The Brevard Music Center’s 68th-annual festival runs through Sunday, Aug. 8, in venues at and near BMC. Among the performances not to be missed:
• Saturday, June 26, Ariadne auf Naxos, performed by the Janiec Opera Company, Whittington-Pfohl Auditorium
Composer Richard Strauss’ answer to Mozart. The story line: A Viennese nobleman brings an opera company and a band of actors to his home to provide entertainment for his guests. However, both groups are asked to perform simultaneously, so that there’s time to see the fireworks. The result is stand-up comedy meets Greek tragedy. Performed in English and German with English titles.
7:30 p.m. $23-$26
• Sunday, June 27, pianist Emanuel Ax with the BMC Festival Orchestra, Whittington-Pfohl Auditorium
Ax is known for his poetic lyricism and fantastic technique, as well as his partnership with cellist Yo-Yo Ma, a collaboration that’s earned him three Grammy Awards. The New York Times said of one Ax performance: “Exhilarating — everything in his recital bespoke intelligence and enthusiasm.”
3 p.m. $27-$30
• Friday July 2, Pops Spectacular!, performed by the BMC Festival Orchestra, Whittington-Pfohl Auditorium
Selections will include excerpts from West Side Story, Showboat and A Chorus Line, as well as many classical favorites.
7:30 p.m. $25-$28
• Tuesday, July 13, Marvin Hamlisch, Whittington-Pfohl Auditorium
Hamlisch is a conductor, pianist and entertainer whose prestigious career has been heralded by three Oscars, four Grammys, two Emmys, a Tony and three Golden Globes. Among his most famous work are the movie scores he composed for The Way We Were and The Sting.
8 p.m. $40-$60
• Thursday, July 22, and Saturday, July 24, My Fair Lady, performed by the Janiec Opera Company, Whittington-Pfohl Auditorium
One of the most popular musicals of the 1950s, My Fair Lady is the story of a misogynistic British linguistics professor who makes a wager he can transform a pretty Cockney flower seller into a lady of high society. However, the newly transformed woman ends up changing him.
7:30 p.m. $23-$26
•Thursday, July 29, Peter, Paul and Mary, Whittington-Pfohl Auditorium
One of the most successful folk groups of the 1960s returns. Best known for such charming, timeless nuggets as “Puff (the Magic Dragon),” a cover of Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind,” “Leavin’ on a Jet Plane” and “If I Had a Hammer.”
8 p.m. $25-$75
• Sunday, Aug. 8, Season Finale, featuring Robert McDuffie, Whittington-Pfohl Auditorium
Robert McDuffie is a Grammy-nominated violin soloist long aligned with the New York Philharmonic and the San Francisco Symphony. The Los Angeles Times heard “emotional spontaneity, imperturbable virtuosity and an ever-sweet tone” in his playing.
3 p.m. $27-$30
— compiled by Jason Lauritzen
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