New York, New York
LIMELIGHT’S GUIDE TO THE BEST ARTS EVENTS IN THE BIG APPLE this february
Classical Music
A very Danish Beethoven Cycle
Beethoven’s 16 string quartets, composed in life-spanning groups, leap from one level of sophistication to the next telling the story of one of history’s greatest artists. Across six concerts, the award-winning Danish String Quartet performs the quartets in the order that Beethoven composed them, between 1798 and 1826.
susan graham recital
Lincoln Center offers a chance to catch the much-loved mezzo-soprano Susan Graham who returns to the stage where she made her New York recital debut, bringing her lustrous voice and exquisite tones to Schumann’s song cycle Frauenliebe und -leben, in dialogue with works by Fauré, Mahler, Strauss, and others, accompanied by pianist Malcolm Martineau.
Janine Jansen Brahms
Janine Jansen is the soloist in Brahms’s Violin Concerto, a work of symphonic proportions and technical fireworks. New YUork Phil Music Director Jaap van Zweden also conducts Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier Suite, which transports you to Vienna’s Golden Age. This concert, featuring Tania León’s commissioned work as part of the Phil’s pioneering Project 19.
Kirill Gerstein Recital
Fiery Hungarian folk music, brilliant flights of fancy, and pianism on the grand scale are showcased by a pianist praised for his “blazing technique, [and] wonderful command of color and nuance” (The Wall Street Journal). Hear how Liszt and Brahms fashioned traditional music into virtuoso showpieces, how Kurtág explored new worlds of colour, and more.
Mahler from Budapest
This all-Mahler program sees Iván Fischer lead his Budapest Festival Orchestra and contralto Gerhild Romberger in the Kindertotenlieder, lamentations on the death of a child. The evening concludes with Symphony No 5, an enduring monument to the composer’s belief that “a symphony must be like the world; it must embrace everything.”
Opera
the mother of us all
The Mother of Us All, which chronicles the story of Susan B. Anthony and the suffrage movement, comes to The Met Museum in a staged production led by some of today’s most dynamic young artists. Virgil Thomson and Gertrude Stein’s opera is rooted in the fight for women’s suffrage, the civil rights movement and issues of gender, race and sexuality.
Agrippina
Handel’s tale of intrigue and impropriety in ancient Rome stars Joyce DiDonato as the power-hungry Agrippina. Sir David McVicar shifts the action of this black comedy to “the present” with a cast that includes Kate Lindsey as Agrippina’s son Nero, Brenda Rae as the seductive Poppea, Iestyn Davies as Ottone and Matthew Rose as the emperor Claudius.
Bryn Terfel Recital
Sir Bryn Terfel “can roar—with pain, with pleasure, with fierce indignation, filling the hall with full, strong tone, [and] can also coo and purr at an extreme pianissimo, making a sound that stays audible only because there is so much in it to feel, as well as to hear” (New York Times). The popular Welsh bass-baritone returns to Carnegie Hall for an electrifying recital.
Nicole Car’s Così
Coney Island returns to the Met stage in Phelim McDermott’s staging inspired by the side shows of the boardwalk. Australian star soprano Nicole Car and mezzo Serena Malfi sing opposite Ben Bliss, and Luca Pisaroni, with Gerald Finley as the cynical Don Alfonso and Heidi Stober as the mischievous maid Despina. Harry Bicket conducts.
Porgy Returns
Another chance to catch James Robinson’s stylish production vibrant with the music, dancing, emotion, and heartbreak of its Catfish Row inhabitants. David Robertson conducts a dynamic cast, featuring Eric Owens and Angel Blue in the title roles and an all-star ensemble that includes Janai Brugger, Latonia Moore, Denyce Graves, Frederick Ballentine and Alfred Walker.
Musicals & Theatre
Grand Horizons
Bill and Nancy have spent 50 years as husband and wife, but just as they settle into their new home in Grand Horizons, the unthinkable happens: Nancy wants out. As their adult sons struggle to cope with the news, they are forced to question everything they assumed about the people they thought they knew best. Jane Alexander and James Cromwell (Babe, Succession) star.
Girl From the North Country
1934. A weathered guesthouse in the heartland of America. Only a song can shake off the dust for one group of wayward souls. As they pass in and out of each other’s lives, their stories awaken with passion, fury and beauty. Following an acclaimed run at The Public Theater, Conor McPherson’s musical with songs by Bob Dylan transfers to Broadway.
Hangmen
What’s Britain’s second-most famous executioner to do now that hanging’s been abolished? The answer comes with a lot more than he bargained for. The celebrated Royal Court Theatre/Atlantic Theater Company production of Martin McDonagh’s comedy Hangmen, transfers to Broadway after having won Best New Play at the 2016 Olivier Awards. Mark Addy and Tracie Bennett star.
The Minutes
A town’s proud history, the legend of a local hero, the coveted privilege of reserved parking: nothing is sacred during the town council meeting at the heart of Tracy Letts’ Pulitzer-nominated new play. This razor-sharp comedy turns from hilarious to chilling as petty policy gives way to the truth boiling just beneath the surface of the town’s mythology. Arnie Hammer and Tracy Letts star.
Coal Country
In 2010, the Upper Big Branch mine explosion killed 29 men, and tore a hole in the lives of countless others. In this riveting new work based on first-person accounts by survivors and family, Award-winning writers Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen and three-time Grammy Award-winning country/folk legend Steve Earle, dig into the lives and loss of the most deadly mining disaster in recent U.S. history.
New York, New York
LIMELIGHT’S GUIDE TO THE BEST ARTS EVENTS IN THE BIG APPLE
Australians are the world’s greatest tourists, right? And no city offers quite as much in the way of artist thrills and spills as the Big Apple. After a year spent finding his feet, Limelight Editor-at-Large Clive Paget has hunted down the big names and haunted the city’s glittering venues. He’s also found unexpected performance spaces, from clubs to churches and even the odd cemetery. From the glamour of the Met and the buzz of Broadway to classical music hideaways and, yes, even some free stuff, our insider’s guide aims to be everything an adventurous cultural tourist needs.