The Sound of Music: A Guide to Summer Stages 2023

With all due respect to Julie Andrews, it isn’t just the hills that will be alive with the sound of music this summer. Across the country, outdoor performing arts venues in a wide variety of settings are ready to welcome patrons who enjoy their shows served with a breath of fresh air. In San Diego, this includes our world-class waterfront Rady Shell at Jacobs Park, where the summer menu of symphony classics and pop performers includes Earth, Wind & Fire on June 18. 

Up the road from San Diego, the Hollywood Bowl opened in 1922 and has hosted many luminaries including The Beatles, Billie Holiday, and Yo-Yo Ma. Today, the venue has a capacity of 17,500, but in 1942, audiences were limited to 5,000 due to war-related safety concerns. Andrea Bocelli will perform here on May 9 and 10 and, if you miss him in Hollywood, you can catch him on June 10 at another stunning venue: the Terme di Caracalla in Rome. The Hollywood Bowl season also includes classical, jazz, and movie music, and the Fourth of July audience will enjoy a performance by The Beach Boys and spectacular fireworks. 

Further north, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival takes place in Ashland and runs from mid-April through mid-October. This year, they’re doing the Bard’s Romeo and Juliet and Twelfth Night, as well as The Three Musketeers and Where We Belong. In addition, Ashland will be alive with the sound of the rock musical Rent.

The stage at the Santa Fe Opera in New Mexico enjoys perhaps the most dramatic setting of any performing arts venue anywhere. Here, the views are of distant mountains seen through the stage and on both sides of it. During a performance of The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs, I watched real lightning flash across the sky through the rear of the stage and 20 miles to the west in Los Alamos. While lightning can’t be guaranteed, patrons are sure to see a memorable sunset. 

The 2023 Santa Fe season will run from June 30 to August 27. This is their 66th year, and it will include Puccini’s Tosca and Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman, followed by Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande, Dvořák’s Rusalka, and Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo. Steve Jobs was commissioned by Santa Fe Opera in 2017 and they have recently commissioned another new work that will have its premiere in 2024. Created by Gregory Spears and former U.S. Poet Laureate and Pulitzer Prize-winner Tracy K. Smith, The Righteous will explore the intersection between religious faith and political power. 

I was reminded of the picnic scene in The Sound of Music when I joined friends for a concert at Ravinia in the Chicago area a few years ago. We spread our blankets on the lush green lawn and proceeded to pull our contributions from traditional hampers. The actual picnic location in the movie is in Werfen, Austria, which is just south of Salzburg. Today it’s known as The Picnic Meadow or the Do Re Mi Meadow because that’s where the song “Do-Re-Mi” begins. The 36-acre Ravinia Park is nestled in a gently wooded area that makes it an enchanting place to experience music. The Ravinia Festival was started in 1904 and is the oldest outdoor music festival in the country.

From July 21 to 23, the Breaking Barriers Festival at Ravinia will focus on women composers. Chief Conductor Marin Alsop will lead the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in a concert featuring works by three women — Gabriela Ortiz, Gabriela Montero, and Roxanna Panufnik. In a performance of a decidedly different genre, on August 19, Kenny Loggins will perform. 

Tanglewood Music Center in Lenox, Massachusetts is the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, which performs from June to September. On July 3 and 4, James Taylor and his all-star band will play and the July 4 show will be followed by fireworks. Proceeds from this concert will be donated to Tanglewood by Taylor, who is a local resident.

Nearby, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in Becket, Massachusetts is the home of an outdoor stage for dance performances including contemporary ballet, modern dance, and hip-hop. The 2023 festival will take place from June 28 to August 27. In addition, dance and movement classes are offered at all experience levels.

The hills, parks, bowls, marinas, festivals, open-air auditoriums, and stages of all sizes will definitely be alive with the sound of music this summer, and it’s time to start planning and shopping for tickets to enjoy our favorite things in the great outdoors.