A summer stock standard has come to the Main Stage at the Bay Street Theatre, and if the quality of this production of the farcical sex comedy “Lend Me a Tenor” is a sign of things to come for Bay Street’s three-play 2013 season, buying a season subscription might be a good ticket to ride this year.

   After a 2012 season that included an Americanized version of Geraldine Aron’s “My Brilliant Divorce,” starring Polly Draper, that never quite clicked for me and an updated revival of “Men’s Lives” by Joe Pintauro that played mostly like musty agitprop, it was with some trepidation that I headed to Sag Harbor Saturday night.

   But once the lights went down in the house and up on the beautiful, sturdy (and sturdy is important here) set designed by Ken Goldstein, I found myself laughing, and laughing is good.

   The play has an interesting history. Written by Fred Ludwig early in his career, it debuted at the American Stage Festival in New Hampshire in 1985, then titled “Opera Buffa.” The play came to the attention of the English director David Gilmore, who mounted it at the Globe Theater in London’s West End, produced by Andrew Lloyd Webber, in 1986. It ran for almost a year before being staged on Broadway by Jerry Zaks in 1989.

    “Lend Me a Tenor” is set in a Cleveland hotel room in 1934. A benefit performance for the Cleveland Opera by the great Italian tenor Tito Merelli, also known as Il Stupendo, played by Roland Rusinek, is just hours off. As the lights come up, we find the opera producer’s daughter, Maggie, played winningly by Betsy DeLellio, moaning over the idea of meeting the great tenor. She is joined by Max, the producer’s flunky, played by the talented Noah Plomgren. Max has eyes for Maggie, but it is an unrequited vision.

    Maggie describes her one fleeting meeting with Merelli, when she was with her father in Europe.

    “He kissed my palm,” she says.

    “So what?” Max asks.

    “It was romantic.”

    “He’s Italian,” Max snaps. “They kiss everything.” And off we go, for “A Day at the Races,” or perhaps a more apt Marx Brothers analogy would be, “A Night at the Opera.”

    Where is Merelli? becomes the question, as the producer, Saunders, played by Steve Rosen, enters.

    Stella Adler, one of the seminal actors and acting teachers of the 20th century, used to tell her students that sex appeal was not something you can act. Or, as another theatrical icon, Stephen Sondheim, put it in “Gypsy”: “You either got it, or you ain’t. And, boys, I got it.”

    Farce is the same way: You either got it, or you ain’t, and Steve Rosen, while he might not have the sex appeal, sure has got it with farce. His performance in “Lend Me a Tenor” is nuanced. He knows how to play the audience, milking the laughs, but keeping enough held back that he is always in control.

    He finds, and shares with us, the quiet moments in the material, which, when well-mined, can explode into laughter. He manages, for the most part, to keep the ham in the can, always important, while being totally outrageous. He is also physically very adroit.

    His character, Saunders, drives the show in the first act, and when Mr. Rosen’s Saunders is off the stage, you miss him. It is the part that won Philip Bosco a Tony Award for best performance in a play in 1989.

    The production is deftly staged by Don Stephenson, who just directed the same play at Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, N.J. Mr. Stephenson wisely brought three of his players from that production along for the ride, talented comediennes, all: Nancy Johnston as Julia, Donna English, who plays Diana, and the delightful Judy Blazer, who plays the great tenor’s emotional, jealous wife.

    Ms. Blazer dons a silly Italian accent with ease, as if she was born with it.

    The show actually starts before it starts, with the standard warning by an unseen, offstage voice, to the audience about cellphones, recording devices, etc. This is done by Ms. Blazer, in character, in broken English, occasionally lapsing into Italian. She concludes by warning the audience about the consequences of violating these rules: “We weel keel you.”

    Of course, one of the dangers of being too playful with that standard warning is that some knucklehead in the audience won’t get the very real message, more important than ever in our wireless world, but it is well worth the tradeoff.

    Mr. Rusinek also is at ease with that accent, has a good understanding of farce, and is quite adept at finding the humor in Il Stupendo’s tragic flaws, of which there are many.

    He has a fine voice, and shares a duet with Mr. Plomgren, who matches him note for note.

    Scott Cote is quite funny as the Il Stupendo-obsessed bellboy.

    Mr. Plomgren is a young actor, and is up for the challenging role. There were a couple of times in the first act where I heard, for a moment, Woody Allen. Nothing wrong with that. Woody Allen himself has said in the past that, as a young performer, he channeled, in part, Bob Hope. Or, maybe that Woody Allen sound I heard is a product of the language itself.

    I do think Mr. Plomgren’s performance will grow over the next few weeks, as he relaxes into the part. Occasionally, I thought he pushed for the laugh instead of trusting that the laugh would come.

