Upcoming and Noteworthy

The tragic tale of famed singer Floria Tosca is the feature on this week’s Sunday Opera (11/29 3:00 p.m.) in a production of Puccini’s beloved opera from La Scala.  Set in Italy against the backdrop of the French Revolution and the onset of the Napoleonic Wars, Tosca (Anna Netrebko) unwittingly sets in motion the course of events that will eventually lead to her death as well as those of her lover Mario Cavaradossi (Francesco Meli), ruthless police chief Baron Scarpia (Luca Salsi) and escaped political prisoner Cesare Angelotti (Carlo Cigni). 

We’re celebrating a Broadway leading man on this week’s Dress Circle (11/29 7:00 p.m.) as we shine a spotlight on Brian Stokes Mitchell.  In this first segment, we’ll sample some of his performances on Broadway in the hits “Ragtime” by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty and the revival of Cole Porter’s “Kiss Me Kate.”  We’ll also look at two concert versions of the musicals “South Pacific” by Rodgers and Hammerstein from Carnegie Hall and the Encores City Center production of the Jule Styne, Betty Comden, and Adolph Green musical “Do Re Mi.” 

Inspired by Brueghel’s painting “The Land of Cockaigne,” Knudage Rissager’s ballet, “Slaraffenland,” imagines a Promised Land “where roasted pigeons fly around in the air with knives and forks in their backs, and the streets are paved with marzipan and chocolate.”  A silly boy wanders into the country of King Sauce and becomes ill from overindulgence.  Along the way, he encounters Robin Hood, the Three Musketeers, Captain Fear, Fountains of Liqueur, Cigarettes, and the Candy Princess.  Conclude the long, gluttonous holiday weekend with a dose of musical tryptophan, this Sunday at 10 pm.

We’re heading to court on this week’s Sunday Opera (11/22 3:00 p.m.) with a double feature from Opera Delaware with their production of William Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan’s “Trial by Jury” and Derrick Wang’s “Scalia and Ginsburg.”  “Trial by Jury” features Colin Doyle as Edwin, the man who is on trial for jilting Angelina (Anais Naharro-Murphy) because he’s found another.  Only a last minute inspiration by the Learned Judge (Ben Lowe) saves the case.  Wang’s piece looks at the unlikely friendship between Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg (Jennifer Zetlan) and Antonin Scalia (Brian Cheney).  They’re joined  by Ben Wager as The Commentator.  

Not all animated musicals come from the Disney Studios, and we’re going to look at four of them on this week’s Dress Circle (11/22 7:00 p.m.).  From an immigrant mouse to a famous cat and mouse team to bucolic animals telling an iconic American story to a beloved pair of misfits, we’ll hear songs from “An American Tail,” “Tom and Jerry the Movie,” “Tom Sawyer,” and “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.”  We’ve planned another happy hour that we hope will incite some fond memories.

As Covid-19 began its surge last March, American Ballet Theater quickly brought its education programs online, including dance instruction and ABTKids Daily - five days of content a week that brings ballet and related concepts to young audiences. That was followed during the ensuing months with other virtual programs from its dancers that kept the company engaged with its existing, and new-found, audiences.

The scene is ancient Gaul for this week’s Sunday Opera (11/15 3:00 p.m.) and the tragic love story of a Druid Priestess and her Roman consul lover in Vincenzo Bellini’s “Norma” from the Hamburg State Opera.  Marina Rebeka is the priestess Norma who breaks her vow of celibacy and has two children with the Roman invader, Pollione (Marcelo Puente), and after Pollione turns from Norma to the young priestess Adalgisa (Diana Haller), Norma confesses to her father Oroveso (Liang Li) and seals her fate.  

We’re featuring a sister-act on this week’s Dress Circle (11/15 7:00 p.m.) as we look at those Callaways, Ann Hampton and Liz with selections from their musical and solo recording careers.  Suggested by their recent concert and CD entitled Sibling Revelry, we’ll hear duets including something they call “The Huge Medley” and a song from Sondheim’s “Merrily We Roll Along.”  

London’s Royal Opera House takes us back to ancient Rome through Handel’s “Agrippina” on this week’s Sunday Opera (11/8 3:00 p.m.).  The ruthless Agrippina (Joyce DiDonato) works her wiles to ensure that her son Nerone (Franco Fagioli) will become the next emperor.  By pitting her henchmen Pallante and Narciso (Andrea Mastroni and Eric Jurenas) against her husband Claudio (Gianluca Buratto) and his chosen successor Ottone (Iestyn Davies), she places Nerone on the throne where he will become one of the most infamous of Rome’s emperors.   

The pandemic has curtailed many activities, but nothing can stop Ted from his quest for CDs.  We’ll be featuring some of his recent acquisitions on this week’s Dress Circle (11/8 7:00 p.m.) from solo recordings by Liz Callaway, Maria Friedman, and Barbara Cook to collections of the works of Martin and Blane and George Gershwin to songs from the soundtrack to the animated feature “The Road to Eldorado,” we’ll have yet another diverse hour of some excellent performances. 

Unrequited love that leads to tragedy is the theme for this week's Sunday Opera (11/1 3:00 p.m.) in a production of Jules Massenet's "Werther" from London's Royal Opera House. The poet Werther (Juan Diego Flores) falls in love with the charming Charlotte (Isabel Leonard) during a Christmas ball they attend, but she is betrothed to Albert (Jacques Imbrailo) because of a promise she made to her mother on her mother's deathbed.  When they return to Charlotte's house, Werther tries to declare his love for Charlotte, but is interrupted by the news that Albert has returned, and Werther is despondent.  Over the course of a year, Werther writes of his love to Charlotte, but she is happily married, and once again, on Christmas Eve, she tells Werther that she cannot be with him, and he leaves, determined to commit suicide.

Happy November!  We're kicking-off the month on this week's Dress Circle (11/1 7:00 p.m.) as we usually do with selections from some of the musicals that opened in New York this month, and we are, once again, covering over 100 years of theatre history.  Our earliest musical represented is "The Red Petticoat," a 1912 hit, and our most recent musical is the 2018 sensation "The Prom."