This fall, Grammy and ECHO Klassik Award-winning conductor Fabio Luisi launches his second season as the new Principal Conductor of the Danish National Symphony Orchestra (DNSO), and his sixth as General Director of Zurich Opera, which was named Best Opera Company at the 2014 International Opera Awards.
Composer and director Michel van der Aa's perspective-bending chamber opera Blank Out, based on the life and work of South African poet Ingrid Jonker, is reimagined within Park Avenue Armory's Wade Thompson Drill Hall in its North American premiere this September. Miah Persson performs live and is accompanied by a 3D film featuring Roderick Williams and the Netherlands Chamber Choir. The design of the space will capitalize on the malleability of the Drill Hall and the unique backdrop of its architecture with elements that heighten the panoramic landscapes found in the film, utilize the room's iconic vaulted ceiling, and create a stage that is interchangeably vast and intimate throughout the production.
This October, Park Avenue Armory honors the visionary work of composer Pierre Boulez in a rare staging of his spatial masterpiece Repons with the Ensemble intercontemporain, its Musical Director Matthias Pintscher, IRCAM, and six soloists from the Ensemble. Utilizing the vast and open space of the Wade Thompson Drill Hall, the Armory will present an unprecedented realization of the work in its demanding configuration, positioning the Ensemble in the center of the audience as they, in turn, are surrounded by soloists and intricate amplification. The composition will also be played twice in succession each evening, with audience members switching seats to hear the work from different locations, changing the sonic dimensions and spatial relationship of their experience. Repons marks the first New York performance of a major work by Boulez since his passing in early 2016, and the first time in over a decade that this masterpiece has been staged as it was originally intended in North America.
This December, Theatre du Soleil and its founder, theater icon Ariane Mnouchkine, come to Park Avenue Armory in the North American Premiere of their new work A Room in India (Une chambre en Inde). The work follows the adventures of a touring French theater company stranded in India without a director while the world around them falls into disarray. Scroll down for a sneak peek at the production!
Beginning May 18, renowned “flex” dance pioneers Reggie (Regg Roc) Gray and his D.R.E.A.M. Ring dance activists take the Park Avenue Armory stage once again with FLEXN Evolution, launching the international tour of the re-envisioned Armory commission co-directed by Gray and visionary director Peter Sellars.
Park Avenue Armory presents a bold staging of Eugene O'Neill's iconic American drama The Hairy Ape, directed by Oliver Award-winner Richard Jones and starring Tony nominee Bobby Cannavale.
Olivier Award-winning director, Robert Icke's (Mary Stuart, The Red Barn, Uncle Vanya, Oresteia, Mr Burns and 1984), ground-breaking and electrifying production of William Shakespeare's Hamlet, starring BAFTA award-winner Andrew Scott (Moriarty in BBC's Sherlock, Denial, Spectre, Design For Living and Cock) in the title role, will transfer to the Harold Pinter Theatre, following a critically acclaimed and sell out run at the Almeida Theatre.
Two classic Puccini operas and a hidden opera gem make up Welsh National Opera's Love's Poisoned Chalice season, taking audiences on a journey of love, passion, heartbreak and tragedy through some of opera's greatest tear jerking music.
Park Avenue Armory presents a bold staging of Eugene O'Neill's iconic American drama The Hairy Ape, directed by Oliver Award-winner Richard Jones and starring Tony nominee Bobby Cannavale.
Fabio Luisi This winter and spring, Grammy and ECHO Klassik Award-winning conductor Fabio Luisi looks forward to several high-profile guest conducting appearances, including return engagements with the Philadelphia Orchestra - to help celebrate 'Andre Watts's 60-Year Legacy' - and the San Francisco Symphony, as well as a return to conduct two different programs with the London Symphony. He also tours California with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra (DNSO), of which he is the newly appointed Principal Conductor, with concerts featuring beloved soprano Deborah Voigt; and tours Europe with Philharmonia Zurich and special guest Anne-Sophie Mutter. Rounding out the conductor's busy season are concerts with Japan's NHK Symphony in Tokyo; returns to Filarmonica della Scala and the Munich Philharmonic; and a concert at Florence's Opera di Firenze, where Luisi assumes the post of Music Director starting in the spring of 2018.