    Where the first act is plot-driven, the second is sex-driven, with precise door slams, and imprecise mountings and dismountings, all adding to the general feel of joyful anarchy.

    The costume design by Wade Laboissonniere captures the era while allowing for the quick changes and disrobings necessary in a sex comedy farce. 

    The first act is too long for my liking, at least for summer theater. At intermission, the woman sitting behind me in the next-to-last row told her friends that she thought the first act was funny, but “It was too long. Or maybe it was a little too much sun and a little too much wine.”

    Indeed. It’s summertime. People are relaxing and easily distracted. If you’re going to give them froth, keep it frothy, then, get off the stage.

    Of course, contributing to the occasionally lugubrious moment of the first act Saturday night was the fact that it was opening night for the season, with wine being served beforehand and the standard welcoming speech by the theater’s executive director, Tracey Mitchell. Ms. Mitchell, with her board and her producers, have charted a very different season for Bay Street, with Charles Ludlam’s Theater of the Ridiculous’s “Irma Vep” up next, followed by Mr. Sondheim’s “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.”

    All this is well and good, but this is a play that must start as close as possible to its scheduled time, with an intermission as short as possible, neither of which will happen during an opening night gala.

    Farce, well done, feels like chaos, but is, in fact, like a fine Swiss watch. Just down the road from the former Bulova watch factory, Mr. Stephenson has built such a mechanism at Bay Street, with precise timing and sharp pacing. Now, just wind it up and let it go.

    “Lend Me a Tenor” runs through June 23, with performances Tuesday through Saturday at 8, Sunday at 7, and matinees Wednesdays at 2, and Saturdays at 4 p.m.

East End Photogs at 25

    The East End Photographers Group will observe its 25th anniversary with a show at Ashawagh Hall in Springs opening Saturday and running through June 9. This will be the first of a number of shows in the area this season to mark the milestone. The group has dedicated this one to the memory of Tim Lee and Vito Sisti, who both died this year.

    As one of the founding members, Mr. Lee offered his studio to Liz Glasgow and other Springs photographers to share and talk about their work. They organized their first exhibition at Ashawagh Hall in April 1990. Since then, the members have observed the tradition of a spring show.

    The group grew from those first years to other places such as Southampton and the North Fork, and also splintered off into another group, Photographers East, which is primarily made up of Southampton-based photographers.

    The group’s members use a variety of formats such as traditional, digital, and alternative processes. Those exhibiting for this show include Virginia Asch­moneit, Dennis Bontempo, Ann Brandeis, David Burns, Zintis Buzermanis, Anne Drager, Paul Dempsey, Rich Faron, Alex Ferrone, Ray Germann, Janet Glazer, Gerry Giliberti, Pamela Greinke, Elizabeth Holmes, Danielle Leef, Joel Lefkowitz, George Mallis, Jim Sabiston, Joan Santos, Rosa Hanna Scott, Daniel Schoenheimer, James Slezak, Marilyn Stevenson, Jarret Stretch, Clarence Simpson, Nick Tarr, Mary Trentalange, Bob Wilson, Nacola Wilson, Alan Weinschel, and Mia Wisnoski.

    The opening reception will be held on Saturday from 5 to 9 p.m. There will also be a closing reception on June 9 from 3 to 5 p.m.

A Whale of a Show

    Peter Marcelle and Dan Rizzie have taken over the Sag Harbor Whaling and Historical Museum for “A Whale of a Show.” The group exhibition features Derek Buckner, April Gornik, and Reynold Ruffins. Other artists with work on view include Paul Davis, Eric Dever, Miriam Dougenis, Eric Fischl, Susan Lazarus Reimen, Jim McMullen, Jodi Pana, Dan Rizzie, Gavin Zeigler, David Slater, Donald Sultan, John Torreano, and Carol York.

    The show will be on view through June 25.

Blue Star at Parrish

    The Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill is participating in the Blue Star Museums collaboration with the National Endowment for the Arts, Blue Star Families, the Department of Defense, and various national museums this summer. The program offers free admission to all active-duty military personnel and their families from Memorial Day through Labor Day.

“Soul Searching” at Lear

    Ronald Gonzalez, a sculptor, will be the next featured artist at Lear Gallery in Sag Harbor. In a show titled “Soul Searching,” he will offer 60 prototypes and studies of life-size figures in scaled-down versions. The abstracted figures are composed of found objects and his own thin armatures.

    The show will open Saturday with a reception from 5 to 7 p.m. and close on July 14.

