21C Media Group Previews 2016-17 of Opera, Choral and Vocal Music

21C MEDIA GROUP just released its season preview of opera, vocal and choral music for 2016-17. Scroll down for details!

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CONCERTS, SPECIAL EVENTS, BROADCASTS, RECORDINGS & FILMS:

SEPTEMBER 2016

Sep 1 - Nov 13

In the fall, the string quartet BROOKLYN RIDER releases an album with Anne Sofie Von Otter titled So Many Things on Naïve Records, including music by Colin Jacobsen, Caroline Shaw, John Adams, Nico Muhly, Björk, Sting, Kate Bush and Elvis Costello, among others. Together, they tour material from the album and more in the U.S. and Europe, including stops at Carnegie Hall and the Opernhaus Zürich. [Sep 1: Copenhagen; Oct 7: Chapel Hill, NC; Oct 8: Washington, DC; Oct 13: NYC/CH; Nov 3: Stockholm; Nov 5: Utrecht, NL; Nov 8: Brussels; Nov 11: Saffron Walden, UK; Nov 12: Luxembourg; Nov 13: Zurich]

Sep 2 - Dec 10

On the heels of the release [Sep 2] of her new Deutsche Grammophon solo album, Verismo, Anna Netrebko returns to the Met in November to headline Puccini's Manon Lescaut. Making her first North American appearances in the role that "seemed made to measure for her talents" (Opera News), the Russian soprano stars opposite Marcelo Álvarez under the baton of Marco Armiliato, in Richard Eyre's noir-inspired production. [Nov 14, 18, 21, 25, 30, Dec 3, 7, 10: Met]

Sep 7

Mezzo-soprano Susan Graham - "an artist to treasure" (New York Times) - joins Renée Fleming and Michael Tilson Thomas for songs by Rossini at the San Francisco Symphony's opening-night gala. [San Francisco]

Sep 7 - 10 As Artistic Director and a co-founder of Collaborative Arts Institute of Chicago, tenor NICHOLAS PHAN curates the organization's 5th annual Collaborative Works Festival. This year, focusing on the influence Paul Verlaine's poetry had on the realm of French mélodie, the festival will present performances throughout Chicago by soprano Sarah Shafer, mezzo-soprano Kelley O'Connor, Phan, and pianists Matthew Gemmill and Scott Allen Jarrett, as well as its headlining solo recital by 2016 Beverly Sills Award-winning soprano Ailyn Pérez and pianist Craig Terry. [Sep 7, 8, 9, 10: Chicago]

Sep 7 - 11

New York's Spectrum celebrates the artistry of composer MICHAEL HERSCH - "one of the most fertile musical minds to emerge in the U.S. over the past generation" (Financial Times) - in a three-day Hersch Festival. Featured works include the world premiere of the weather and landscape are on our side (2016) and the New York premieres of Carrion-Miles to Purgatory (2014) and a tower in air: songs after poetry of Christopher Middleton (2015). Pianist Jacob Rhodebeck undertakes Hersch's tour de force The Vanishing Pavilions (2005); other performers include soprano Ah Young Hong, violinist Miranda Cuckson, saxophonist Gary Louie, horn player Michael Atkinson, and the composer himself on piano. [Sep 7, 8, 11: Spectrum]

Sep 9

VIA RECORDS releases David T. Little's first full-length opera, Dog Days. Composed to a libretto by Royce Vavrek and starring Marnie Breckenridge, James Bobick, and Tony nominee Lauren Worsham, it was Dog Days that convinced the New York Times "beyond any doubt that opera has both a relevant present and a bright future."

Sep 10 - 17

Packing a season's worth of opera productions into a week, CERISE JACOBS's "Ouroboros" trilogy (Naga, Madame White Snake, and Gilgamesh) has its world premiere in Boston in three complete cycles that each begin with a different opera, reflecting the cyclical principle of the ouroboros, the ancient Greek symbol of a snake eating its tail. Madame White Snake was produced in 2010 in Boston and won the Pulitzer Prize for music; the others are seeing their first productions. Naga is composed by Boston favorite Scott Wheeler; Madame White Snake by Zhou Long; and Gilgamesh by PAOLA PRESTINI. Michael Counts directs and designs all three productions; Carolyn Kuan, Lan Shui, and Julian Wachner conduct. The entire trilogy will also be recorded for release on VIA Records. [Sep 10: N, MWS, G; Sep 13: MWS; Sep 14: G; Sep 15: N; Sep 17: G, N, MWS: Boston]

