2019-2020 Season Preview: Owed to Joy

Carnegie Hall announces a season-long celebration of all things Beethoven.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Came back haunted: the spirit of Ludwig van Beethoven visits Carnegie Hall in the 2019-2020 season.
Photo courtesy Carnegie Hall, alteration by the author. 

The music of Ludwig van Beethoven, particularly the symphonies, piano sonatas and string quartets, forms the central thrust of the 2019-2020 Carnegie Hall schedule. The schedule was unveiled today at the traditional yearly press conference at the historic venue. The emphasis on Beethoven is for calendar reasons: next year marks his sestercentennial or 250th birthday. (A more cynical blog than this might also add that Beethoven's music remains an evergreen source of tickets and subscriptions, but that's not something we'd ever say in print.)

The Carnegie Hall 2017-2018 Season Preview

The Hall Where Music Lives sets the wayback machine.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Two visitors check out Carnegie Hall (left) in the 1960s.
Sherman and Mr. Peabody © Dreamworks Entertainment.

The science of time travel is not normally associated with the classical music business. And yet, one might argue that the finest time travel device in New York City stands not in some hidden laboratory but on the corner of 57th St. and Seventh Avenue. That's right, it's Carnegie Hall, whose 2017-18 season offers the intrepid listener a chance to travel between centuries and musical worlds.

Season Preview: It's a Bellwether Season!

The New York Philharmonic turns 175.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

No there really aren't giant bells hanging from the concert ceiling of David Geffen Hall.
That's photo alteration by the author.

Ring out the bells, real or imaginary: this is an important year for the New York Philharmonic. America's oldest orchestra celebrates 175 years of making music this year, even as it looks ahead to the coming renovations of David Geffen Hall and the end of an era as Alan Gilbert prepares to step down as music director.. The season opens tonight, so here's an overview of this exciting year to come.

Season Preview: The Prodigy Returns

The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center focuses 2016-17 on Mendelssohn.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Two sides of Felix Mendelssohn: as child prodigy and man.
His music is at the center of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center's
programming for the 2016-17 season. 

The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center has announced its schedule for 2016-17, an ambitious slate focused on the life and artistry of one of the most important but under appreciated composers of the 19th century: Felix Mendelssohn. A pianist at the age of six, Mendelssohn became one of the most noted composers in Europe with his incidental music for A Midsummer Night's Dream, published when its creator was just 19.

A Look Ahead: Carnegie Hall in 2014-15

The Grass is Always Greener...Upstairs
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Anne Sophie Mutter (left) and Joyce DiDonato are
the  Carnegie Hall Perspectives artists for 2014-15.

The annual schedule of concerts and performances put forth by the Carnegie Hall Corporation is always ambitious. Next season sees the culmination of an ambitious renovaton to the famed music venue, with the opening of new education rooms, party space and a grassy roof deck.

Onstage, promises to be a feast of multiculturalism, with UBUNTU! a lengthy festival devoted to the music and culture of South Africa, not one but two artists offering Perspectives series, and the appointment of Meredith Monk as next year's Composer In Residence.

With the enormous slate of programs on offer, Superconductor looks over the slate of concert and opera performances that you shouldn't miss next year at Carnegie Hall.

The Superconductor Fall Preview: The New York Philharmonic 2013-2014

New directions for New York's oldest orchestra.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Photo (by the author) of this year's New York Philharmonic 2013-2014 season announcement press packet. 
Original photograph by Chris Lee © 2013 The New York Philharmonic.

The New York Philharmonic's 2013-2014 season looks to continue on the path forged by Alan Gilbert in his first four years as music director. However, America's oldest orchestra will also strike out in bold directions, exploring new music, film music, and (once more) the Beethoven piano concertos.

New York City Opera Announces 2013-14 Season

Four Operas, More Performances and a Blonde.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

The City Opera opens its season with the U.S. premiere of
Mark Anthony Turnage's Anna Nicole.

The New York City Opera announced its 2013-2014 season on Tuesday morning, with a slate of programming that sticks to general manager George Steel’s four-opera formula but also offers some cautious, optimistic expansion on the previous and current seasons.

The press conference opened with the announcement that the company had balanced its books for this fiscal year. This balance was mainly accomplished by leaving Lincoln Center and avoiding traditional operatic expenses of livable orchestra salaries, unionized stage hands and a regular chorus.

The Superconductor 2012-2013 Season Preview: Great Performers at Lincoln Center

The annual series announces its lineup for 2012-2013.

Piano man: Jean-Yves Thibaudet plays Debussy at Lincoln Center this Fall.
Photo © IMG Artists.

