NY Phil and Giants Are Small Open A DANCER'S DREAM Tonight

The New York Philharmonic will present A Dancer's Dream: Two Works by Stravinsky, a multidisciplinary, theatrical reimagining of the ballets The Fairy's Kiss and Petrushka, created by Giants Are Small. Sara Mearns, New York City Ballet principal dancer, will star in the production, which will be conducted by Music Director Alan Gilbert, directed and designed by Doug Fitch, choreographed by Karole Armitage, and produced by Edouard Getaz - tonight, June 27, 2013, at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, June 28 at 8:00 p.m.; and Saturday, June 29 at 8:00 p.m.

Blending music with ballet, live animation, pre-recorded video, puppetry, and circus arts, A Dancer's Dream will blur the lines between reality and imagination, audience and performer. Using Stravinsky's The Fairy's Kiss and Petruskha as the foundation for a new narrative, the production chronicles the story of a young woman, played by Ms. Mearns, and her dream of becoming a dancer. Entranced by the music, she is "kissed" by the passion to become an artist and drawn into the performance, dancing to the complete score of The Fairy's Kiss. By the second act, she has completed her transformation into an artist, becoming Columbine in Petrushka.

The production will turn Avery Fisher hall into a dream world through costumes, sets, staging, and live filmmaking, Giants Are Small's signature technique in which a real-time feed of musicians, puppets, and miniatures is projected above the Orchestra. Live filmmaking was also used in the New York Philharmonic's groundbreaking production of Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre (called the number one opera of 2010 by New York Magazine and Time Out New York, and cited as one of 2010's opera highlights by The New York Times). The puppeteers will include Amar Ramasar of New York City Ballet, who will also appear as a dancer along with Abbey Roesner; Matt Acheson, puppetry associate from the Tony Award-winning production of War Horse; and puppeteer and circus performer William da Silva. Featured in the pre-recorded footage of Petrushka will be opera star Eric Owens as The Moor; opera, Broadway, and film performer Anthony Roth Costanzo as Petrushka (both of whom starred in Le Grand Macabre); and Ms. Mearns as Columbine. Alan Gilbert and the musicians of the Philharmonic will also play active roles in the storytelling. As an interlude connecting the wintery settings of The Fairy's Kiss and Petrushka, pianists Eric Huebner and StEve Beck will perform a brief excerpt from Durey's Neige, for piano four hands.

"I have often spoken about my belief in storytelling through music, sometimes in ways that are literal but often in ways that are less easy to define," Alan Gilbert said. "The Fairy's Kiss and Petrushka contrast with each other, but both are intrinsically associated with dance, and the action on the stage allows certain themes to emerge and connect them. Karole and Doug are geniuses in their fields, really rich, sophisticated thinkers; more importantly, what they create totally fits in with my ambitions in terms of the Orchestra's connecting with a variety of art forms on the deepest levels. Sara comes to many of our concerts, and I've gotten to enjoy getting to know her. She is a great artist."

"I have very much enjoyed the two previous projects with Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic - Alan and the musicians have shown such enthusiasm for exploring new ways to stage things. I have felt invited to let my imagination take flight," said director/designer Doug Fitch. "Now we are moving on to find a way to integrate ballet with our previous melding of orchestral performance, live filmmaking, and puppetry, and Sara Mearns is an ideal addition. She is not only hugely talented as a classical dancer, but she is willing to experiment. She has been a wonderful muse for inspiring us all to envision an emergent dream world by combining these two ballets and bringing them to life in Avery Fisher Hall."

"The opportunity to dance to music as breathtaking as these ballet scores by Stravinsky - who wrote ballet music that is challenging but also inspiring - performed by the New York Philharmonic is a rare and exquisite opportunity," said New York City Ballet principal dancer Sara Mearns. "I am a huge fan of this Orchestra, and am honored and thrilled to be part of what is happening here under Alan Gilbert's leadership. Karole Armitage has created astounding choreography for me, and Doug Fitch's conception of the story and the roles he has crafted for me are a highlight. I really can't wait for the performances!"

