Dark times, friends. If it’s not deadly weather, it’s the politics of cruelty, or online brainrot, or a dozen other catastrophes. Who can focus on getting tickets to this dance concert or that opera premiere? But if you’re reading this preview, you know, culture matters. It makes humans human. After we’ve dug ourselves out of this obscene opera buffa or grotesque clown ballet (take your pick), there will be more art to make and see. So, to paraphrase the British, keep calm and check out a show. “Poets,” as Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote, “are the unacknowledged legislators of the world.” You’ll find many a work below whose wisdom will outlast the petty tyrants of today.
OPERA
Moby-Dick at the Metropolitan Opera (March 3–29)
Some material only works as opera. Betty Boop? Yeah, that’s a musical—in fact, coming to Broadway soon. But Herman Melville’s 1851 doorstop about a demented sea captain endangering the lives of his crew in an insane mission to catch a deadly whale? Pure opera, baby. The acclaimed adaptation by composer Jake Heggie and librettist Gene Scheer comes to the Metropolitan Opera 15 years after its world premiere in Dallas. Tenor Brandon Jovanovich straps on the peg to play Ahab.
The Threepenny Opera at BAM’s Howard Gilman Opera House (April 3–6)
Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill’s 1928 seedy masterpiece returns to New York in a fresh new take by director Barrie Kosky for the legendary Berliner Ensemble. In fact, this is BE’s second trip to BAM with the satiric tale of charming gangster Mack the Knife; they were here in 2011 in a staging by Robert Wilson. We look forward to the bleak resonance of Brecht & Weill’s social commentary: cutthroat gangsters in bed with cops, exploiting the system for big bucks.
Rainbird at Mabou Mines (April 16–20)
A new production by Experiments in Opera promises a blend of daring music and dramaturgy. In Rainbird, director Mallory Catlett and composer Aaron Siegel “assemble” a libretto from New Zealand author Janet Frame’s 1969 novel, Yellow Flowers in the Antipodean Room. In this chilling slice of dark surrealism, a recently deceased husband rises from the mortuary and returns home. Siegel’s music has a dreamy, plaintive vibe, which ought to suit the melancholy material. The cast includes luminous soprano Gelsey Bell.
Salome at the Metropolitan Opera (April 29–May 4)
Master conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin leads his first Met performances of Strauss’s one-act tragedy based on the verse drama by Oscar Wilde, about a Judean princess hankering for the head of a prudish prophet. The new production by director Claus Guth takes its cue from Wilde’s late Victorian era, rife with lust and repression. Strauss’s succulent, glittering score (his first opera was calculated to stir outrage) climaxes in the famously lush “Dance of the Seven Veils.” Soprano Elza van den Heever incarnates the Levantine Lolita.
Faust at Baruch Performing Arts Center (May 13–25)
Adapting standard repertoire in ingenious ways, Heartbeat Opera continues its winning streak with a new version of Charles Gounod’s 1859 classic about a philosopher who cuts a deal with the devil. This time, the original’s three hours have been trimmed to 100 minutes by director (and theater critic) Sara Holdren, who also provides new dialogue in English. (The libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré will still be sung in French.)
Cécile McLorin Salvant: Ogresse at Zankel Hall (May 21)
The fabulous Cécile McLorin Salvant melds her sublime vocal skills with drama in this category-defying evening. Previously presented as an animated film based on her jazzy, bluesy song cycle, Salvant brings the tale of a “chocolate brown” giantess who dwells on the outskirts of town to Carnegie Hall for one night only. Salvant not only wrote the songs, she designed costumes and video projections. And Wagner thought he cornered the market on Gesamtkunstwerk.
DANCE
DOOM at Park Avenue Armory (March 3–12)
Sometimes it’s hard to decide where an event fits. This cross-disciplinary installation by German visual artist and choreographer Anne Imhof sounds so layered—yet movement-based—we’ll call it dance. Her epic, sprawling mediation on despair and resistance features “a cast of nearly 60 performers including actors, skaters, and dancers.” The latter category brings in the Flexn and Line Dance communities—blurring the lines between audience and participant. In other words, wear your dancin’ shoes.
MOMO at BAM’s Howard Gilman Opera House (Mar 6–8)
Just over 60 years old, the Batsheva Dance Company returns to BAM with a 70-minute piece choreographed by Ohad Naharin. Set mostly to Laurie Anderson’s 2018 album Landfall (with Kronos Quartet), it’s a powerful meditation on earth and origins—from the depths of our planet to the core of human DNA. The fearless, sensual Batsheva corps brings their customary fierce charisma.
Boy Blue: Cycles at the Rose Theater (March 27–29)
Breakdancing: It’s not just for subway performers anymore! For real, the British troupe Boy Blue has been redefining hip-hop dance theater for audiences since 2001; they bring their latest work to the home of Jazz at Lincoln Center for a limited run. In Cycles, nine versatile artists show off their syncopated synchrony with an endless flow of popping, locking, krumping and arm sways. We have been assured that no one will do the Kangaroo Hop.
Friday Night Rat Catchers at New York Live Arts (March 27–29)
When choreographers Lisa Fagan and Lena Engelstein move together on stage, magic happens. Fagan is compact and fiery; Engelstein is lanky and imperious. Their dances dare to be goofy—once they did a solemn, popping procession down 20 feet of bubble wrap. But there’s also rage over the national obsession with fame, wealth, and shopping. This time, the setting is a disco contest, complete with glitter ball, martinis and shrimp cocktail. Expect a hedonistic party that gives way to ominous night.
Martha Graham Dance Company at the Joyce Theater (April 1–13)
The oldest dance troupe in America celebrates its 99th season with 11 works across three programs titled “Dances of the Mind.” Two programs showcase electrifying psychodramas from the 1940s and ’50s—the Greek-themed Clytemnestra Act II (1958) and Errand into the Maze (1947), both with modernist sets by Isamu Noguchi—alongside works from today’s hottest choreographers. A third program includes Agnes de Mille’s joyous Rodeo and the stunning We the People (2024) by Jamar Roberts and Rhiannon Giddens. Let’s hope everyone gets a nice rest before the big 100.
Dance Theatre of Harlem at New York City Center (Apr 10–13)
More than most ballet and modern companies, Dance Theatre of Harlem was formed with a sense of mission following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Not only beauty and physical strength would be the goal, but movement to move society toward greater justice. As it returns to City Center, DTH features an eclectic, robust repertoire: the company premiere of William Forsythe’s lightning fast The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude, George Balanchine’s elegant Donizetti Variations, and a world premiere: Jode Gates’s virtuosic The Passage of Being.