Of the major series mounted annually at Lincoln Center, Great Performers is the hardest to define. It is essentially a traditional concert cycle, encompassing symphones, piano recitals and liederabend at the myriad venues of Lincoln Center. Here's what's on tap for next season.

The Superconductor 2012-2013 Season Preview: New York Philharmonic

Starting and ending with Stravinsky, an exciting year at the Philharmonic.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Music director Alan Gilbert. Photo by Chris Lee © 2010 The New York Philharmonic

The 2012-2013 season promises some big changes at the Philharmonic. Emanuel Ax, the pianist who has played 100 concerts with the ensemble over the years, joins the orchestra as Artist-in-Residence. Also, Christopher Rouse is the new Composer-in-Residence, replacing Magnus Lindberg. With a new orchestra contract in place and music director Alan Gilbert at the helm, this should be an exciting year for New York's hometown orchestra.

Here's twelve things that we're excited about seeing next season.

• In an egalitarian gesture, the 2012 season opens on Sept. 19 with an "ordinary" subscription concert conducted by Alan Gilbert. György Kurtág's ...quasi una fantasia... starts the year off, followed by Leif Ove Andsnes playing Beethoven's third Piano Concerto. The concert ends with Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring conducted by Mr. Gilbert. (There will be a gala opening too on Sept. 27, but that's probably not as exciting.)
• On Oct. 4, new Artist-in-Residence Emanuel Ax pairs Bach's D minor Keyboard Concerto with the Schoenberg Piano Concerto, followed by Mozart's Linz Symphony. Alan Gilbert conducts.
• The Nielsen Project continues Oct. 10, as Alan Gilbert conducts four concerts featuring the Danish composer's concertos for flute, violin and clarinet, paired with Tchaikovsky's Little Russian Symphony.

• The Philharmonic is working with Lincoln Center's White Light Festival this year. On Nov. 4 at the Rose Theater, Emanuel Ax will lead a chamber-sized performance of Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde in a reduced orchestration by Arnold Schoenberg.
• Kurt Masur and Lorin Maazel return to the Philharmonic this season. Mr. Masur offers two weeks of Brahms starting on Nov. 8. Mr. Maazel will lead works by Sibelius, Tchaikovsky, Lutoslawski and Shostakovich, starting Jan. 16, 2013.
• The first concerts of 2013 (starting Jan. 3)  feature French pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet, playing the Grieg Piano Concerto. Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra maestro Manfred Honeck conducts the program, which also includes Beethoven's Symphony No. 7.
• The Philharmonic continues its tradition of performing great Broadway musicals with Carousel. Rodgers and Hammerstein's operatic show will be staged at Avery Fisher Hall and directed by James Brennan. Carousel runs for five performances and will open Feb. 27.
• March has become the time of the season when the Philharmonic focuses on a single composer in a spring festival. This year, they offer The Bach Variations. The month-long festival, mounted in collaboration with the 92nd St. Y kicks off with a March 3 symposium. March 6 marks the first concert. The series will feature choral works (the Magnificat, the Mass in B minor) orchestral works and a collaboration with Hungarian pianist András Schiff. Mr Schiff will also make his debut as a conductor on April 3.
• Christopher Rouse's presence as the orchestra's new Composer in Residence will be felt (and heard) throughout the season, especially at a series of four concerts featuring soloist Joshua Bell and Charles Ives' daunting Symphony No. 4, a massive work that requires two conductors.
• This year's free Memorial Day Concert at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine (May 27) features Bruckner's Third Symphony, as Alan Gilbert continues his survey of the major works by this heavyweight Austrian composer. For those wishing for better acoustics, the Bruckner Third will also be played in subscription concerts starting April 24, 2013.
• June 6 is D-Day, as in Luigi Dallapiccola. The Philharmonic presents his one-act opera Il Prigionero, a 1948 work that offers a powerful statement about political oppression. This concert is presented as part of June Journey: Gilbert's Playlist, a season-ending series of concerts highlighting the many influences and personal musical taste of the New York Philharmonic's music director. 
• The season ends with the welcome return of visionary designer Doug Fitch (Le Grand Macabre, The Cunning Little Vixen.) This time, the Brooklyn-based artist will mount Stravinsky's Petrushka, a ballet score about a love-struck puppet that meets a violent end.

2012: The Road to Apocalypse

12 Survival Tips for the Months Ahead.

The technical term for this is... 
Tetragrammatonophobia. We think.

The Mayan calendar predicted that the world ends in 2012.

According to the opera schedule, the Mayans were right. 

