Classical Music and Dance Performances in New York City



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	The Week: Classical & Dance EDITED BY ALICIA ZUCKERMAN

	Review Tragic Indeed BY PETER G. DAVIS An American Tragedy is yet another contemporary-opera-by-the-numbers rehash.

	Feature The Cultural Elite: Classical and Dance Dance companies leaped to meet new audiences, opera embraced unorthodox source material, the Philharmonic had an opening night to remember, and Strunk & White was . . . set to music?

	Winter’s Eve New Year’s Eve galas at the Metropolitan Opera and New York Philharmonic are sure bets for a high-culture holiday, but for a more mellow way to ring in 2006, try these.

	1. Bargemusic Some of the city’s top chamber musicians play an evening of Bach, including three Brandenburg concertos. • 12/31 at 7:30. Fulton Ferry Landing, nr. the Brooklyn Bridge, Brooklyn (718-624-2083 or bargemusic.org); 12/24: $60; 12/31: $125; 1/5–1/8: $35–$40. 2. First Night at St. Francis Probably your last chance of the season to hear Handel’s Messiah, plus Bach and Corelli, performed by the Artek early-music group and the church’s choir. • 12/31 at 7:30. Church of St. Francis of Assisi, 135 W. 31st St., nr. Sixth Ave. (212-967-9157); freewill offering. 3. New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players Offering a sampler of the timeless operetta team. (Plus free champagne!) • 12/31 at 8. Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway, at 95th St. (212-864-5400); $55–$75.

	Musical Gifts Our picks from the vast sea of holiday concerts.

	National Chorale Warm up those vocal cords: You’re the chorus for the annual Messiah sing-in, led by seventeen conductors. • 12/20 at 8. Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center (212-333-5333); $28–$88.

	High Priority Peter Schickele The Canticum Novum Singers and the Armadillo Quartet take part in the composer, scholar, and comedian’s “P.D.Q. Bach: A 40-Year Retrogressive,” a program of truly amusing works by Schickele’s alter ego, including such gems as “Two Madrigals” from The Triumph of Thusnelda, Liebeslieder Polkas for chorus and piano five-hands; “Two Hearts, Four Lips, Three Little Words”; and String Quartet in F major (“The Moose”). • 12/27–12/29 at 8. Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway, at 95th St. (212-864-5400 or symphonyspace.org); $26–$56.

	Opera Metropolitan Opera Puccini’s La Bohème and Bizet’s Carmen close this week. J. Strauss’s Die Fledermaus opens 12/19. Tobias Picker’s new An American Tragedy and Verdi’s Rigoletto, starring Anna Netrebko and Rolando Villazón, are also onstage. • Metropolitan Opera, Lincoln Center (212-362-6000 or metopera.org); $26–$250.

	Concerts New York Continuo Collective Group of singers and musicians specializing in seventeenth-century Italian music performs a lunchtime concert of under the direction of Grant Herreid. • 12/21 at 1:15. Church of St. Francis of Assisi, 135 W. 31st St.; free.

	Concerts Masterwork Chorus Performs Handel’s Messiah, with acclaimed soloists Julianne Baird, Margaret Lattimore, Philippe Castagner, and Brian Mulligan. • 12/22 and 12/23 at 8. Carnegie Hall, Seventh Ave. at 57th St. (212-247-7800 or carnegiehall.org); $20–$100.

	Concerts New York String Quartet Jaime Laredo leads 60 musicians between the ages of 16 and 22 in an all-Mozart program featuring Jonathan Biss in the Piano Concerto No. 21, in a program with Serenade in D Major, and the Marriage of Figaro overture. • 12/24 at 7. Carnegie Hall, Seventh Ave. at 57th St. (212-247-7800 or carnegiehall.org); $17–$47.

	Dance “The Nutcracker” The Eglevsky Ballet’s version of the holiday classic features Bonnie Pickard (a Suzanne Farrell Ballet soloist) as the Sugar Plum Fairy. • 12/23 at 5, 12/26 and 12/27 at noon and 5. Tilles Center for the Performing Arts, C.W. Post, 720 Northern Blvd., nr. west gate of campus, Brookville, N.Y. (516-299-3100); $25–$45.

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CLASSICAL MUSIC & DANCE REVIEW ARCHIVE

Strange Love The Met’s weird new production bleeds the delicate chemistry out of Roméo et Juliette.

Pilot Error Skip The Little Prince and take your kids to a real opera instead. They’ll thank you later.

Press Play If pop acts go on tour to plug their albums, why shouldn’t Cecilia Bartoli or Renée Fleming?

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