Maine summer arts traditions, old and new, to look forward to

Performers at Bates Dance Competition in 2018. Photograph by Noor Eemaan, courtesy of Bates Dance Festival

In addition to the slate of musicals and museum exhibits are a handful of once-a-year summer time arts traditions that are exclusive to Maine. Some are returning this 12 months after a hiatus, and one particular new festival hopes to make a long lasting effect.

The Bates Dance Competition, which is held each individual summertime in Lewiston but was scaled back last year and canceled in 2020, will aspect eight distinct indoor and outside performances starting July 11 and functioning by Aug. 6.

The competition is a instruction team for global students and rising artists to study and collaborate. The whole agenda of general public performances in on line at batesdancefestival.org.

Viewers users consider their seats ahead of the commence of the Opera Maine production ‘The Elixir of Love’ at Merrill Auditorium previous July. Brianna Soukup/Workers Photographer

Opera Maine is staging two performances of Richard Wagner’s “The Flying Dutchman,” on July 27 and 29 at Merrill Auditorium in Portland.

The opera – sung in German, with English subtitles – tells the tale of a cursed ship captain who arrives ashore each seven years in search of adore that will set him cost-free. The Opera Maine Orchestra will be conducted by maestro Israel Gurksy and Dona D. Vaughn directs.

Opera Maine’s studio artist method also will existing performances on June 29 and July 1 of “The Drop of the Home of Usher” by Philip Glass (based on the Edgar Allen Poe limited tale).

Robbie Harrison, still left, and Michela Micalizio, associates of Fenix Theatre, rehearse Shakespeare’s “The Comedy of Errors” at the bandstand in Deering Oaks previous 12 months. Ben McCanna/Employees Photographer

The qualified Fenix Theatre Business will existing its annual Shakespeare in the Park at Deering Oaks in Portland. This calendar year, the firm will current “The Tempest,” directed by Stacey Koloski, from July 7-30. The performances are free.

And a new festival in June, arranged by the Maine Academy of Modern-day Tunes, will provide alongside one another a large selection of art and songs choices.

Resurgam, the just one-working day occasion scheduled for June 12 at Thompson’s Level, fills the void remaining when the Old Port Competition was scrapped in 2019 after 46 many years.

The absolutely free pageant will contain stages for are living music and doing arts teams, room for Maine-built arts and crafts, foodstuff and a parade showcasing the towering puppets of Portland’s Shoestring Theater.

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