The Washington Post - USA (2022-03-06)

E2 EZ EE THE WASHINGTON POST.SUNDAY, MARCH 6 , 2022

spring arts preview | classical music

BY MICHAEL ANDOR BRODEUR

If there’s one striking feature of the spring

classical music season — apart from the fact

that there is a spring classical music season —

it’s that we are experiencing, in seemingly full

bloom, the return of opera. Fully staged

productions, concert operas and even a cho-

rus or two have found their way back to the

stage, and I’m here for it. (And there’s more

good stuff coming up than I could list here, so

be sure to check out the Weekend section at

the top of March for even more picks for

spring.)

Yo-Yo Ma, Emanuel Ax and Leonidas

Kavakos

Don’t be surprised if you notice more trios

taking the stage than usual. In times when

travel and gathering in groups is fraught with

not-exactly-new concerns, the trio represents

an ideal workaround. Especially when that

trio is cellist Yo-Yo Ma, pianist Emanuel Ax

and violinist Leonidas Kavakos, who will

perform a quartet of Beethoven trios to

celebrate the release of their new recording,

“Beethoven for Three,” featuring reduced-but-

concentrated arrangements of Beethoven’s

Second and Fifth symphonies.

Yo-Yo Ma, Emanuel Ax and Leonidas Kavakos

March 7 at the Kennedy Center.

washingtonperformingarts.org.

‘Così fan tutte’

I can’t tell whether it’s good or bad that

“Così fan tutte” feels right on time in 2022. On

one hand, Washington National Opera’s stag-

ing of a beloved Mozart work for its grand

return to full productions feels perfectly

appropriate for a spring reawakening of the

arts. On the other, this zestily orchestrated

tale of two dudes lustily gaslighting their

fiancees is sure to hit differently on this side of

the #MeToo movement. Ethical dissonances

aside, I look forward to the mellifluous

main-stage debuts of soprano Laura Wilde

(Fiordiligi), mezzo-soprano Rihab Chaieb

(Dorabella) and tenor Kang Wang (Ferrando),

as well as Andrey Zhilikhovsky as Guglielmo.

Così fan tutte March 12-26 at the Kennedy

Center. k ennedy-center.org.

Hilary Hahn, Seth Parker Woods,

Andreas Haefliger

Another power trio rolls in late March as

violinist Hilary Hahn, cellist Seth Parker

Woods and pianist Andreas Haefliger take on

a program of Beethoven (his Violin Sonata No.

10 in G major, Op. 96), Zoltan Kodaly’s

wrenching 1914 Duo for Violin and Cello, Op.

7, and “Be Still & Know,” a work by Kennedy

Center composer-in-residence Carlos Simon.

Hilary Hahn, Seth Parker Woods, Andreas

Haefliger March 29 at the Kennedy Center.

washingtonperformingarts.org.

Michael Tilson Thomas and National

Symphony Orchestra

The versatile conductor and artistic direc-

tor of the New World Symphony is ramping

up his concert schedule following his recovery

from surgery in August for a brain tumor. On

March 25 and 26, the 2019 Kennedy Center

honoree will lead a program of Carl Ruggles’s

“Angels,” Aaron Copland’s “Appalachian

Spring” and his own “Four Preludes on

Playthings of the Wind,” featuring soprano

Measha Brueggergosman. And on March 31

and April 1, Tilson Thomas goes all-in on

Mahler’s five-movement Symphony No. 2 in C

minor (“Resurrection”).

Michael Tilson Thomas and the NSO March 25-

April 1 at the Kennedy Center. kennedy-center.org.

‘Eden’

It wouldn’t be spring without a passion

project, and soprano Joyce DiDonato intends

to deliver with her multidisciplinary, multi-

year project “Eden.” A collaboration with the

historical chamber orchestra il Pomo d’Oro,

“Eden” is springing forth as an album (out

Feb. 25) and an internationally touring stage

show including music by Handel, Ives, Gluck

and Mahler, as well as a newly commissioned

piece from the Oscar-winning composer Ra-

chel Portman.

Eden April 24 at the Music Center at Strathmore.

washingtonperformingarts.org.

‘Orphée’

If you missed “Eurydice” and “... (Iphige-

nia)” last fall, Washington Concert Opera is

presenting another myth opportunity with a

performance of Berlioz’s 1859 adaptation of

Gluck’s “Orphée.” Berlioz has Orphée voiced

by a mezzo-soprano, in this case Kate Lind-

sey, who sang the title role in WCO’s 2018

performance of Charles Gounod’s “Sapho.”

Soprano Jacquelyn Stucker (singing Eury-

dice) and soprano Helen Zhibing Huang

(singing Amour) will also join the WCO

Orchestra and Chorus. (For superfans, Lind-

sey will appear in recital at Wolf Trap with

pianist Justina Lee on July 8.) WCO con-

cludes its season May 22 with Léo Delibes’s

rarely performed “Lakmé.”

Orphée April 24 at Lisner Auditorium.

concertopera.org.

Opera finds its way back to s tage

ROSETTA GREEK

Mezzo-soprano Kate Lindsey will voice the title role in Washington Concert Opera’s

production of “Orphée” on April 24 at Lisner Auditorium.

MARVIN JOSEPH/THE WASHINGTON POST

“Be Still & Know,” by Kennedy Center composer-in-residence Carlos Simon, will be

performed March 29 by Hilary Hahn, Seth Parker Woods and Andreas Haefliger.

DAISY NGUYEN/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Cellist Yo-Yo Ma will celebrate “ Beethoven for Three,” a new recording with pianist Emanuel Ax and violinist Leonidas Kavakos, on March 7 at the Kennedy Center.