Whatever your musical pleasure, you are bound to find it among the festivals dotting America`s summer landscape. Your destination ultimately may depend as much on geography as on the nature of the musical offerings and who is performing. Either way, you will find much to nourish the spirit.
Here is a selective guide to some of the more noteworthy events. As always, programs and dates are subject to change and should be verified.
Midwest
With the worldwide observance of the bicentennial of Wolfgang Amadeus`
death less than a year away, this summer might be a good time to brush up on your Mozart. A quaint and pretty place in which to do so is the Woodstock Mozart Festival in Woodstock, Ill., about two hours northwest of Chicago. Guest roster for the fourth Mozart Festival, Aug. 3-25, will include Janina Fialkowska, Larry Combs, Leonard Pennario and Eugene Fodor. The Requiem Mass is one of the featured works. Charles Zachary Bornstein is music director.
(815-338-5300)
If Mozart isn`t to your taste, how about Beethoven? The St. Louis Symphony`s Summerfest `90, June 1-23, comprises eight concerts built around the theme ”Beethoven and Bonaparte-Musical Liaisons.” Six symphonies and a variety of concertos will be performed by Raymond Leppard and soloists at Powell Symphony Hall. (314-534-1700)
Beethoven also is the prime attraction of the Minnesota Orchestra`s Viennese Sommerfest, July 11-Aug. 4 in Minneapolis. ”Beethoven`s Vienna” is the thematic umbrella for a wide array of symphonic and chamber concerts that will include all nine Beethoven symphonies. Conductors include Leonard Slatkin, Kenneth Jean, Joseph Silverstein and Edo de Waart. (800-292-4141)
The lyric muse is alive and well in St. Louis, where the 15th summer season of the Opera Theatre of St. Louis, May 26-June 24, holds the first major U.S. production of Dvorak`s ”The Devil and Kate,” along with Mozart`s ”The Marriage of Figaro,” Donizetti`s ”The Daughter of the Regiment”
and Britten`s ”Peter Grimes.” Performances are at the Loretto-Hilton Center at Webster University. (314-961-0444)
Over in Michigan, the 1990 Interlochen Arts Festival will run in conjunction with the 63d season of the National Music Camp. More than 450 events will take place during the eight-week session (June 24-Aug. 20), including orchestra and band concerts by faculty, students and guest artists. (616-276-6230)
The Detroit Symphony will take up residence at the Meadow Brook Music Festival for the first of 14 concerts on June 21 under music director designate Neeme Jarvi, James DePreist, Zdenek Macal and Nicholas McGegan. Michael Lankester will conduct a special tribute to Laurence Olivier including film clips from ”Hamlet” and ”Richard III.” Concerts run through Aug. 12 on the Oakland University campus in Rochester, Mich. (313-377-2010)
Visitors to Ohio will wish to check out several festivals, beginning with the Cincinnati May Festival, Friday through May 26 in the Cincinnati Music Hall. One of the world`s premiere choral events, this year`s edition will include Dvorak`s Requiem, Orff`s ”Carmina Burana” and an all-Beethoven concert. James Conlon is music director. (513-381-3300)
Operetta fans will not want to miss the Ohio Light Opera`s nine-week season, running June 1-Aug. 6 at the College of Wooster in Wooster, Ohio. Repertory includes Gilbert and Sullivan`s ”H.M.S. Pinafore” and ”The Yeomen of the Guard,” Lehar`s ”The Merry Widow” and ”Land of Smiles,” and Weill`s ”Street Scene.” (216-263-2345)
East
Undaunted by the damage caused last year by Hurricane Hugo, the Spoleto Festival U.S.A. will run May 25-June 10 in Charleston., S.C., with a typically eclectic agenda of music, dance, opera, theater, art exhibitions and film. The operas are Mozart`s ”Marriage of Figaro” and Wagner`s ”Parsifal,” staged by festival artistic director Gian Carlo Menotti. ”The Hydrogen Jukebox,” a multimedia collaboration by Philip Glass, Allen Ginsburg and Jerome Sirlin, will have its world premiere. (800-868-7228)