Sep 17 - Oct 16

Los Angeles Opera launches the season with a striking new production of Macbeth from Tony Award-winning director Darko Tresnjak. General Director Plácido Domingo stars opposite Ekaterina Semenchuk, with Music Director James Conlon on the podium. [Sep 17, 22, 25, Oct 5, 8, 13, 16: Los Angeles]

Sep 22 - Oct 2

OPERA PHILADELPHIA presents the world premiere of Breaking the Waves, a chamber opera by composer Missy Mazzoli and librettist Royce Vavrek, based on the Oscar-nominated 1996 film by Lars von Trier. Staged in the KimMel Center's Perelman Theater, the opera stars soprano Kiera Duffy and baritone John Moore. In September and October, audiences can also enjoy Christine Goerke in the title role of Puccini's Turandot at the Academy of Music, complete with an Opening Night Gala and a free "Opera on the Mall" HD broadcast; and the American premiere of an African-themed Macbeth from provocative South African director Brett Bailey and his company, Third World Bunfight. [Sep 22, 24, 27, 29, Oct 1 (Waves); Sep 23, 25, 28, 30, Oct 2 (Turandot); Sep 24, 25 (Macbeth): Philadelphia]

Sep 29, Oct 1

Susan Graham sings Octavian to Renée Fleming's Marschallin in Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier at the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Led by music director Andris Nelsons, the concert performances also mark Tucker Award-winning tenor Stephen Costello's first appearances with the orchestra. [Sep 29, Oct 1: Boston]

OCTOBER 2016

Oct 8

Teddy Abrams, who made his inaugural appearance with the LOUISVILLE ORCHESTRA conducting Mahler's First ("Titan") Symphony, opens his third season as Music Director with a performance of the same composer's monumental Symphony No. 2 in C minor, "Resurrection," featuring Celena Shafer, soprano, and J'nai Bridges, mezzo-soprano, in her LO debut. [Louisville, KY]

Oct 9

NICHOLAS PHAN sings the title role in Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex for the first time, in a performance with the Philharmonia Orchestra of London led by Esa-Pekka Salonen as part of their residency at Cal Performances. [Berkeley, CA]

Oct 18 - Nov 12

FABIO LUISI, after opening his season at the Metropolitan Opera conducting Don Giovanni in alternation with Plácido Domingo, leads a new production of Rossini's last opera and crowning achievement, Guillaume Tell, which returns to the Met stage after an 80-year absence. Directed by Pierre Audi, the production stars Gerald Finley (in a signature role) as Tell, the revolutionary on a quest for freedom; Marina Rebeka as Mathilde; and Bryan Hymel as her suitor, Arnold. [Oct 18, 21, 25, 29, Nov 2, 5, 9, 12: Met]

Oct 19 - 23

Los Angeles Opera's Off Grand series presents the West Coast premiere of The Source by TEd Hearne, directed by Daniel Fish. Welcomed as "a beautiful, sad, altogether crucial reflection on our time" (New York Times), the new music-theater piece investigates media hysteria and the many faces of Chelsea Manning, the army private who released hundreds of thousands of classified documents to WikiLeaks. [Oct 19, 20, 21, 22, 23: Los Angeles]

Oct 20 - Nov 23

In the fall and New Year, Alan Gilbert makes guest conducting appearances with several of Europe's foremost orchestras. After returning in September to the Lucerne Festival, where he last appeared two years ago with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, he resumes the podium of the Gewandhaus itself, now with a program pairing Bartók's Bluebeard's Castle with Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 2. He also leads the La Scala premiere of a production of Gershwin's Porgy and Bess that marks his first staged opera with the company. [Oct 20-22: Leipzig; Nov 13-23: Milan]

Oct 28 - Nov 20

Stephen Costello returns to the Dallas Opera in two productions. In his seventh mainstage appearance with the company, the tenor makes his role debut as Lensky in a classic period production of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin that opens the company's season. He also reprises his role as Ishmael/Greenhorn in Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer's Moby-Dick - the role he inaugurated in Dallas Opera's world premiere production in 2010. Opera magazine hailed Costello then as "a tenor of ineffable sensitivity, with unfailing elegance in singing and a disconcerting ease in producing notes in head-voice"; when he reprised his Moby-Dick role at San Francisco Opera, in a production that was subsequently televised and issued on DVD, Gramophone magazine recognized that he "project[ed] a sense of profound personal revelation." [Onegin: Oct 28, Oct 30, Nov 2, 5; Moby-Dick: Nov 4, 6, 9, 12, 18, 20: Dallas, TX]