On Jan. 27, Robert Lepage unveils his version of Götterdämmerung, the last opera in Wagner's Ring. With floods, collapsing castles, and large supernaturally powered fires, the Ring is the ultimate operatic disaster movie. But while you're stocking up on canned Goya® beans, tomato sauce and Sterno™, there's some great music to be heard in the next six months. Here's a quick look:

John Cage turns 100

The Juilliard FOCUS! Festival celebrates the centennial of this marvelous maverick composer with "Sounds Re-Imagined: John Cage at 100".  four concerts worth of Cage's compositions.  Featured works include Third Construction, the Concerto for Prepared Piano and Orchestra, and the Concerto for Organ with Percussion Orchestra. (Juilliard School, opens Jan. 27)

Opera Orchestra of New York: Rienzi

If you think this city's Wagnerians are excited about upcoming performances of Götterdämmerung, that's got nothing on the buzz for a rare reading of Rienzi, the early Wagner grand opera that chronicles a "man of the people" (Ian Storey) and his rise and fall from power. No word on whether the tribune is considering a try for the Republican nomination. Eve Queler conducts. (Lincoln Center--Avery Fisher Hall. Jan. 29)

Philip Glass turns 75.

The American Composers Orchestra (led by alumni conductor Dennis Russell Davies) presents the world premiere of the Ninth Symphony by Mr. Glass. Also on the program, a rare New York performance of Lamentate by Estonian composer (and fellow minimalist) Arvo Pärt. (Carnegie Hall, Jan. 31)

Berlin Philharmonic: The Complete Bruckner Ninth

The Berliners make a long-awaited return to New York with Bruckner's last work, the Ninth Symphony, Here, the piece is performed with a completion of the final movement, which the composer was working on when he died. Sir Simon Rattle conducts. (Carnegie Hall, Feb. 24)

Metropolitan Opera: Khovanshchina

Modest Mussorgsky's unfinished opera looks at the 18th century Russian equivalent of the 99%. Khovanshchina ("The Khovansky Affair") depicts the rise of Tsar Peter I ("the Great") by killing off everybody who could possibly oppose him. Presented here in the completion by Dmitri Shostakovich, this is one of the most powerful political operas ever made. (Metropolitan Opera, opens Feb. 27)

New York Philharmonic: The Modern Beethoven

This three-week spring festival at the Philharmonic features conductor David Zinman presenting six of the Beethoven symphonies in the new (2007) critical editions published by Bärenreiter-Verlag. Each concert matches Beethoven's music with a modern work by Stravinsky, Samuel Barber, and Karl Amadeus Hartmann. (Lincoln Center--Avery Fisher Hall, opens March 1)

Metropolitan Opera: L'Elisir d'Amore

The Met is probably going to replace this charming production of L'Elisir with something set on a haunted space vessel marooned out near Neptune. But before that event comes on the horizon, enjoy this revival pairing Juan Diego Flórez and Diana Damrau. (Metropolitan Opera, opens March 5)

American Symphony Orchestra: Notre Dame

Leon Botstein and the American Symphony Orchestra present a rarely heard adaptiation of Victor Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. Franz Schmidt is an Austrian composer in the Bruckner mold, whose brass-heavy music is beloved by horn players and deserves to be played and heard more often. (Carnegie Hall, March 18)

Gotham Chamber Opera: Il Sogno di Scipione

Gotham Chamber Opera's spring offering is a rare revival for this company as it celebrates ten years of music making. GCO will revive its very first show, a production of this rarely heard Mozart opera. A one-act work, Il Sogno di Scipione (Scipio's Dream) was written when the composer was just 15. (John Jay College--Gerald W. Lynch Theater, opens April 11)

Metropolitan Opera: The Makropoulos Case

The Met opens a short run of this powerful Janáček opera with Karita Mattila in the title role--as a 300 year old opera singer seeking one last gulp of immortality. This is one of the Met's best productions, a brilliant mystery story with a science fiction edge. Highly recommended.  (Metropolitan Opera, opens April 27)

Bang on a Can turns 25.

This ensemble celebrates the artistic and performance revolution that they started in a SoHo art gallery 25 years ago. This concert features Tire Fire by BOAC director Evan Zyporyn, a new work by Tatsuya Yoshida and the U.S. premiere of the Bang on a Can All-Stars' Field Recordings. At (Lincoln Center--Alice Tully Hall, April 28)

Cleveland Orchestra: Salome

Carnegie Hall plays host to the bloody harmonies of Richard Strauss' biblical drama. Nina Stemme plays the girl who gets whatever she wants. Franz Welser-Möst conducts what will probably be one of the best opera events of the spring season. (Carnegie Hall, May 27)

Who Are You, New York City Opera?

