A Place, a Show, a Win

Diamond Jim Brady went there regularly, accompanied by 27 Japanese houseboys and Lillian Russell. One day William K. Vanderbilt strolled into the casino to await some delayed dinner companions, dropped $130,000 in a few minutes. Another day John W. ("Bet a Million") Gates lost $500,000 on the races, then proceeded to win back most of it by playing faro until dawn. In the afternoons, Victor Herbert conducted concerts on the porch of an elegant hotel;-in the evenings, Caruso and John McCormack sang outdoors. Such was the summer scene at the turn of the century at Saratoga Springs, New York's celebrated resort for socialites, tycoons and just plain millionaires.

That golden heyday is gone. Though the ponies still run in August, the casinos were shuttered by law in 1950, and the noisome waters of Saratoga's springs -- once sipped for everything from dropsy to hangovers -- have been washed out by wonder drugs. Yet Saratoga is awakening, to a different kind of tune. It lies in the midst of tfie finest concentration of first-rate music and dance festivals in the U.S., if not the world. In the summer, more and more of the major U.S. symphony orchestras and dance companies are packing their tubas and tutus, fleeing the sweltering cities for theaters in the sticks. And many of them are settling in and around the place where Diamond Jim and Bet a Million used to gambol.

Like Ballpark Hot Dogs. Last week the old spa took on a fresh eminence with the opening of the Saratoga Per forming Arts Center, the most impres sive of the many new U.S. summer theaters. Nestled in a pine-fringed hollow, the center will be the summer residence of George Balanchine's New York City Ballet and Eugene Ormandy's Philadelphia Orchestra. The theater itself, designed by Manhattan's Vollmer Associates, is one of the world's largest, seating up to 5,100 inside and another 7,000 outside. People who perch on the upward-sloping lawns pay $2 each, get an unobstructed view of the stage.

Somehow Beethoven under the stars is, like a hot dog at the ballpark, relished all the more by virtue of the setting.

Saratoga is just the latest jewel in the neighborhood. Within easy driving distance are:

> The Marlboro Music Festival, where Pianist Rudolf Serkin plays host to 85 musicians from around the world for the best sessions of chamber music on the summer circuit. The concerts, with such as Cellist Pablo Casals, are held in a 630-seat theater at Marlboro, Vt.

> Tanglewood, in Lenox, Mass., summer home of the Boston Symphony and the most prestigious of U.S. music festivals. Besides the symphonies in Tanglewood's 6,037-seat open-air shed this summer, there will be a week-long Festival of Contemporary American Music, -- Music including four world premieres.

> Music Barn, a resort just one-half mile from Tanglewood, where the top rock, folk and jazz artists perform in a converted stable. This season's roster includes Pete Seeger, Thelonious Monk, Dave Brubeck, Lionel Hampton.

> Jacob's Pillow, near Lee, Mass., where Ted Shawn's dance festival features a cross section of ballet, modern and ethnic dance in a barnlike theater. Twelve new works will be seen.

> Music Mountain, a small but superior concert series by the Berkshire String Quartet in a white frame concert hall outside Falls Village, Conn.

> The Caramoor Festival in Katonah, N.Y., which every June and July presents new and rarely heard works in the Renaissance setting of a 180-acre estate.

Structurally, the Saratoga Center towers over all of these retreats. Audiences approach the theater across emerald lawns illuminated by 40 globular lights perched like tiny moons on four concrete runways. With its peaked roofs and long supporting beams, the building has the lines of a super circus tent. Inside, the most imposing feature is an acoustical canopy jutting 50 feet from the stage like some op-art gargoyle.

The airy, wide-open feeling of the interior is achieved by a series of 12-ft-wide plywood baffles along the sides, slanted to let nature in while reflecting sound through the theater. The bankroll was put up largely by New York State ($960,000), the brothers Rockefeller ($1,300,000) and the Saratoga racing community ($700,000).

Magical Forest. The theater was aptly opened with a performance of Balanchine's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Next week Dancer-Choreographer Edward Villella will perform the world premiere of his Narkissos. Next month Ormandy's Philadelphia Orchestra will accompany such artists as Soprano Leontyne Price, Violinist Isaac Stern and Pianist Van Cliburn. Talking about his musicians, the maestro is already picking up the language of the track. "My Phillies are chomping at the bit," says Ormandy. "But I will have to schedule rehearsals during racing hours because I saw what happened when the orchestra played in Reno." The Saratoga Performing Arts Center is off and running, and so far everyone is the winner -- especially the audience.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.