The curtain rises on the 2018 Bard SummerScape festival next Thursday, June 28, ushering in seven weeks of music, opera, theater, dance, film, and cabaret. At the heart of these offerings is the 29th Bard Music Festival, which explores “Rimsky-Korsakov and His World” through twelve chamber, orchestral, choral, and operatic programs – two of which feature the American Symphony Orchestra under Leon Botstein – supplemented by panel discussions and special events (Aug 10–12; Aug 17–19).

Other SummerScape highlights include a rare, new, fully staged American production of Anton Rubinstein’s grand opera Demon, from European Opera Prize-winning director Thaddeus Strassberger (July 27–Aug 5); the world premiere of Four Quartets, an interdisciplinary new dance commission from choreographer Pam Tanowitz, composer Kaija Saariaho, and visual artist Brice Marden, which marks the 75th anniversary of the publication of T.S. Eliot’s iconic cycle of poems (July 6–8); and a dark new take on Leonard Bernstein’s rarely performed gem Peter Pan, commissioned from Olivier Award-winning director Christopher Alden to honor the composer’s centennial (June 28–July 22).

Rounding out the festival that The New York Times calls a “hotbed of intellectual and aesthetic adventure” is a film series exploring “Rimsky-Korsakov and the Poetry of Cinema” (July 26–Aug 19), and cutting-edge cabaret, live jazz, dancing, and more events in Bard’s authentic Belgian Spiegeltent, hosted by Mx. Justin Vivian Bond (June 29–Aug 18).

All SummerScape offerings take place in the striking Frank Gehry-designed Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts and other venues on Bard College’s idyllic Hudson River campus.