“Tone Poem” at Halsey Mckay

    Halsey Mckay Gallery in East Hampton will have “Tone Poem,” a group show, beginning Saturday. It features N. Dash, Elias Hansen, Matt Kenny, Rosy Keyser, and Adam Marnie.

    Each of the artists employs humble and common materials to come up with different possibilities and compositions. Abraided wood, marked wallboard, plastic bags, sawdust, and adobe are some of the mediums transformed by their processes. According to the gallery, “An undercurrent of inventiveness, economy of means, and commitment to hands-on approaches shines through” in this work. Often, a thing is not what it appears to be, and nothing is as simple as it seems.

    The show opens Saturday with a reception from 6 to 8 p.m. It will close on June 18.

Tough Girls

    Neoteric Fine Art will present “Bad Ass Bitches,” an all-female show organized by Melissa Mapes, starting tomorrow in Amagansett.

    Ms. Mapes describes the show as featuring a group of women with “raw talent, no fear, and a rebel passion to do what they love.” Among the artists with work on view are Melissa Armstrong, Abby Lloyd, Christine Lidrbauch, Christine Sciulli, Geige Silver, Graylen Gatewood, Maria Pessino, Elyse Hradecky, Jackie Guido, Andrea Cote, Nika Nesgoda, Marsha Owett, Matisse Patterson, Robin Mapes Tomlinson, and Ms. Mapes herself.

    They work in various mediums including painting, sculpture, photography, collage, performance, video art, and music. A percentage of proceeds from the exhibition will be donated to the Retreat and Long Island Head Start, two local organizations serving women in need.

    An opening reception for the artists will be held tomorrow from 6 p.m. to midnight with a musical performance by Spittin’ Kitten, a theatrical performance by the Neo-Political Cowgirls, poetry by Denise Lassaw, and dancing by the Fiery Sensations. A late-night dance party with D.J. Alanna Raben will follow. Admission is $10.

“Creative Vision,” Open Call

    The gallery at the Water Mill Museum will show “Creative Vision: Works by East End Artists” this weekend with a reception on Saturday from 4 to 7 p.m.

    The show features 18 women artists who work in different styles and materials such as oil, pastel, watercolor, acrylics, glass, textiles, photography, and metal sculpture. Susan D’Alessio, Anna Franklin, Phyllis Hammond, Kathie Hayden, Annette Heller, Tracy Jamar, Cyndi Loewen, Jean Mahoney, Lynn Martel, Mary Milne, Deb Palmer, Roxanne Panero, Alyce Peifer, Christine Chew Smith, Cynthia Sobel, Lieve Thiers, Claudia Ward, and Pam Vossen will offer representational landscapes and figurative, abstract, and conceptual art.

    The museum will hold its annual members art exhibition from June 20 to July 8 and is now accepting registration forms for this non-juried show. Artists in all mediums have been invited to apply. Forms are available on the museum’s Web site, and the deadline is June 8.

Marilyn Church’s Burton Award

    Marilyn Church will be the recipient of an award naming her the “foremost courtroom artist in America” as part of the Burton Awards to be presented by the Library of Congress on Monday. She has been commissioned to do a portrait of Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, a fellow award recipient, and her work will be on view at the event.

    Ms. Church’s work is also on view at Toulouse Interiors in Asbury Park, N.J., where there will be a reception on Saturday from 6 to 10 p.m.

Water, Water, Everywhere

    Tulla Booth Gallery in Sag Harbor will show “Water 2013” beginning Saturday with a reception from 6 to 8 p.m. The show will feature classic and contemporary photography with the theme of the sea. Those with work on view include Blair Seagram, Herb Friedman, Anne Gabrielle, Karine Laval, Tulla Booth, Bob Tabor, and Michael Clinton. It will remain on view through June 25.

Reit and Rotner Do the Monkey

    The Crazy Monkey Gallery in Amagansett will feature the art of two of its members, Stephanie Reit and Sheila Rotner, as well as a group exhibit of the art cooperative’s members in a show that will open today with a reception Saturday from 5 to 7 p.m.

    Also with work on view will be Andrea McCafferty, Daniel Schoenheimer, Jana Hayden, Barbara Bilotta, June Kap­lan, Ellyn Tucker, Mark E. Zammerman, Tina Andrews, Lance Corey, Cynthia Sobel, Dianne Marxe, Kathy Hammond, and Daniel Dubinsky. The show will be up through June 24.

Fore!

    The Bridgehampton Museum will open “From Pastures to Putting” tomorrow at 5 p.m. with a reception until 7. The show will follow the development of golf in greater Bridgehampton and the history of the associated clubs in the area. Objects on display will include original equipment and fashions in pictures and on mannequins. Julie Greene, the museum’s archivist, has organized the show.

