PREVIEW: Holiday Music in NYC
Amahl and the Night Visitors
On Site Opera revives their acclaimed production of Menotti’s moving holiday classic Amahl and the Night Visitors. “Presented in the Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen, and in partnership with Breaking Ground, New York City’s largest provider of permanent supportive housing for the homeless, performances will feature a chorus made up of community members who have experienced homelessness performing alongside renowned opera soloists and musicians.” Various performances Dec 4-8.
Peter and the Wolf with Isaac Mizrahi
Mizrahi narrates, directs, and designed the costumes for Prokofiev’s children’s classic. Featuring Ensemble Signal, and choreography by John Heginbotham. Various performances at the Guggenheim Museum December 7–8 and December 13–15.
An Irish Holiday
"First Lady of Celtic Music," Moya Brennan, and some star Irish instrumentalists perform Irish holiday music at the Met Fifth Avenue’s Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium Fri Dec 13 at 7pm.
A Ceremony of Carols
The Boys of the St. Thomas Choir and harpist, Sara Cutle, perform Benjamin Britten’s beautiful holiday favorite A Ceremony of Carols in this hour-long, family-friendly, concert Dec 19 at 5:30pm.
Christmas with the Strads
Boston’s Handel+Haydn Society, amazingly in their 205th season, presents a special program of festive Baroque music, and the Met’s “Gould” Stradivarius will be brought out for the occasion, and played by Aisslinn Nosky. Fri Dec 20 at 7pm in the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium at the Met Fifth Avenue.
the little match girl passion
David Lang’s 2008 composition the little match girl passion has become a new holiday tradition. Grammy-winning ensemble The Crossing performs it alongside Spectral Spirits, a new commission from Edie Hill, at the Met Cloisters on Sat Dec 21 at 12:30pm and 3:30pm.
Christmas in Baroque Germany
Boston’s Gramoiphone-winning vocal ensemble Blue Heron, with sackbuts on hand, brings Christmas in Baroque Germany: Praetorius, Scheidt, Schein to Music Before 1800, the longest running early music concert series in New York City. Corpus Christi Church, Sun Dec 22 at 4pm.
The Nutcracker
George Balanchine’s enduring New York City Ballet production of Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker is the very definition of “classic.”
***