From Mozart and Da Ponte to Gilbert and Sullivan, the classic arts scene in New York is never quiet. Here is just a sampling of some of the classic arts events happening this week:
Kicking off the week May 1 is the New York Pops’ 40th Birthday Gala at Carnegie Hall, paying tribute to Barry Manilow. Performers will include Megan Hilty, Norm Lewis, Dionne Warwick, and Lillias White, as well as members of the off-Broadway cast of Harmony, which recently announced a Broadway run.
May 3, MasterVoices will present a concert of Gilbert and Sullivan’s Iolanthe. The performance of the 1882 comic opera about a band of fairies who take over England’s House of Lords will feature Christine Ebersole as the Queen of the Fairies, David Garrison as the Lord Chancellor, Shereen Ahmed as the banished fairy Iolanthe, Schyler Vargas as her half-fairy (the upper half) son Strephon, and Ashley Fabian as Phyllis, the ward of chancery with whom Strephon is in love. Rounding out the cast will be Santino Fontana and Jason Danieley as Lords Mountararat and Tolloller, two persons of no capacity whatever; and Phillip Boykin as Private Willis, the sentry on duty.
Also performing at Carnegie Hall this week will be pianist Evgeny Kissin, electroacoustic duo ARKAI, and the Metropolitan Opera Chamber Ensemble with bass-baritones Eric Owens and Ryan Speedo Green, who will be performing excerpts from Terence Blanchard’s Champion, performances of which continue this week at the Met.
Also at the Met, a new production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni, directed by Ivo van Hove, opens Friday May 5, starring baritone Peter Mattei in the title role of the Mozart masterpiece. Mattei is considered one of today's foremost interpreters of the role of Don Giovanni, and has sung the role 36 times at the Met since his house role debut in 2003, 20 years ago. Mattei is joined by sopranos Ana María Martínez, Federica Lombardi, and Ying Fang. This is the third Mozart opera Fang and Lombardi have sung together at the Met, after acclaimed performances in Idomeneo this past October, and Le Nozze di Figaro last season. Ben Bliss, Adam Plachetka, Alfred Walker, and Alexander Tsymbalyuk complete the cast.
May 4-6, the New York Philharmonic welcomes violinist Leonidas Kavakos and conductor Gianandrea Noseda for a program of Shostakovich, Walker, and Respighi. May 7, violinist Joshua Bell will lead musicians from the NY Philharmonic is a program of Bach, Chausson, and Tchaikovsky.
The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center will be joined May 2 by horn player Radek Baborák, former principal horn of the Berlin Philharmonic. The program will include two trios by Brahms, and Dohnányi’s Sextet in C major for Clarinet, Horn, Violin, Viola, Cello, and Piano. May 7, the Chamber Music Society will present the Emerson String Quartet in a program of Ravel, Webern, Bartók, Shostakovich, and a world premiere by Sarah Kirkland Snider. Both concerts will be at Alice Tully Hall.
Starting May 2, the New York City Ballet will present two programs of 21st century choreography. The first program will feature works by Justin Peck, Gianna Reisen, and Kyle Abraham, choreographed respectively to Caroline Shaw’s Pulitzer-winning Partita for 8 Voices, a newly-commissioned score by Solange Knowles, and the music of James Blake. The second program will feature choreography by Alysa Pires, Christopher Wheeldon, and Peck, featuring the music respectively of Jack Frerer, Arnold Schoenberg, and Dan Deacon.
To stay up to date with classic arts news, subscribe to Playbill's classic arts newsletter.