The 2011-2012 New York City Opera Preview

Act III of Jonathan Miller's production of La Traviata from the Glimmerglass Festival. 
Photo by Richard Termine. © 2007 Glimmerglass Festival.

The New York City Opera has fleshed out some of the details of its skeletal 2011-2012 season, the company's first since its April announcement that it was leaving Lincoln Center.

However, as the company has not yet reached a deal with Local 806 or AGMA over union contracts for its musicians and choristers, these performances may be met with picket lines and large inflatable rats.

The Fall schedule (which, in happier days started in early September and ran into early November at the former New York State Theater) will consist of one concert.

The songwriter Rufus Wainwright, possibly thinking about Puccini.
Photo from his official site.

This show, entitled Who Are You New York: The Songs of Rufus Wainwright will be performed at the medium-sized Rose Theater in the Time Warner Center on Nov. 17. The concert will feature Mr. Wainwright and a collection of young City Opera singers. They will perform his song cycle All Days Are Nights: Songs For Lulu, followed by selections from Mr. Wainwright's song-book.

"Who are you, New York?" is an apt question for this company, as it forges ahead into strange new territory under the guiding hand of general manager George Steel. The City Opera's Spring opera season will start in February of 2012, with two works performed in repertory at the Brooklyn Academy of Music's historic Howard Gilman Opera House.

The first of these is Verdi's La Traviata, presented in a Jonathan Miller staging imported from the City Opera's old friends at the Glimmerglass Festival in Cooperstown, NY. Tenor David Pomeroy makes his company debut as Alfredo. Brooklyn native Laquita Mitchell is Violetta. Steven White, who led this opera at the Met in 2009, will conduct.

La Traviata will play in repertory with the New York premiere of Mr. Wainwright's opera Prima Donna. Melody Moore will sing the lead in this French-language opera, which was originally commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera until Met general manager Peter Gelb insisted that Mr. Wainwright write his libretto in English.

March sees the City Opera migrate to the Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, just two blocks away from their old digs at 20 Lincoln Center. The opera: Mozart's Così fan tutte in an eagerly anticipated new staging from director Christopher Alden. Mr. Alden's version of Don Giovanni (set in a funeral parlor) was the first success of Mr. Steel's term as general manager, and the company is hoping for a repeat of that success in this smaller theater.

In May, the City Opera packs its bags again and moves to El Museo del Barrio on the Upper East Side. They will perform Orpheus, another version of the myth about the legendary musician from Greek mythology. This one is by German baroque composer Georg Philipp Telemann, and may prove to be an intriguing way to end this abbreviated season. Baritone Daniel Teadt makes his company debut in the title role.

The 2011-2012 Metropolitan Opera Season Preview

All the operas, from Anna Bolena to Billy Budd. 
by Paul Pelkonen.

Queen Anna: Ms. Netrebko in Anna Bolena. Photo by Brigitte Lacombe © 2011 The Metropolitan Opera

After spending the summer in deep negotiations with the various unions that make up the staff of the Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center' sole remaining opera company is gearing up for an exciting 2011-2012 season.

Come blow your horn. Gary Lehman as Siegfried. Photo by Brigitte Lacombe © 2011 The Metropolitan Opera

The schedule this year is already fraught with drama, and the gold curtain has yet to rise on the company's new staging of Donizetti's Anna Bolena, the final chapters of the Robert Lepage Ring cycle, or The Enchanted Island, the "baroque pastiche" that opens on New Year's Eve.


There are a few things to note before we get to the season:

All performances now start at 7:30 instead of 8. Whether this is an attempt to appease bridge-and-tunnel opera lovers or get more people to watch the operas in the comfort of List Hall is anyone's guess.

Ticket prices are once again higher. Subscribers who want to change out an opera have to now pay a $7.50 service fee per ticket--a 50% increase--unless you're changing the night you're going but not switching operas.

The company is doing three full cycles of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen this year. Unfortunately, they've changed the scheduling of the operas so it's no longer possible to go to a complete cycle in the course of one week.

Here's a quick breakdown of the season by month:



September:
The season starts on Monday, Sept. 26 with a gala performance of Anna Bolena with Anna Netrebko in the title role. For the rest of us mortals, Nabucco is the first generale opera of the year.

Ladies' Man: Mariusz Kwiecien is Don Giovanni. Photo by Nick Heavican © 2011 The Metropolitan Opera

October:
The repertory operas in October are Anna, Nabucco, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, and two new productions: Don Giovanni and Siegfried. Gary Lehman (a late replacement for tenor Ben Heppner) takes on the arduous task of being the world's dumbest hero. There's also a recital featuring Jonas Kaufmann on Oct. 30.

