By DOROTHY HARTZ

Carmen: “(The) story of a free spirited gypsy... (with) influence ...extraordinary by any standards.”

The Massenkoff Russian Folk Festival: “... energetic and passionate.”

Upcoming area music programs demand superlatives. Summertime, and the living is steamy, as it should be, for the Delaware Valley Opera’s (DVO) opening of the Peter Brook’s version of Bizet’s “Carmen” on June 30 at the Tusten Theater for a series of four performances. Ron De Fesi, artistic and music director for DVO’s season, brings passion for opera as well as invoking the passion in the opera. He says:“I read not long ago that while film was ‘realistic,’ opera was ‘artificial.’ As you might imagine, this set my hackles a-hackling. This, by the way, was a very prominent film producer making this comment, and I thought: for a worldly, knowledgeable fellow, he really only knows a part of the truth. It’s true that opera isn’t necessarily ‘life-like,’ and it may be true that it is sometimes ‘unrealistic,’ and, for sure, it is highly ‘stylized,’ but ‘artificial’—never! The very essence of opera is its universal ability to speak to man’s gut— the foundation of his humanity—that part of himself for which he has no words of expression, but must express himself nonetheless. Wasn’t it Victor Hugo who wrote, ‘Music expresses that which cannot be spoken, and on which it is impossible to remain silent?’”

Call 845/252-7576 for reservations or further details, or see elsewhere in this issue of TRR.

The Massenkoff Russian Folk Troupe expresses its version of that which cannot be spoken, but can be sung and danced, for the Dorflinger-Suydam Music Festival in its summer opener at the Wildflower Amphitheater in White Mills, PA on Saturday, June 23. The festival of traditional Russian music headlines a series of eight Saturday night concerts. Call 570/253-5500 for more information.

“Romantic Classical Music” is the title theme of a free concert at the Crawford Public Library in Monticello on Thursday, June 21 at 7:30 pm. The music of Chopin, Liszt and Rossini will highlight an educational program partly funded by the Sullivan County Decentralization Program, a grant program of the New York State Council on the Arts, administered by Delaware Valley Arts Alliance (DVAA). Call Barbara Rothman at 845/794-0837 for more information about the concert, or the DVAA at 845/252-7576 for information about this and other grant programs.

Passions of a patriotic sort might be ignited at Forestburgh Playhouse (box office number 845/794-1194) when its season takes off with the musical “1776,” making every performance day between June 26 through July 8 a Fourth of July celebration.

Let the fireworks begin.