Stephen Raskauskas

Thirteen years after its concert premiere with the New York Philharmonic, New Yorkers finally saw a fully staged production of Rodion Shchedrin's opera THE ENCHANTED WANDERER. The Mariisnky Theatre began its two-week residency at the Brooklyn Academy of Music with a one-night only performance of this rarely performed opera. Director Alezei Stepanyuk's production, despite some interesting elements, did not did not live up to Shchedrin's fascinating score. Still, the Mariinksy's presentation of THE ENCHANTED WANDERER proved to be one of the more interesting operas in New York so far this season.

One moment, the performers march militantly across the stage and screech like sirens, the next, they sing Pergolesi's galant Stabat Mater like sweet seraphim. The thirty-one performers of TOXIC PSALMS, the latest production created by conductor Karmina Šilec and her ensemble CARMINA SLOVENICA, have certainly created a provocative pastiche. After an initial run in Berlin last year, TOXIC PSALMS played as part of the 2015 PROTOTYPE FESTIVAL, marking the work's North American debut.

THE SCARLET IBIS is one of three new operas to have its world premiere as a part of this year's PROTOTYPE FESTIVAL, New York's incubator for cutting edge, interdisciplinary performance. With any new work, I never fail to ask myself: Did it have an emotional impact? Was it good enough that I would see it again? Does it have enough appeal to revival again? The answers: yes, yes, and yes.

This holiday season, Kristin Marting, Kim Whitener, and Beth Morrison are making their lists and checking them twice. In mid-January, they'll be producing seven separate shows over ten days as part of PROTOTYPE: Opera/Theatre/Now, a festival of opera-theatre and music-theatre. While PROTOTYPE is only in its third year, it has already established itself as the crucible for contemporary opera and theater in New York City. BWW sat down with the three co-producers at HERE, PROTOTYPE'S epicenter, to chat about each of the upcoming festival's unique offerings.

All aboard! The Cotton Blossom has docked at Lincoln Center for this week only. Wednesday night, the New York Philharmonic opened its semi-staged production of Show Boat. Featuring a star-studded cast, the Philharmonic's short run of this American masterpiece is not to be missed.

The crown jewel of this year's Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center is Mark Morris Dance Group's new staging of ACIS AND GALATEA. The much-anticipated production, which had runs in Berkeley and Boston earlier this spring, made its New York premiere on Thursday evening.

No one likes cancellations, especially performers. Luckily, when both mezzo-soprano Susan Graham and pianist Bradley Moore were ill and had to cancel their April 2nd recital in Philadelphia, they were able to reschedule within just a few weeks. Considering both Graham and Moore have quite busy calendars, it's tremendous that the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society was able to reschedule a performance with them so quickly.

This weekend, as we all overload on sugar and attend the obligatory Passion performance, Mark Morris is getting ready to unveil his latest opus. His new production of Handel's ACIS AND GALATEA, one of the most beloved English language operas, has its world premiere next week at Cal Performances, Berkeley (April 25 - 27), before traveling to Celebrity Series of Boston (May 15-18) for its East Coast premiere.

Tere O'Connor presented BLEED at Philadelphia FringeArts after debuting the work to great acclaim at the BAM Next Wave Festival in 2013.