November:
As the leaves turn, revivals of Philip Glass' Satyagraha (part of the celebration of the composer's 75th birthday) and Handel's Rodelinda (starring Renée Fleming) join the repertory. La bohème returns (again) and the new "atomic age" Faust (a co-production with English National Opera) starring Mr. Kaufmann and Marina Poplavskaya has its premiere.

Witchy Woman: Joyce DiDonato is Sycorax in the new pastiche The Enchanted Island. 
Photo by Nick Heavican © 2011 The Metropolitan Opera.

December:
Featured operas this month include revivals of Madama Butterfly, La Fille du régiment and Hansel and Gretel. New Year's Eve marks the premiere of The Enchanted Island, a pastiche of works by Handel and Vivaldi starring David Daniels and Joyce DiDonato. It is a sort of Shakespearean prequel to The Tempest, with a new libretto by Jeremy Sams.

January 2012:
The Luc Bondy Tosca gets another go-round. Expect another set of directorial tweaks. The month ends with the premiere of the new Götterdämmerung, the last chapter of the Ring.

February: February features a number of operas continuing in repertory, a rare revival of Mussorgsky's Khovanshchina along with two Verdi classics: Ernani and Aida.

March: 
The busiest month on the Met calendar opens with the re-teaming of Juan Diego Flórez and Diana Damrau in a revival of L'Elisir d'Amore. Also, Adrian Noble's well-received 2007 production of Verdi's Macbeth. Madama Butterfly returns (with Patricia Racette in the title role) alongside a second run of Don Giovanni starring baritone Gerald Finley.

Is this a bust? Anna Netrebko as Manon. Photo by Bill Cooper © 2010 Royal Opera House of Covent Garden.

April: 
Das Rheingold and Die Walküre return, as the Met schedule is dominated by the three scheduled Ring cycles. But in between the clanks and thunks of Robert Lepage's whirring machine set, the company's new production of Manon and last year's La Traviata finds both of these ladies open for business.

May:
The very end of the season features the last of the three Ring cycles, alongside rare revivals of Billy Budd (starring Nathan Gunn in the title role with James Morris as the evil John "Jemmy Legs" Claggart) and The Makropoulos Case (with Karita Mattila in the title role). These are important operas that deserve to be more than an afterthought on the schedule.

To order tickets for the Metropolitan Opera's 2011-2012 season, visit the box office at Lincoln Center, or buy your seats at MetOpera.Org.

Come in and burn: Deborah Voigt is Brunnhilde in Götterdämmerung.
Photo by Brigitte Lacombe © 2011 The Metropolitan Opera.

2011-2012 Live in HD Schedule:
Anna Bolena: Oct. 15, 2011
Siegfried: Nov. 5, 2011
Satyagraha: Nov. 19, 2011
Rodelinda: Dec. 3, 2011
Faust: Dec. 10, 2011
The Enchanted Island: Jan. 21, 2012
Götterdämmerung: Feb. 11, 2012
Ernani: Feb. 25, 2012
Manon: April 7, 2012
La Traviata: April 14, 2012

Contact the author: E-mail Superconductor editor Paul Pelkonen.

Stadtoperdämmerung

("Twilight of the City Opera.")

Read the fine print.
 Image © Topps/Major League Baseball.

The New York City Opera will announce its schedule for 2011-2012 next Tuesday at the Guggenheim Museum. But thanks to New York Times scribe Daniel Wakin, we can now share with you most of the details of that schedule, complete with analysis.

The "season" will kick off in October with a concert performance of an unannounced opera by an unannounced composer at a location that will be disclosed following the completion of a scavenger hunt. To get the location, and opera performed, would-be opera-goers must collect the following five objects before next Tuesday's press conference:

1. an uncensored 1989 Fleer Billy Ripken baseball card. (pictured right.)
2. Giuseppe Sinopoli's baton.
3. A lock of wig hair from the Broadway production of Elton John's Aida.
4. One of the stays from La Cieca's favorite corset.
5. The original "Grail" prop from the Met's Otto Schenk production of Wagner's Parsifal.

The first four objects must be placed within the Grail and burned at Belvedere Castle during a new moon at 12am Friday night.

In other words, we don't know what the first opera is.


The rest of the schedule is fairly pedestrian. La Traviata and Rufus Wainwright's Prima Donna will be staged at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Not sure which theater yet. At least it's close to Junior's.

