Virginia Arts Festival 15th Celebration Season
Staff Writer
2011-02-05
.dmvblogspot.bloggieblog.com .
From the stages of Hampton Roads to the skies above, the 15th anniversary season of the Virginia Arts Festival will reach new heights with a spectacular lineup of performances and special events over 50 days in nine cities including Norfolk, Virginia Beach, and Williamsburg, April 12-May 30, 2011. Single tickets for Festival events go on sale February 6, 2011. Reserve your seats now for these history-making performances.
Among the highlights of the 2011 season is the world premiere of Rappahannock County (April 12-17), a new music theater work about life during the Civil War co-commissioned by the Virginia Arts Festival. Written to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War, its creators, renowned composer Ricky Ian Gordon (creator of the Obie Award-winning Orpheus & Euridice and the acclaimed opera The Grapes of Wrath) and celebrated librettist/lyricist Mark Campbell (Volpone, Later the Same Evening, Songs from an Unmade Bed) were inspired by real diaries, letters, and personal accounts from the period.
Peter Shaffer’s Tony Award-winning play Amadeus (May 20 & 22) performed by the Chautauqua Theater Company with the Virginia Symphony Orchestra and Chorus under the direction of Vivienne Benesch and JoAnn Falletta, is a thrilling dramatic journey into the mind and music of Amadeus Mozart and his envious contemporary, composer Anonio Salieri. Featuring music from The Marriage of Figaro, The Magic Flute, and Requiem, this inspired collaboration follows two tragically flawed characters driven by an unparalleled artistic force.