Oct 29, 31

In its Off Grand series, Los Angeles Opera screens F.W. Murnau's 1922 silent classic, Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror, with live music at the restored Theatre at Ace Hotel, a 1927 Spanish Gothic movie palace in the heart of downtown. Incoming Artist in Residence Matthew Aucoin creates and conducts a new score for chamber orchestra that combines his own original music with that of Murnau's contemporaries: Schreker, Zemlinsky, Korngold, Berg, and Webern. [Oct 29, 31: Los Angeles]

Oct 30

The Richard Tucker MUSIC FOUNDATION presents its annual gala, always a highlight of New York's opera season. This year the concert moves from Lincoln Center to Carnegie Hall, where the first Tucker Gala was held in 1975. The starry line-up includes sopranos Anna Netrebko, Renée Fleming and 2016 Tucker Award-winner TaMara Wilson; tenors Brian Hymel, Yusif Eyvazov and Javier Camarena; and mezzo-sopranos Joyce DiDonato and Jamie Barton, all singing popular arias and duets with members of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, conducted by Asher Fisch. [CH]

NOVEMBER 2016

Nov 5 - 27

Los Angeles Opera presents Philip Glass's Akhnaten, marking the company premiere of a "sumptuous" (Guardian) new co-production with English National Opera. Phelim McDermott directs, with new Artist in Residence Matthew Aucoin leading from the pit. [Nov 5, 10, 13, 17, 19, 27: Los Angeles]

Nov 18, 19

In honor of the display of Shakespeare's First Folio of 1623 at Louisville's Frazier History Museum - commemorating this year's 400th anniversary of the playwright's death - the LOUISVILLE ORCHESTRA presents a "Shakespeare in Music" concert with excerpts from Prokofiev's ballet Romeo and Juliet, Berlioz's "symphonie dramatique" Roméo et Juliette, and Debussy's incidental music to Le roi Lear. Also on the program is the Grawemeyer Award-winning new song cycle, Let Me Tell You, from Denmark's Hans Abrahamsen, with celebrated new-music exponent Susan Narucki as soprano soloist. Based on Paul Griffiths's novel of the same name, the cycle explores the troubled soul of Shakespeare's Ophelia through a first-person narrative that uses only the few words she speaks in Hamlet, resulting in a collage of recurring words in constantly shifting contexts, which in Abrahamsen's setting "causes thousands of people to stop breathing for a long moment" (New Yorker). [Nov 18, 19: Louisville, KY]

Nov 27 - 29

The Choir of TRINITY WALL STREET and Trinity Baroque Orchestra, led by Director of Music and the Arts Julian Wachner, present Bach's monumental Mass in B minor on tour in Montreal. Trinity's popular Bach at One series has just completed a years-long process of presenting the entire voluminous output of J.S. Bach's sacred vocal music, in performances praised by the New York Times for "dramatic vigor," "buoyant, elegantly shaped orchestral sound" and the "lithe, immaculate and colorful singing" of the chorus." [Nov 27, 28 & 29: Montreal]

Nov 30 - Dec 19

TRINITY WALL STREET expands the reach of its lauded annual holiday performances of Handel's Messiah, beginning at the State Theater in New Brunswick, NJ and then touring to three California cities. As has become customary in recent seasons, The Choir of Trinity Wall Street and Trinity Baroque Orchestra also present Handel's immortal oratorio at Alice Tully Hall in addition to performances at Trinity Church. [Nov 30: New Brunswick, NJ; Dec 7: Northridge, CA; Dec 9: Folsom, CA; Dec 10: Berkeley, CA; Dec 15, 18: TC; Dec 19: NYC/ATH]

DECEMBER 2016

Dec 6 - Jan 13

fABIO LUISI leads his Philharmonia Zurich and the Zurich Opera Chorus in a lavish collaborative co-production of Verdi's Requiem that also includes the Zurich Ballet and Junior Ballet, with world premiere choreography by Christian Spuck. [Dec 6, 8, 13, 16, 20, 23, Jan 1, 8, 13: Zurich]

Dec 7

Soprano Ah Young Hong and Ensemble Klang give the world premiere performance of cortex and ankle: songs after texts of Christopher Middleton, in which composer MICHAEL HERSCH pays tribute to the late British poet. [Rotterdam, NL]

