EUGENE ONEGIN
Date: May 26, June 1, 4, 8
Venue: Charleston Gaillard Center
Russia’s wintery beauty and Tchaikovsky’s full range of emotions are on display in this grand opera about the tragedy of first love.
FARNACE
Date: May 27, 29, June 2, 5, 7, 9
Venue: Dock Street Theatre
Director Garry Hynes produces the US premiere of Vivaldi’s opera most performed in his lifetime; this mythical Roman war drama stars countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo.
QUARTETT
Date: May 28, 31, June 3
Venue: Memminger Auditorium
The two principal characters from Les Liaisons dangereuses are trapped in a bitter game of seduction and deception in the US premiere of this Royal Opera production.
WAITING FOR GODOT
Date: May 25, 26, 28, 29, 30, 31, June 1, 3, 4, 6, 8, 10, 11
Venue: Dock Street Theatre
Director Garry Hynes and her Irish theater company Druid present a fresh take on Samuel Beckett’s quintessential 20th-century play about life’s great questions.
THE TABLE
Date: June 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
Venue: Emmett Robinson Theatre at College of Charleston
This quirky telling of Moses’s story features a cardboard puppet operated by three men and occupies a welcoming space between contemporary humor and historical reference.
RAMONA
Date: May 31, June 1, 2, 3, 4
Venue: Emmett Robinson Theatre at College of Charleston
Ramona—a train engine only able to move 300 meters—waits in a railway station for her heroic Trans-Siberian locomotive, Ermon, to return from his journey across the Russian railroads.
MURMURS
Date: May 26, 27, 28, 29
Venue: Emmett Robinson Theatre at College of Charleston
Aurélia Thierrée returns to the Festival with this dreamlike, largely wordless rumination on a woman’s adventure into a surreal and shifting landscape.
ANGEL
Date: May 26, 27, 28, 29
Venue: Woolfe Street Playhouse
Inspired by a true story, Henry Naylor’s one-woman monologue depicts a heroine’s experience in a 2014 siege in Northern Syria.
IL N’EST PAS ENCORE MINUIT
Date: June 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
Venue: Memminger Auditorium
Compagnie XY returns to the Festival with a piece of French circus that presents a metaphor for the ways in which humanity faces instability and imbalance.
W H A L E
Date: June 8, 9, 10
Venue: College of Charleston Sottile Theatre
Created by acclaimed choreographer Andrea Miller, W H A L E uses radical physical language and an impulsive narrative pace to juxtapose love, sex, and domesticity.
WE LOVE ARABS
Date: June 5, 7, 8, 9, 10
Venue: Emmett Robinson Theatre at College of Charleston
Prolific choreographer and dancer Hillel Kogan presents We Love Arabs—a pithy work that examines the Arab-Israeli conflict with humor and subtlety.
OCD LOVE
Date: June 2, 3, 4
Venue: College of Charleston Sottile Theatre
Performed to deep, pulsing grooves created live by DJ Ori Lichtik, OCD Love explores themes of the heart through the lens of obsessive compulsion.
AYODELE CASEL
Date: June 1, 2, 3, 4
Venue: Woolfe Street Playhouse
New York tapper Ayodele Casel presents the world premiere of a virtuosic piece exploring language, communication, identity, and legacy.
MONCHICHI
Date: May 26, 27, 28
Venue: College of Charleston Sottile Theatre
Dancer/choreographers Honji Wang and Sébastien Ramirez pool their experiences in ballet, martial arts, and breakdancing to develop a new language for an intercultural generation.
YO, CARMEN
Date: May 27, 28
Venue: Charleston Gaillard Center
The passionate flamenco dancer María Pagés embodies the legendary character of Carmen in a vibrant ode to femininity.
BANK OF AMERICA CHAMBER MUSIC
Date: May 26 – June 11
Venue: Dock Street Theatre
Host Geoff Nuttall leads some of the most skilled chamber musicians in the country in diverse, intimate, and thrilling programs.
CINEMA AND SOUND
Date: June 7, 8, 9, 10
Venue: Woolfe Street Playhouse
Pianist/composer Stephen Prutsman performs his original score—with select members of the Spoleto Festival USA Orchestra—for three silent film shorts from the 1910s and ‘20s.
MOZART’S GREAT MASS
Date: June 6
Venue: Charleston Gaillard Center
Westminster Choir, the Charleston Symphony Orchestra Chorus, and the Spoleto Festival USA Orchestra combine forces to present works including Mozart’s great unfinished mass.
RHIANNON GIDDENS
Date: June 9
Venue: Charleston Gaillard Center
SOLD OUT. This quintessentially American musician revives and recasts traditional songs, at once displaying a great reverence for history while introducing her own powerful perspective.
MUSIC IN TIME | LECTURE ON THE WEATHER
Date: June 5
Venue: Woolfe Street Playhouse
Using texts by Henry David Thoreau, recordings of nature, and projections, this John Cage work is a prescient and timeless sonic rumination on environmental and social concerns.
