Classical Music/Opera Listings for Jan. 27-Feb. 2 G Roald Smeets

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Metropolitan Opera (Lincoln Center), auditorium

Metropolitan Opera (Lincoln Center), auditorium (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

G Roald Smeets  Opera

★ ‘Anna Bolena’ (Wednesday) The Metropolitan Opera’s new production of this great, overlooked Donizetti opera returns for two final performances this season, starring the charismatic soprano for whom it was conceived, Anna Netrebko. David McVicar’s disappointing production is tamely traditional, and the impact of Donizetti’s score was muted on opening night by the routine, listless conducting of Marco Armiliato. The appealing cast includes Ekaterina Gubanova as Giovanna, Ildar Abdrazakov as Enrico, and Stephen Costello as Riccardo. At 7:30 p.m., Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center, (212) 362-6000, metoperafamily.org; $104 to $490 remaining. (Anthony Tommasini)

★ ‘The Enchanted Island’ (Saturday and Monday) There are two more performances of this modern-day Baroque pastiche, a surprising delight. The librettist Jeremy Sams has devised a wonderfully convoluted and involving story that conflates two Shakespeare plays, “The Tempest” and “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” His original libretto, complete with witty recitative, is set to music lifted from operas and other works by Handel, Vivaldi, Rameau and other Baroque composers. Phelim McDermott’s imaginative production blends old-fashioned stagecraft with sophisticated videos and animation. The cast could not be better, with David Daniels as Prospero, Danielle de Niese as Ariel, Joyce DiDonato as Sycorax, Luca Pisaroni as Caliban, Lisette Oropesa as Miranda and, in a short but crucial star turn, Plácido Domingo as Neptune. (David Daniels will not appear Saturday night because of illness. Anthony Roth Costanzo will sing Prospero.) William Christie, an acclaimed exponent of Baroque opera, conducts. Saturday at 8 p.m. and Monday at 7:30 p.m., Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center, (212) 362-6000, metoperafamily.org; $25 to $460. (Tommasini)

★ ‘Götterdämmerung’ (Friday and Tuesday) You cannot fairly judge a production of Wagner’s “Ring” until you see the entire four-opera cycle. The final installment of Robert Lepage’s production for the Met, “Götterdämmerung,” opens on Friday. Much is expected of the Siegfried of the tenor Jay Hunter Morris, who made a strong impression in the near-impossible title role of “Siegfried.” (The tenor Stephen Gould sings the second performance on Tuesday.) Deborah Voigt completes her first complete “Ring,” singing Brünnhilde. Eric Owens returns as Alberich. And in a bit of luxury casting, the soprano Waltraud Meier sings Waltraute. Fabio Luisi conducts. At 6 p.m., Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center, (212) 362-6000, metoperafamily.org; $104 to $490 remaining. (Tommasini)

★ ‘Rienzi’ (Sunday) Wagner’s unabashedly grand third opera provided a big success for Eve Queler and her enterprising, invaluable Opera Orchestra of New York in 1980 and 1982. Now, a year after Ms. Queler stepped down as the company’s music director, she returns to the podium to conduct it with a cast that includes the tenor Ian Storey as the medieval Italian populist leader Cola di Rienzi and the soprano Elisabete Matos as his sister, Irene. At 2 p.m., Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center, (212) 906-9137, operaorchestrany.org; $35 to $165. (Zachary Woolfe)

★ ‘Tosca’ (Saturday) The straightforward but heartfelt soprano Patricia Racette has long been underrated, but her performance in a Met revival of Luc Bondy’s production of “Tosca” in 2010 brought her the most notice she’d gotten in years. She ends her return to the title role alongside the tenor Marcelo Álvarez and the bass-baritone James Morris. This run offers the house debut of the young Finnish conductor Mikko Franck; Saturday marks the final Met performance of the veteran bass Paul Plishka, retiring after a 45-year career with the company. At 1 p.m., Metropolitan Opera, Lincoln Center, (212) 362-6000, metoperafamily.org; $111 to $470 remaining. (Woolfe)

Classical Music

★ American Composers Orchestra (Tuesday) This concert marking the 75th birthday of Philip Glass features the American premiere of his Ninth Symphony. (Fear not, superstitious types; Mr. Glass already has a 10th in the drawer.) Completing the program is Arvo Pärt’s stirring “Lamentate,” featuring the pianist Maki Namekawa. At 8 p.m., Carnegie Hall, (212) 247-7800, carnegiehall.org; $29 to $82, with limited availability. (Steve Smith)