JANUARY 2017

Jan 1 - 12

TRINITY WALL STREET's annual "Time's Arrow" festival (formerly known as the Twelfth Night Festival) is an "indispensable and unmissable" (New York Times) highlight of New York's winter season, celebrating early and contemporary music with a full program of events juxtaposing the two. This year the festival celebrates the 250th anniversary of St. Paul's Chapel, the oldest surviving church building in Manhattan, which was completed on October 30, 1766. Music of the Middle Ages, Renaissance, and Baroque rubs shoulders with works by living composers (including many premieres), with guest artists and ensembles featured alongside Trinity's renowned choir and orchestra. Enlightenment-themed repertoire will include Haydn's Creation and music from the Americana tradition. The festival will also feature PAOLA PRESTINI's contribution to Trinity's long-term commissioning project, "Mass Reimaginings"; and the world premiere of Zachary Wadsworth's Spire and Shadow, commissioned for Trinity's new semi-professional chorus, Downtown Voices. [SPC, other venues TBA]

Jan 12 - 14

One of the foremost exponents of French vocal music, Susan Graham sings selections from Canteloube's Songs of the Auvergne in a Parisian-themed program with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Yannick Nézet-Séguin. [Jan 12, 13, 14: Philadelphia]

Jan 18, 20

Soprano Ah Young Hong and Ensemble Dal Niente perform MICHAEL HERSCH's On the Threshold of Winter (2014), the harrowing two-act monodrama hailed as "a work of great originality, daring, and disturbing power" (Baltimore Sun). [Jan 18, 20: Chicago]

Jan 20 - Feb 4

Stephen Costello returns to the Met to reprise his role as the Duke of Mantua in Michael Mayer's hit production of Rigoletto set in Las Vegas in 1960. Joining him again is Olga Peretyatko as Gilda, and Željko Lu?i? in the title role. The New York Times praised Costello's "bright tenor that...was perfectly suited to [the] character," while the New York Classical Review observed: "Costello is a fine Verdian tenor, with an ideal range and a rounded, colorful sound. ... [He] sang the character, who must be attractive and repellent at the same time, beautifully." (Jan 20, 26, 30, Feb 4: Met)

FEBRUARY 2017

Feb 10 - 19

Star mezzo Stephanie Blythe makes her title role debut in Rossini's Tancredi at OPERA PHILADELPHIA. The American premiere of a new staging by Emilio Sagi, the production also features the company debut of soprano Brenda Rae. [Feb 10, 12, 15, 17, 19: Philadelphia]

Feb 11 - March 6

In his first U.S. performances as Don José, Maltese tenor Joseph Calleja stars in Lyric Opera's Carmen, in a "passionate" production last seen in Houston in 2014 and coming for the first time to Chicago. [Feb 11, 15, 19, 22, 28, March 3, 6: Chicago]

Feb 13, 18 Soprano Deborah Voigt takes her one-woman show, Voigt Lessons, directed by Richard Jay-Alexander with music direction by Kevin Stites, to Colorado. As Broadway World wrote when it came to New York last year: "There was a seismic event and emotional roller coaster onstage. ... She is immediately likable and is funny and heartbreaking, all at once. ... This show is a thoroughly engaging hybrid of entertainment and an extraordinary opportunity to see a big star in an intimate setting." [Feb 13: Beaver Creek, CO; Feb 18: Boulder, CO]

Feb 25 - March 11

Susan Graham stars in Washington National Opera's revival of Jake Heggie and Terrence McNally's Dead Man Walking. Having created the role of Sister Helen Prejean in the world premiere production, now she makes her role debut as Mrs. De Rocher, the convict's mother. [Feb 25, 27, March 3, 5, 8, 11: Washington, DC]

Feb 26

In his London recital debut, NICHOLAS PHAN performs for the first time at Wigmore Hall, with pianist Myra Huang. The concert's program is that of his next solo album, Gods & Monsters: a collection of German Lieder by Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Mahler and Wolf focusing on various fairy tales, myths and legends. The album will be released on Avie Records in early 2017. [London]

MARCH 2017

March 2 - May 18

This season, TRINITY WALL STREET's renowned Concerts at One series features water-themed programming to amplify the topics of both the 2017 Trinity Institute Conference, which focuses on climate change and water conservation (date TBD), and World Water Day on March 22. The Concerts at One series closes on May 18 - a "Third Thursday" with NOVUS NY - with a watery world premiere by Jessica Meyer. (See May 18 - 20 below for more details.) [March 2, 9, 16, 23, 30, April 6, 13, 20, 27, May 4, 11, 18: TC]