WELLS FARGO FESTIVAL FINALE FEATURING THE REVIVALISTS
Date: June 11
Venue: Middleton Place
The 2017 season comes to a close with an afternoon/evening celebration at historic Middleton Place with a performance by The Revivalists, followed by fireworks.
DELLA MAE
Date: June 2
Venue: College of Charleston Cistern Yard
This Nashville-based string band has a reputation for blurring the lines between bluegrass, folk, soul, and old-time traditions.
SPOLETO CELEBRATION CONCERT
Date: May 30
Venue: Charleston Gaillard Center
More than 100 Festival musicians join forces to plumb the depths of the Festival’s history in a jubilant evening of music making; conducted by Evan Rogister.
WESTMINSTER CHOIR CONCERTS
Date: May 29, June 3
Venue: Cathedral Church of St. Luke and St. Paul
Joe Miller’s Westminster Choir performs at the Cathedral Church of St. Luke and St. Paul in one of the Festival’s best-loved traditions.
MUSIC IN TIME | DIALOGUES WITH PEDJA MUZIJEVIC
Date: June 1
Venue: Simons Center Recital Hall at College of Charleston
Four Haydn sonatas are interspersed with three modern works by Jonathan Berger, John Cage, and Morton Feldman, to offer listeners a fresh landscape for hearing works anew.
MUSIC IN TIME | TEMPUS FUGIT
Date: May 28
Venue: Woolfe Street Playhouse
New musical works from a new generation of composers come together in a program featuring members of the Spoleto Festival USA Orchestra led by conductor Jeffrey Means.
MUSIC IN TIME | SOUNDING PEACE
Date: May 31
Venue: Woolfe Street Playhouse
The Festival celebrates the centenary of American composer Lou Harrison with some of his generous and beautiful music integrating musical traditions from around the world.
MAHLER 4 AND DREAMING
Date: June 3
Venue: Charleston Gaillard Center
John Kennedy leads the Spoleto Festival USA Orchestra in Gustav Mahler’s beatific Symphony no. 4, as well as Icelandic composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s Dreaming.
EVAN CHRISTOPHER’S CLARINET ROAD
Date: June 7, 8, 9, 10
Venue: Simons Center Recital Hall at College of Charleston
Through his music, Evan Christopher honors and extends the venerable New Orleans clarinet tradition with a dynamic yet intimate approach.
DEE DEE BRIDGEWATER
Date: May 25, 26
Venue: College of Charleston Cistern Yard
Grammy winner and Jazz Master Dee Dee Bridgewater returns to the Festival with her latest contributions to the jazz vocal tradition.
SOFÍA REI
Date: May 27, 29, 30
Venue: Simons Center Recital Hall at College of Charleston
Exploring connections between South American folklore, jazz, flamenco, and electronic sounds, Sofía Rei’s music projects a melodic purity while maintaining driving rhythmic complexity.
TERENCE BLANCHARD FEATURING THE E-COLLECTIVE
Date: June 3
Venue: College of Charleston Cistern Yard
Terence Blanchard featuring the E-Collective comes to the Cistern Yard with a distinctly groove-based quintet, teeming with funk, rock, R&B, and blues sounds.
PEDRITO MARTINEZ GROUP
Date: May 27, 28
Venue: College of Charleston Cistern Yard
Cuban musician Pedrito Martinez and his powerhouse quartet seamlessly blend Afro-Cuban music traditions with blues and jazz to create an irresistible dancing and listening experience.
CHARLES LLOYD QUARTET
Date: June 2
Venue: Charleston Gaillard Center
Saxophonist/flutist Charles Lloyd fuses jazz with non-Western musical styles on his endless pilgrimage toward an ever-broadening experience as a “sound seeker.”
BUTLER, BERNSTEIN & THE HOT 9
Date: June 1
Venue: College of Charleston Cistern Yard
This fiery ensemble uses New Orleans tradition and early 20th-century blues as a launching point toward exploration that is “both historically aware and fully prepared to cut loose.”
BEHIND THE GARDEN GATE
Date: May 27, June 3
Venue: Various
Sixteen of the Holy City’s most charming private gardens–eight each weekend–are available for exploration for ticket holders.
MASTER CLASSES
Date: May 25, June 3, 10
Venue: Various
Join fellow dance and movement enthusiasts for Master Classes led by Festival artists.
SLOW DANCING
Date: May 25 - June 9
Slow Dancing will be available in Marion Square nightly from May 25 to June 9, 9:00pm to 11:00pm. FREE EVENT
CONVERSATIONS WITH
Date: May 27, 29, June 2, 4
Venue: Charleston Library Society, Woolfe Street Playhouse
CBS correspondent Martha Teichner hosts lively conversations with Festival artists. FREE EVENT.
JAZZ TALKS
Date: May 28, June 3
Venue: Simons Center Recital Hall at College of Charleston
Music critic Larry Blumenfeld leads conversations with musicians and scholars of the jazz community. FREE EVENT.
SPOLETO SALON
Date: April 25, May 2, 9, 17
Venue: 14 George Street
In hour-long evening discussions, learn more about various genres and gain a greater understanding of this season’s Festival productions. This is a FREE EVENT.