Traditional and contemporary culture combine for class acts
MUSIC
Alan Gilbert begins his eighth and last season with the NewYork Philharmonic on a high note conducting Dvorak’s “New World” Symphony,” Gershwin’s “Concerto in F” and John Corigliano’s “Stomp for Orchestra” in the 175th anniversary opening gala concert Sept. 21 at David Geffen Hall. Look this fall for more “Art
of the Score” concerts under artistic advisor Alec Baldwin — including screenings of both “Manhattan” and “West Side Story” with live performances of those great Gershwin and Bernstein scores. See nyphil.org for dates, times and details.
“William Tell” — the full opera, not just Rossini’s thrilling overture — comes to the
Metropolitan Opera starting Oct. 18, starring baritone Gerald Finley as the man with the crossbow. One of the world’s greatest Wagnerian sopranos, Sweden’s Nina Stemme, sings her first Met Isolde Sept. 26 while Kathleen Battle, the diva’s diva, returns Nov. 13 after a more than 20 years’ absence. This time she’s going it alone with a recital of spirituals associated with the Underground Railroad; details and tickets at metopera.org
DANCE
NewYork City Ballet’s genius guardian angel and cofounder, George Balanchine, will be remembered with 14 works this fall, including his evening-length “Jewels” and “The Nutcracker.” Expect to see new works, too, by 23 other choreographers, including the star in residence, Justin Peck. The season opens Sept. 20 with a Fall Gala conceived by Sarah Jessica Parker. Ex- pect costumes by Rosie Assoulin, Narciso Rodriguez, Dries Van Noten and Jason Wu, with dances to match; nycballet.org American BalletTheater’s Oct. 20 gala has an all-star lineup: a new “Daphnis and Chloe,” choreographed by Benjamin Millepied to that luscious Ravel score; Frederick Ashton’s “Symphonic Variations,”
and Alexei
Ratmansky’s “Rondo Capriccioso,” performed by students from the ABT Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School. Principal dancers this season include Marcelo Gomes, Veronika Part and a newly married Misty Copeland; abt.org.
AlvinAiley’s dancers won’t hit City Center until Nov. 30, but you can catch them on PBS Oct. 28, when it broadcasts “Ailey’s Lincoln Center at the Movies: Great American Dance” featuring their signature work, “Revelations;” pbs.org.
ART
You have until Nov. 27 to see the early, extraordinary photos of Diane Arbus at The Met Breuer, but it’s a living artist who’ll take the museum by storm this fall — Kerry James Marshall, a 61-year-old Alabama native who explores, on an Old Masters scale, what
it is to be black in America (“Kerry James Marshall: Mastry,” opening Oct. 25). Meanwhile, at the Met proper, Caravaggio fans can see how France’s Valentin de Boulogne followed in his master’s footsteps with paintings lent by the Louvre; metmuseum.org. The Museumof the City of
NewYork gives us “Gay Gotham: Art and Underground Culture in New York” starting Oct. 7. Expect to learn a lot more about the works and social networks of such movers and shakers as Leonard Bernstein, Bill T. Jones, Mercedes de Acosta and Andy Warhol; mcny.org
Finally, the man behind “Women On the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown” and so much more will be honored with a MoMAcareer retrospective: 20 films by Pedro Almodóvar, plus a special screening of his upcoming “Julieta,” Nov. 29-Dec.17; moma.org.