Even with its biggest theater closed for renovation, next spring’s Spoleto Festival USA will blanket Charleston with more than 160 performances of music, theater, dance and more.
Humans and puppets will share the stage in Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” as envisioned by the creative team behind the theatrical hit “War Horse.” A double bill of rare Italian operas will include Giacomo Puccini’s first work for the stage.
The festival will open May 24 with Ballet Flamenco de Andalucia, which will introduce a venue that will be new to many festivalgoer’s: TD Arena at the College of Charleston. While the city’s capacious Gaillard Auditorium undergoes a two-year rebuilding, the festival will turn the arena into a temporary theater.
From then through the closing night June 9 – when the Festival Finale will feature the Red Stick Ramblers’ mix of Cajun, honky-tonk and swing – the festival will blanket Charleston with performances.
Opera
In “Matsuzake,” by Japanese composer Toshio Hosokawa, the spirits of two sisters wander the earth until they’re released from the grip of a centuries-old love. It’s a U.S. premiere.
An Italian opera double bill features rarities from the past. Puccini’s “Le Villi” is the beloved composer’s first opera, based on the same tale of vengeful spirits as the ballet “Les Sylphides.” In Umberto Giordano’s “Mese Mariano,” a mother yearns to be reunited with the child she long ago was forced to abandon.
Theater
“A Midsummer Night’s Dream” will unfold in a world of the future envisioned by Tom Morris and Handspring Puppet Co., the collaborators behind “War Horse.”
“Oedipus,” based on the Sophocles classic, is reimagined for modern audiences by the Nottingham Playhouse from England.
“The Intergalactic Nemesis” is billed as a “live action graphic novel” drawing on inspirations that range from “Raiders of the Lost Ark” to pulp serials of the 1930s.
Dance
A globe-girdling dance roster includes Ballet Flamenco de Andalucia from Spain; India’s Shantala Shivalingappa will perform “Swayambhu,” rooted in the age-old Kuchipudi theatrical dance; and Compagnie Käfig will perform works blending samba, capoeira and hip hop.
Music
In classical music: Verdi’s “Requiem,” performed by the festival orchestra and two choruses, will be the goodbye performance of conductor Joseph Flummerfelt, who has led the festival’s choral activities for more than 30 years.
The daily chamber music concerts will feature not only the St. Lawrence String Quartet but a second foursome: the Brentano Quartet, who will play the same Beethoven work they perform on the soundtrack of the movie “A Late Quartet.”
The jazz roster includes singer Gregory Porter, who blends jazz and soul; Brazilian pianist Andrew Mehmari, whose group will run the gamut from Mozart to Thelonious Monk; the guitar-and-clarinet duo of Alessandro Penezzi and Alexandre Ribeiro; and Finnish pianist Iiro Rantala.
Other concerts will spotlight Grammy winner Bela Fleck, singer Rosanne Cash, the return of the Punch Brothers and the Red Stick Ramblers.
Plus
Le Grand C is a nontraditional circus whose name comes from the French phrase that means “the big hat” – the Gallic equivalent of big top.
An art exhibition, “The Spoleto Watercolors of Stephen Mueller and Carl Palazzolo,” features two artists who have visited Charleston many times during the festival. Their works are inspired by Spoleto and its Lowcountry surroundings.
The festival will offer a self-guided walking tour of Charleston’s private gardens. Many of the verdant retreats in “Behind the Garden Gate” have never been open to public tours.
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