Mozart was commissioned to write The Abduction from the Seraglio (“Die Entführung aus dem Serail”) by Joseph II, who hoped to promote a German-language National Singspiel to rival Italian opera. An immediate success at its premiere, the work established Mozart’s reputation and remained one of the greatest successes of his career. The Abduction is the story of a Spanish nobleman and his fiancée. She and their two servants have been kidnapped by pirates and sold into the harem of a Turkish Pasha. Using intrigue and disguises to outwit their overseer, the lovers plot an escape. However, it is only when the pasha reveals unexpected nobility, choosing mercy over revenge, that the four regain their freedom. This story reflects the fascination that Turkey held for Mozart and his Viennese contemporaries, for whom the Ottoman Empire was not only a key cultural influence but also — in the long shadow of the Ottoman–Habsburg wars — a remembered military threat. Imagining the Ottoman world through Western eyes, the work is imbued with Orientalism, from Mozart’s approximation of Turkish music, loosely based on that of the famous Janissary marching bands, to exoticized characters like the buffoonishly brutal overseer. Yet the opera also complicates such stereotypes: the pasha’s final act of clemency gave Viennese audiences an Enlightenment lesson, presenting virtue as a universal trait and using the imagined East to critique Western cruelty. With its emphasis on historical scholarship and ability to provide a “rich web of context” (The New York Times), Bard is uniquely well-placed to explore these contradictions, when Botstein, the ASO, and the Bard Festival Chorale take part in a semi-staged concert performance of the opera. This forms Program Eleven, “Too beautiful”: Mozart’s Abduction from the Seraglio, which draws the Bard Music Festival — and all seven weeks of Bard SummerScape — to a gripping close. (This concert will be livestreamed.)

Her first taste of love. Her gamble for more.

Manon is young, beautiful, and has a taste for the finer things … which is why her family is sending her to a convent. En route to her new life, she falls for the handsome Chevalier des Grieux and they run away to Paris, the city of love. But their youthful ardor is threatened by fatherly disapproval, and Manon finds herself with a choice to make: wait alone in poverty or embrace the wealth of a new lover? 

Manon composer Jules Massenet’s soaring score captures the intensity of young love as Manon and Des Grieux’s relationship endures twist after turn. Manon must navigate a path that careens between the radiant glow of love and the allure of wealth.

Music Director Eun Sun Kim’s conducting and Vincent Boussard’s cinematic production design brings the drama of Manon into emotional relief. The shimmering stage illuminates both the Champagne effervescence of Paris and the sensual idealism of young love.

Asheville Symphony and the Asheville Symphony Chorus host a truly unique and immersive way to experience Carl Orff’s epic masterpiece, one of the most popular and widely performed works of the 20th century. The Thomas Wolfe Auditorium will be bathed in projection art by Adam Larsen, creating a truly immersive experience throughout the auditorium.

The Sarasota Orchestra has announced its highly anticipated 2026–27 season, highlighted by Carl Orff's exhilarating choral masterpiece, Carmina Burana. Presented as part of the Masterworks 4 series, this iconic work promises a thrilling musical experience, featuring powerful orchestral forces, soaring choruses, and the unforgettable "O Fortuna." The performance is set to be one of the season's standout events, showcasing the Orchestra's commitment to delivering world-class performances to the Sarasota community. Music Director, Giancarlo Guerrero, takes the podium with three stand-out soloists Jana McIntyre, Logan Tanner, and Troy Cook for three performances. 

Following her radiant performance in Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette—which garnered raves for “high notes that spun like liquid gold … Sierra touched the operatic firmament” (The New York Times)—superstar soprano Nadine Sierra takes on another alluring French heroine, the irresistible title character of Massenet’s passionate drama, live from the Met stage to cinemas worldwide. Leading tenor Matthew Polenzani is her idealistic lover, the Chevalier des Grieux, with rising-star baritone Andrzej Filończyk as her stalwart cousin, Lescaut, in a breathtaking Belle Époque staging by director Laurent Pelly. This live cinema transmission is part of the Met’s award-winning Live in HD series, bringing opera to movie theaters across the globe.

A profound philosophical meditation on compassion and reconciliation, Wagner’s transcendent rendering of a medieval knight’s heroic quest for the Holy Grail returns in François Girard’s celebrated production, a “thoughtful and intrepid staging, full of striking imagery” (The New York Times). Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts a cast of Wagnerian superstars, including tenor Piotr Beczała in the title role, mezzo-soprano Elīna Garanča as the enigmatic Kundry, baritone Peter Mattei as the ailing Amfortas, bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green as the sorcerer Klingsor, and bass Jongmin Park as the wise Gurnemanz.

Mozart enjoyed immense popularity and personal happiness in Prague, famously declaring, “My Praguers understand me.” Marking the festival’s first all-orchestral concert, Program Three, “Mozart and Prague,” celebrates his special bond with the city. Works by his older Bohemian contemporaries Christoph Willibald Gluck and Josef Mysliveček, a one-time Mozart family friend who served as something of a model for the younger composer, will be heard alongside Mozart’s own “Prague” Symphony and the overture to his opera seria The Clemency of Titus (“La clemenza di Tito”), a work commissioned for Emperor Leopold II’s coronation in the city. Other featured works include Mozart’s first wholly original piano concerto, the Fifth, which he wrote at 17 and continued performing and revising throughout his career, and his beloved motet Exsultate, jubilate.

Guests include: Jana McIntyre, soprano; Simone Dinnerstein, piano; Karl Kramer, horn; The Orchestra Now, conducted by Leon Botstein, music director; and others