March 3 - 12

As the traveling arm of celebrated new Brooklyn arts center National Sawdust, VisionintoArt at NATIONAL SAWDUST makes its first appearance on Broadway with Aging Magician - "a painstakingly-crafted small universe that is as immersive for the audience as it is for the performers" (Berkshire Eagle) - at the New Victory Theater. A meditation on time, youth, and the peculiar magic of ordinary life, this new music-theater piece weaves together a score by PAOLA PRESTINI with a libretto and title-role performance from Pulitzer Prize-finalist Rinde Eckert, projections by Josh Higgason, and the support of the ACME and Brooklyn Youth Chorus under the direction of Drama Desk Award-winner Julian Crouch. [March 3, 4, 5, 11, 12: New Victory Theater]

March 3 - 18

Stephen Costello stars in the title role of Gounod's Roméo et Juliette for the first time at the Met. The Bartlett Sher production won acclaim for its vivid 18th-century setting and stunning costumes when it ran in Salzburg in 2008 and at La Scala three years later. Singing opposite Costello is Pretty Yende as Juliette. (March 3, 8, 11, 15, 18: Met)

March 6 - 25

After making "a beguiling Met debut" (New York Classical Review) last season, soprano Nadine Sierra returns to the house for her role debut as Ilia in Mozart's Idomeneo. Matthew Polenzani sings the title role under the baton of Music Director Emeritus James Levine in this rare revival of Jean-Pierre Ponnelle's classic production. The final performance will be transmitted live to movie theaters around the world, marking the soprano's first appearance in the Met's celebrated "Live in HD" series. [March 6, 10, 13, 21, 25: Met]

March 8 - May 3

TRINITY WALL STREET's annual Messiah performances have long been critical favorites, praised by WQXR as "one of the best performances of its kind to be found in the city." Digging deeper into the Baroque master's sacred vocal repertoire, Trinity presents "The Handel Project," which includes four complete Handel oratorios, Jephtha among them, to be performed one act at a time during the hour-long concerts over the course of nine Wednesdays at 1 pm. [March 8, 15, 22, 29, April 5, 12, 19, 26, May 3: SPC]

March 17

The winner of a record six Tonys, two Grammys, and an Emmy, Audra McDonald joins an all-star ensemble cast for Disney's live-action remake of Beauty and the Beast. Also featuring Emma Watson, Dan Stevens, Ewan McGregor, Ian McKellen, and Emma Thompson, the new film offers a musical retelling of the animated fairy-tale classic.

March 23

In his first season as Principal Conductor of the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, FABIO LUISI conducts a Late Romantic program of Nielsen's Helios Overture; Wagner's Wesendonck Lieder with beloved soprano Deborah Voigt as soloist; and Mahler's Symphony No. 1. His first U.S. tour with the orchestra follows, as Voigt joins them for the same program in five California cities. [Copenhagen; see also March 28 below]

March 25 - April 15

Diana Damrau makes her Los Angeles Opera debut playing all four heroines opposite Vittorio Grigolo in The Tales of Hoffman. Marta Domingo's staging captures the half-remembered, half-fantasy dream world of Offenbach's final masterpiece. [March 25, 30, April 2, 6, 9, 15: Los Angeles]

March 28 - April 2

Following a performance together in January in Copenhagen, Deborah Voigt and the Danish National Symphony under FABIO LUISI, who is in the midst of his first season as the orchestra's Principal Conductor, head over the Atlantic for a Californian tour, performing Wagner's Wesendonck Lieder in five cities. [March 28: Santa Barbara; 29: Palm Desert; 30: San Diego; 31: Costa Mesa; April 2: San Francisco; see also March 23 above]

APRIL 2017

April 1

After collaborating with composer Lisa Bielawa and the San Francisco Girls Chorus in the NY PHIL BIENNIAL, the Brooklyn-based orchestra THE KNIGHTS gives a performance with the same forces in Washington, DC as part of SHIFT, a week-long spotlight on North American orchestras of all sizes. Presented by the Kennedy Center and Washington Performing Arts, the festival is composed of mini-residencies, with each participating orchestra presenting education and community events as well as symposia in venues around the capital, along with full-orchestra performances at the Kennedy Center. Also on the program are Vivaldi, Brahms, Aaron Jay Kernis, and an original composition by the orchestra. [Washington, DC]

