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Front Row Center
Performance Guide for Autumn
A roundup of opera openings, ballet performances, orchestral concerts and pop music taking place around the world this autumn season.
Pop
REYKJAVIK, ICELAND
Iceland Airwaves, Nov. 2-6
The spoken word artist Kate Tempest, the singer songwriter PJ Harvey and the alt singer and producer Santigold are among the artists who will appear at this eclectic contemporary music festival. The Icleandic acts include groups that have hit the big time — like Of Monsters and Men, who had a breakthrough hit in 2011 with their “Little Talks” and have since made the rounds of America’s major talk shows — and lesser-known groups, like the death metal rock act Beneath.
BANDAWE, MALAWI
Lake of Stars Festival, Sept. 30-Oct. 2,
This pop, house music and art festival brings a big roster of international musicians to the shores of Lake Malawi. Groups playing the festival, which takes place at a resort, include Timo Maas, a German D.J.; Throwing Shade, a British music producer; and Lieutenant Fizzer, a mix artist from South Africa. Musicians from Malawi include Piksy, a hip-hop artist; and Patience Namadingo, known for light acoustic works.
Opera and Ballet
MOSCOW
Some of the leading classics from the opera and ballet canon — including celebrated stagings of “Boris Godunov,” “Madam Butterfly” and “La Bayadère” — will visit the Bolshoi stage. The lineup includes some productions new to the repertoire, like a staging of Puccini’s “Manon Lescaut” by Adolf Shapiro, and a new version of Benjamin Britten’s “Billy Budd,” a seafaring opera set during the Napoleonic conquests, directed by David Alden.
MELBOURNE AND SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA
The Australian director Neil Armfield’s staging of Wagner’s “Ring Cycle” — a sleek, pared-down production that the opera premiered in 2013 — anchors the season in Melbourne. The visually spectacular production includes choruses with glittering pompoms and showgirl outfits, and set pieces that go up in flames. The company splits its time between Melbourne and Sydney. The Sydney season keeps things light with a production of “My Fair Lady” directed by perhaps the most iconic performer ever to take on the lead role of Eliza Doolittle, Julie Andrews.
MILAN
The director Robert Wilson’s update of Monteverdi’s “Coronation of Poppea” moves the action from imperial Rome to an abstract, modern landscape featuring minimalist sets and stoney-faced performers caked in white makeup. The eerie retelling runs at the theater starting in late September. A new production of another, even more sinister opera shows at the theater starting in mid-September: “The Turn of the Screw,” based on the novella by Henry James, about two children trapped with their housekeeper in a home that seems to be haunted. The production is helmed by the director Kasper Holten.
TOKYO
The opera season kicks off with a staging of the second work in Wagner’s “Ring Cycle,” “Die Walküre,” and continues in November with “Romeo and Juliet” and “Il Barbiere di Siviglia.” The theater also stages drama and dance productions, and a famed production of “Romeo and Juliet,” scored by Prokofiev and choreographed by the iconic British choreographer Kenneth MacMillan, runs there Oct. 29-Nov. 5.
MUNICH
“Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg,” Wagner’s notoriously ponderous 1868 opera, follows a troupe of singers in 16th-century Nuremberg, charting their romantic whims and professional foibles to win a young woman’s hand in a singing contest. A production of the opera runs here from Sept. 30 to Oct. 8, directed by David Bösch and conducted by Kirill Petrenko. The tenor Jonas Kaufmann and the soprano Emma Bell play the young lovers Walther and Eva; and Wolfgang Koch plays Hans Sachs, the cobbler who facilitates their courtship despite his love for Eva. Ballet and contemporary dance run alongside operas like “La Traviata” and “Fidelio” to round out the autumn season.
BUENOS AIRES
Verdi took some liberties when adapting Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” into an opera, making changes like expanding Shakespeare’s three witches into a full chorus of background singers. The director Marcelo Lombardero’s production of the opera will show here in late September and October. Jorge Lagunes and Fabián Veloz will trade off in the title role; and Chiara Taigi and Mónica Ferracani will each play Lady Macbeth, generally regarded as one of the best female roles in opera. Other operas in the season include “Volo di Notte” and “Il Prigioniero,” two short works by Luigi Dallapiccola; and a December staging of the George Gershwin musical “Porgy and Bess.”
PARIS
“Tosca,” “Lucia di Lammermoor” and “The Tales of Hoffmann” are among the opera classics that the company — which splits its season between the grand, classical Palais Garnier and the Brutalist Opéra Bastille — will show this season. Some more unusual works will appear alongside the classics, too, like “Eliogabalo,” a baroque opera by Francesco Cavalli about a corrupt and freewheeling emperor. The opera, which was written in the 17th century, was not performed until the 1990s. The ballet season here also mashes up contemporary works and old-fashioned ones: Pieces in the lineup include a “Sleeping Beauty” (performed by the American Ballet Theater) and an evening featuring work by Justin Peck, Crystal Pite, William Forsythe and the performance artist Tino Sehgal.
