Lincoln Center Festival News

Renowned experimental, often-controversial opera and theater director Peter Sellars will join Debbie McNulty, director of Mayor Turner's Office of Cultural Affairs, and Patrick Summers, artistic director of Houston Grand Opera, in a public conversation about art and activism moderated by the Rothko Chapel's executive director, David Leslie, on Tuesday, March 20, 7-8:30 p.m. at the Rothko Chapel, 3900 Yupon St., Houston. The "pay what you can" event has a suggested value of $20. Registration is advised; visit rothkochapel.org or call 713-524-9839.

The Cleveland Orchestra and Music Director Franz Welser-Most announce further details of the upcoming festival The Ecstasy of Tristan and Isolde. In a special two-week series of concerts revolving around performances of Wagner's Romantic opera Tristan and Isolde, Franz Welser-Most explores the depths and wonder of ecstasy - in a journey toward transcendence and understanding, through music, art, and belief. This festival is part of the Orchestra's historic 100th season and the 16th year of the Orchestra's acclaimed partnership with Franz Welser-Most.

'Isabelle Huppert reads Sade: Juliette and Justine, the Vice and the Virtue' is the electrifying one-woman show by the internationally renowned, multi-award winning French film actress ISABELLE HUPPERT which she will perform - for one night only - at Southbank Centre's Queen Elizabeth Hall on Saturday June 9th at 7.30pm.

From the very first note, Brooklyn-based composer Christopher Cerrone draws listeners into his vibrant sonic imagination—a sublime world of ethereal colors and deep emotional resonance. Riding high following the extraordinary success of his groundbreaking futuristic opera, Invisible Cities, Cerrone teams up with Grammy-award winning Third Coast Percussion ensemble and mezzo-soprano Rachel Calloway to perform recent chamber works, including the world premiere of a work commissioned for this Portrait.

Washington National Opera (WNO) today announced the date and partial casting for its 2018 WNO Gala, which takes place on Sunday, May 20 in the Kennedy Center Opera House. The annual Gala concert features a world-class cast  starring Tony and GRAMMY Award-winning actor Patti LuPone; Emmy-nominated singer and actor Tituss Burgess (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, 30 Rock); and stars from WNO's current season—mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard (Rosina in The Barber of Seville) and soprano Kathryn Lewek (Cunegonde in Candide)—as well as members of the Domingo-Cafritz Young Artists Program and other special guests to be announced at a later date. Renowned baritone Nathan Gunn will host and perform, alongside his wife, pianist Julie Gunn.   Conductor John DeMain leads the WNO Orchestra in this event honoring the centennial of iconic composer, conductor, educator, and humanitarian Leonard Bernstein's birth. The WNO Gala is the culminating event in this season's Center-wide celebration of the musical genius, and Jamie Bernstein, the composer's eldest daughter, will also participate in the festivities.   Gala packages for the full evening include a cocktail reception on the Kennedy Center's River Terrace at 4:30 p.m., followed by the 6 p.m. performance. The event concludes with elegant dinners hosted by Ambassadors and foreign dignitaries at embassies and residences throughout Washington.

Olivia De Prato, co-founder and first violinist of the Mivos Quartet, announces the March 2, 2018 release of her debut solo album,Streya, on New Focus Recordings. A passionate advocate for new music, De Prato chose to record music by six composers with whom she has collaborated closely since moving to New York in 2005: Samson Young, Victor Lowrie, Ned Rothenberg, Taylor Brook, Reiko Füting, and Missy Mazzoli.

Following a five year search for a permanent home, Target Margin Theater (Founding Artistic Director David Herskovits, Associate Artistic Director Moe Yousuf, General Manager Lu Liu) is proud to present the world premiere of Pay No Attention To The Girl (March 29-April 21), which marks the Company's debut off-Broadway performances in their new 3,250 sq. ft. home in Brooklyn. Directed by Founding Artistic Director David Herskovits, Pay No Attention To The Girl is an interlocking set of tales about the deceptions of the sexes that lead us deep into the labyrinth of The Thousand and One Nights, a collection of Silk Road, MENA (Middle Eastern / North African), and South Asian stories.

Theatre for a New Audience (TFANA; Jeffrey Horowitz, Founding Artistic Director) has added a performance (February 8 at 9pm) to its critically lauded world premiere production of Adrienne Kennedy's He Brought Her Heart Back in a Box, directed by Evan Yionoulis. The run will conclude, as a scheduled, on February 11.