Hoie at Clinton Academy

    Claus Hoie’s watercolors will be featured in a show at Clinton Academy in East Hampton called “Insects: Real and Imaginary,” opening Saturday. The exhibition is a survey of three decades of work focused on this subject, some from his final years. Hoie, who died in 2007, has several paintings from his whaling series on view at the East Hampton Town Marine Museum in Amagansett.

    He is familiar to many here for his paintings of vessels, 19th-century captains’ logs, fish, and themes from “Moby-Dick.” He also painted historic structures in East Hampton Village. The show will remain up through June 30.

Desire at Demato

    The Richard J. Demato Gallery in Sag Harbor will show “Objects of Desire” beginning Saturday with a reception from 6 to 8 p.m. The show is designed to stimulate emotional and introspective responses. The art has been chosen to activate parts of the brain that respond with “emotion, thought, memories, perceptual awareness, motivation, and stream of consciousness.”

    At the opening reception, music, lighting, scents, and a full bar will help enhance the experience.

Markel’s Season Opener

    “Everything Has Its Place” is the season opener at Kathryn Markel Fine Arts in Bridgehampton. The show has been organized by Robert Dimin, who has chosen a number of emerging New York artists from various disciplines. Nick Doyle, Justine Hill, Bradley LaMare, Corey Riddell, Dana Sherwood, and Bryan McGovern Wilson are all participants.

     They work in sculpture, painting, charcoal and pencil drawing, photography, and other more unorthodox mediums, each approaching them in an unconventional way. Ms. Sherwood, for example, uses methodologies that sometimes involve organic materials and elaborate confectionery as well as interventions by animals in her sculptural installations. Mr. Wilson combines photography, drawing, and all facets of sculpture, like glasswork and assemblage, in his detail-oriented installation spaces.

    The exhibition opens Saturday with a reception from 6 to 9 p.m. It will close on June 19.

Business of Art Returns

    Jane Martin is offering her popular series of classes for artists on the business of art at the Springs Presbyterian Church beginning Saturday with one called “The Professional Artist.”

    To be held from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., it will cover consignments and contracts with galleries, invoicing clients, and eliminating tax on art supplies with a resale certificate. Other topics include how to legally protect your art and your relationships with galleries and how to provide a professional invoice for sales out-of-studio.

    The cost of $40 per class includes numerous handouts and guest speakers. Payment can be made at the door with cash or check. Checks received by the Wednesday before a class will receive a $5 discount. Ms. Martin’s e-mail for further information is janemartin@mac. com. Checks can be sent to Ms. Martin at P.O. Box 471, East Hampton 11937.

   Valerie Coates, a mezzo-soprano, and Jason Andrews, a pianist, will perform Wagner’s “Wesendonk Lieder” and Verdi’s “Composizioni da Camera” on Sunday from 3:30 to 5 p.m. at the Montauk Library. The free concert is part of a series of events sponsored by the library in honor of the 200th anniversary of the birth of both composers.

    Ms. Coates has appeared as alto soloist at Carnegie Hall with the London Sinfonietta, in New Jersey with the Choral Art Society, Masterwork Chorus, and Monmouth Civic Chorus, and on Long Island with the Long Island Choral Society. Mr. Andrews is frequently heard in solo piano, vocal, and chamber music recitals in many of New York City’s major venues, including Avery Fisher Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Steinway Hall, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Bill O’Connell, a bandleader, pianist, arranger, music director, and accompanist for many icons of jazz and Latin music, will perform at the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill tomorrow at 6 p.m. as part of the museum’s Jazz on the Terrace series.

Alex Henderson, writing for allmusic.com, wrote, “As a pianist he is known for a lyrical approach that owes something to Keith Jarrett, Bill Evans, and Chick Corea, as well as Herbie Hancock.” Mr. O’Connell has accompanied Sonny Rollins, Chet Baker, Mongo Santa Maria, and Gato Barbieri as well as the vocalists Jon Lucien, Astrud Gilberto, and Kenny Rankin.

Tickets are $12, free for students and members. The museum suggests that guests take lawn chairs or blankets.

“Murder on Long Island”

Geoffrey K. Fleming

and Amy K. Folk

History Press, $19.99

    In June 1854, a disgruntled farm worker picked up an ax, climbed through an unlocked kitchen window, and brutally murdered a husband and wife, James and Frances Wickham, the master and mistress of a prosperous farm in Cutchogue on the North Fork of eastern Long Island. While the surrounding communities were shocked by the double homicide, newspapers around the country and their readers reveled in the sensational aspects of the case, one that aptly filled the increasingly insatiable appetite of 19th-century print media, and their subscribers, for screaming headlines and gory details.