VIENNA
Opera’s greatest tragic heroines of all time will take center stage this fall in Vienna, when the State Opera stages works including “Aida,” “Carmen” and “Madama Butterfly.” The state ballet, meanwhile, will put on a lively lineup of dance pieces, with a particular focus on contemporary works. Pieces in the lineup include an evening of work by Stephan Thoss, Christopher Wheeldon, and Jerome Robbins; and another evening featuring pieces by George Balanchine, Edwaard Liang and Daniel Proietto.
LONDON
The rising German opera director Jan Philipp Gloger will make his debut here in September with a new production of “Così fan tutte,” a lighthearted opera that explores what happens when young lovers get the chance to stray. The Russian conductor Semyon Bychkov will lead the production, which includes a cast of rising stars, like Corinne Winters, Angela Brower and Daniele Behle. Other operas in the autumn season include “Les Contes d’Hoffmann” and a celebrated house staple: A luminous production “The Barber of Seville,” directed by Moshe Leiser and Patrice Caurier.
AMSTERDAM
A candy-colored staging of the ballet “Coppelia,” a light work about a doll with some distinctly life-like qualities, will play here. Choreographed by the ballet company’s director, Ted Brandsen, the staging moves the action to an up-to-date setting vaguely reminiscent of “Hairspray” or “Grease.” The company’s autumn lineup includes a production of “La Bayadère,” choreographed by Natalia Makarova; and a lineup of choreography by two “Dutch Masters,” Rudi van Dantzig and Hans van Manen.
Orchestra
MOSCOW
This young but celebrated orchestra kicks off its fall season with a music festival before tucking into its normal scheduling in October. The RNO Grand Festival, a six-concert series, starts on Sept. 8 with a performance of Schubert’s “Winterreise” featuring the company’s artistic director and founder Mikhail Pletnev on piano. The season kicks off in earnest Oct. 5 with a concert-style performance of Puccini’s “Madame Butterfly,” conducted by Pier Giorgio Morandi.
SHANGHAI
This orchestra has a newly minted hall to perform in, and a busy season of music with which to fill it. The season opens with a Sept. 30 concert marking the anniversary of the Red Army’s Long March, which ushered Mao into power. The conductor Long Yu will lead the orchestra in a performance of works including Ding Shande’s “Long March Symphony.” The rest of the season features a smattering of chamber performances and starry guest conductors: On Oct. 17, Chen Xieyang conducts music by the Chinese composer Zhu Jian’er; on Oct. 26, Long Yu will conduct Shostakovich’s sixth symphony; and on Nov. 11, the conductor and violinist Rainer Honeck will perform with the orchestra.
BERLIN
Berlin, one of the world’s leading music cities, will come alive starting on Sept. 2 for “Musifkest,” a citywide orchestral music festival that features guest orchestras from around the world playing alongside homespun talent. The Philharmonic gets in the mix on Sept. 9 with a concert of music by Debussy, Varèse and Berlioz. Other autumn season highlights include a Sept. 15 concert in which the composer John Adams will conduct his own music; and two November concerts under the conductor Simon Rattle, who will move to the London Symphony Orchestra next season. After Berlin, Mr. Rattle will travel with the orchestra to New York.
HONG KONG
The season kicks off with two guest concerts starring the famed cellist Yo-Yo Ma, who will play two concerts of music by Bizet, Dvorak and Zhao Lin. On Sept. 16 and 17, the orchestra will celebrate National Day, a holiday marking the founding of the People’s Republic of China, with two concerts of music that celebrate the country conducted by Zhang Guoyong. Music in the lineup for that concert includes Xian Xinghai’s “Yellow River Cantata” and the Sun Yat Sen Symphonic Suite (singers include Zhang Xueliang, Song Yuanming, Yuan Chenye and Yang Yan).
AMSTERDAM
A rotating roster of top conductors will visit Amsterdam this autumn to play with the Royal Concertgebouw. The orchestra’s chief conductor, Daniele Gatti, will lead a number of autumn concerts, including several evenings of work by Mahler, Wagner and Berg. Guest conductors include Andris Nelsons, Gustavo Gimeo, John Eliot Gardiner and Mariss Jansons. On Sept 22 and 23, Xian Zhang will lead concerts of music from and about the Spanish region of Andalusia, a home of flamenco. The first concert will be accompanied by traditional dancing from Vanesa Aibar.
Stepping Into the World of Dance
The choreographer Emma Portner, who has spent her career mixing genres and disciplines, comes to ballet with an eye on its sometimes calcified gender relations.
In Irish dance, precision is prized. But perfection is beside the point at Gayli, a series of L.G.B.T.Q.-friendly ceili classes during March at Mary’s Bar, a queer Irish pub in Brooklyn.
A childhood encounter with an American soldier in Iraq led Hussein Smko to become a dancer. Now the artist performs on New York stages.
“Deep River” is in many ways an apt title for a dance work by Alonzo King, a choreographer fixated on flow.
Robert Garland has held many positions at Dance Theater of Harlem over many years. At long last, he has caught the most prized title: artistic director.
Alexei Ratmansky, arguably the most important ballet choreographer today, has stepped into a new role at New York City Ballet with a deeply personal first work that reflected his Ukrainian roots.
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