Ghostlight Records celebrates Hal Prince's historic 90th Birthday today with the announcement that the label will release PRINCE OF BROADWAY Original Broadway Cast Recording in physical, digital and streaming formats on Friday, April 20.

FEINSTEIN'S/54 BELOW, Broadway's Supper Club, presents Adrienne Danrich in Love & Trouble: Five Personas ~ One Voice on February 20, 2018. In collaboration with classical and musical theater composer Dave Hall. Danrich has created a unique, toe-tapping, emotionally riveting, and uplifting concert honoring the stories of five different women. Danrich seamlessly transforms from one character to the next with quick-witted, lively dialogue and songs that will transport you from the jazz and blues lounge to the gospel revival to the opera house. The music for Love & Trouble was written by Hall and Danrich with lyrics and poems by Danrich.

This spring, Candoco Dance Company will present the London premiere of Face In from multi-award-winning and internationally recognised choreographer Yasmeen Godder. Face In was originally commissioned by Stine Nilsen and Pedro Machado who recently stepped down as Artistic Co-Directors of Candoco.

The Shakespeare Theatre Company (STC) announces the cast and creative team for Hamlet, directed by STC Artistic Director Michael Kahn and featuring acclaimed actor Michael Urie as the tortured Danish prince. Shakespeare's most celebrated tragedy will run January 16-February 25, 2018 at Sidney Harman Hall.

Ping Chong + Company casts young New Yorkers to share the jubilant victories, recent discord and distant dreams of coming of age in this great, complicated city. Created exclusively for The New Victory Theater and featuring a cast of seven in their theatrical debuts, the world premiere of Undesirable Elements: Generation NYZ performs at The Duke on 42nd Street from January 13 - 21, 2018.

A sizzling blend of domestic comedy and romance, symphonic music and opera, thrilling virtuosity and extraordinary artistry, will melt the icy grip of winter this February as The Dallas Opera presents a once-in-a-lifetime pairing: Erich Wolfgang Korngold's rarely performed 1916 opera, The Ring of Polykrates, preceded by the composer's famous Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35 that premiered nearly three decades later in 1945.

The New York Choral Society (NYCHORAL), under the baton of music director David Hayes, will appear at Carnegie Hall's Stern Auditorium (881 7th Ave, New York, NY 10019) with Where Even the Sea Sings, Sunday afternoon, February 11, 2018, at 3 pm. This program juxtaposes three composers of very different backgrounds and styles, inspired by a shared commonality in theme: the grandeur of the 'sea.'

On Thursday, February 15, 2018 at 7:30pm, Bang on a Can will present the 2018 Bang on a Can People's Commissioning Fund concert, one of the most anticipated and reliable launching pads for composers in New York and beyond, as part of Kaufman Music Center's Ecstatic Music Festival at Merkin Concert Hall (Kaufman Music Center, 129 W. 67th St.).

Noche Flamenca returns to The Joyce Theater (175 8th Avenue) with ntimo, a flamenco performance exploring the possibilities and limitations of human relationships, and set to original, live music, February 13-25. Founded in 1993 by Artistic Director Mart n Santangelo and globally acclaimed dancer Soledad Barrio, Noche Flamenca honors the raw and rapturous art of flamenco while stretching tradition to explore the human experience in its many varieties. Barrio, whom The New York Times has deemed one of today's great dancers of any genre, performs with a cast of exceptional flamenco dancers and musicians, many hailing from Spain.

Theatre for a New Audience (TFANA; Jeffrey Horowitz, Founding Artistic Director) announces the cast and creative team for He Brought Her Heart Back in a Box, the first new work in a decade from Adrienne Kennedy, whom The New York Times called one of the finest living American playwrights. Set in Georgia and New York City in 1941, He Brought Her Heart Back in a Box is a heartbreaking, nail-biting memory tale of segregation, theatrical yearning, and doomed love.

Ping Chong + Company casts young New Yorkers to share the jubilant victories, recent discord and distant dreams of coming of age in this great, complicated city. Created exclusively for The New Victory Theater and featuring a cast of seven in their theatrical debuts, the world premiere of Undesirable Elements: Generation NYZ performs at The Duke on 42nd Street from January 13 - 21, 2018.

This month, Th tre du Soleil and its founder, theater icon Ariane Mnouchkine, come to Park Avenue Armory with the North American Premiere of their new work A Room in India (Une chambre en Inde).