Mark Morris News

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.

Over the past few years the music of composer Gregory Spears has become more prevalent around the new music and dance circuits. The Romantic and minimalist styles that define the Spears sound has hit critical mass this season with music by the young composer featured at Zankel Hall (American Composers Orchestra), Le Poisson Rouge (MATA Festival), Dance Theatre Workshop, and American Opera Projects (AOP); the latter will present a concert preview of Mr. Spears's upcoming first opera Paul's Case, based on a story by American literary icon Willa Cather.

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.

As Lincoln Center marks its 50th Anniversary, its renowned summer programs return featuring hundreds of performances by world-class artists, ensembles, and productions both inside its storied halls and outdoors in its public spaces.

Jane Moss, Artistic Director, today announced the programming for the 43rd season of the Mostly Mozart Festival, which runs from July 28 through August 22, 2009, and offers 52 events, including concerts, pre-concert recitals, late-night performances, films, and lectures.

BMCC Tribeca Performing Arts Center at the Borough of Manhattan Community College presents its annual WORK & SHOW FESTIVAL beginning March 23. This outgrowth of their twelve year old Artist-in-Residence program will feature five programs of new work by artists representing both dance and theater. The program for the series is as follows:

Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit began preview performances on Thursday, February 26, 2009 and opened on Sunday, March 15, 2009 at the Shubert Theatre (West 44th Street). We were there to capture all the starry arrivals at opening night!

Seattle Theatre Group (STG) presents Mark Morris Dance Group's acclaimed MOZART DANCES at The Paramount Theatre May 1-3, 2009 for three performances only. Formed in 1980, Mark Morris Dance Group is recognized as one of the world's leading dance companies and noted for its commitment to live music, a feature of every performance on its full international touring schedule since 1996. Seattle's premiere of MOZART DANCES will feature Seattle Symphony with pianists Garrick Ohlsson and Yoko Nozaki conducted by Stefan Asbury.

BMCC Tribeca Performing Arts Center at the Borough of Manhattan Community College presents its annual WORK & SHOW FESTIVAL beginning March 23. This outgrowth of their twelve year old Artist-in-Residence program will feature five programs of new work by artists representing both dance and theater. The program for the series is as follows:

In its 13th Season, the Virginia Arts Festival will present the world?s great performers to audiences throughout Hampton Roads, in six whirlwind weeks that will bring over 50 performances to more than two dozen venues in ten cities across the region. Performances include the best of Broadway, breathtaking ballet, electrifying modern dance, colorful performance traditions from around the world?and great music for every taste, from the world?s most acclaimed classical artists to top performers of pop, country, bluegrass, and jazz. Showstoppers Liza Minnelli and Patti LuPone, two of the most extraordinary voices in American theater, bookend the 2009 Festival.

Following critically acclaimed performances at the 2008 Edinburgh Fringe in Scotland (Pick of the Fringe), the 10th Annual Festival Internacional de Puebla in Mexico, and 303 Bond in Brooklyn, Company XIV proudly presents a revival of their hit show, The Judgment of Paris. Dubbed by the company as 'A dramatic entertainment,' this erotically charged show fuses theater, dance, music, naughty cabaret and can-can! The Judgment of Paris is conceived, directed and choreographed by Austin McCormick, with adapted text by Austin McCormick and Toby Burns.

Kirsten Chavez will sing the role of Orfeo in Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice at the Met on January 14, replacing Stephanie Blythe, who is ill.

In February of 2009, in honor of the bicentennial of Joseph Haydn's death, Gotham Chamber Opera will present the New York City stage premiere of L'isola disabitata (Desert Island) in a new production staged by Mark Morris at the Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College.

Following critically acclaimed performances at the 2008 Edinburgh Fringe in Scotland (Pick of the Fringe), the 10th Annual Festival Internacional de Puebla in Mexico, and 303 Bond in Brooklyn, Company XIV proudly presents a revival of their hit show, The Judgment of Paris. Dubbed by the company as 'A dramatic entertainment,' this erotically charged show fuses theater, dance, music, naughty cabaret and can-can! The Judgment of Paris is conceived, directed and choreographed by Austin McCormick, with adapted text by Austin McCormick and Toby Burns.

Director-choreographer Mark Morris's much-lauded 2007 production of Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice returns to the repertoire, with Stephanie Blythe taking on one of the pinnacles of the mezzo-soprano repertory, the role of Orfeo, for the first time in her career. Soprano Danielle de Niese, an acclaimed singer of eighteenth-century music and a graduate of the Met's Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, sings Euridice for the first time at the Met. Heidi Grant Murphy returns as Amor, which she performed at the production's premiere in 2007.

Following critically acclaimed performances at the 2008 Edinburgh Fringe in Scotland (Pick of the Fringe), the 10th Annual Festival Internacional de Puebla in Mexico, and 303 Bond in Brooklyn, Company XIV proudly presents a revival of their hit show, The Judgment of Paris. Dubbed by the company as 'A dramatic entertainment,' this erotically charged show fuses theater, dance, music, naughty cabaret and can-can! The Judgment of Paris is conceived, directed and choreographed by Austin McCormick, with adapted text by Austin McCormick and Toby Burns.

Following critically acclaimed performances at the 2008 Edinburgh Fringe in Scotland (Pick of the Fringe), the 10th Annual Festival Internacional de Puebla in Mexico, and 303 Bond in Brooklyn, Company XIV proudly presents a revival of their hit show, The Judgment of Paris. Dubbed by the company as 'A dramatic entertainment,' this erotically charged show fuses theater, dance, music, naughty cabaret and can-can! The Judgment of Paris is conceived, directed and choreographed by Austin McCormick, with adapted text by Austin McCormick and Toby Burns.

In February of 2009, in honor of the bicentennial of Joseph Haydn's death, Gotham Chamber Opera will present the New York City stage premiere of L'isola disabitata (Desert Island) in a new production staged by Mark Morris at the Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College.

Composer/performer Our Lady J returns to The Zipper Factory Theater (336 West 37th Street, between 8th and 9th Avenues) with THE SECOND ANNUAL GOSPEL OF DOLLY, an inspiring evening focusing on Dolly Parton's most beloved music, which will be performed on Friday, December 19 at 9:30 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. Once again, THE GOSPEL OF DOLLY will feature the Pink Champagne Orchestra and the Train To Kill Gospel Choir, along with this year's special guests Novice Theory and Taylor Mac. Tickets are $20.00.

Puccini's most popular work returns to the Metropolitan Opera on Monday, December 15, at 8:00 p.m. in the visually stunning classic production by Franco Zeffirelli. Fr?d?ric Chaslin conducts the performances which run through Saturday, January 10, 2008 and feature Mexican tenor Ram?n Vargas and Latvian soprano Maija Kovalevska as Puccini's star-crossed lovers, Rodolfo and Mim?. Fellow Bohemians in the cast are portrayed by Susanna Phillips as Musetta in her Met debut, Mariusz Kwiecien as the painter Marcello, Tommi Hakala as the musician Schaunard, and Oren Gradus as the philosopher Colline. Paul Plishka sings both Benoit and Alcindoro. Massimo Giordano sings Rodolfo in the final two performances.