Calendar Focus

ZURICH – There are no splashing Rhinemaidens (they cavort with Alberich on a bed) in Andreas Homoki’s Das Rheingold for Zurich Opera. Loge channels Johnny Depp’s Captain Jack Sparrow, and Mime springs from the Three Stooges.

SAN FRANCISCO – At what would have been the halfway point of this COVID-canceled season, the orchestra with new music director Esa-Pekka Salonen has rolled out a whole suite of digital projects called SF Symphony+.

DIGITAL REVIEW – COVID-19 halted Michael Tilson Thomas’ 25th and final season as San Francisco Symphony music director, but live recordings from the season’s realized concerts – Mahler, Stravinsky, and more – are now streaming.

DATEBOOK – With a Billy Budd in San Francisco to mark Melville's 200th (at right), a Sonatathon in Cincinnati for Beethoven's 250th, and novel new roles for composers and composer-performers, the 2019-20 season is ready to go.

DATE BOOK – A sneak peek at Eurydice, an opera being workshopped by composer Matthew Aucoin with a libretto by playwright Sarah Ruhl, is in the lavish array of November solo, chamber, orchestral and lyric unveilings.

DATE BOOK – From a flashback to the golden era of Young People's Concerts to revivals of iconic stage works and little-known gems, the 100th anniversary of Leonard Bernstein’s birth is being celebrated from coast to coast.

DATE BOOK – Brimming with new works and milestone celebrations from coast to coast, the classical calendar shows impressive projects at the onset of the fall season such as the U.S. premiere of Blank Out, an operatic thriller.

DATE BOOK – The hotter months invite you to plug into a new opera about Steve Jobs, enjoy outdoor concerts at ski-country heights, and cruise the Colorado River with concerts at bankside. Here’s a look at mountain area highlights.

DATE BOOK  – Among music festivals getting a head start on summer are some with distinctive offerings that can’t be found elsewhere. Here are lineups of festivals with premieres and rarities coming soon to America's heartland.

DATE BOOK – The PBS broadcast of Lyric Opera of Chicago's world premiere production of Bel Canto, by Jimmy López and Nilo Cruz, leads off an ambitious series of premieres and novel opera projects in early 2017.

DATE BOOK — The New York Philharmonic starts off the new year swinging, with the world premiere of Wynton Marsalis' The Jungle. Here are more premieres promised at major orchestras in North America in early 2017.

DATE BOOK – On the hunt to diversify offerings and attract new fans without sacrificing artistic integrity, the Oregon Symphony blends Bartók's Bluebeard and Chihuly glass. Here are other operatic plans by orchestras in 2016-17.

DATE BOOK – Imaginative programming is the mark of the fall season at the St. Louis Symphony and six other mid-American orchestras, as they celebrate their uniqueness and music directors embark on their most ambitious projects.

As the 2016-17 orchestral season gets under way in the U.S., music directors celebrate prized relationships, introduce new works, and resurrect forgotten gems. Here are some late-September entries that caught our eye.

DATE BOOK – As if taking their cue from conductor Leonard Slatkin's advocacy, summer festivals at Aspen and elsewhere will spotlight the mid-century American composers who invented the sound world we now live in.