Good move, by the way, doing an opera that the Met is mounting this year. The Met's version has Natalie Dessay as Violetta, in the "red dress" production by Willy Decker that bowed last year. The City Opera's is by Jonathan Miller. This well-traveled show is a rental from their old partners at Glimmerglass in Cooperstown, NY.

The Gerald W. Lynch Theater at the John Jay College for Criminal Justice will host Mozart's Cosí fan tutte, in a new staging mounted by Christopher Alden, who directed the company's 2009 staging of Don Giovanni.

I liked my idea better--of performing the opera in various Cosí sandwich bars around the city. Better coffee, Mozart and free WiFi are a winning combination.

Finally, baroque opera by Telemann to be performed at the Museo del Barrio. Considering that Telemann wrote 33 operas, the choice may be determined by the following means:

Either way, this looks like a zero.

2011 Lincoln Center Festival Preview

Franz Welser-Möst brings the music of Bruckner and John Adams to the Lincoln Center Festival
Photo © 2009 The Cleveland Orchestra.

This summer's Lincoln Center Festival offer innovative approaches to familiar repertory, from the operas of Mozart to the massive symphonic structures of Anton Bruckner.

The Cleveland Orchestra begins its residency at the Festival with Bruckner (R)evolution, pairing the music of Anton Bruckner and John Adams. Franz Welser-Möst conducts. Mr. Welser-Möst has garnered praise for his Vienna and Cleveland performances of the Bruckner symphonies, and has shown himself at home in the music of the 20th and 21st centuries.


These four concerts will focus on the "Big Four": the Fifth, Seventh, Eighth, and the unfinished Ninth. In an unconventional move, Mr. Welser-Möst will conduct the original, unrevised versions of the symphonies which are rarely heard on the New York concert stage.

With the exception of the Eighth, which is Bruckner's biggest symphonic work, each piece will be paired with a composition by minimalist superstar John Adams. Although it seems odd at first, this programming idea makes a lot of sense. It helps if you remember that Bruckner's music, with its stops, starts and repetitions, is in a way, minimalist.

The Danish maestro will also be on the podium for a rare New York appearance by the Royal Danish Orchestra, one of the oldest symphonic ensembles in Europe. Mr. Schønwandt will lead a program of works by Stravinsky and Carl Nielsen, the Danish composer whose symphonic music is finally gaining a foothold in the concert halls of New York.

The operatic offerings this July include A Magic Flute, a stripped-down adaptation of the Mozart classic, directed by Peter Brook. The Flute will be performed by just seven singers, with piano accompaniment, at the Gerald W. Lynch Theater in the nearby John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Also, the Royal Danish Opera presents the New York premiere of Selma Jezková, an opera by Poul Ruders based on the film Dancer in the Dark. Michael Schønwandt conducts.

As usual, the Lincoln Center Festival offers dance, theater, and world music. But for coverage of those, you'll have to read a different blog.

Carnegie Hall 2011-2012 Season Preview

View from the top. Photo from the balcony of Carnegie Hall by Melissa Kunz.

Trying to pack eight months of Carnegie Hall programming into one preview article is like trying to write instant bios of every character to ever appear on The Simpsons. There's too many concerts, too many events, and too much exciting programming to cram into one article. So this is just an overview, mentioning some of the most exciting programs on the slate for the 2011-2012 season. It's broken down according to the subscription brochure.

The Heavy Hitters: International Orchestras
The Berlin Philharmonic returns to New York under the baton of Sir Simon Rattle, offering a weighty program that pairs Mahler's massive Resurrection Symphony with works by Hugo Wolf. If that's not enough, he's leading the unfinished Bruckner Ninth Symphony, in a rarely-heard completion by Benjamin-Gunnar Cohrs.

Valery Gergiev brings St. Petersburg's Mariinsky Orchestra back for a run of Tchaikovsky symphonies, and Lorin Maazel offers his Ring Without Words, an orchestral version of the Wagner epic, as played by the Vienna Philharmonic. Other concerts include appearances by the London Philharmonic and the acclaimed Budapest Festival Orchestra.


The Home Teams: American Orchestras
The Cleveland, Philadelphia, and Minnesota Orchestras are coming to the Hall this year. The Boston Symphony Orchestra is scheduled as well, although there's some question as to whether James Levine (who steps down as music director this September) will conduct the performances. However, Mr. Levine will lead three programs with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra.

Michael Tilson Thomas brings the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra to town for a slate of 'American Mavericks' featuring the music of Charles Ives, John Cage, and other modernists. The New York Philharmonic will also make a rare appearance at Carnegie Hall, playing the Mahler Sixth under the baton of music director Alan Gilbert.

