Bard SummerScape

As a teaser to the 23rd annual Bard Music Festival, which begins in August, Bard kicks off SummerScape in celebration of Camille Saint-Saëns. The fest features a performance of the rarely seen comic opera The King in Spite of Himself, accompanied by the American Symphony Orchestra (conducted by Leon Botstein). Composed by Emmanuel Chabrier, one of Saint-Saëns's contemporaries, the piece tells the story of a lonely French duke who's sent against his will to rule in Poland.