James Levine News

Lincoln Center: Celebrating 50 Years, the first exhibition to focus exclusively on the evolution and influence of America's first performing arts center, will feature an extensive collection of some 400 historic and contemporary objects including photographs, ephemera, correspondence, costumes, set pieces, props and video recordings.

The Metropolitan Opera will present a free outdoor Summer HD Festival featuring ten of its award winning productions from the popular The Met: Live in HD series. The HD performances will be shown on a giant screen in front of the opera house in Lincoln Center Plaza for ten consecutive nights Saturday, August 29 through Monday, September 7.

The Metropolitan Opera announced plans for its free outdoor events this summer, which will take place in the Lincoln Center Plaza and in parks throughout New York City. In a brand new initiative, the Met's Summer HD Festival will feature screenings of ten productions from the Met's Peabody and Emmy Award-winning Live in HD series in Lincoln Center Plaza on consecutive nights, beginning Saturday, August 29.

Mozart's comic masterpiece, Le Nozze di Figaro, returns to the Met repertory on September 22 with some of opera's most notable young talent, many of them in company debuts or new roles. Danielle de Niese sings Susanna at the Met for the first time, paired with the Figaro of John Relyea, who received the Beverly Sills Artist Award for young singers earlier this year.

MILLER THEATRE AT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY opens its 2009-2010 season with The Blue Rider In Performance, Co-produced with Works & Process at the Guggenheim · Mary Sharp Cronson, producer. In conjunction with Kandinsky, on view at the Guggenheim Museum starting September 18.

The Metropolitan Opera has reason to celebrate; $2.5 million worth of tickets were sold on Sunday, the first day of sales, through its box office, telephone call center and Web site, up from $2 million on the first day of sales last year, according to the Associated press.

Village Originals has announced the official selections for the 9th Annual Festival of New Musicals taking place August 13-16, 2009 at the Francis J. Gaudette Theatre in Issaquah. This is an invitation only event, not open to the public.

Operatic comedy at its most appealing opens the 2009/10 L.A. Opera season. A magic love potion and destiny decide the fate of a love triangle involving a small-town bumpkin, a dashing sergeant and the bewitching town flirt in one of opera's most popular comedies. Filled with light-hearted charm and bursting with feel-good laughs, Gaetano Donizetti's The Elixir of Love features effervescent Italian melodies and plenty of bel canto vocal fireworks.

Village Originals has announced the official selections for the 9th Annual Festival of New Musicals taking place August 13-16, 2009 at the Francis J. Gaudette Theatre in Issaquah. This is an invitation only event, not open to the public.

Village Originals has announced the official selections for the 9th Annual Festival of New Musicals taking place August 13-16, 2009 at the Francis J. Gaudette Theatre in Issaquah. This is an invitation only event, not open to the public.

The Metropolitan Opera will present a free outdoor Summer HD Festival featuring ten of its award winning productions from the popular The Met: Live in HD series. The HD performances will be shown on a giant screen in front of the opera house in Lincoln Center Plaza for ten consecutive nights Saturday, August 29 through Monday, September 7.

The Collegiate Chorale returns for its fourth appearance as part of the 16th annual Verbier Festival in Switzerland from July 18 - 20, 2009.

The Metropolitan Opera announced plans for its free outdoor events this summer, which will take place in the Lincoln Center Plaza and in parks throughout New York City. In a brand new initiative, the Met's Summer HD Festival will feature screenings of ten productions from the Met's Peabody and Emmy Award-winning Live in HD series in Lincoln Center Plaza on consecutive nights, beginning Saturday, August 29.

In the Met's new staging of Offenbach's Les Contes d'Hoffmann, Joseph Calleja will sing the title role, replacing Rolando Villazón, and Alan Held will sing the roles of the four villains, replacing René Pape.

With a vital role on band sensation Grizzly Bear's new CD Veckatimest (officially released today) and an appearance this Thursday backing up the band at Town Hall, the Grammy Award-winning Brooklyn Youth Chorus embarks on a six-week run of performances spanning music as diverse as indie rock and Mahler's 8th.

Today, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts officially launches a yearlong celebration of its 50th Anniversary with a commemorative ceremony in the Starr Theater at Alice Tully Hall. Hosted by renowned journalist and author Tom Brokaw, the program pays tribute to the many achievements and contributions of Lincoln Center, from the milestones of its past half century to the transformation of its campus.

On the morning of May 11, 2009, 50 years after that momentous occasion, Lincoln Center will begin a year-long celebration of its 50th anniversary with a special ceremony in the newly-transformed Alice Tully Hall. New York Philharmonic Music Director Alan Gilbert, acclaimed violinist Itzhak Perlman with alumni from The Perlman Music Program, Tony Award-winning opera star Paulo Szot, jazz icon Wynton Marsalis with members of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, and The Juilliard Orchestra are among those scheduled to perform in a program that celebrates the past 50 years and looks to the next generation of Lincoln Center's artists and audiences. In the audience of this private event will be elected officials, performing artists, civic and community representatives, and leaders from all 12 Lincoln Center resident organizations.

With three sold-out performances remaining in its 125th anniversary season, the Metropolitan Opera has hit its original box office projection for this season, selling 87.9% of paid capacity for the 33-week season of performances. In addition, ticket sales to The Met: Live in HD, the company's live, high-definition transmissions into movie theaters and other venues in 36 countries around the world, surged to 1.6 million, an increase of 43% over the previous year.

Bass John Relyea has been named the recipient of the fourth annual Beverly Sills Artist Award for young singers at the Metropolitan Opera. The $50,000 award, the largest of its kind in the United States, is designated for extraordinarily gifted singers between the ages of 25 and 40 who have already appeared in featured solo roles with the Met.

The Harris Theater for Music and Dance today announced its Harris Theater Presents 2009-2010 season. The schedule of Harris Theater Presents events features nine programs, a remarkable thirteen Chicago premieres and includes an impressive and diverse selection of music, dance and conversation by internationally acclaimed artists and ensembles. Highlights of the Harris Theater Presents 2009-2010 season include a rare opportunity to see Mikhail Baryshnikov in a solo dance performance, an evening of insight with the 'Master of the Musical,' Stephen Sondheim, the Harris debut of Lang Lang under the baton of his mentor Maestro Christoph Eschenbach, the Chicago premiere of Orquestra de São Paulo with virtuoso percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie, Kathleen Battle's unusual program of holiday spirituals, and much more.