Shura Baryshnikov News

Boston Lyric Opera's nascent digital platform, called [insert:opera], picks up steam this month with online-only selections of fresh content, including new entries in its podcast series AT IT'S (s)CORE, new relaxing performances in its video music series a?oeBedtime Lullabies Online,a?? and the final entry in its a?oeDirectors' Cuta?? video series on Bellini's opera NORMA. Also, BLO's widely acclaimed and globally streamed recording of its shuttered March 2020 production of NORMA makes its broadcast debut this week. 

For its first production of Vincenzo Bellini's 1831 masterwork, NORMA, in nearly 40 years, Boston Lyric Opera (BLO) brings back the international star it introduced to the U.S. just over two years ago. Elena Stikhina makes her debut in one of opera's most technically demanding roles a?' a powerful Druid priestess whose affair with the general of a warring Roman faction brings personal grief and despair. The Russian-born soprano made her American debut in BLO's 2017 production of Tosca. Her subsequent national and international acclaim includes a lauded 2018 Metropolitan Opera debut in Puccini's Il Trittico. Best known for its star-making aria a?oeCasta Diva,a?? BLO presents Bellini's dramatic bel canto opera for five performances from March 13-22 at the Emerson Cutler Majestic Theatre. Tickets are on sale now at BLO.org.

This weekend Boston Lyric Opera concluded the run of THE HANDMAID'S TALE - the first performances of a new edition by composer Poul Ruders, commissioned by Boston Lyric Opera. The production starred Jennifer Johnson Cano and Caroline Worra.

Boston Lyric Opera's (BLO) season of rebels and dissenters continues into Spring 2019 with tales of strong women helmed by women directors. BLO's productions of THE RAPE OF LUCRETIA and THE HANDMAID'S TALE tell startlingly relevant stories -- both with extraordinary music, and both produced in distinctive, non-traditional spaces. Artistic and General Director Esther Nelson says the spring season highlights stories from which female characters emerge as moral and societal touchstones.

It's the last week to vote for the 2018 BroadwayWorld Rhode Island Awards, brought to you by BroadwayHD! Readers are already setting records as they vote for their favorites. Regional productions, touring shows, and more are all included in the awards, honoring productions which opened between October 1, 2017 through September 30, 2018. Our local editors set the categories, our readers submitted their nominees, and now you get to vote for your favorites! Voting will continue through December 31st, 2018.

The 2nd Annual Seattle International Dance Festival (SIDF) Winter Mini-Fest features four celebrated choreographers from around the world: Khambatta Dance Company's (KDC) artistic director Cyrus Khambatta, Shura Baryshnikov (Rhode Island) Gabriel Forestieri (NYC) and Danny Tan (Singapore). Together they will unite elements of their collective dance backgrounds swap dancers and present three emotionally-charged performances over two weekends. The concept of producing new pieces in a short time frame is one of the signature components of SIDF.

There's just two weeks left to vote for the 2018 BroadwayWorld Rhode Island Awards, brought to you by BroadwayHD! Readers are already setting records as they vote for their favorites. Regional productions, touring shows, and more are all included in the awards, honoring productions which opened between October 1, 2017 through September 30, 2018. Our local editors set the categories, our readers submitted their nominees, and now you get to vote for your favorites! Voting will continue through December 31st, 2018.

There's just two weeks left to vote for the 2018 BroadwayWorld Rhode Island Awards, brought to you by BroadwayHD! Readers are already setting records as they vote for their favorites. Regional productions, touring shows, and more are all included in the awards, honoring productions which opened between October 1, 2017 through September 30, 2018. Our local editors set the categories, our readers submitted their nominees, and now you get to vote for your favorites! Voting will continue through December 31st, 2018.

There's just one month left to vote for the 2018 BroadwayWorld Rhode Island Awards, brought to you by BroadwayHD! Readers are already setting records as they vote for their favorites. Regional productions, touring shows, and more are all included in the awards, honoring productions which opened between October 1, 2017 through September 30, 2018. Our local editors set the categories, our readers submitted their nominees, and now you get to vote for your favorites! Voting will continue through December 31st, 2018.

There's just one month left to vote for the 2018 BroadwayWorld Rhode Island Awards, brought to you by BroadwayHD! Nominations were reader-submitted and now our readers are already setting records as they vote for their favorites. Regional productions, touring shows, and more are all included in the awards, honoring productions which opened between October 1, 2017 through September 30, 2018. Our local editors set the categories, our readers submitted their nominees, and now you get to vote for your favorites! Voting will continue through December 31st, 2018.

