New York, New York

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

Classical Music

14th-Century Avant Guard

A site-specific treat is promised when early music vocal group TENET plays among the medieval masterpieces to be found at the Met Cloisters in uptown Manhattan. The ars subtilior was the 14th-century experimental music created
by renegade musicians and was so ahead of its time that it disappeared for over half a millenni

Wu Man Premieres

Carnegie Hall welcomes the acclaimed Pipa virtuoso Wu Man and the Taipei Chinese Orchestra who will give the US premieres of a pair of concertos that have been scored for traditional Chinese instruments. A large ensemble of strings, winds, and percussion offer support in Qu Wenjun’s pipa concerto Soul of the Loess and Cheng Kuang-Chih’s double concerto for erhu and pipa Yao Ji.

Latvian Radio Choir

Lincoln Center’s annual White Light Festival is a New York Fall staple and the impressive Latvians are as good a choir as you’ll hear anywhere on the planet. The program includes three of Clytus Gottwald’s sublime choral arrangements of Mahler alongside demanding yet approachable works by Ešenvalds, Ratniece, Silvestrov and the world premiere of Cum Oramus by Juris Karlsons.

Juan Diego Flórez in Recital

Carnegie Hall’s Great Singers series continues with Peruvian tenor Juan Diego Flórez, one of the most sort after of bel canto singers. The program hasn’t been announced as yet, but his repertoire ranges from Gluck and Mozart to Rossini, Massenet and Puccini. By the way, his latest CD is a collection of Latin American ‘pop’ hits so maybe bring along your maracas.

Boston Symphony in town

The Boston Symphony Orchestra under  charismatic conductor Andris Nelsons are visiting Carnegie Hall to play Mahler’s Fifth Symphony alongside HK Gruber’s Aerial,
in which superstar soloist
Håkan Hardenberger is called upon to play trumpet piccolo trumpet and cow horn. Oh, and he’s expected to sing while playing as well!

Opera

A Swedish Satyagraha

Circus Cirkör and Swedish opera company Folkoperan bring their acclaimed production of Philip Glass’s opera Satyagraha to the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Constance De Jong’s libretto, adapted from the Bhagavad Gita, documents Gandhi’s experiments with civil disobedience in South Africa, presented as a minimalist ritual. Australian conductor Matthew Wood conducts.

Mefistofele

Arrigo Boito wasn’t only
Verdi’s librettist of choice for Otello and Falstaff, he also composed this remarkable take on the Faust legend. Robert Carsen’s spectacular production stars rising star bass-baritone Christian Van Horn as the diabolical title character, tenor Michael Fabiano as Faust and soprano Angela Meade as Margherita.

Turn of the Screw

Steven Osgood conducts the Juilliard Orchestra and a cast of up-and-coming young singers in Benjamin Britten’s classic chamber operatic account of Henry James’ chilling ghost story about a starry-eyed young governess who is sent to a country house to mind two young children but gets far more than she bargained for. Tickets are only $30.

Only the Sound Remains

Kaija Saariaho’s supernatural opera is based on two Japanese Noh plays, translated by Ezra Pound, in which a ghost and an angel emerge from a world of light and shadow. Countertenor Philippe Jaroussky appears alongside bass-baritone Davóne Tines and dancer Nora Kimball-Mentzos in a US premiere directed by Peter Sellars.

Domingo in Il Trittico

Jack O’Brien’s production celebrates 100 years since Puccini’s triple bill premiered at the Met. Marcelo Álvarez and Amber Wagner star in Il Tabarro, Kristine Opolais sings the dramatic title role of Suor Angelica, and the remarkable Plácido Domingo appears in the composer’s comedic masterpiece Gianni Schicchi. Bertrand de Billy conducts.

Musicals & Theatre

Beetlejuice

Alongside his work on King Kong, Aussie tunesmith Eddie Perfect has written the songs
for this original musical based
on Tim Burton’s whacky film
of the same name. Lydia Deetz, an oddball teen obsessed with the “being dead thing”, finds her new house is haunted by a pair
of recently deceased ghosts and
a maniacal demon with a thing for stripes.

Torch Song

Following a recent smash-hit run Off-Broadway, Harvey Feinstein’s ground-breaking
play transfers for a run on the Great White Way. Torch Song
(a conveniently compacted version of the longer Torch Song Trilogy) follows the fortunes of New Yorker Arnold Beckoff on his quest to find a husband, a child, and a little respect from his overbearing mother.

To Kill a Mockingbird

Almost certainly the most anticipated theatrical event of the season, Jeff Daniels stars as beleaguered small-town layer Atticus Finch in Aaron Sorkin’s stage adaptation of Harper Lee’s iconic Pulitzer Prize-winning American novel of childhood, friendship and the struggle to overcome prejudice. Previews throughout November for a December opening.

Fabulation, or the Re-Education of Undine

Two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner Lynn Nottage begins her Signature Theatre Residency with this satirical tale, which follows a successful African-American publicist who slips down the social ladder when her husband steals all her money. Broke and pregnant, Undine is forced to return to her childhood home in the Brooklyn projects.

Network

Bryan Cranston (of Breaking Bad fame) stars in Lee Hall’s adaptation of Paddy Chayefsky’s Academy Award-winning film. When anchorman Howard Beale unravels live on-screen the ratings soar. When the network seizes on its newfound prophet, Howard becomes the biggest thing on TV. Ivo van Hove directs the UK National Theatre’s acclaimed production.

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.