The 20th anniversary season of Bard SummerScape will the first major new U.S. American production of Camille Saint-Saëns”™ rarely performed operatic masterwork “Henry VIII.”
Starring bass-baritone Alfred Walker in the title role, “Henry VIII” will run for five performances (July 21, 23, 26, 28, and 30) in an original staging by French director Jean-Romain Vesperini in the Frank Gehry-designed Fisher Center at Bard College”™s Hudson Valley campus in Annandale-on-Hudson. The performances will be anchored by the American Symphony Orchestra and Bard Festival Chorale under the leadership of festival founder and co-artistic director Leon Botstein.
Botstein will give an Opera Talk before the first Sunday matinee (July 23), and the third performance will stream live online (July 26) with an encore presentation three days later (July 29). There will be a premiere party and intermission toast on the opening night (July 21), with a members”™ toast before the final performance (July 30).
Based on the religious and political crisis created when King Henry VIII of England sought to divorce Catherine of Aragon to marry Anne Boleyn, “Henry VIII” has a libretto by Léonce Détroyat and Paul-Armand Silvestre. The opera premiered in 1883 and remained in the Paris Opéra repertoire throughout Saint-Saëns”™s lifetime. While widely performed across Europe during the composer”™s lifetime, major revivals of the work have been relatively sparse. “Henri VIII” only received its U.S. premiere in 1974, and the new staging marks its first major U.S. in nearly 50 years.
“One of the things that most interests me about ”˜Henry VIII”™ is the way Saint-Saëns mixes French grand opera with psychological drama,” said director Vesperini. “It”™s not only about gigantic spectacle. There”™s one big trial scene, but the plot is also driven by the characters and their psychology. It”™s mostly about one man and his passions: love, jealousy, and betrayal. His relationships are very strong, and tensions run high.”
Photo: A 1540 portrait of Henry VIII by Hans Holbein the Younger, courtesy Wikimedia Commons
