New York, New York

LIMELIGHT’S GUIDE TO THE BEST ARTS EVENTS IN THE BIG APPLE this March

Classical Music

Jack plays john

The JACK Quartet, justifiably hailed by the New York Times as the “nation’s most important quartet,” performs the full cycle of string quartets by seminal avant-garde composer John Zorn over two nights. Night 1 includes Cat O’Nine Tails, The Dead Man, Memento Mori and Kol Nidre. Night features Necronomicon, The Unseen, The Alchemist and The Remedy of Fortune.

mtt conducts mahler

Michael Tilson Thomas leads his San Francisco Symphony Orchestra in Mahler’s mighty Sixth Symphony. The titanic struggle with fate is vividly depicted in a harrowing opening march and relentless Scherzo. A melodic idyll soars to ecstatic heights before the unforgettable finale, with its shocking hammer strokes of fate that presaged tragedies in Mahler’s own life.

gerald finley recital

Baritone Gerald Finley – one of the world’s finest Lieder singers – makes a musical dream team with pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet for a wide-ranging recital of German and French song. The program centres around Schumann’s powerful song cycle Dichterliebe, with other songs by Schubert, Fauré, Ravel, Emanuel and the great American songsmith Cole Porter.

babi yar and more

Kent Nagano leads his Orchestre symphonique de Montréal in a performance of Shostakovich’s powerful Thirteenth Symphony, “Babi Yar”, a scalding indictment of Soviet antisemitism. There’s also some virtuoso flash on the program when Russian pianist Mikhail Pletnev joins Nagano and the orchestra for Schumann’s brilliant Piano Concerto.

Mitsuko does mozart

The daring textures and dazzling tonalities of Jörg Widmann’s chamber orchestra arrangement of his Choralquartett is framed by two Mozart piano concertos – Piano Concerto No 17 in G, K. 453 and Piano Concerto No 22 in E Flat, K. 482. Legendary pianist Mitsuko Uchida, plays and conducts the remarkable Mahler Chamber Orchestra from the keyboard.

Opera

The Flying Dutchman

François Girard follows up his excellent 2013 Parsifal with a new vision of the Wagner’s tale of a cursed sea captain doomed to sail the ocean for eternity that turns the Met stage into a vast oil painting. Valery Gergiev conducts a cast led by Russian bass-baritone Evgeny Nikitin (replacing Bryn Terfel) and German soprano Anja Kampe making her Met debut.

dwb

Composer Susan Kander collaborates with cutting-edge cello/percussion duo New Morse Code in a brief, powerful music-drama documenting the all-too-familiar story of an African-American parent whose boy approaches driving age. What should be a celebration of independence and maturity is fraught with the anxiety of driving while black (dwb). 

La cenerentola

Rossini’s effervescent take on the Cinderella story returns, with mezzo-soprano Tara Erraught in the title role and the sensational tenor Javier Camarena as her Prince Charming. James Gaffigan conducts a cast, which also features Maurizio Muraro as the bumbling Don Magnifico,  Christian Van Horn as Alidoro, and Vito Priante as the wily servant Dandini.

vespers at the armory

Monteverdi’s choral masterpiece will be performed in Park Avenue Armory’s soaring Drill Hall in the North American premiere of Pierre Audi’s celebrated Dutch National Opera production. Conductor Raphaël Pichon will lead his renowned Baroque ensemble Pygmalion through the composer’s dizzying array of opulent choruses, and touching arias and duets.

Werther

Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts Massenet’s tragedy with the brilliant tenor Piotr Beczała in the title role. The magnificent Joyce DiDonato is Charlotte, the object of Werther’s misguided affections, alongside sopranos Erin Morley and Ying Fang as Sophie and baritone Etienne Dupuis as Albert, in Richard Eyre’s arresting production.

Musicals & Theatre

caroline, or change

Direct from a smash-hit run in London’s West End, this new production of Tony Kushner (Angels in America) and Jeanine Tesori’s (Fun Home) poignant musical launches at Studio 54. Olivier Award-winner Sharon D Clarke stars as a Black maid working for a Jewish family, as their colliding worlds in 1963 Louisiana ripple with change, both large and small.

Diana, the musical

 After it becomes clear to all that Diana’s turbulent marriage to Charles cannot last, the Queen allows the royal couple to separate. Feeling free from the watchful eyes of the Windsors, Princess Diana steps out and dreams of all she can now accomplish. The show is by David Bryan and Joe DiPietro, the team behind the Tony Award-winning  Memphis.

Company

Katrina Lenk and Patti LuPone star in Stephen Sondheim and George Furth’s musical. It’s Bobbie’s 35th birthday and her friends keep asking, Why isn’t she married? Why can’t she find the right man and isn’t it time to settle down? As Bobbie searches for answers, she discovers why being single, being married, and being alive in 21st-century New York could drive a person crazy.

The Visitor

Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey (Next to Normal) bring their soul-stirring new musical based on Thomas McCarthy’s film to The Public Theater for its World Premiere. When Walter discovers two undocumented immigrants living in his New York apartment, he finds himself in the middle of a battle to stay in an America that’s lost its better angels.

six, the musical

“Divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived.” From Tudor Queens to Pop Princesses, the SIX wives of Henry VIII take the mic to remix 500 years of historical heartbreak into an exuberant celebration of 21st-century girl power! SIX is the global sensation that everyone is losing their heads over. The London and Sydney hit show arrives on Broadway.

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.