Pierre Audi News

General Director Els van der Plas is leaving Dutch National Opera & Ballet on 1 November. She will become the business manager of the Bonnefanten museum in Maastricht.

This April, renowned director, choreographer, and dancer Bill T. Jones presents and performs in the world premiere of his monumental new work, Deep Blue Sea, at Park Avenue Armory, marking Jones' first time performing in fifteen years. Using deconstructed texts from Martin Luther King Jr.'s “I Have a Dream” and Herman Melville's Moby Dick, the highly personal work explores the interplay of single and group identities and the pursuit of the elusive “we” during fractious times.

Nicholas Till, internationally renowned professor of Opera Studies, will, as of November 2019, hold the first Music Theatre and Opera Chair in the Netherlands. Till will combine the chair at the UvA with his professorship at the University of Sussex.

Park Avenue Armory has just announced its 2020 season, which is set to include works by Bill T. Jones, Robert Icke's Hamlet, and much more. Click here for tickets and additional information.

Park Avenue Armory announces today the cast for its December production of Judgment Daya?"the world premiere of Christopher Shinn's new adaptation of ?-dön von Horváth's 1937 play. Luke Kirby, best known for his Emmy Award-winning performance of Lenny Bruce on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel , plays the leading role in the production, which is the first ground-up theater production for the Armory. In his return to the Armory after his award-winning production of The Hairy Ape (2017), acclaimed theater director Richard Jones leads the cast of 16, which includes Susannah Perkins (Network; The Wolves), Alyssa Bresnahan (Network; 27 Dresses), Henry Stram (Junk; The Elephant Man), and Harriet Harris (Thoroughly Modern Millie a?" Tony Award; Desperate Housewives).

Park Avenue Armory today announces the cast for its December production of Judgment Daya?"the world premiere of Christopher Shinn's new adaptation of ?-dön von Horváth's 1937 play.

After a successful first year, ARTE Opera embarks on its second season in October 2019. In cooperation with its partners, ARTE will be presenting outstanding productions from some of the best-known stages in Europe.

This December, Park Avenue Armory will round out its 2019 season with the world premiere of a new adaptation of ?-dön von Horváth's 1937 play Judgment Day, an ambitious work that explores morality, responsibility, and the guilt of a small-town's train stationmaster and his community. The adaptation, commissioned by the Armory and penned by Obie Award-winning and Pulitzer Prize-nominated playwright Christopher Shinn, is staged by famed British theater director Richard Jones, who returns to the Armory to helm this gripping moral parable following his critically acclaimed, eight-time Drama Deska?"nominated production of The Hairy Ape  at the Armory in 2017. With much of the narrative centered around an ill-fated train depot, Judgment Day and its vast set will take on special resonance in the 55,000-square-foot Wade Thompson Drill Halla?"reminiscent of the great nineteenth century train sheds of Europe, with its vaulted ceiling and raw industrial design. The production runs December 5, 2019 through January 11, 2020. Casting will be announced in the coming weeks.

This September, renowned Japanese theater director Satoshi Miyagi brings his intercultural adaptation of Antigone to Park Avenue Armory for its North American premiere in the Wade Thompson Drill Hall.

Marc Albrecht, chief conductor of Dutch National Opera and the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, was crowned best conductor in the world at the prestigious 2019 International Opera Awards.

Transforming Park Avenue Armory's Wade Thompson Drill Hall into an apocalyptic wasteland, visionary director and composer Heiner Goebbels returns to Park Avenue Armory with the North American premiere of Everything That Happened and Would Happen, marking Goebbels' third collaboration with the institution over the last 10 years.

Adelaide Festival has today announced an exclusive partnership to co-produce and co-commission major operatic productions with one of the world's greatest festivals, Festival International d'Art Lyrique d'Aix-en-Provence over a three year period. The historic agreement includes the two festivals collaborating on a range of initiatives for emerging South Australian artists and musicians as well as opportunities for both French and Australian arts workers across the industry.