    E.L. Doctorow wrote in “Billy Bathgate” that “The innocent do find murders exciting. . . . Murders are perceived as momentary descents of God and so provide joy and hope and righteous satisfaction to parishioners, who will talk about them for years afterward to anyone who will listen.”

    There is something about an ax murder that does seize the imagination, often remaining in the public’s mind for decades. Generations of children have recited some version of the doggerel “Lizzie Borden took an ax and gave her mother 40 whacks, when she saw what she had done, she gave her father 41.”

    In Villisca, Iowa, 100 years after the fact, visitors still are drawn to the crime scene where a murderer or murderers unknown bludgeoned to death the entire family of Josiah Moore and two overnight guests on June 10, 1912, with an ax.

    And in New Orleans, the Axman of New Orleans first struck on May 23, 1918, slaying an Italian grocer and his wife while they slept in the apartment above their grocery store. The murder weapon, an ax, was found in the apartment, still coated with the victims’ blood. The Axman murdered a total of eight people before the killings stopped. The crimes remain unsolved.

    But in “Murder on Long Island: A Nineteenth-Century Tale of Tragedy and Revenge” we learn the murderer’s identity almost immediately. In 12 chapters spanning 102 pages, plus copious notes, a useful bibliography, and almost three dozen historic photographs, we learn of the events preceding and following the gruesome murders in idyllic Cutchogue.

    In the foreword, Joseph S. Wickham, the great-great-great-nephew of the murder victims, writes that “When I was growing up, my grandfather would often tell the story of the Wickham ax murders as we all sat around the dinner table.” He adds, “All us grandchildren would sit there with wide eyes as we tried to imagine the horror of being chopped up alive. Afterward I would go to bed and lay there wondering if I was also doomed for a violent end, perhaps that very night. I found out later that I often stayed in the same bedroom where the murders occurred.”

    The authors, Geoffrey K. Fleming and Amy K. Folk, combine data from various resources, including Wickham family lore, historic documents, and newspaper accounts, to tell the tale of the Cutchogue murders. But this book is not just about murder. It also offers a succinct examination of the history of the North Fork, including its initial settlement as a plantation for the New Haven Colony in Connecticut around 1640, and its eventual development as a locally controlled government, independent from New Haven.

   In its telling it also briefly describes the means by which many Irish immigrants found their way to America, where they hoped for a new and better life. And it offers insight into the legal systems of New York and Suffolk County during the middle of the 19th century, as well as introductions to the lawyers and judges associated with the murderer’s trial.

    The book also addresses in brief the transformation of the American press, and notes that the partisan and political nature of American newspapers and their owners would continue during the 19th century. The authors quote Patricia Cline Cohen, a historian who used the phrase “sex-and-death sensationalism in news reporting, a style of journalism that is utterly familiar to us now. . . .”

    The authors set the scene by describing the growing prosperity and influence of the Wickham family on the North Fork from the early settlement days until the end of the American Revolution, when much of their farmland was confiscated by the new government for having supported the British Crown during the war. The family’s fortunes once again grew after the war, and we are given a description of life in Cutchogue in 1850. We also meet the ill-fated James and Frances Wickham, whose farm was situated “down the long driveway away from the road” and surrounded by fields.

    James and Frances Wickham were murdered by Nicholas Behan (who coincidentally had the same surname as E.L. Doctorow’s fictional character Billy Bathgate before he took on the name of a Bronx street). Behan came to America fleeing the starvation and deprivation caused by the potato blight in his native Ireland. He found his way to Cut­chogue, where he worked as a farm laborer for the Wickham family but was ultimately fired for his unappreciated courting of Ellen Holland, a domestic servant for the family who also came from Ireland. The authors suggest that Behan and Holland both found work with the Wickhams through the Emigrant Labor Exchange in New York City, an organization that attempted to help recent immigrants find suitable employment.

    In any case, both individuals arrived in America at a time when tremendous animosity existed toward Irish immigrants. The authors reprint a private letter written in 1851 that describes the Irish as “the locusts of Egypt [and] they arrive by the thousands. Our poorhouses are overflowing and our taxes are enormous.” Mr. Fleming and Ms. Folk note that “it was into this environment that Nicholas Behan would arrive.”

    Mr. Fleming and Ms. Folk graphically recreate the crime itself and Behan’s attempts to escape. They describe in detail his capture, incarceration, trial, and conviction ending in his execution.

