Barbican Centre News

St. Ann's Warehouse will continue the inaugural season in its new waterfront theater with the American Premiere of Irish composer Donnacha Dennehy and writer-director Enda Walsh's thrilling new opera The Last Hotel, in a Landmark Productions / Wide Open Opera production. Singers Claudia Boyle, Robin Adams and Katherine Manley, actor Mikel Murfi, and an ensemble of New York's finest contemporary players, conducted alternately by André de Ridder and Alan Pierson, will deliver this “searingly powerful new chamber work” (The Guardian). Presented by St. Ann's Warehouse and co-presented withPROTOTYPE: Opera/Theatre/Now andIrish Arts Center, The Last Hotel comes to New York after tremendously acclaimed engagements at the Edinburgh International Festival, the Dublin Theatre Festival and the Royal Opera House in London.

OkayBetterBest, a new musical written by Rhonda Kess and Michael Weems and directed by Hunter Foster, will be presented the Ars Nova Loft (511 West 54th Street) as a special industry reading on Thursday, December 3 at 3:00 PM and Friday, December 4 at 3:00 PM. The cast includes Jason Gotay (Bring It On: The Musical, Spider-Man Turn off the Dark), George Salazar (Godspell, Here Lies Love), Julia Mattison (Godspell), Elena Ricardo (Mamma Mia!), Christina Sajous (Holler If Ya Hear Me, American Idiot), Justin Matthew Sargent (Bonnie & Clyde, Rock of Ages) and Remy Zaken (Spring Awakening). Industry members interested in attending should email OkayBetterBest@gmail.com and indicate their affiliation.

After breaking box office records in 2014, Mozart's timeless comedy The Magic Flutereturns to Minnesota Opera (tonight, November 14 - 22 at the Ordway) in the revolutionary production by Komische Oper Berlin and the British theater group 1927.

Today in 2006, the first Broadway revival of Les Miserables opened at the Broadhurst Theatre, where it ran for 463 performances. Written by Claude-Michel Schonberg, based on the novel by Victor Hugo, Les Miserables is set in early 19th-century France. The plot follows the stories of many characters as they struggle for redemption and revolution. In January 2010, it played its ten-thousandth performance in London, at Queen's Theatre in London's West End. On 3 October 2010, the show celebrated its 25th anniversary with three productions running in the same city: the original show at London's West End; the Twenty-Fifth Anniversary touring production at the original home of the show, the Barbican Centre; and the Twenty-Fifth Anniversary concert at London's O2 Arena.

Visionary director Julie Taymor curates and hosts the first National Sawdust+ concert tonight, November 6 at 7:30pm. MADE IN BROOKLYN, an evening inspired by that artistically fertile corner of New York City, will feature music by Brooklyn-born composers including the great George Gershwin and Oscar-winners Aaron Copland, John Corigliano and Elliot Goldenthal. The concert will feature the world concert premiere of Goldenthal's String Quartet No. 1 'The Stone Cutters' performed by Flux Quartet, the 'Chaconne' from Corigliano's Academy Award-winning score for The Red Violin, performed by Tim Fain & Stephen Gosling, and much more.

Entering its seventh season in 2015-16, CONTACT!, the Philharmonic's new-music series, will extend its reach across New York City through a new partnership with National Sawdust (formerly Original Music Workshop), a new, non-profit, state-of-the-art music venue opening in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, in October 2015.

Lee Mingwei's interactive performance work Sonic Blossom (2015) is set for Sunday, November 8, during Museum hours in the Blanche and A. L. Levine Court (Gallery 915) and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery (Gallery 206) at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The Chan Centre for the Performing Arts at the University of British Columbia (UBC) presents the world's leading flamenco guitarist Paco Peña, tonight, October 24 at 8pm in the Chan Shun Concert Hall.

As previously announced, the Kennedy Center will present a Barbican and Les Theatres de la Ville de Luxembourg, in association with Toneelgroep Amsterdam, production of ANTIGONE by Sophocles, in a new translation by T.S. Eliot Prize-winning poet Anne Carson from tonight, October 22, through October 25, 2015 in the Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater.

Semyon Bychkov will return to the New York Philharmonic to conduct works composed or inspired by Brahms: Brahms's Double Concerto for Violin and Cello, with violinist Lisa Batiashvili and cellist Gautier Capuc?on; Detlev Glanert's Brahms-Fantasie; and Brahms's Symphony No. 1.

The 50th season of Lincoln Center's Great Performers series and the sixth season of its White Light Festival commence on October 14 with tenor Mark Padmore and pianist Paul Lewis in the first of three highly-anticipated Schubert song recitals.

MINNEAPOLIS (October 5, 2015) – After breaking box office records in 2014, Mozart's timeless comedy The Magic Flutereturns to Minnesota Opera (November 14 – 22 at the Ordway) in the revolutionary production by Komische Oper Berlin and the British theater group 1927. Fantastical hand-drawn animation, synchronized with live performance, sets a surreal stage upon which its quirky characters, all cleverly based on familiar silent-movie personalities, explore love, truth and the pursuit of enlightenment. This acclaimed production has been seen in just two American cities – Los Angeles and Saint Paul – but has received international praise. Britain's Guardian said, “This production is a joy to watch: an enchanting, big-hearted, supremely lovable piece of whimsical animation and nimble stagecraft.” The New York Times concurred: “... this production stays miraculously fresh, sustaining surprise and delight in its two-and-a-half hours.” Packed with exquisite singing and stage wizardry, Mozart's final opera will enchant young and old alike.

Visionary director Julie Taymor will curate and host the first National Sawdust+ concert on Friday, November 6 at 7:30pm. MADE IN BROOKLYN, an evening inspired by that artistically fertile corner of New York City, will feature music by Brooklyn-born composers including the great George Gershwin and Oscar-winners Aaron Copland, John Corigliano and Elliot Goldenthal. The concert will feature the world concert premiere of Goldenthal's String Quartet No. 1 'The Stone Cutters' performed by Flux Quartet, the 'Chaconne' from Corigliano's Academy Award-winning score for The Red Violin, performed by Tim Fain & Stephen Gosling, and much more.

The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) returns to the Barbican in November with Henry V, followed by a major theatrical event in January 2016 to mark the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death - with performances of all four productions of Gregory Doran's history plays in repertoire. 

The Chan Centre for the Performing Arts at the University of British Columbia (UBC) presents the world's leading flamenco guitarist Paco Peña, October 24 at 8pm in the Chan Shun Concert Hall. Peña's latest show Flamencura features the renowned flamenco master, known for his rapid flourishes and delicate shading on guitar, and a group of impassioned dancers, singers and musicians in a fiery tribute to the rich history of the treasured art form. 

Semyon Bychkov will return to the New York Philharmonic to conduct works composed or inspired by Brahms: Brahms's Double Concerto for Violin and Cello, with violinist Lisa Batiashvili and cellist Gautier Capuc?on; Detlev Glanert's Brahms-Fantasie; and Brahms's Symphony No. 1.

The cast also includes Obi Abili, Kirsty Bushell, Samuel Edward-Cook, Finbar Lynch, Patrick O'Kane, and Kathryn Pogson.

On August 15, 1939, 'The Wizard of Oz' premiered in Hollywood while 10,000 fans lined the streets. Two days later it opened to the public, and the film industry changed forever. Every generation since has loved this film. A few found it terrifying. But no one has forgotten it.

On August 15, 1939, 'The Wizard of Oz' premiered in Hollywood while 10,000 fans lined the streets. Two days later it opened to the public, and the film industry changed forever. Every generation since has loved this film. A few found it terrifying. But no one has forgotten it.