NY Philharmonic Ends Its Season with David Lang’s ‘prisoner of the state’

Composer David Lang. Photo: Peter Serling

    The New York Philharmonic  began the 2018-2019 season in light and ended in darkness with the world premiere of David Lang's opera prisoner of the state. The NYP commission, conducted by Music Director Jaap van Zweden, performed June 6-8 as part of the orchestra's Music of Conscience series, explored the long tendrils of totalitarianism - and an opera born out of hate is brilliant. prisoner of the state is a meditation on Beethoven's only opera Fidelio (1805), whose titled character infiltrates where her wrongfully incarcerated husband is held and saves him from execution.  Written during the Napoleonic wars, Beethoven never hid his passion for freedom.  Lang removes

Rocktopia at The Broadway Theatre

Before there was Beatlemania, there was Lisztomania. The 19th Century Hungarian composer created such a fan frenzy that it would be the envy of any 20th or 21st Century musician - for classical music, along with Opera, and their creators, were the arena rock stars of their era. This grandness of mayhem and musicality is keenly felt in Rocktopia. So if you are looking for the most astounding arias, soaring symphonic sounds or incendiary electric guitar, you needn't bother with multiple trips to The Metropolitan Opera, Carnegie Hall or MSG - they're all under one roof at The Broadway Theatre! Rocktopia:

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