Eve Beglarian’s RiverProject (Friday and Saturday) Prompted by the 2008 election to get back in touch with America, the composer and singer Ms. Beglarian kayaked and bicycled the length of the Mississippi River; since her return she has translated her findings into music of sophisticated rusticity. On Friday the agit-prop new-music ensemble Newspeak presents the New York premiere of “Waiting for Billy Floyd”; on Saturday Ms. Beglarian performs with the violinist Mary Rowell, the guitarist Taylor Levine and the singer Malcolm J. Merriweather. At 8 p.m., Abrons Arts Center, 466 Grand Street, at Pitt Street, Lower East Side, (866) 811-4111, abronsartscenter.org; $25, or $15 for students and seniors. (Smith)

Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center (Sunday and Tuesday) This program celebrates music for clarinet and cello. The clarinetist David Shifrin joins the society’s artistic directors, the cellist David Finckel and the pianist Wu Han, for Beethoven’s Trio in B flat for Clarinet, Cello and Piano; selections from Bruch’s Eight Pieces for Clarinet, Cello and Piano; and Brahms’s Trio in A minor for Clarinet, Cello and Piano. At 5 p.m. on Sunday and 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, (212) 875-5788, chambermusicsociety.org; Sunday sold out; Tuesday, $27 to $56. (Vivien Schweitzer)

Simone Dinnerstein (Thursday) This fine pianist juxtaposes Bach’s Partitas Nos. 1 and 2, Schubert’s Four Impromptus (Op. 90) and Chopin’s Nocturne for Piano No. 8 with a contemporary work: Daniel Felsenfeld’s “Cohen Variations.” At 8 p.m., Miller Theater, Broadway at 116th Street, Morningside Heights, (212) 854-7799, millertheater.org; $35. (Schweitzer)

Europa Galante (Thursday) The soprano Vivica Genaux joins Fabio Biondi and his period-instrument band in a program devoted mostly to concertos and arias by Vivaldi, Nardini and Locatelli. At 7:30 p.m., Zankel Hall, Carnegie Hall, (212) 247-7800, carnegiehall.org; $54 to $64. (Allan Kozinn)

★ Focus! 2012 Festival (Friday, and Monday through Thursday) The Juilliard School provides a gift to the city in this year’s installment of its venerable annual new-music festival: six concerts celebrating the 100th anniversary of the birth of John Cage. It’s a rich selection of nearly 40 works drawn from every period of Cage’s pathbreaking career, from vocal music to compositions for percussion ensemble. That the shows are all free is the icing on the cake. (The finale concert is next Friday.) Friday, and Monday through Thursday at 8 p.m., the Juilliard School, Lincoln Center, (212) 769-7406, juilliard.edu; free tickets required. (Woolfe)

Gaudeamus Muziekweek New York (Friday and Saturday) A series mounted by the prestigious Dutch new-music festival Gaudeamus Muziekweek ends with two concerts featuring Ensemble MAE, the successor to the trailblazing Maarten Altena Ensemble. On Friday the International Contemporary Ensemble pitches in for works by Yannis Kyriakides; on Saturday, Iktus Percussion shares a program that includes pieces by Ligeti, Robert Ashley, Michel van der Aa and others. At 7:30 p.m., Issue Project Room, 110 Livingston Street, downtown Brooklyn, (718) 330-0313, issueprojectroom.org; $20. (Smith)

★ Susan Graham (Wednesday) There is no more satisfying singer than this eminent mezzo-soprano, with her rich, even voice, exquisite musicianship and warm presence. Her solo recital debut at Carnegie Hall in 2003 was widely acclaimed and resulted in a classic recording; she returned in 2007 with a program of French songs. This time, joined by the pianist Malcolm Martineau, her longtime collaborator, she focuses on musical versions of tragic female characters from history and literature, from Ophelia (Berlioz’s “Mort d’Ophélie”) to treatments of Goethe’s Mignon by Schubert, Schumann, Liszt, Duparc and Wolf. At 8 p.m., Isaac Stern Auditorium, Carnegie Hall, (212) 247-7800, carnegiehall.org; $15 to $85. (Woolfe)

★ David Lang (Friday) A founder of Bang on a Can, with Julia Wolfe and Michael Gordon, Mr. Lang writes in a colorfully accessible, energetic style. His “Little Match Girl Passion,” a wrenching setting of the Hans Christian Andersen story, won the Pulitzer Prize in 2008 and is the centerpiece of this Making Music program, which also includes the New York premiere of Mr. Lang’s “Death Speaks.” The starry cast includes Theater of Voices; Bryce Dessner and Shara Worden on guitars and vocals; the composer Nico Muhly on keyboards; and Owen Pallett on violin and vocals. At 6 p.m., Zankel Hall, Carnegie Hall, (212) 247-7800, carnegiehall.org; $30, with limited availability. (Kozinn)

