[LENOX, Mass.]—Pack the
picnic basket and load up the lawn chairs, it’s time to resume those idyllic
evenings—and afternoons—on the lawn at Tanglewood. The Boston Symphony Orchestra, led by acclaimed conductor Charles Dutoit, and joined by the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, will open the orchestra’s 2011 Tanglewood season with an all-Italian program featuring works by Bellini, Verdi, Rossini, and Respighi, drawn from the operatic and symphonic repertoire, on Friday, July 8, at 8:30 p.m. in the Shed. Soprano Angela Meade, mezzo-soprano Kristine Jepson, tenor Roberto De Biasio, and bass James Morris will perform; the program includes opera excerpts from Act I of Bellini’s Norma, the trio from Act 3 of Verdi’s I Lombardi, Respighi’s resplendent Pines of Rome and Rossini’s famous Overture to William Tell.
On Saturday evening, July 9, at 8:30, Dutoit, who is chief conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra and artistic director and principal conductor of the Royal Philharmonic, returns to the podium to conduct Hector Berlioz’s monumental Requiem, a dramatic and mercurial work which will feature tenor Russell Thomas and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, conducted by John Oliver.
Violinist Joshua Bell will be the guest soloist when Peruvian conductor Miguel Harth-Bedoya, currently music director of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, helms the Boston Symphony Orchestra on Sunday, July 10, at 2:30 p.m. Bell will perform Bruch’s Scottish Fantasy; the program includes Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No 6, Pathétique, and American composer Jennifer Higdon’s Loco.
On Tuesday, July 12, at 8 p.m., the nine-time Grammy-winning Emerson String Quartet presents a program of quartets by Haydn (Quartet No. 67 in F, Op. 77, No. 2), Bartók (Quartet No. 6), and Schubert (Quartet No. 15 in G, D. 887) in Ozawa Hall.
Danish violinist Nikolaj Znaider and Nazareth-born pianist Saleem Abboud Ashkar make their Tanglewood debuts on Thursday, July 14, at 8 p.m., in a recital featuring Beethoven’s Sonata No. 8 in G for violin and piano, Op. 30, No. 3; Schumann’s Sonata No. 2 in D minor for violin and piano, Op. 121; and Franck’s Sonata in A for violin and piano in Ozawa Hall.
The Tanglewood Music Center vocal, conducting, and instrumental fellows, directed by famed choreographer Mark Morris, will perform three Milhaud Opéras-minutes, with costume and set design by Eduardo Sicangco, in the Theatre on Sunday, July 10, at 8 p.m. TMC Fellow Robert Trevino will conduct.
The Tanglewood Music Center Chamber Orchestra performs in Ozawa Hall on Monday, July 11, at 8 p.m., in a concert featuring conductor Stefan Asbury, along with TMC Conducting Fellows Ken-David Masur and Case Scaglione. The program includes Stravinsky’s Danses concertantes (led by Scaglione), Prokofiev’s Lieutenant Kijé Suite (led by Masur), and Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances, led by Asbury.
Tickets for Tanglewood are available at www.tanglewood.org, through SymphonyCharge at 888-266-1200, or by visiting the Tanglewood box office.