In March 2019, Park Avenue Armory - in collaboration with the National Theatre and Neal Street Productions - will present the North American premiere of The Lehman Trilogy. Told in three parts in a single evening, the production will unfold in the soaring 55,000-square-foot Wade Thompson Drill Hall from March 22 through April 20, 2019 in a strictly limited engagement. Directed by Sam Mendes, The Lehman Trilogy weaves through nearly two centuries of Lehman lineage, following the brothers Henry, Emanuel, and Mayer Lehman from their 1844 arrival in New York City to the 2008 collapse of the financial firm bearing their name. Adam Godley, Ben Miles, and Simon Russell Beale play the Lehman brothers, and a cast of characters including their sons and grandsons. As the inaugural production of the 2019 season, The Lehman Trilogy builds on the Armory's history of presenting bold and engaging theater productions that explore the unexpected possibilities of the cross-genre cultural institution.

Bard College announces the appointment of world-renowned composer, conductor, and artist Tan Dun as Dean of the Bard College Conservatory of Music. As dean, Tan Dun will guide the Conservatory in fulfilling its mission of teaching young musicians both new music and music history, while deepening an understanding of its connection to history, art and culture, and society. He will also help to build the synergy between Eastern and Western studies at the Conservatory, including its recently founded US-China Music Institute.

Park Avenue Armory announced its 2019 season, which includes evocative new visual and performing arts commissions along with a timely and eclectic lineup of multidisciplinary world and North American premiere productions and installations.

Conductor Markus Stenz leads the world premiere of the highly-anticipated world premiere performance of Fin de Partie at Teatro alla Scala, the first and only opera by the beloved, visionary composer György Kurtág, composed at the age of 91. Based on the famous Samuel Beckett play, commonly performed in English as Endgame, the operatic version, to be sung in French, has been more than seven years in the making. At 450 pages, Fin de Partie is by far the largest score ever composed by the reputed 'master of the miniature,' who has for several decades maintained the desire of writing a musical treatment for the sparse, sardonically existential work. This production is staged by internationally-acclaimed artistic and theater director, Pierre Audi.

Combining the political with the poetic, William Kentridge will animate Park Avenue Armory's Wade Thompson Drill Hall with a grand, multidisciplinary work commemorating the millions of Africans who served in World War I. Co-commissioned by Park Avenue Armory, 14-18 NOW Centenary Commissions, MASS MoCA, and the Ruhrtriennale, with additional support from the Holland Festival, The Head & The Load combines music and movement, sculpture and shadow play to critically examine colonialism and how somber remnants of history continue to color our experiences today. Performed from December 4 to December 15, 2018, The Head & The Load features music by Kentridge's long-time collaborator Philip Miller and co-composer Thuthuka Sibisi and choreography by Gregory Maqoma, performed by an international ensemble cast of singers, dancers, and performers, including the Brooklyn-based orchestra collective The Knights. Kentridge weaves these elements together to conjure a "historical drawing in performance" of immensive proportion and imagination.

Neal Street Productions has confirmed the West End transfer of its co-production with the National Theatre of The Lehman Trilogy. Sam Mendes's acclaimed production of Ben Power's adaptation of Stefano Massini's text about the rise and fall of the Lehman family's extraordinary empire will play at the Piccadilly Theatre from May 11th 2019 for a 12 week season. Tickets for the West End season go on sale to the general public from November 2nd. Prior to appearing at the Piccadilly Theatre, The Lehman Trilogy will play a limited season from March 22nd - April 20th 2019 at the Park Avenue Armory in New York following its sell-out run at the Lyttelton Theatre.

This November at Teatro alla Scala, conductor Markus Stenz leads the world premiere of the highly-anticipated world premiere performance of Fin de Partie, the first and only opera by the beloved, visionary composer Gyorgy Kurtag, composed at the age of 91.  Based on the famous Samuel Beckett play, commonly performed in English as Endgame, the operatic version, to be sung in French, has been more than seven years in the making. At 450 pages, Fin de Partie is by far the largest score ever composed by the reputed "master of the miniature," who has for several decades maintained the desire of writing a musical treatment for the sparse, sardonically existential work. This production is staged by internationally-acclaimed artistic and theater director, Pierre Audi.