★ London Handel Players (Sunday) The music room at the Frick Collection is a superb place to hear period instruments, and this fine British ensemble offers a program in which the clarity of texture that the room’s acoustic promote is paramount. Included are a Flute Sonata by Quantz, the greatest flute virtuoso of his time, and a piece by Frederick the Great, the Prussian king and talented amateur flutist. Also on the program: a sonata from Bach’s “Musical Offering,” a Trio Sonata by C. P. E. Bach and a Benda Violin Sonata. At 5 p.m., Frick Collection, 1 East 70th Street, Manhattan, (212) 547-0715, frick.org; sold out, but returned tickets may be available at the box office. (Kozinn)

Denis Matsuev (Friday) This gifted Russian pianist, first prize laureate of the International Tchaikovsky Competition, returns to Carnegie Hall with a program featuring Schubert’s Sonata in A minor (D. 784), Beethoven’s “Appassionata” sonata, Grieg’s Piano Sonata in E minor and selections from Stravinsky’s “Petrushka.” At 8 p.m., Isaac Stern Auditorium, Carnegie Hall, (212) 247-7800, carnegiehall.org; $37 to $150. (Schweitzer)

Mimesis Ensemble (Saturday) This new-music group offers an appealing program of 20th- and 21st-century works, including Takemitsu’s “Entre-Temps,” Mohammed Fairouz’s “Furia,” Ned Rorem’s “Unquestioned Answer” and Kaija Saariaho’s “Terra Memoria.” At 8 p.m., Merkin Concert Hall, 129 West 67th Street, Manhattan, (212) 501-3330, kaufman-center.org; $20 in advance; $25 at the door; $15 for students and 65+. (Schweitzer)

New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, with Renée Fleming (Sunday) The soprano Renée Fleming spends an afternoon of alluring music, including Ravel’s sultry “Shéhérazade” and selections from “La Bohème,” “Tosca,” “Rusalka,” “Faust” and “The Merry Widow.” Jacques Lacombe conducts the performance, which includes a complementary clutch of overtures and showpieces. At 3 p.m., New Jersey Performing Arts Center, 1 Center Street, Newark, (800) 255-3476, njsymphony.org; $29 to $125. (Smith)

★ New York Philharmonic (Friday and Saturday) Before going on a European tour, Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic play two more performances of a program featuring the German violinist Frank Peter Zimmermann. Though the programs he has planned for his tenure as artist in residence are rather conventional, Mr. Zimmermann is an exciting and probing violinist. He plays the Beethoven Violin Concerto on this program which includes Stravinsky’s Symphony in Three Movements and Ravel’s “Daphnis et Chloé” Suite No. 2. At 8 p.m., Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center, (212) 875-5656, nyphil.org; $33 to $127. (Tommasini)

★ Peter Orth (Sunday) The essential Peoples’ Symphony Concerts, which bring great artists to audiences at affordable prices, present Mr. Orth, the acclaimed pianist whose playing combines comprehensive technique and probing musicianship. He will perform works by Ravel, Stravinsky and Liszt. At 2 p.m., Town Hall, 123 West 43rd Street, Manhattan, (212) 586-4680, the-townhall-nyc.org; $13 and $16. (Tommasini)

★ Tragicomedia (Friday) The Boston Early Music Festival is presenting Tragicomedia, a period-instrument group directed by Stephen Stubbs, in a program devoted mostly to early Handel cantatas as well as works by Strozzi, Guerau, Steffani and Arrigoni. The singers are the soprano Shannon Mercer and the bass-baritone Douglas Williams, and the ensemble includes Mr. Stubbs and his co-director at the Boston Early Music Festival, Paul O’Dette, on Baroque guitars and theorbo; Erin Headley on viola da gamba; and Kristian Bezuidenhout on harpsichord. At 7:30 p.m. (with a preconcert talk at 7), Morgan Library & Museum, 225 Madison Avenue, at 36th Street, (212) 685-0008, Ext. 560, themorgan.org; $45. (Kozinn)

Trio di Clarone (Saturday) This clarinet trio, whose members are Sabine Meyer, Wolfgang Meyer (her brother) and Reiner Wehle (her husband), offers works by Mozart, Poulenc, Stravinsky, J. S. Bach and C. P. E. Bach. At 8 p.m., 92nd Street Y, 1395 Lexington Avenue, (212) 415-5500, 92y.org; $40 and $58, or $25 for under age 35. (Schweitzer)

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