Two streaming events (one opera, one jazz) and some new contemporary classical music can be found on this week’s Best Bets: January 20th – January 26th.
THE STORY OF 400 YEARS – Isaiah Collier – January 21st – Streaming
Last December saxophonist/composer Isaiah Collier debuted The Story of 400 Years in Chicago. It’s a 13-movement suite that examines four centuries of Black American Music and how that music has resonated throughout time.
Collier leads a 14-piece ensemble in this production which also features six dancers in this ambitious and exciting work. The film of this performance was directed by Michael Gaertner.
If you don’t know Collier, I recommend listening to either of his two albums from last year: The Almighty and The World Is On Fire.
To stream the show (which will be available for 48 hours after the broadcast), you need to RSVP. You can do that HERE.
HEXAGONS – University Musical Society – Rackham Auditorium – Ann Arbor, MI – January 23rd
How’s this for a contemporary classical music treat: composers Caroline Shaw (Pulitzer Prize winner) and Gabriel Kahane team up in this work co-commissioned by UMS. It is loosely inspired by The Library of Babel, a short story written by Jorge Luis Borges.
Press notes stated that the two composers “invite audiences to contemplate the joy, grief, wonder and bewilderment that spring from a life oversaturated in information.”
For tickets and more information, please go HERE.
Hexagons will also be performed at the Laguna Playhouse in Laguna Beach, CA on February 16th. You can get details HERE.
SELF IMPROVEMENT AND MALE PRESERVATION SOCIETY, or S.I.M.P.S. – IRT Theater – New York, NY – January 24th – February 2nd
I’m going out on a limb here. I honestly don’t know anything about the creators of this new musical (composer Alec Steinhorn and bookwriter/lyricist Hamish Marissen-Clark), but they describe their works as a “pulp-horror satire with a violent jazz-pop score.”
They go on to say that the show uses “sensibilities like those of Fight Club, South Park, Michael R. Jackson and Midsommar.”
In this musical Kevin Everyman (John El-Jor) is aware that boys, too, should express how they are feeling. But he doubts his is a voice worth listening to. So he joins S.I.M.P.S. – which turns out to be a cult. The methodologies they use leave Kevin unsure of where he belongs in a rapidly-changing world in which gender is a hot topic.
I’m definitely curious. Nicholas Polonio directs.
For tickets and more information, please go HERE.
RACHMANINOFF & MUHLY – Los Angeles Philharmonic – Los Angeles, CA – January 24th – January 26th
So many performances were cancelled or postponed during the tragic fires in Los Angeles, it feels good to have a world premiere from the LA Phil on the calendar.
Conductor Eun Sun Kim (San Francisco Opera) will be on the podium for the world premiere of Nico Muhly’s Concerto Grosso. His new work is built around a cello, flute, percussion and trombone. There are three continuous movements in Muhly’s 20-minute work. The soloists are Denis Bouriakov on flute; David Rejano Cantero on trombone; Robert deMaine on cello and Matthew Howard on percussion.
The program opens with Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 3 and concludes with the composer’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini with soloist Alexandre Kantorow.
For tickets and more information, please go HERE.
AIDA – Met Opera Live in HD – Check Local Theaters – January 25th
For the first time in almost 40 years, the Metropolitan Opera debuted a new production of Verdi’s massive opera Aida. Michael Mayer (who set Rigoletto in Las Vegas) is the mastermind of this production.
While reviews weren’t exactly glowing for this new production, they did single out soprano Angel Blue who sings the title role. She made her Met Opera role debut with this production and that is reason alone to watch this truncated production (it runs just over three hours instead of four and an intermission has been eliminated.)
Also in the production are Piotr Beczała Radamés; Quinn Kelsey as Amonasro; Judit Kutasi as Amneris, the always-reliable Morris Robinson as Ramfis and Harold Wilson as The King.
Yannick Nézet-Séguin condcts the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra.
To find a theater near you and for more information, please go HERE.
That’s my Best Bets: January 20th – January 26th
Enjoy your week and go see a show!
Main Photo: Gabriel Kahane and Caroline Shaw (Photo by Jason Quigley/Courtesy UMA)