"Working with Doug Fitch and Giants Are Small on the Philharmonic's production of The Cunning Little Vixen was a wonderful experience," said choreographer Karole Armitage, "so I am delighted to come back for this full evening of dance. I had never worked with Sara Mearns, but knew and admired her luscious dancing. It is a great privilege to work with such a gifted dancer with her fierce intelligence, deep expressivity, and desire to push herself and her art form toward new horizons. Working with the Giants Are Small team is also a joy - they have a unique outlook that creates a marvelous environment for audience and collaborators alike. This will be a delightful event for all who are lucky enough to see it."

The production will feature lighting design by Clifton Taylor, costume design by Irina Kruzhilina, and make-up by Margie Durand.

The Philharmonic and Alan Gilbert last collaborated with Doug Fitch, Edouard Getaz, and their Production Company Giants Are Small in June 2011 for the acclaimed production of Janá?ek's The Cunning Little Vixen, which was also choreographed by Karole Armitage. In June 2010 the New York Philharmonic and Giants Are Small staged Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre, a critical success that was named the number one cultural event of the year by several news outlets.

Artists:

Music Director Alan Gilbert began his tenure at the New York Philharmonic in September 2009, launching what New York Magazine called "a fresh future for the Philharmonic." The first native New Yorker in the post, he has introduced the positions of The Marie-Josée Kravis Composer-in-Residence and The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence, an annual multi-week festival, and CONTACT!, the new-music series, and he has sought to make the Orchestra a point of civic pride for the city and country.

In 2012-13, Alan Gilbert conducts world premieres; presides over a cycle of Brahms's complete symphonies and concertos; leads the EUROPE / SPRING 2013 tour; and continues The Nielsen Project, the multiyear initiative to perform and record the Danish composer's symphonies and concertos, the first release of which was named by The New York Times as among the Best Classical Music Recordings of 2012. The season concludes with June Journey: Gilbert's Playlist, four programs showcasing themes he has introduced, including the season finale: a theatrical reimagining of Stravinsky ballets with director/designer Doug Fitch and New York City Ballet Principal Dancer Sara Mearns. Last season's highlights included tours of Europe and California, several world premieres, Mahler symphonies, and Philharmonic 360, the Philharmonic and Park Avenue Armory's acclaimed spatial-music program featuring Stockhausen's Gruppen, about which The New York Times said: "Those who think classicalmusic needs some shaking up routinely challenge music directors at major orchestras to think outside the box. That is precisely what Alan Gilbert did."

Mr. Gilbert is Director of Conducting and Orchestral Studies and holds the William Schuman Chair in Musical Studies at The Juilliard School. Conductor Laureate of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and Principal Guest Conductor of Hamburg's NDR Symphony Orchestra, he regularly conducts leading orchestras around the world. He made his acclaimed Metropolitan Opera debut conducting John Adams's Doctor Atomic in 2008, the DVD of which received a Grammy Award. Renée Fleming's recent Decca recording Poèmes, on which he conducted, received a 2013 Grammy Award. In May 2010 Mr. Gilbert received an Honorary Doctor of Music degree from The Curtis Institute of Music and in December 2011, Columbia University's Ditson Conductor's Award for his "exceptional commitment to the performance of works by American composers and to contemporary music."

Visual artist, designer, and director Doug Fitch designed and directed the 2010 Giants Are Small production of Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre for the New York Philharmonic, conducted by Alan Gilbert, which was cited as the top opera of 2010 by The New York Times, New
York Magazine, and Time Out New York. Mr. Fitch and Giants Are Small collaborated with Alan Gilbert and the Philharmonic again on the 2011 production of Janá?ek's The Cunning Little Vixen, which was called "Best Classical Event of the Year" by New York Magazine. His first project for the Orchestra was Stravinsky's L'Histoire du soldat in 2005.

