On April 4-6, two artists will make their debuts with the National Symphony: conductor Bernard Labadie and bass-baritone Michael Sumuel. Soprano Joèlle Harvey and the Washington Chorus for Fauré’s Requiem. The program opens with Symphony No. 4 by Henri-Joseph Rigel, written in 1774, and Mozart’s Symphony No. 31, Paris, composed four years later. https://www.kennedy-center.org/nso/home/2023-2024/labadie-faure/
The 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Music went to rapper Kendrick Lamar’s album Damn. On April 12, as part of their Fusion series, the Baltimore Symphony will perform Igor DAMN Stravinsky, a program integrating Lamar’s songs with movements from another masterwork, Stravinsky’s Petrouchka. Steve Hackman conducts. https://my.bsomusic.org/overview/18524
Although Laura Kaminsky’s opera As One premiered in 2014, its libretto by Mark Campbell and Kimberly Reed exploring gender identity has never been more relevant. Kentucky Opera will present the work April 12-19. https://kyopera.org/as-one/
On April 18-21, Opera Carolina will perform Saint-Saëns’s Samson and Delilah, a biblical drama of seduction and betrayal. The cast includes Alyson Cambridge, Kyle Van Schoonhoven, and Donovan Singletary. https://operacarolina.org/2023-2024/
A new work by Joel Thompson takes its place amid an interesting collection of American and Mexican pieces on the Atlanta Symphony’s April 25-26 program. Lina Gonzalez-Granados conducts Gabriela Ortiz’s Kauyumari, Gabriela Lena Frank’s Walkabout: Concerto for Orchestra, and Arturo Márquez’s Danzón No. 2. Pianist Cédric Tiberghien will be the soloist in Gershwin’s Rhapsody in […]