    “Murder on Long Island: A Nineteenth-Century Tale of Tragedy and Revenge” describes a horrific event within the context of national and local history and culture, as well as societal attitudes about an influx of new arrivals from Ireland. It is perhaps a sad commentary on human nature that so many of the same resentments toward new arrivals exhibited then still exist today. Certainly the media’s and the public’s appetites for sensationalism remain unabated.

   John Eilertsen is the director of the Bridgehampton Historical Society. He lives in Southampton.

   Geoffrey K. Fleming is the director of the Southold Historical Society, where Amy K. Folk is the collections manager.

   East End nightspots attract hundreds of 20 and 30-somethings like moths to light every summer, but a slightly more sedate crowd wends its way to more serene surroundings for classical music.

    The highest notes come from the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary, the Perlman Music Program, which sponsors a summer school for international students on Shelter Island, and Pianofest, a remarkable program of master classes and concerts for and by prizewinning pianists.

    Marya Martin, a New Zealand-born flutist, and her husband, Ken Davidson, started the chamber festival in 1984 with two concerts and five instrumentalists. Now, the festival sells out 14 concerts and presents some 40 world-class instrumentalists to devoted audiences, primarily at the Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church. The series will start this year with a free outdoor concert on July 24 and run through Aug. 18, with two benefits in between.

    The concerts of the Bridgehampton Music Festival are planned well in advance and the specifics can be found on the festival’s Web site, bcmf.org, where tickets, which for the most part range from $30 to $50, can be purchased. They go on sale Saturday. In addition to classics, recent American music is included on most of the programs this year, and a work by the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Kevin Puts will be premiered.

    The Perlman Music Program is hosted by the extraordinary violinist Itzhak Perlman. Mr. Perlman’s wife, Toby Perlman, enlisted his expertise to start the school almost 20 years ago. He joins a dozen or more faculty members on the campus every year, inspiring gifted instrumentalists between the ages of 12 and 18. Mr. Perlman is known to tell students they are required to participate in the program’s chorus because using their own voices helps them learn how to make their instruments sing.

    The best part — for the public that is — are numerous open workshops, master classes, and concerts, not only by students but by alumni and faculty. There are so many possible events, it’s hard to keep up with them. South Forkers need only to hop on the ferry from North Haven to get there. Classes and many concerts are free while tickets are $20 for others. Also coming up are concerts on June 7 at the Southampton Cultural Center and June 8 at the Jewish Center of the Hamptons, which cost somewhat more. The Perlman Program also sponsors concerts elsewhere and has events for well-heeled supporters at the Neue Galerie in New York City.

    Paul Schenly directs Pianofest, which provides emerging piano stars with free master classes with Mr. Schenly and other notable professionals, along with room and board and a small stipend! Make no mistake, Pianofest’s Web site lists the astonishing number of prizes that past and present students have won. Awadagen Pratt, who has performed at the White House, is one of many who went on to successful careers. A number of its graduates also come back off-season to perform in solo recitals called Rising Stars at the Southampton Cultural Center.

    The public will be the beneficiary this year of nine concerts, taking place on Mondays from June 17 through Aug. 5 at the Avram Theater on the Stony Brook Southampton campus from 5:30 to 7 p.m., as well as three concerts on Wednesday nights, June 19 and 26 and July 24, at Hoie Hall of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in East Hampton, starting at 6 p.m. Tickets, which are sold at the door, are $20 for adults. Students 18 and under are free.

    Don’t throw your calendar away, though, because these aren’t the only classical concerts around. Regional cultural centers, churches, and libraries get into the act too. The Southampton Cultural Center’s Rising Stars series, organized by Liliane Questel, herself a pianist, has seven concerts a year, although only one takes place in the resort season. Orion Weiss and Anna Polonsky will be the performers on June 8. The ticket price is $20.

    The South Fork’s largest cultural institutions, Guild Hall and the Parrish Art Museum, have popular entertainments at the top of their agendas during the high season, although the St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble, the artistic core of St. Luke’s Orchestra, will perform at Guild Hall on Aug. 11. Tickets for this are $75.

    Ruth Widder was on St. Luke’s board and will be remembered on this occasion. Ms. Widder was the wizard behind Music for Montauk, an exceptional program that until her death this year brought a score of musical genres to grade school students at the Montauk School and a free concert there for adults. Another highlight of classical music in season used to be the Music Festival of the Hamptons. It is in hiatus following the death of its directorial sparkplug, Eleanor Leonard.

    The libraries fill in whenever there’s an open evening. The Montauk Library has a vintage Steinway M in its quiet Suzanne Gosman Room, which is put to good use year round. Every summer, the octogenarian composer Mira J. Spektor presents a concert by the Aviva Players, and this year, in keeping with Verdi and Wagner’s bicentennials, the library will host a program of their songs on Sunday and another, for kids as well as adults and labeled “fun,” on the folklore and magic in Wagner’s Ring on June 8.

