US Festival Highlights

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If the strenght of the American dollar doesn't scare you, many festivals await the classical music lover.

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The Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center (July 30-Aug. 25) features Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman, Christian Zacharias, Andreas Haefliger, Christian Tetzlaff, the Tallis Scholars, Vladimir Feltsman, Vadim Repin, Garrick Ohlsson, the Tokyo String Quartet, Alicia de Larrocha, and Pieter Wispelwey. Highlights will be performances of Schumann's rarely heard choral work Das Paradis und die Peri, Haydn's The Seasons, the fabulous Italian early music band Europa Galante and countertenor Andreas Scholl in a Vivaldi program, and Mozart's Requiem, starring Florence Quivar and Canadian tenor Michael Schade. <www.lincolncenter.org >

Lincoln Center Festival 2001 presents the US premiere of Philip Glass's opera White Raven directed by Robert Wilson; a three-part retrospective of Glass's music; the American premiere of Salvatore Sciarrino's opera Luci Mie Traditrici (My Treacherous Eyes); Heiner Goebbels's music-theatre work Black on White; and the film version of the 19-hour 16th-century Chinese opera masterpiece The Peony Pavilion.

The Philadelphia Orchestra at the Mann Center presents Yo-Yo Ma, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Hélène Grimaud, Freddy Kempf, Ilya Gringolts, Dawn Upshaw, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, Mark O'Connor, Leila Josefowicz, and André Watts. <www.manncenter.org >

The Saratoga Performing Arts Center (June 30-Aug. 19) hosts the Philadelphia Orchestra and Yefim Bronfman, Emanuel Ax, Gil Shaham, Gary Graffman, Sarah Chang, Jean-Philippe Collard, Pascal Rogé, Chantal Juillet and Joshua Bell. The Saratoga Chamber Music Festival (July 31-Aug. 19) welcomes composer in residence Tan Dun and musicians Yefim Bronfman, Chantal Juillet, Gil Shaham, Pascal Rogé, Sarah Chang, and André Watts, playing chamber music in the intimate Little Spa Theater. In the same location, the Lake George Opera Festival (July 5-21) presents Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos, Mozart's II Re Pastore, and Gilbert and Sullivan's H.M.S. Pinafore. <www.spac.org >

This year's Boston Early Music Festival (June 11-17) offers the American premiere of Lully's 1675 “tragédie en musique” Thésée. Also on tap, Le Concert Spirituel under Hervé Niquet, Ensemble Clément Janequin, and Ensemble Doulce Mémoire. <www.bemf.org/festival >

Highlights at the Tanglewood Festival include Richard Strauss's Don Quixote featuring cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, Strauss's opera Salome starring soprano Deborah Voigt; Ravel's operas L'Heure Espagnole and L'Enfant et les Sortilèges; Dvorak's Cello Concerto with Yo-Yo Ma; Beethoven's Third Piano Concerto with Yefim Bronfman; the Boston Early Music Festival production of Lully's opera Thésée; the Pittsburgh Symphony, and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. Soloists appearing this summer include Joshua Bell, Van Cliburn, Itzhak Perlman and Kiri Te Kanawa. <www.bso.org >

The Caramoor Festival, north of New York, features pianists Hélène Grimaud, Anton Kuerti, and Mitsuko Uchida; violinists Sarah Chang and Pamela Frank, and the Miró String Quartet. Opera includes Rossini's Otello July 7 and Verdi's Otello July 21. <www.caramoor.com >

Glimmerglass Opera in Cooperstown, New York, presents staged performances of Chabrier's L'étoile (July 5-Aug. 27) with Quebec soprano Karina Gauvin; Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro (July 6-Aug. 28) with Christopher Schaldenbrand and Joyce Guyer; Handel's Agrippina (July 21-Aug. 25) with Alexandra Coku, Beth Clayton, Canadian soprano Karen Wierzba, and David Walker; and Britten's Rape of Lucretia (July 28-Aug. 25) with the stunning cast of Michelle DeYoung, Nathan Gunn, Christine Goerke, William Burden, Earle Patriarco, and Eric Owens. <www.cooperstown.net/glimmerglass >

New this year is the Shaker Mountain Performing Arts Festival (July 27-Aug. 12) in New Lebanon, New York. The opening night gala features a concert version of Wagner's Die Walküre, and the festival continues with productions of Madama Butterfly, The Barber of Seville, La Bohème and Lucia di Lammermoor. <www.shakermountainfestival.org >

West

The Seattle Opera will present three complete cycles of Wagner's Ring from Aug. 5-26. The new productions by Thomas Lynch will be directed by Stephen Wadsworth and conducted by Franz Vote. Casts include Richard Paul Fink, Stephanie Blythe, Nancy Maultsby, Lisa Saffer and Jane Eaglen. <www.seattleopera.org >

The Santa Fe Opera (June 29-Aug. 25 ) fields a strong season with four new productions: Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor , Verdi's Falstaff, Mozart's Mitridate, and Berg's Wozzeck. A revival of Richard Strauss's The Egyptian Helen with Christine Brewer, Mark Delavan, and John McVeigh promises to be especially interesting. <www.santafeopera.org >

The Hollywood Bowl presents the Los Angeles Philharmonic and soloists Louis Lortie, Andreas Haefliger, André Watts, Leonidas Kavakos, and Joshua Bell. Also heard will be Verdi's Aida with Alessandra Marc and Canadian tenor Richard Margison. Denyce Graves will sing arias from Carmen.

San Francisco Opera's Verdi celebrations include symposia, lectures, recitals, plus staged productions of La Traviata (June 1-30), Aida (June 7-July 1) and Simon Boccanegra (June 16-30). <www.sfopera.com/theoperas/verdi.htm >

The Blossom Festival, summer home of the Cleveland Orchestra (June 30-Sept. 2), features performances by Sylvia McNair, Frank Peter Zimmermann, Pamela Frank, Barbara Bonney, Felicity Lott, Susanne Mentzer, Stephen Hough, Jeffrey Kahane, and Andreas Haefliger. Mozart's Mass in C-minor will be performed on Aug. 18.