Spoleto Festival USA new season lineup includes k.d. lang, premiere of Glass opera

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — The 36th season of the Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston this spring will feature the American premiere of the Philip Glass opera “Kepler” and a concert by vocalist k.d. lang.

Chamber music, acrobatic performances and orchestral concerts are also on the schedule for the festival that will light up 13 venues including theaters, churches and open-air sites from May 25 through June 10.

The festival, which released the lineup this weekend, features more than 140 shows by 60 groups and performers.

The internationally known arts festival was started in Charleston in 1977 by composer Gian Carlo Menotti as a companion to his Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, Italy.

He left the Charleston festival almost two decades ago in a dispute over his successor and died in 2007 at age 95, still estranged from the America festival.