Recital Debut: Anna Netrebko. Photo by Clive Arrowsmith © 2010 Camera Press

Across the Stage: Piano and Vocal Recitals
Lovers of piano music have reason to celebrate this year. In addition to veteran keyboard wizards Maurizio Pollini, Leif Ove Andsnes, Andras Schiff, Evgeny Kissin and Mitsuko Uchida, next season features the first Hall recitals by Yuja Wang and Christian Zacharias. Downstairs at Zankel Hall, pianists Juho Pohjonen and Simon Trpčeski will offer the music of Debussy and Liszt. Vocal recitals include appearances by Susan Graham, Matthias Goerne, Ian Bostridge, and for the first time in a New York recital, Anna Netrebko.

From the Baroque to the Modern Age
Carnegie Hall continues to offer a balance of baroque music and modern works with performances at the smaller Zankel Hall and the still more intimate Weill Recital Hall. The American Composers Orchestra will pay tribute to the music of Philip Glass and Arvo Pärt.

The Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique offers their unique interpretations of Beethoven symphonies under the baton of Sir John Eliot Gardiner. And baroque groups like Tafelmusik and The English Concert explore the continuing fascination with early instruments and the sounds of the 17th and 18th centuries.

These little paragraphs barely scratch the surface of next year's season at the Hall. The Orchestra of St. Luke's, the American Symphony Orchestra, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and other independent organizations rent the Hall on a regular basis, creating a rich tapestry of concert programming. For more information, keep an eye on the Carnegie Hall Official Website.

The New York Philharmonic 2011-2012 Season Preview

Alan Gilbert is starting his third season at the helm of the New York Philharmonic.
Photo by Chris Lee, © 2010 The New York Philharmonic

The oldest professional orchestra in the United States (founded in 1842) returns for the 2011-2012 their, third under the baton of music director Alan Gilbert. Mr. Gilbert's leadership has seen the orchestra break new, exciting ground in the last two seasons. While the planned schedule lacks the operatic flair of Le Grand Macabre or this year's Hungarian Echoes festival, this should still be an exciting season at Avery Fisher Hall.

Here are, as well as we can determine it, the themes of the season:

Mahler Milestones
The Philharmonic continues celebrating the 150th birthday and 100th anniversary of the death of Gustav Mahler, the composer, symphonist and conductor. Mahler served as the Philharmonic's music director from 1909-1911, and the Philharmonic has been at the forefront of internatonal orchestras celebrating his work. Performances of the 1st, 2nd, 9th and 10th are scheduled for next year, with conductors including Mr. Gilbert, Daniel Harding and Jaap van Zweden.

The Return of the Three M's
Zubin Mehta, Kurt Masur, and Lorin Maazel, (who happen to be the three music directors who preceded Mr. Gilbert at the Philharmonic) are all conducting at Avery Fisher Hall next season. Mr. Mehta will conduct Bruckner's Eighth Symphony in January. Mr. Masur will lead a program featuring Shostakovich's "Babi Yar" symphony. And Mr. Maazel is offering Mozart and Debussy, one week, followed by the Strauss showpiece Ein Alpensinfonie the next. The latter piece required 150 musicians, including a full complement of horn players offstage.

Conductor David Zinman leads a program of Beethoven paired with modern music.
© DavidZinman.Org

The Modern Beethoven
David Zinman offers the start of a Beethoven cycle (well, six symphonies, anyway) in this three-week festival. Here's the catch: Each pair of Beethoven symphonies is programmed alongside 20th century music by Stravinsky, Samuel Barber, and Karl Amadeus Hartmann. Sadly, there's no Ninth planned for this year. Bernard Haitink makes an appearance leading the Sixth. And in June, Alan Gilbert offers Beethoven overtures in June, alongside works by Korngold and Carl Nielsen.

New Season, New Music
Alan Gilbert continues his initiative of offering New Yorkers the very best in contemporary music alongside traditional servings of Tchaikovsky, Brahms and Dvorak. This year, the Philharmonic offers the New York premieres of new music by John Corigliano and composer-in-residence Magnus Lindberg. The season ends with a "spatial" performance of Karlheinz Stockhausen's Gruppen, a difficult work which requires three separate orchestras, playing simultaneously in different parts of the hall.

City Opera Spring 2011 Preview: Pump Boys and Psychics

The New York City Opera is scheduled to open its spring season on March 22, with a slate of three productions.