Doug Fitch has also created productions for the Los Angeles Opera (Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel), Los Angeles Philharmonic (Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf), and the Santa Fe Opera (Puccini's Turandot). He has also directed projects for other major institutions across North America and Europe, including The National Arts Center in Canada and the Royal

Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. For more than 15 years, he has collaborated with artist Mimi Oka to create a series of multi-sensory experiences known as Orphic Feasts. Beginning in the 1980s he emerged as an architectural designer. He designed several homes and pieces of furniture, which were regularly published.

The creative life of Doug Fitch began as part of his family's touring puppet theater. Later, while studying visual arts at Harvard University, he collaborated with director Peter Sellars, including on a production of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen. Mr. Fitch also worked on Robert Wilson's Civil Wars at The American Repertory Theatre and, in England, with the late Jim Henson of The Muppets.

Doug Fitch was born in 1959 in Philadelphia. He graduated magna cum laude with a degree in visual studies from Harvard University, and also studied cooking at La Varenne in Paris and design at Institut d'Architecture et d'Etudes Urbaines in Strasbourg, France.

Karole Armitage, director of the New York-based Armitage Gone! Dance Company, was rigorously trained in classical ballet. As a professional dancer she performed in Balanchine's Grand Théâtre de Genève Company and in the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. Ms. Armitage is renowned for pushing the boundaries to create works that blend dance, music, and art, drawing upon her technical knowledge of dance to blend virtuosity with conceptual ideas from the frontiers of movement research. She directed the Ballet of Florence Italy (1995-98) and the Biennale of Contemporary Dance in Venice (2004), served as resident choreographer for the Ballet de Lorraine in France (1999-2004), and created works for many companies, including The Bolshoi Ballet, Ballet Nacional de Cuba, Les Ballets de Monte Carlo, Paris Opéra Ballet, Kansas City Ballet, and Alvin Ailey Dance Theater. Ms. Armitage collaborates frequently with composers and artists, including Jeff Koons, Brice Marden, David Salle, and Phillip Taaffe. She choreographed two Broadway productions (Passing Strange and Hair, the latter earning her a Tony nomination), videos for Madonna and Michael Jackson, and several films for Merchant Ivory Productions. Known for directing opera, she choreographed Janá?ek's The Cunning Little Vixen for the New York Philharmonic (2011) as well as the Cirque du Soleil production Amaluna (2012). Ms. Armitage was awarded Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, France's most prestigious award, in 2009, received a doctorate of the arts from the University of Kansas in 2013, and is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship.

Lighting designer Clifton Taylor's previous projects for the New York Philharmonic include Janá?ek's The Cunning Little Vixen (in 2011) and Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre (2010). His Broadway credits include Jay Johnson: The Two and Only (for which he won an Ovation Award), Frozen, and Hot Feet. Off-Broadway, he has worked on several shows for City Center Encores! and many plays and musical events for Gotham Chamber Opera, Irish Repertory Theatre, and MCC Theater. Mr. Taylor's lighting designs for dance have been commissioned for the repertories of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, American Ballet Theater, San Francisco Ballet, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, Ballet Jazz de Montreal, Maggio Danza (Florence, Italy), and Ballet Company of Rio de Janeiro. He is the resident lighting designer for Armitage Gone! Dance Company, Philadanco, and Elisa Monte Dance, and has designed for Lar Lubovitch, Ron K. Brown, and Larry Keigwin. Other recent collaborators include Benoit-Swan Pouffer for Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet and Septime Webre for Washington Ballet. In addition, Clifton Taylor is a theater consultant to venues in several countries, most recently advising on the construction of Teatro del Lago in Chile, the southern-most opera house in the world.

Irina Kruzhilina is a New York City-based costume designer whose work has been seen in venues including Brooklyn Academy Of Music, The National Theatre in Prague, Fischer Center at Bard College, and a barge on the East River in Queens. Ms. Kruzhilina has designed costumes for dozens of theater, dance, opera, and puppetry performances, such as The Merchant of Venice, Don Juan in Prague with David Chambers, Three Graces by Ruth Margraff, Arctic Hysteria with Else-Marie Laukvik, Song for New York with Mabou Mines, DNAWORKS's HaMapah, SCRAP Performance Group's TIDE, and Adam McKinney's Heliotrope. Her work has appeared at the Philadelphia Live Arts, Spoleto Fringe, and DAH Teater (Belgrade, Serbia) festivals. A native of Moscow, Russia, Ms. Kruzhilina is dedicated to connecting Western and Eastern European theater through international collaborations, which led to multiple productions with Plovdiv Dramatischen Theatre in Bulgaria and director Stayko Murdjev, and with director Alexander Sharovsky at the Russian Drama Theatre in Baku, Azerbaijan. Irina Kruzhilina received the 2007 NEA/TCG Career Development Program for Theatre Designers, and is a Chashama resident.

