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SPAC Announces 2007 Summer Performances
Learn more at Saratoga Performing Arts Center
The Saratoga Performing Arts Center announced its 2007 summer programs for jazz, ballet, orchestra, chamber music and opera that features a return of many audience favorites and some of the best newer works and performers.
SPAC President and Executive Director Marcia J. White said its 42nd season will be “a celebration from start to finish” as the facility unveils its newly renovated amphitheater.
A new “Extended Season” will begin in late May at the Spa Little Theatre with performances by jazz musicians Roberta Gambarini and The Jordan Family and folksinger/songwriter Amos Lee.
“More than ever before, this year's season has been developed with today's audiences in mind,” White said. “It mixes tradition with imagination, classic with contemporary, while preserving the world-class programming quality that is SPAC's hallmark.”
The 30th annual Freihofer's Jazz Festival will take place on June 23 and 24. Among the artists scheduled to perform are India.Arie, David Sanborn, Tower of Power, Ravi Coltrane, Dizzy Gillespie All-Star Big Band, Roy Haynes Quartet and Norman Brown’s Summer Storm.
Lake George Opera enters its 10th seasons of performances at SPAC. Among the productions will be “La Boheme,” “Tartuffe” and “La Vie Parisienne.”
The New York City Ballet returns to the 5,248-seat amphitheatre from July 3-21 and will perform 12 works from its founder George Balanchine including his spectacular “Stars and Stripes” on July 4. The NYCB programs will also feature a new full-length production of Romeo and Juliet on July 6 and 7.
The Saratoga Chamber Music Festival, a seven-concert series at Spa Little Theatre, will open July 31 with the Claremont Trio playing Schoenfield's “Café Music.” The Tokyo String Quartet performs on Aug. 12.
The Philadelphia Orchestra returns from Aug. 1-18, opening its programming with Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. The annual Tchaikovsky Spectacular will feature cellist Steven Isserlis and pianist Kirill Gerstein. On Aug. 2, “Broadway Rocks” will offer selections from recent Broadway musicals, including “Jersey Boys,” “Wicked,” “Mamma Mia” and “Hairspray.” Yo-Yo Ma will perform two programs with the orchestra on Aug. 8. Krzysztof Penderecki will lead the orchestra in his own Symphony No. 2 on Aug. 17.
A matinee performance on Aug. 11 will feature Saint-Saens’ “Carnival of the Animals” and Dukas’ “The Sorcerer's Apprentice.”
Violinists Itzhak Perlman and Joshua Bell and pianists Emanuel Ax, André Watts and Jean-Yves Thibaudet are all schedule to perform with the orchestra this summer.
Pop and rock concerts at SPAC will be announced in the coming months.
SPAC’s renovation included removing all 5,100 original seats and replacing them wider, more comfortable seats. The venue’s capacity also increased to 5,248.
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