Jeanne & Elizabeth, an evening of dance accompanied by live classical music. Presented by Doppelgänger Dance Collective and Ensemble Warhol in association with Fort Point Theatre Channel and Green Street Studios. Performances Today & Saturday, August 31 & September 1, 8 pm. Green Street Studios, 185 Green Street, Cambridge. Tickets $25 ($20 students, seniors, and members of the Boston Dance Alliance). For more information: www.fortpointtheatrechannel.org/index/#/elizabeth-jeanne/, 617-840-6267, ensemblewarhol@gmail.com; for advance tickets: www.brownpapertickets.com/event/3416284.

Olivia D'Ambrosio's vision for DARK ROOM is an artistic blend of spoken dialogue, choreographed movement, evocative sounds and music, and the best use of the architectural features of the space at the Multicultural Arts Center in East Cambridge. George Brant's play is inspired by the life, death, and photography of Francesca Woodman, and Bridge Rep employs a cast of 22 women to portray the subjects of Woodman's works.

Jeanne & Elizabeth, an evening of dance accompanied by live classical music. Presented by Doppelganger Dance Collective and Ensemble Warhol in association with Fort Point Theatre Channel and Green Street Studios. Performances Friday & Saturday, August 31 & September 1, 8 pm. Green Street Studios, 185 Green Street, Cambridge. Tickets $25 ($20 students, seniors, and members of the Boston Dance Alliance). For more information: www.fortpointtheatrechannel.org/index/#/elizabeth-jeanne/, 617-840-6267, ensemblewarhol@gmail.com; for advance tickets: www.brownpapertickets.com/event/3416284.

The Gamm Theatre closes its fifteen year run in Pawtucket with Shakespeare's AS YOU LIKE IT, so it was with mixed emotions that I turned right onto Exchange St. last Saturday, for the last time to be squeezed into the lyric, little bandbox of a theater. Fear not, theatergoers, they're not going away, just going to Warwick, where I trust they will continue to produce some of the most entertaining, interesting and thought provoking theater you can find. They chose to go out with Shakespeare and once again have found a new way to look at a play and led us to a new way to look at reality. It's what they do there.

The Sandra Feinstein-Gamm Theatre (The Gamm) closes its 2017-18 season with William Shakespeare's romantic comedy As You Like It. Chock full of word play, music, clowns, and a timely message, As You Like It is the perfect play to close Season 33 and mark The Gamm's final show in Pawtucket. The theater will reopen in September in its new home at 1245 Jefferson Boulevard in Warwick.

One of the nation's most innovative opera companies, Odyssey Opera, continues Trial by Fire: Joan of Arc and the Hundred Years' War, a season-long exploration of operatic works inspired by martyr, saint, and military leader Joan of Arc (1412-1431). For one night only, Odyssey Opera presents a semi-staged English-language performance of Arthur Honegger's dramatic oratorio Jeanne d'Arc au b cher (Joan of Arc at the Stake), a genre-defying masterpiece described as having the perfect cohesion between words and music. A hybrid of Honegger's eclectic score and sung/spoken libretto by French poet/playwright Paul Claudel, Joan is brought to life in this vivid and emotional drama. Performing the lead role of Joan of Arc is acclaimed actor/dancer Shura Baryshnikov. Conductor Gil Rose leads a full orchestra and chorus featuring the Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum and the Premier Choir of the Boston Children's Chorus.

Soaking Wet 2017-18 series opens with September  14-17 performances. Curated by David Parker and Jeff Kazin, performances take place Thursday-Sunday at the West End Theater.

Thursday-Sunday, September 14-17 West End Theater, 263 West 86th Street (2nd floor of the Church) Tickets: $20 Reservations: www.brownpapertickets.com  or 1-800-838-3006

The Providence Speaking Society is proud to announce that TEDxProvidence 2017 will take place on September 30th at the VETS auditorium in downtown Providence. This year's themes are Past, Present, and Future and speaker nominations are now open. The public is invited to nominate speakers in these categories at tedxprovidence.com/nominate2017. Nominations will be open for at least 60 days, while the TEDx Team curates this year's lineup.

For a second year, 2016-17 CATALYSTS! artists-in-residence will perform at The Dance Complex for three weekends in January.