After graduating from St. John's University, make-up artist Margie Durand began an internship in post-production film editing until a surprise opportunity to work on a New York University student film led her to shift her focus to make-up artistry. Her career was established when make-up artist Francois Nars invited her to observe him at Calvin Klein, Dolce & Gabbana, and Marc Jacobs fashion shows, followed by her honing her skills in fashion make-up in editorial, music videos, and television commercials. Ms. Durand then left fashion to design make-up for New York City Opera. During the off-season she worked on independent films, such as I Shot Andy Warhol and Requiem for a Dream. Her other work as a make-up artist in film includes her contributions to major films such as The Manchurian Candidate, Across the Universe, The Wrestler, and Noah. Ms. Durand was the make-up department head for Sex and the City: The Movie, the pilot for the AMC series Mad Men, and BLACK SWAN.

Since its founding in 2007 by American director and visual artist Doug Fitch, Swiss filmmaker and producer Edouard Getaz, and multimedia entrepreneur Frederic Gumy, Giants Are
Small has risen to become one of the most out-of-the-box and celebrated production companies in New York. Collaborating with top orchestras and exceptional contemporary talents, Giants Are Small is known for its extraordinary range of genre-bending productions, which capitalize on its signature fusion of theater, live filmmaking, music, and visual art.

The 2010 Giants Are Small production of Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre for the New York Philharmonic, conducted by Alan Gilbert, was cited as the top opera of 2010 by The New York Times, New York Magazine, and Time Out New York. Giants Are Small collaborated with the Philharmonic again on the 2011 production of Janá?ek's The Cunning Little Vixen, which was called "Best Classical Event of the Year" by New York Magazine. Both received superlative reviews and are consistently cited as benchmarks of contemporary opera production in New York. A Dancer's Dream: Two Works by Stravinsky, based on two works by Stravinsky, The Fairy's Kiss and Petrushka, marks the third installment in a trilogy collaboration with
Alan Gibert and the Orchestra. The Giants Are Small production of Petrushka was originally developed with the University of Maryland in 2008. The creative partnership of Doug Fitch and Edouard Getaz began with Stravinsky's L'Histoire du soldat, with the New York Philharmonic, in 2005, and was the first production in which their idea of "live filmmaking" was brought to a wide audience.

Giants Are Small is currently developing Peter + Wolf in Hollywood - an immersive event incorporating theater, music, on-stage filmmaking, and puppetry - based on the great Prokofiev classic. Additional projects in development include theatrical amalgams of media, technology, music, and visual art.

Producer, director, and filmmaker Edouard Getaz has consistently been at the forefront of new trends in live entertainment. He has developed and produced a wide variety of events, ranging from major fashion shows to music festivals, large historical celebrations, and concerts. His first production under the banner of Giants Are Small was Stravinsky's L'Histoire du soldat, directed by Doug Fitch, for the New York Philharmonic in 2005; he has since produced all Giants Are Small productions, including two groundbreaking operas at the New York Philharmonic: Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre in 2010 - which was cited as the top opera of 2010 by The New York Times, New York Magazine, and Time Out New York - and Janá?ek's The Cunning Little Vixen in 2011, which was called "Best Classical Event of the Year" by New York Magazine.

Mr. Getaz also produced the Giants Are Small adaptation of Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at Walt Disney Concert Hall in 2008 and is currently developing a new multimedia adaptation of the Prokofiev classic with Mr. Fitch and Giants Are Small's co- founder Frederic Gumy: titled Peter + Wolf in Hollywood, an immersive event incorporating theater, music, on-stage filmmaking, and puppetry.