Park Avenue Armory today announced its 2017 season, deepening the institution's commitment to presenting groundbreaking unconventional programs that take full advantage of its soaring Wade Thompson Drill Hall and intimate historic rooms.
Always looking for new worlds to conquer, Gioachino Rossini wrote GUILLAUME TELL in French, as Paris became the center of the opera world. Despite his successes there, this was to be his operatic swan song, a story glorifying a revolutionary character--with a message that resonated, loud and strong, at the performance the night after the troubling American election.
A new production of Rossini's Guillaume Tell, the composer's final opera, will open at the Met on October 18 in the first company performances of the ambitious historical epic in more than 80 years-and its first-ever Met performances in its original French. The new staging is directed by Pierre Audi, the incoming Artistic Director of the Park Avenue Armory and conducted by Met Principal Conductor Fabio Luisi. Rossini's opera tells the story of a Swiss revolutionary on a quest for freedom. Its famous "William Tell Overture" is one of the best-known and most performed pieces in the standard classical repertory, though the opera, which makes considerable demands on its stars, orchestra, and chorus, has rarely been presented in modern times. Gerald Finley will star in the title role, which he has made a specialty of in recent seasons, with Marina Rebeka as the Princess Mathilde; Bryan Hymel as her suitor Arnold; Maria Zifchak as Tell's wife Hedwige; Janai Brugger as their son Jemmy; Italian bass Marco Spotti in his Met debut as Walter Furst; Kwangchul Youn as Arnold's father Melcthal; and John Relyea as Gesler.
A new production of Rossini's Guillaume Tell, the composer's final opera, will open at the Met on October 18 in the first company performances of the ambitious historical epic in more than 80 years-and its first-ever Met performances in its original French. The new staging is directed by Pierre Audi, the incoming Artistic Director of the Park Avenue Armory and conducted by Met Principal Conductor Fabio Luisi. Rossini's opera tells the story of a Swiss revolutionary on a quest for freedom. Its famous "William Tell Overture" is one of the best-known and most performed pieces in the standard classical repertory, though the opera, which makes considerable demands on its stars, orchestra, and chorus, has rarely been presented in modern times. Gerald Finley will star in the title role, which he has made a specialty of in recent seasons, with Marina Rebeka as the Princess Mathilde; Bryan Hymel as her suitor Arnold; Maria Zifchak as Tell's wife Hedwige; Janai Brugger as their son Jemmy; Italian bass Marco Spotti in his Met debut as Walter Furst; Kwangchul Youn as Arnold's father Melcthal; and John Relyea as Gesler.
Marianna Pizzolato will make her Met debut as Isabella, the title character in L'Italiana in Algeri, which she now sings in all performances of Rossini's comedy at the Met this season. The Italian mezzo-soprano replaces Elizabeth DeShong, who has withdrawn from the run due to illness.
The Almeida will broadcast Artistic Director Rupert Goold's production of RICHARD III, with Ralph Fiennes as Shakespeare's most notorious villain and Vanessa Redgrave as Queen Margaret, live to cinemas in the UK and around the world today 21 July.
The Almeida will broadcast Artistic Director Rupert Goold's production of RICHARD III, with Ralph Fiennes as Shakespeare's most notorious villain and Vanessa Redgrave as Queen Margaret, live to cinemas in the UK and around the world on 21 July.
The Almeida Theatre announces the cast for the world premiere of Boy, a new play by Leo Butler, directed by Sacha Wares. The cast is Mohammad Amiri, Osmain Baig, Ruby Bridle, Emilio Doorgasingh, Terina Drayton, Aeran Fitzgerald, Frankie Fox, Ellie Mai Gallagher, Bayleigh Gray, Zainab Hasan, Duramaney Kamara, Asiatu Koroma, Wendy Kweh, Lev Litvinov, Georgie Lord, Angel Loren, Teann McDonnell, Eugenie-Alexia Mulumba, Sarah Niles, Demi Papaminas, Imogen Roberts, Abdul Salis, Morgane Tapia,Peter Temple and Matthew Wellard. Boy will run at the Almeida Theatre from 5 April until 28 May, with a Press Night on 12 April.