    The John Jermain Memorial Library in Sag Harbor is out of the classical running this summer, as the renovation of its charming building proceeds, but South­ampton’s Rogers Memorial Library will continue showcasing outstanding artists. Olga Vinokur, a prize-winning pianist, will be onstage Sunday, and the cellist Antonio Lysy, with Neal Stulberg, a pianist and conductor, will offer a free program on June 9.

    By the way, if you enjoy taking the ferry to Shelter Island, you won’t want to miss concerts at the Shelter Island Presbyterian Church. The Shelter Island Friends of Music have taken advantage of the excellent acoustics there year round, bringing outstanding young talent as well as such stars as the soprano Jan de Gaetani and the pianist Richard Goode to the island. Admission is free, with donations accepted at the door. Concerts start at 8 p.m. The Linden String Quartet was on the calendar for May 18, the Wind Synch Quintet will be there on June 15, and the coloratura soprano Jeannette Vecchione on Sept. 1.

    And let’s not forget the Choral Society of the Hamptons, which performs three times a year and will present part one, the Exodus, of Handel’s “Israel in Egypt” and Bach’s Cantata 79 at the Parish Hall of Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church in East Hampton at 7 p.m. on June 29. The full complement of Choral Society members will be joined by the Greenwich Village Singers to raise the rafters of the Parish Hall, which has brilliant acoustics.

    The South Fork Chamber Orchestra will buoy the vocalists and present part of one of Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos as an interlude. The soloists, who are known to the society’s regular audiences, are Suzanne Schwing, mezzo-soprano, and Mischa Bouvier, baritone.

   The Southampton Cultural Center will present a dance recital by Steps Repertory Ensemble on Saturday at 7 p.m. at the center’s Levitas Center for the Arts. Under the guidance of Claire Livingstone, the artistic director and a former dancer with the Royal Ballet, the ensemble has grown to a company of 10 to 12 professional dancers.

    Saturday’s performance will include the world premiere of Shannon Gillen’s “On Certainty,” set to music by Frank Bretschneider and Ryoji Ikeda; an excerpt from Zvi Gotheiner’s “Chairs,” a work for nine dancers set to a collage of music ranging from Rachmaninoff to Russian Orthodox liturgical to movie music; “Knead,” by Benoit-Swan Pouffer, exploring the dynamic of friendship and trust, and an encore performance of Nathan Trice’s “Conversations” on the subject of love, set to music by Keith Jarrett.

    Tickets, at $20 or $10 for students under 21 with I.D., are available in advance at scc-arts.org or at the door 40 minutes before the performance.

   Three couples, an indiscretion, a cover-up, accusations, and crumbling alibis on overlapping sets lead to confusion and comedy in the Hampton Theatre Company’s revival of Alan Ayckbourn’s “How the Other Half Loves,” opening today for a three-week run at Quogue Community Hall.

    The production of “How the Other Half Loves” features the living rooms of two of the three couples overlapping on the same set and sharing a common dining table. The shared table allowed the playwright to have two different, disastrous dinner parties on two different evenings play out simultaneously in the same scene.

    Diana Marbury, HTC’s artistic director who played the role of Fiona Foster in the 1992 production, directs a cast of six, made up of three HTC regulars and three newcomers to the company.

    Showtimes are Thursdays at 7 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., and Sundays at 2:30 p.m. Tickets cost $25, $23 for those 65 or over, and $10 for students under 21 and are available at hamptontheatre.org or by calling OvationTix. The company will offer dinner theater packages in collaboration with the Southampton, Westhampton Beach, Hampton Bays, and Quogue libraries

   The sounds of summer begin tomorrow at 6 p.m. with the return of D.J. Blind Prophet to the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill. The public is invited to enjoy food and beverages, along with music, on the terrace. The event is free with museum admission.

    Blind Prophet is Joseph Burns, a native Long Islander. After his first release, on the Car Crash Set label out of Seattle in 2010, his music has appeared on other labels including L2S Recordings, Gradient Audio, DubKraft, and Haunted Audio. He has performed in the United States, Canada, and Europe. Reservations are suggested.

   Arthur Pinajian’s life and legacy combine to form one of those stories that should be made into a book or movie, and it was. Yet, it wasn’t about him specifically. Kurt Vonnegut’s novel “Bluebeard: The Autobiography of Rabo Karabekian” is about an eccentric Armenian-American painter who knew all the big boys of Abstract Expressionism but chose to paint his own art in obscurity and died unknown. This is also Pinajian’s story in brief, and the similarities in “Bluebeard” continue, but you get the idea.