For the Montreux Jazz Festival, in the mid-1990s, Mr. Getaz produced one of the first multi- location music events to be streamed live on the Internet. In 1998 he co-founded Creatives, an events and communications agency that quickly became, and remains, one of the most successful companies of its kind in Switzerland. He has directed two films, Virgin Red (2005) and Freud's Magic Powder (2009), both of which were premiered at the Locarno Film Festival and selected to appear at major festivals.

Edouard Getaz holds a master's in law degree from the Fribourg University, Switzerland, and studied film, directing, and production at New York University.

Sara Mearns was born in Columbia, South Carolina, and began her dance training at the age of three with Ann Brodie at the Calvert-Brodie School of Dance in Columbia. Following study with Patricia McBride at Dance Place, School of North Carolina Dance Theatre, South Carolina Governor's School for the Arts and Humanities, and the School of American Ballet (the official school of New York City Ballet), she became an apprentice with New York City Ballet in 2003 and danced a featured role in Michel Fokine's choreography for Chopiniana in 2004. Ms. Mearns joined the company as a member of the corps de ballet in 2004, was promoted to the rank of soloist in 2006, and was promoted to principal dancer in 2008. At the age of 19, while still a member of the corps de ballet, she performed her first featured role as Odette/Odile in Peter Martins's staging of Swan Lake. She has since appeared in featured roles in works choreographed by George Balanchine (including Apollo, Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet, Concerto Barocco, Jewels, George Balanchine's The NutcrackerTM, Serenade, Stars and Stripes, Symphony in C, and Walpurgisnacht Ballet), Jerome Robbins (such as Dances at a Gathering, The Goldberg Variations, and In the Night), Jerome Robbins and Twyla Tharp (Brahms/Handel), Peter Martins (Barber Violin Concerto, Beethoven Romance, Chichester Psalms, and Fearful Symmetries, among others), Christopher Wheeldon (including DGV: Danse à Grande Vitesse, Les Carillons and Polyphonia), Alexei Ratmansky (Concerto DSCH, Namouna, A Grand Divertissement, and Russian Seasons); Susan Stroman (Double Feature and Frankie and Johnny ... and Rose); and Richard Tanner (Sonatas and Interludes). In 2011 Sara Mearns originated the role of Honorata in Paul McCartney's Ocean's Kingdom with choreography by Peter Martins, and she was nominated for a Benois de la Danse award for her performance. In 2003 she was a recipient of the Mae L. Wien Award and a nominee for the Princess Grace Award.

Amar Ramasar was born in the Bronx, New York. He began his studies at the School of American Ballet, the official school of New York City Ballet, in 1993. He also studied at the American Ballet Theatre Summer Program and The Rock School of Pennsylvania Ballet. In July 2000 Mr. Ramasar was invited to become an apprentice with New York City Ballet, and in July 2001 he joined the company as a member of the corps de ballet. He was promoted to the rank of soloist in March 2006 and in October 2009 was promoted to principal. Mr. Ramasar's featured roles at New York City Ballet have included those in George Balanchine's choreography for Agon, Allegro Brillante, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and George Balanchine's The Nutcracker; Jerome Robbins's 2 & 3 Part Inventions, Concertino, Dances at a Gathering, Fancy Free, and West Side Story Suite; and Peter Martins's A Fool For You, Concerto for Two Solo Pianos, Fearful Symmetries, Les Gentilhommes, Guide to Strange Places, The Infernal Machine, and Swan Lake. Mr. Ramasar was featured in the 2010 film adaptation of Jerome Robbins's N.Y. Export: Opus Jazz. Amar Ramasar was a Mae L. Wien Award recipient in 2000.