April 10 - Oct 21

To celebrate the 450th anniversary of Monteverdi's birth, SIR John Eliot GARDINER, the Monteverdi Choir, and the English Baroque Soloists embark on an international tour with concert performances of the composer's three sole surviving operas: L'Orfeo, Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria, and L'incoronazione di Poppea. The tour launches in Aix-en-Provence, where Gardiner - the winner of more Gramophone Awards than any other living artist - leads Ulisse for the first time in his career. Other highlights include complete trilogies in Paris and Bristol, at the Berliner Festspiele, Lucerne Festival and Venice's La Fenice, and in America. [April 10: Aix-en-Provence, FR; April 12: Bristol, UK; May 3: Barcelona; May 8: Bristol, UK; May 28: Bristol, UK; June 16, 17, 18, 20, 21: Venice; Aug 23, 25, 26: Lucerne, CH; Sep 2, 3, 5: Berlin; Sep 16, 17, 18: Paris; Oct 12, 13, 15: Chicago; plus summer/fall dates through Oct 21 in Europe and the U.S. at other venues to be announced]

MAY 2017

May 7

Susan Graham graces the Metropolitan Opera's star-studded 50th Anniversary Gala alongside Piotr Beczala, Javier Camarena, Plácido Domingo, Elina Garanca, Anna Netrebko, and Rolando Villazón, as the company celebrates 50 years in its current home. [Met]

May 18 - 20

The final concert in TRINITY WALL STREET's water-themed Concerts at One series also heralds the beginning of a three-day Stravinsky festival, when NOVUS NY performs Stravinsky's 1928 ballet Apollo musagète. The Russian composer's complete pagan works will be performed during the festival, four years after Trinity's presentation of his complete sacred choral music in 2013. In the second of three concerts, NOVUS NY plays three more ballets: Orpheus, Agon and the Rite of Spring. The festival closes with the two large-scale choral works Persephone and Oedipus Rex, as the Washington Chorus and Trinity Youth Chorus join The Choir of Trinity Wall Street and NOVUS NY. [May 18 (Concerts at One/Stravinsky), May 19 (Stravinsky), May 20 (Stravinsky): TC]

May 31

Known for her "magical Mahler" (San Francisco Classical Voice), Susan Graham joins tenor Matthew Polenzani, the MET Orchestra, and Esa-Pekka Salonen for selections from the composer's Des Knaben Wunderhorn at Carnegie Hall. [CH]

JUNE 2017

June 1 - 10

Alan Gilbert leads the New York Philharmonic in a concert performance of Wagner's Das Rheingold, with a cast that includes Eric Owens, Jamie Barton, Christopher Purves, Russell Thomas, Kelley O'Connor, Morris Robinson, Rachel Willis-Sørensen, Jennifer Johnson Cano, and Tamara Mumford. Two days later, Gilbert conducts the orchestra and guest artists from around the world in performances designed to highlight important international issues and foster the idea of global community. [June 1, 3, 6 (Rheingold); June 8, 9, 10 ("global" program): DGH]

June 15 - 18

Continuing its Off Grand series, Los Angeles Opera presents the West Coast premiere of Thumbprint, hailed as "a streamlined and powerful music drama" (New York Classical Review). A true story of courage and triumph, this chamber opera explores the deep family ties and tribal traditions that empowered Mukhtar Mai as Pakistan's first female victim of gang rape to bring her attackers to justice. A series of interviews with Mai herself forms the basis of Susan Yankowitz's libretto, and Kamala Sankaram's score is imbued with the contrasting influences of Hindustani and European opera. [June 15, 16, 17, 18: Los Angeles]

June 18 - July 13

FABIO LUISI leads a new production of Lehár's Das Land Des Lächelns at Zurich Opera, starring Piotr Beczala and directed by Zurich Opera General Manager and Luisi's longtime collaborator Andreas Homoki, with whom the conductor has been described as "almost a 'dream team" (Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen). [June 18, 21, 25, 29; July 2, 6, 9, 13: Zurich]

Note: Abbreviations for New York City concert venues are as follows:

ATH = Alice Tully Hall
CH = Carnegie Hall
DGH = David Geffen Hall
Met = Metropolitan Opera
NS = National Sawdust
SPC = St Paul's Chapel
TC = Trinity Church

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