From this City of Lights to the Count engaged to Juliet, Paris is well-represented by the New York classic arts scene. Here is just a sampling of some of the classic arts events happening this week.
The Metropolitan Opera caps off a Puccini-full March with a revival of the composer’s rarely-heard La Rondine, last staged at the Met in 2013. Originally conceived as an operetta, La Rondine shows a lighter side of the composer of Tosca and Madama Butterfly. Set in Paris and on the French Riviera, La Rondine follows Magda, a courtesan, as she sneaks out for a night on the town after meeting a stranger, Ruggero, who is new in the city and looking for a taste of Parisian nightlife. Nicolas Joël’s production moves the action to the 1920s, with an Art Deco set by Ezio Frigerio. Soprano Angel Blue stars as Magda. She will be joined by three artists making their Met debuts: Tenor Jonathan Tetelman as Ruggero, soprano Emily Pogorelc as Lisette, and tenor Bekhzod Davronov as Prunier. Speranza Scappucci conducts the scintillating score, full of Puccini's trademark sweeping melodies.
This week the Met will also give the last of this season’s performances of Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette, and Verdi’s La Forza del Destino. Based on the Shakespeare play, Bartlett Sher’s production of Roméo et Juliette, concluding March 30, stars Benjamin Bernheim and Nadine Sierra as the titular star-crossed lovers, with Frederick Ballentine as Tybalt, Samantha Hankey as Stéphano, Will Liverman as Mercutio, Alfred Walker as Frére Laurent, and Daniel Rich as Count Paris. Meanwhile, La Forza del Destino, concluding March 29, stars Elena Sitkhina as Leonora, Brian Jagde as Don Alvaro, Igor Golovatenko as Don Carlo, Maria Barakova as Preziosilla, and Soloman Howard as the Marquis de Calatrava and Padre Guardino. Met Opera Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts both operas.
Oscar and Grammy-winning jazz musician Herbie Hancock will have an Artist Spotlight concert presented by the New York Philharmonic at Lincoln Center’s David Geffen Hall March 26. Hancock will be joined by Terence Blanchard on trumpet, Devin Daniels on saxophone, James Genus on bass, Trevor Lawrence, Jr. on drums, and Lionel Loueke on guitar.
Chamber orchestra Alarm Will Sound will perform at Carnegie Hall March 26 in a concert curated by Tania León, holder of Carnegie Hall’s 2023–2024 Debs Composer’s Chair. The concert will include works by León, as well as by Chris P. Thompson, Christian Quiñones, Damon Davis, Elijah Daniel Smith, Texu Kim, and Bora Yoon. Nearly every work on the program will be a New York premiere.
Pianist Mitsuko Uchida will lead the Marhler Chamber Orchestra at Carnegie Hall March 28, performing Mozart’s piano concertos No. 17 and 22. The concert will also include an orchestral arrangement of Jörg Widmann’s Chorale Quartet.
Following these two concerts, Carnegie Hall will host a conversation between Tania León and Mitsuko Uchida March 30, in the venue’s Resnick Education Wing. The informal conversation will include a Q&A session with the audience.
Carnegie Hall will also host this week performances from violinist Dan Flanagan (March 25), mezzo-soprano Ema Nikolovska and pianist Howard Watkins (March 28), and the New England Symphonic Ensemble (March 31).
The Trisha Brown Dance Company will perform at the Joyce Theater March 26-31. The company will perform a new commission by French choreographer Noé Soulier, titled In the Fall, alongside two of Brown’s works, Glacial Decoy (1979) and Working Title (1985).
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