Matt Acheson is a New York City-based artist. He has performed, built, and toured extensively with Basil Twist's productions of Symphonie Fantastique, Petrushka, and Master Peter's Puppet Show, as well as Dan Hurlin's productions of Hiroshima Maiden and Disfarmer. He has also worked with Mabou Mines's Peter and Wendy, Paula Vogel's A Long Christmas Ride Home, Tom Lee's Ko'Olau, and Chris Green's Luybo. Mr. Acheson was the puppetry rehearsal director for The Metropolitan Opera's production of Puccini's Madama Butterfly and worked closely with choreographer Nami Yamamoto on A Howling Flower and Flying with My Shooting Stars. His film credits include In the House of the Sin Eater, which he wrote, directed, and designed with filmmaker Paul Kloss. Other projects have included Rinna Groff's Compulsion, for which he built the marionettes and supervised the puppetry. Most recently, he was the resident puppetry director for the Broadway production of War Horse at Lincoln Center Theater and currently serves as the associate puppetry director for the show's North American tour. Matt Acheson directs the St. Ann's Warehouse Puppet Lab and is in production for the new Radio City Music Hall spectacular, which will be premiered in 2014. These performances mark his first collaboration with Giants Are Small.

William da Silva is an actor, circus artist, and playwright. While in his native Brazil, he was an active member of the acclaimed street theater group Mambembe Música e Teatro Itinerante for four years and wrote several plays which have been produced in theater festivals throughout Brazil. He was accepted on full scholarship to the Dell'Arte International School of Physical Theatre in California, from which he obtained his masters in June 2011; while there, he played leading roles in Iphigenia Must Die (an adaptation of Euripides's Iphigenia at Aulis), an adaptation of The Musicians of Bremen, and Land of Dreams, which he co-wrote. Mr. da Silva studiEd Balinese dance and shadow puppetry in Bali, and he spent the 2011-12 season in New York as an active performer and teacher at the Circus Warehouse, specializing in wire walking, juggling, acrobatics, and character clown work. In July 2013 Mr. da Silva was engaged by Ferrari World in Abu Dhabi to help create and star in Red, a circus-theater production that performs 12 times each week in a 700-seat theater in Ferrari World, the world's largest indoor theme park. William da Silva was recently appointed company manager and director of the show.

Abbey Roesner began her dance training at the Baltimore School for the Arts (BSA). After attending the school's TWIGS (To Work in Gaining Skills) program, she then enrolled there as a full-time high school student. After graduating second in her class, she continued her studies at The Juilliard School, where she received her bachelor in fine arts degree in 2006. Ms. Roesner started her professional career freelancing in New York City, dancing for companies and choreographers including The Metropolitan Opera Ballet, Chamber Dance Project, Wally Cardona, and Davis Robertson. She left the United States in 2007 to join Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montreal. There, she danced works by Ohad Naharin, Stijn Celis, George Balanchine, and Fernand Nault while touring throughout Canada and Europe. Abbey Roesner joined Armitage Gone! Dance Company in June 2008, where she is in her fifth season, while also working at Dance Theater of Harlem with Francesca Harper and Harlem Dance Works 2.0. Ms. Roesner has also danced with Julia Gleich and Norte Maar, and collaborated with director RoBert Woodruff and choreographer Brook Notary. She assists with teaching and recruitment for Elliot Feld's Ballet Tech School.

American bass-baritone Eric Owens portrayed the title role in the World Premiere of Elliot Goldenthal's Grendel with the Los Angeles Opera and at Lincoln Center Festival. He was General Leslie Groves in the World Premiere of John Adams's Doctor Atomic at San Francisco Opera, and the Storyteller in the World Premiere of Adams's A Flowering Tree in Vienna and with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Mr. Owens appeared in The Metropolitan Opera's production and recording of Doctor Atomic, conducted by Alan Gilbert, and he is in The Met's current Ring cycle. His 2012-13 season includes appearances at the San Francisco and Los Angeles Operas, and performances with the Seattle, Baltimore, and Detroit symphony orchestras. Last season he performed in Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, and with both the Boston Symphony and Cleveland Orchestras at Carnegie Hall, and he was artist-in-residence at The Glimmerglass Festival last summer. Mr. Owens made his New York Philharmonic debut during the June 2003 residency in Sardinia, and his Philharmonic subscription debut in Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre, conducted by Alan Gilbert, in May 2010. Most recently he performed with the Philharmonic in Bach's B-minor Mass, conducted by Alan Gilbert, in March 2013.

Countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo will return to The Metropolitan Opera in 2013-14 for a new production of Johann Strauss II's Die Fledermaus and for a revival of the Baroque
pastiche The Enchanted Island, in which he performed both Ferdinand and Prospero in 2012-13, after making his debut as Unulfo in Handel's Rodelinda. He has recently appeared with The Glimmerglass Festival, Opera Philadelphia, Canadian Opera Company, New York City Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Michigan Opera Theater, Palm Beach Opera, North Carolina Opera, and Juilliard Opera. In 2010 Mr. Costanzo played Prince Go-Go in the New York Philharmonic's acclaimed production of Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre. He has been a featured soloist at Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, Mostly Mozart Festival, and with the orchestras of Cleveland, Indianapolis, Alabama, Detroit, Denver, and Seattle. Among other awards, he won first place at Operalia in 2012 and was a 2009 Grand Finals Winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. Mr. Costanzo playEd Francis in the Merchant Ivory film A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries. Anthony Roth Costanzo graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University and received his master's from Manhattan School of Music.

REPERTOIRE:

Igor Stravinsky composed The Fairy's Kiss, An Allegorical Ballet in Four Scenes, Inspired by the Music of Tchaikovsky, in 1928 for the Russian ballerina and patron Ida Rubinstein. Because it was an homage to Tchaikovsky, whose elegance and sense of humor Stravinsky admired, the composer borrowed melodies from the earlier composer's songs and piano pieces and used them alongside his own, presenting them in his drier manner and orchestrated in concertante style. Thus, former Philharmonic Program Annotator Phillip Ramey wrote that the piece could be considered "corrected Tchaikovsky ... an example of criticism at the highest level: that of one great composer of another." Indeed, in the 1960s Stravinsky remarked, "Listening the other day to a concert of the saccharine source material for [The Fairy's Kiss], I almost succumbed to diabetes." The story, based on Hans Christian Andersen's The Ice Maiden, is about a baby boy who is kissed by a fairy and enjoys good fortune until he is 18, when the fairy reappears in the form of a gypsy and then his bride to claim him as her own. The New York Philharmonic's only previous performance of this work was in March 1993, conducted by Oliver Knussen.

Petrushka, composed by Stravinsky for Serge Diaghilev's famous Ballets Russes in 1911, had a triumphant premiere in Paris, but in Vienna it met with violent opposition from the musicians of the Vienna Philharmonic, who branded it "dirty" and initially refused to play it. Its subsequent London and New York premieres, however, met with unqualified success. The ballet was created around the puppet character Petrushka, whom Stravinsky remembered seeing in carnival puppet shows in his childhood, and its score conjures the vibrant atmosphere of the Shrovetide fair in St. Petersburg. The Philharmonic first performed the original 1911 version of Petrushka in February 1923, when Albert Coates led the New York Symphony (which later merged with the New York Philharmonic to form today's Philharmonic), and most recently, in May 2010, conducted by Valery Gergiev as part of The Russian Stravinsky: A Philharmonic Festival.

Tickets for these concerts start at $33. Pre-Concert Talks are $7; discounts are available for multiple concerts, students, and groups (visit nyphil.org/preconcert for more information). All tickets may be purchased online at nyphil.org or by calling (212) 875-5656, 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Monday through Friday, 1:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Saturday, and noon to 5:00 p.m. on

Sunday. Tickets may also be purchased at the Avery Fisher Hall Box Office. The Box Office opens at 10:00 a.m. Monday through Saturday, and at noon on Sunday. On performance evenings, the Box Office closes one-half hour after performance time; other evenings it closes at 6:00 p.m. A limited number of $13.50 tickets for select concerts may be available through the Internet for students within 10 days of the performance, or in person the day of. Valid identification is required. To determine ticket availability, call the Philharmonic's Customer Relations Department at (212) 875-5656. [Ticket prices subject to change.]