7)

LUCY KAPLANSKY BRINGS NEW-FOLK to GUTHRIE CENTER

Singer-songwriter Lucy Kaplansky brings her original songs and her luminous vocals to the Guthrie Center in Great Barrington, Mass., on Saturday, July 6, at 8pm. Kaplansky came out of the same Greenwich Village folk scene in the early-1980s that produced the likes of Suzanne Vega and Kaplansky’s sometime duo partner Shawn Colvin. Kaplansky has a vulnerable voice perfectly suited for her intimate portraits and love songs and her well-chosen cover tunes, like Roxy Music’s “More Than This.” (Sat, Jul 6)

Maria Ioudenitch (photo Andrej Grilc/courtesy CRC)

VIOLINIST MARIA IOUDENITCH PLAYS OLD and NEW WORKS at TANNERY POND

American-Russian violinist Maria Ioudenitch will perform a blend of standard repertoire by Bach and Ysaÿe with new works by Reena Esmail, Daniel Ott, and Lera Auerbach, as part of the Tannery Pond series at the Darrow School in New Lebanon, N.Y., on Saturday, July 6, at 7:30pm, in a presentation of Capital Region Classical. Ioudenitch grew up in Kansas City and began playing violin at the age of three. Ioudenitch received first prizes in three international violin competitions in 2021, and in 2023, her debut album, Songbird, on Warner Classics, won the Opus Klassik award for “Chamber Music Recording of the Year.” (Sat, Jul 6)

Sarah Keyes stars in ‘Survival of the Unfit’

NEW COMEDY GETS U.S. PREMIERE at GB THEATER

Survival of the Unfit, a new comedy by Oren Safdie that upends the familiar comic trope of the anxiety and predicaments that ensue when the new girlfriend (played by Sarah Keyes, pictured) meets the boy’s parents for the first time over dinner, makes its American premiere in the McConnell Theater at Simon’s Rock College in Great Barrington, Mass., on Saturday, July 6, running through Sunday, July 21, in a staging by Great Barrington Public Theater. (Sat, Jul 6-Sun, Jul 21)

Also of note:

Calling William Shakespeare “the original rock ‘n’ roller,” Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, Mass., presents Shake It Up: A Shakespeare Cabaret at the Tina Packer Playhouse from Tuesday, July 2 through Sunday, July 7. A celebration of Shakespeare-influenced music, text, and storytelling, the original program transforms the Tina Packer Playhouse into an upscale club, complete with cafe tables, signature cocktails, and chandeliers. The event features top Berkshire musicians including guitarist Johnny Irion, pianist Ben Kohn, drummer Conor Meehan, and violinist Jaclyn Stevenson.

Fans of Norah Jones, Amy Winehouse and Fiona Apple won’t want to miss soulful singer-songwriter Glori Wilder when she performs at the Dream Away Lodge in Becket, Mass., on Friday, July 5, at 8pm.

Fortepianist Daniel Adam Maltz performs piano works by Haydn and Mozart at the Adams Theater in Adams, Mass., on Saturday, July 6, at 6pm.

Zimbabwean group Mokoomba brings its Afrobeat sounds to The Falcon in Marlboro, N.Y., on Friday, July 5, at 7:30pm, followed by jazz legend Don Byron and Friends on Sunday, July 7, at 7:30pm.

Sonny Troupé and his Ka Quintet brings the sounds of the French Caribbean fused with modern jazz to The Clark in Williamstown, Mass., on Wednesday, July 10, at 6pm. The free concert on the Clark’s Reflecting Pool Lawn features musicians from Guadeloupe and Haiti.

A world music trio brings a fusion of sounds from South Asia and the Middle East with classical and jazz influences to the historic First Presbyterian Church in Hudson, N.Y., on Wednesday, July 10, at 5:30pm, in a concert to benefit the Hudson Festival Orchestra. The trio includes pianist Dinuk Wijeratne from Sri Lanka by way of Dubai and Ottowa, Syrian clarinetist Kinan Azmeh, and violinist Layale Chaker, from Lebanon by way of Germany.

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