From Shakespeare to Smyth, the classic arts scene in New York is never quiet. Here is just a sampling of some of the classic arts events happening this week.
Teatro Nuovo brings its annual summer bel canto festival to the Rose Theatre at Lincoln Center with concert performances of Mozart’s Il Don Giovanni and Rossini’s Il Turco in Italia July 15 and 16 respectively. The season was chosen to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Manuel Garcia’s 1826 American tour of Italian opera, during which Garcia’s company brought a repertory nine Italian operas to the United States for the first time. Mozart’s Don Giovanni (called Il Don Giovanni) was presented in a new edition prepared by the opera’s original librettist Lorenzo da Ponte, who, by 1826, had moved to New York and was teaching Italian literature at Columbia. Da Ponte sought to streamline the opera which had become bloated as a result of two different versions of the text (prepared for premieres in Vienna and Prague) coming into conflict, and Teatro Nuovo will be presenting the da Ponte’s settled 1826 edition of the text.
Il Turco in Italia, meanwhile, was one of five Rossini operas presented by Garcia’s company. In 1826, Rossini was the most popular Italian opera composer alive, and his comedies were staples of the repertoire. Il barbiere di Siviglia and La Cenerentola, both of which were also part of Garcia’s repertory, remain frequently performed today, but Il Turco is considerably less common. Both of Teatro Nuovo’s performances will be preceded by a concert and a pre-opera lecture by the company’s Artistic Director Will Crutchfield.
Teatro Grattacielo will also present a two-opera summer season this week, with Joseph Summer’s The Tempest and Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte, running July 16-19 at La Mama in the East Village. Summer’s opera, based on Shakespeare’s play of the same name, will be receiving its world staged premiere in a production directed by Teatro Grattacielo Artistic Director Stefanos Koroneos. Cosi fan tutte, the third of three operas by Mozart and Lorenzo da Ponte, will be directed by Cate Pisaroni, taking visual inspiration from Bauhaus geometry.
Jonathan Heyward will lead the Festival Orchestra of Lincoln Center in Jubilation and Fanfare July 15 at David Geffen Hall. The program will include Richard Strauss‘ Duett-Concertino for clarinet and bassoon with clarinettist Jon Manasse, and bassoonist Marc Goldberg. The program will also include Haydn’s “Military” Symphony, and Ethel Smyth’s Symphony for Small Orchestra. Chloé Van Soeterstède will lead the orchestra July 17 and 18 in a program including Bruch’s violin concerto with soloist Simone Lamsma, and Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 5.
American Ballet Theater’s summer season at the Metropolitan Opera House concludes this week with eight final performances of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, choreographed Kevin McKenzie after Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov, and featuring scenery and costumes by Zack Brown and lighting by Duane Schuler.
The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Summer Evenings series continues this week with concerts July 14 and 18 at Alice Tully Hall, featuring works by Bernstein, Brahms, Beethoven, and more.
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