The Boston Symphony Orchestra`s 1990 Tanglewood season will begin July 6 in Lenox, Mass., with an opera gala under the direction of Seiji Ozawa celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Tanglewood Music Center. A new work by Lukas Foss will have its premiere on opening night. The 1990 Festival of Contemporary Music runs Aug. 4-9. (617-266-1492)
Also in Massachusetts, the Rockport Chamber Music Festival kicks off its ninth season of chamber music by the sea May 31 with a concert featuring the Manhattan and Muir string quartets. Other groups in the four-week festival are the Amadeus Trio, Scarborough Chamber Players and New Jersey Chamber Music Society. (508-546-7391)
The Caramoor Festival on the verdant Caramoor estate in Katonah, N.Y., celebrates its 45th anniversary with a season of classical music, classical show tunes and classic jazz, June 23-Aug. 19. The resident Orchestra of St. Luke`s will be conducted by Julius Rudel, Dennis Russell Davies, Andrew Parrott and John Nelson, who presides over Schumann`s rarely heard ”Scenes from Goethe`s `Faust.”` (212-245-5100)
The 24th Lincoln Center Mostly Mozart Festival, July 11-Aug. 25 at Avery Fisher Hall, will celebrate more than just Mozart`s music, though there will be plenty of that, too. Marilyn Horne will star in a new William Bolcom comedy-with-music about Mozart`s librettist, Lorenzo da Ponte. Artists include Gerard Schwarz, Neeme Jarvi, Alicia de Larrocha and Jean-Pierre Rampal.
(212-874-6770)
West
Each summer, Santa Fe, N.M., becomes a mecca for chamber music and opera buffs. The 18th Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, July 8-Aug. 20, offers world premieres by Ned Rorem (a consortium commission with the Ravinia and Saratoga festivals), Ellen Taaffe Zwilich and a Baroque and Early Classical Music Series. (505-983-2075)
The festival`s neighbor, the Santa Fe Opera, in existence almost twice as many years, produces events of comparable importance and quality. This year`s agenda lists the American premiere of Siegfried Matthus` ”Judith,” along with Puccini`s ”La Boheme,” Mozart`s ”Cosi Fan Tutte,” Gluck`s ”Orfeo ed Euridice” and Strauss` ”Ariadne auf Naxos.” (505-982-3851)
Visitors to Central City in the Colorado Rockies hear opera performed in English by some of the finest young singers in America. This year`s Central City Opera schedule, July 7-Aug. 15, holds Verdi`s ”La Traviata,” Mozart`s
”Cosi Fan Tutte” and Lehar`s ”The Merry Widow.” (303-292-6500)
Fans of Wagner`s ”Ring” cycle for whom the Met`s mini-series next month on PBS isn`t sufficient nourishment will be glad to know that single tickets are available for the second and third cycles of the San Francisco Opera production, June 12-19 and June 20-26. The much-admired Nikolaus Lehnhoff-John Conklin ”Ring,” first presented in 1985, will have among its singers Hildegard Behrens, Gwyneth Jones, Rene Kollo and James Morris. (415-864-3330) The most venturesome little music festival in California is the Cabrillo Music Festival, the 28th season of which will run July 19-29 at locations in and around Santa Cruz County. Under music director Dennis Russell Davies, concerts will honor Central American and California composers and composer William Schuman on his 80th birthday. Philip Glass and Tania Leon are composers in residence. (408-662-2701)
In its 21st season, the Oregon Bach Festival will present 40 concerts and events between June 24 and July 8 at the University of Oregon in Eugene. Among these will be Handel`s ”Saul” and Bach`s ”St. Matthew Passion” under artistic director Helmuth Rilling. Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki will conduct his ”St. Luke Passion.” (503-687-5000)
Chamber Music Northwest celebrates its 20th anniversary season in Portland, Oregon, with a five-week season (June 18-July 21) that surveys chamber music from Vivaldi to Zwilich. Clarinetist David Shifrin, the festival`s music director, is among the participants. (503-223-3202)
Finally, the Seattle Opera celebrates the summer Goodwill Games by presenting a new production of Prokofiev`s ”War and Peace,” staged by Francesca Zambello and conducted by Mark Ermler. There will be six
performances, July 25-Aug. 6. (206-443-4711)