Belcore (David Kempster) in a scene from the ENO L'Elisir d'Amore.
Photo © 2009 English National Opera

In the interests of artistic cooperation (and cost-saving), the City Opera will offer one revival, (L'Elisir d'Amore), and one import (Séance on a Wet Afternoon) The third is a tryptich of three Monodramas, one-act operas performed by one singer each. The three operas are by John Zorn, Arnold Schoenberg and Morton Feldman.

L'Elisir d'Amore opens on March 22. This production of Donizetti's bubbling romantic comedy is a collaboration with the English National Opera.

Jonathan Miller's production, first seen at City Opera in 2006, updates the action to the era immediately following World War II. Nemorino is a hapless pump boy, working next to Adina's Diner, somewhere in the American West. Belcore is an aggressive recruiter for Uncle Sam. Dr. Dulcamara's "elixir" is reimagined as Coca-Cola. But the music is still Donizetti, with one of his most imaginative and richly comic scores.

The Monodramas arrive on March 25. These three works include John Zorn's La Machine d'etre, a new work inspired by the drawings of Antonin Artaud; Erwartung by Arnold Schoenberg; and the U.S. stage premiere of Neither by American composer Morton Feldman. The last is based on the writings of Samuel Beckett.

The three works feature (respectively) sopranos Anu Komsi, Kara Shay Thompson and Cyndia Sieden.

Lauren Flanigan goes beyond the infinite in Séance on a Wet Afternoon.
Photo by David Bazemann © 2009 The Santa Barbara Independent

The season wraps up with the April 19 New York premiere of Stephen Schwartz' Séance on a Wet Afternoon. The opera stars City Opera mainstay Lauren Flanigan as psychic Myra Foster. Ms. Flanigan sang the premiere of this work (in Santa Barbara, 2009) and has been with the opera ever since the piece was in its workshop stage.

The production stars City Opera mainstay diva Lauren Flanigan. Ms. Flanigan will bring the same level of intensity and laser-like soprano that is all to familiar to attendees  of past City Opera triumphs, including Intermezzo, Lizzie Borden and last season's revival of Esther. Myra is a psychic who resorts to kidnapping and fraud in a last-ditch effort to legitimize her gifts and social standing. We predict... that the opera will have a tragic ending.

Stephen Schwartz rose to fame as a Broadway composer. Among his credits include the scores for Godspell, Pippin, and the biggest show on Broadway at the moment: Wicked. This is his first opera.

2011 Spring Opera Preview: The Operas That Bloom in the Spring (tra-la)

Renée Fleming in Capriccio.
Photo by Ken Howard © 2009 The Metropolitan Opera

As we start the new year, here's a look at some upcoming productions and performances coming to New York City in the next six months. This isn't everything on the schedule, but it includes most of what I'm planning to see and write about.

The Metropolitan Opera offers its first ever performances of Nixon in China in February. James Maddalena sings the title role, and composer John Adams is scheduled to conduct.

Also on tap:

• Revivals of Iphegenie en Tauride, The Queen of Spades, Wozzeck, Capriccio and Ariadne auf Naxos in addition to works by Verdi and Puccini.
• Die Walküre, the second installment in Robert Lepage's new production of the Ring. Deborah Voigt sings Brunnhilde in her first Met performances as Wagner's Valkyrie goddess.

In other Lepage-related news, the director's "aquatic" collaboration with the Canadian Opera Company: The Nightingale and Other Short Fables comes to Brooklyn Academy of Music for a short run, er, swim in early March.

Over at City Opera, the company offers an interesting spring slate.

• A revival of L'elisir d'amore is planned for March, bringing Donizetti's bel canto comedy back to the stage.
  
• Seance for a Wet Afternoon, the first "proper" opera by Broadway composer Steven Schwartz.
  
• An evening of Monodramas: one-act works by Arnold Schoenberg, Morton Feldman and John Zorn.
  
• A children's performance of Oliver Knussen's opera Where the Wild Things Are.
  

Operas in concert:

• The American Symphony Orchestra continues to bring rare repertory to light with this performance of Bérénice, the final opera by "French Wagnerite" Albéric Magnard. One performance at Carnegie Hall.
• In March, the Opera Orchestra of New York presents Meyerbeer's L'Africaine, a rarely heard example of French grand opera on the largest possible scale.
  
• Riccardo Muti brings his Chicago Symphony Orchestra forces to Carnegie Hall for an eagerly anticipated performance of Verdi's Otello.
  
• The New York Philharmonic will perform Bartok's Bluebeard's Castle as part of their three-week Hungarian Echoes festival in March. Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts.
  
• The Philharmonic's 2011 season concludes in June with a semi-staged version of Leos Janacek's The Cunning Little Vixen.