What do Japanese contemporary plays, a Scottish composer, and jazz musician Wynton Marsalis have in common? This year, they’ll all be a part of the diverse line-up at Lincoln Center’s White Lights Festival October 19 through November 24.
The showcase will bring festival favorites back to the stage as well as host American and New York City premieres across eight venues in NYC.
The White Light Festival aims to highlight the power of artistic expression to showcase individuality and how that connects humans together.
A list of the productions festival-goers can attend follows
• Soprano Christine Goerke and tenor Stephen Gould will perform Tristan und Isolde, Act II with Gianandrea Noseda and the National Symphony Orchestra.
• The U.S. production premiere of Sugimoto Bunraku Sonezaki Shinju: The Love Suicides at Sonezaki by Hiroshi Sugimoto, a contemporary reinterpretation of the classic play.
• Tony Award–winning director Garry Hynes will helm DruidShakespeare: Richard III from Ireland’s Druid theatre company.
• Highlighting his Catholic faith and Celtic heritage, Scottish composer James MacMillan’s will hold the U.S. premiere of two choral works Stabat Mater performed by Britten Sinfonia and The Sixteen, and the a cappella Miserere.
• Australia’s Circa ensemble will bring contemporary circus arts in the U.S. premiere of En Masse.
• Returning to the White Lights Festival after its debut in 2010 is The Manganiyar Seduction, performed by Sufi musicians from Northwest India.
• Soprano Julia Bullock and pianist Cédric Tiberghien will star in the New York premiere of Zauberland (Magic Land): An Encounter with Schumann’s Dichterliebe, directed by Katie Mitchell.
• The Abyssinian Mass by Wynton Marsalis, a musical introspective about the African-American experience performed by the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Marsalis himself.
Additional highlights include baritone Christian Gerhaher singing Mahler; Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic in Bruckner’s Fourth Symphony, performances by Caroline Shaw joined by the Attacca Quartet, and Journey to the East, narrated by John Douglas Thompson.
For more information, visit WhiteLightFestival.org.
