Wagner, Korngold, and More: What's Happening in Classic Arts This Week

From grand opera to Broadway operetta, 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.

The Metropolitan Opera returns from its mid-season hiatus with a new production of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, running March 9-April 4. Director Yival Sharon makes his much-anticipated Met debut helming the production, which stars soprano Lise Davidsen as the Princess Isolde, with tenor Michael Spyres as Tristan. Mezzo-soprano Ekaterina Gubanova, baritone Tomasz Konieczny, and bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green round out the principal cast as Brangane, Kurwenal, and King Marke respectively. Met Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts Wagner's groundbreaking score, which Leonard Bernstein called "the central work of all music history."

The Met also returns with a revival of Puccini's Madama Butterfly, starring sopranos Ailyn Pérez and Aleksandra Kurzak alternating in the title role. Tenors Adam Smith and Matthew Polenzani share the role of Pinkerton, with baritones Quinn Kelsey and Andrzej Filończyk as Sharpless. The March 10 performance will be preceded by a "Tuesday Talk," free to attend for ticketholders with advance registration online. Experts and members of the Met staff will discuss the history of the opera, as well as highlighting key musical moments for the audience to listen for.

The New School's Mannes Opera will present Erich Wolfgang Korngold's The Silent Serenade at John Jay College's Gerald W. Lynch Theatre March 13 and 14. Written in the mid-1940s, The Silent Serenade was intended to be Korngold's Broadway debut as a composer, following his years of success as a film composer in Hollywood. However, disagreements between the composer and the Shubert brothers prevented the production from materializing. After the second world war, the Austrian-Jewish Korngold returned to Europe where The Silent Serenade was performed, first as a radio broadcast in 1951, and then staged in Dortmund in 1954. Mannes Opera's production, directed by Emma Griffin and conducted by Cris Frisco, will be the work's New York premiere, 80 years later than originally planned.

American Ballet Theatre's spring season at the David H. Koch Theatre continues with Lar Lubovitch's full-length ballet Othello, as well as programs of various shorter works in the company's repertory, including Alexei Ratmansky's Firebird, George Balanchine's Mozartiana, and Marius Petipa's Raymonda: Grand Pas Hongrois.

The Empire City Men's Chorus will perform the New York premiere of Jamie Powe's Gun Mass March 13 and 14 at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church. Written in response to the 2022 Uvalde school shooting, Gun Mass is modeled after a full Catholic Mass, reflecting on gun violence and the response to it as a kind of American ritual.

The New York Philharmonic will celebrate the 250th anniversary of the United States with the world premiere of a new orchestration of Frederic Rzewski's The People United Will Never Be Defeated. The 1975 composition for piano is a set of variations on a Chilean protest anthem, and the variations have been orchestrated for this performance by eighteen different composers. Gustavo Dudamel will conduct the program, which also includes a performance of Beethoven's Eroica symphony.

The English Concert will give a performance of Handel's Hercules at Carnegie Hall March 15, starring bass William Guanbo Su as Hercules. The musical drama tells the story of Hercules and his wife Dejanira, as dramatized in Sophocles' Women of Trachis. Harry Bicket will conduct the performance, which also features Ann Hallenberg as Dejanira, Hilary Cronin as Iole, David Portillo as Hyllus, and Alexander Chance as Lichas.

Carnegie Hall will also host performances this week by the Philadelphia Orchestra with mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato and soprano Ying Fang (March 10); the American Composers Orchestra (March 11); violinist Kristin Lee with pianist John Novacek (March 12); and the New York Pops (March 13).

The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center presents Century of Winds March 13 at Alice Tully Hall. A wind quintet comprising flautist Tara Helen O'Connor, oboist Juri Vallentin, clarinettist David Shifrin, bassoonist Peter Kolkay, and horn player David Byrd-Marrow will perform works by Maurice Emmanuel, Richard Strauss, Carl Czarny, August Klughardt, Andre jolivet, and Louise Farrenc, joined by pianist Michael Stephen Brown.

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