    A sampling of the Bellport artist’s midcentury-style abstractions and later landscapes are now on view at Lawrence Fine Arts in East Hampton. His work has been likened to that of other East End artists such as Arshile Gorky, Willem de Kooning, and Adolph Gottlieb.

    Pinajian worked six months of the year in his sister’s cottage in Bellport, and Vonnegut spent much of his time in Sagaponack, but there is no record of the artist and writer having known each other, or of Vonnegut having been aware of the artist by reputation or through other connections. Like “Bluebeard,” Pinajian’s art was finally “discovered,” found by two house flippers hoping to make the most of the real estate boom in 2006.

    Thomas V. Schultz and Lawrence E. Joseph were struck by the artist’s work, some 7,000 pieces, that remained piled up in the garage he had used as a studio. They bought the house and through various connections they brought in art historians to take a look over a period of months. The experts liked what they saw.

    Pinajian, who died in 1999, and whose sister is also dead, left instructions that his entire oeuvre be destroyed. On at least two occasions, it almost was. Howard Shapiro, the owner of Lawrence Fine Arts, said in his gallery on May 12 that each time, those in charge of the estate thought better of it and returned the paintings, drawings, sketchbooks, and journals to the garage.

    Mr. Schultz was the first potential buyer to see the cottage and studio, one of the smallest houses in the area at a scant 625 square feet. “The house also had works that were stored in the attics and in various rooms,” he said. Mr. Schultz had taken art history classes in college and found himself responding to the pieces.

    By that point he had decided to buy the house, “and I concluded that I was not going to be the one who put someone’s life’s work into a Dumpster. I called my business partner and told him I wanted to save it and he supported me, but we did not know where it was going to take us,” Mr. Schultz said by phone on May 14.

    After they brought in the experts, including the late William Innes Homer, who was professor emeritus at the University of Delaware, where he had previously been chairman of the art department, and Peter Hastings Falk, an arts reference book publisher and appraiser, they began conserving the work and separating it into periods: midcentury-style abstractions, landscapes, and a series of erotic nudes. They set about putting together a catalog and showing pieces in various venues around the country, including two shows in New York City — one in SoHo and another this spring at the Fuller Building in Midtown.

    Mr. Shapiro was approached to have a show because of his gallery’s location on the East End. “I was hesitant, because who needs to show another unknown artist? Every gallery has the underrated unknown artist with untold stories,” he said. “It’s a little trite, but I said yes with some trepidation.”

    What sold him was the quality of the works and their freshness to the marketplace. “Everyone wants a masterpiece from that period, but all of the good things are already in museums. If all you can get is a C-plus Gorky, why not buy an A-plus Pinajian?”

    While most of his best art is still available, not everything in the large collection is of the highest quality. At Pinajian’s best, his abstract works show a dynamic line and a Cubist shard-like style that was rejected by many in the period who were trying to shake off European traditions from earlier decades. Judging from the works in the catalog, it appears that Pinajian tried on painting styles like cardigans, but his use of color and line is unique, even when echoing others of his period.

    Mr. Shapiro said the Fuller Building show “was going nowhere until The New York Times got a hold of the story.” The article, by James Barron and published in March of this year, caused the story of the artist and his work to take off “like a rocket ship, and now it has a momentum of its own.” Collectors have since flown in and major museums are said to be interested, although none have finalized purchases yet. Mr. Shapiro said he took three works to an art fair in Chicago and all of them sold, and fast.

    According to Mr. Schultz, who is managing the collection, they plan to sell a small portion of the works to help defray costs but would like to find a collector who is interested in the whole archive, which includes the artwork as well as the journals and Pinajian’s early work as a commercial illustrator for comic books and other projects. Estimates of the value of the group in its entirety range anywhere from $30 million to $150 million, depending on who is doing the estimating.

    The team that put together the Pinajian shows and catalog have also formed a group called Rediscovered Masters to help other artists’ estates and late-career artists gain recognition, showings, and sales. Three East Hampton artists are currently listed on the group’s Web site: Dan Christensen, who died in 2007, and Connie Fox and William King, a married couple who show regularly on the South Fork and in New York City.

    With so many artists of the midcentury years having passed away in obscurity on the national and international scenes after having been linked with the best and the brightest during their early careers, it would seem some lessons could be drawn from Pinajian’s experience. Perhaps collectors will consider buying some of the A-plus work that might still be moldering in garages out here if it is presented in the right way.

    Mr. Shapiro wasn’t sure, but said he hoped so. “There is a certain romance in this particular story, the artist who never showed and wanted his work destroyed. People respond to it, and then they respond to the work.”