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STRATFORD FESTIVAL, Stratford, Ontario. Until Oct. 14, Canadians and visitors will get a taste of Russian humor in Nikolai Gogol's The Government Inspector, with The Merry Wives of Windsor providing the Anglo-Saxon comedy. Richard 111, played by Alan Bates, represents a somewhat darker strain. On July 31, Christopher Plummer appears as Antony, with Zoe Caldwell as his Cleopatra. A new play, James Reaney's Colours in the Dark, debuts July 25.
SHAW FESTIVAL, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario. G.B.S. comes into his own here, with Arms and the Man until July 15, and Major Barbara from Aug. 16 through Sept. 10. Maugham's The Circle will be performed July 19 through Aug. 12.
CHAMPLAIN SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL, Burlington, Vt. Love's Labor's Lost, King Lear, Henry IV, Part 1 will be playing in repertory until Sept. 23.
COLORADO SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL, Boulder, Colo. A Midsummer Night's Dream, Henry VI, Part 1, and Titus Andronicus. Aug. 5 through Aug. 20.
MINNEAPOLIS-ST. PAUL, Shakespeare in the streets. From July 14 until Sept. 3, A Midsummer Night's Dream and Twelfth Night will be played at 22 locations throughout the Twin Cities.
SAN DIEGO SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL, in its 18th year, will present Twelfth Night, All's Well That Ends Well and Othello, from a replica of the 16th century Globe Theater, until Sept. 10. Musicians, tumblers, dancers and madrigal singers entertain before each performance.
OREGON SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL, Ashland, Ore., is one of the oldest on the continent. To celebrate its 27th season, it presents Antony and Cleopatra, Pericles, The Taming of the Shrew and Richard HI, on a rotating basis from July 22 through Sept. 10.
RECORDS
Instrumental
IVES: PIANO SONATA NO. I (1902-1910) (RCA Victor). Charles Ives was such a rebel that his music bears little resemblance to the placid mainstream of turn-of-the-century American sounds. Yet, as demonstrated in this intriguing recording of his First Piano Sonata, he is no composer to snoot. The work is raw, unpolished, sometimes uproariously funny; its New World vigor and intelligence cannot help being appealing. Pianist William Masselos imparts the work's spirit with appropriate improvisational candor.
PETER SERKIN: BARTOK: PIANO CONCER TOS NOS. 1 AND 3 (RCA Victor). It requires tremendous energy to beat out Bartok's spooky rhythms on a piano, and 19-year-old Peter Serkin spares not an ounce of vigorous intensity. But not all of the album's music is composed of harsh explosions of frenetic percussion; the "night music" in the Third Concerto was inspired by the bird and insect sounds of Asheville, N.C., where Bartok sketched out the music during a visit in 1944. Conductor Seiji Ozawa, 31, matches Serkin's youthful sympathy with Bartok's still-new ideas.