NEW YORK SPRING HOLIDAY The MET, Carnegie Hall, NY City Ballet Thursday, May 6th through Sunday, May 9th

The , Lincoln Center

New York remains the mecca for discerning travelers Avenue). The NYAC offers pleasant, comfortable bed- who recognize the rewards of live performances show- rooms and many advantages of a large, private club: a spa- casing the world’s leading singers. We are eagerly look- cious dining room overlooking Central Park from the 11th ing forward to a long weekend in May of 2021 with floor; friendly bars on the main floor and in the second- events that reinforce the city’s reputation as our fore- floor Tap Room which serves convenient meals; the best- most destination for the performing arts. equipped large swimming-pool and sauna/steam room complex in the city; extensive health-club features and ex- t the MET, our pair of operas will contrast the Nina Stemme ercise equipment; and a relaxing library with a wide col- emotional power of ’s late master- lection of books and current journals. There are several work (‘The Woman appealing cafés and restaurants in the immediate neigh- without a Shadow’) with the popular ‘early borhood, and Carnegie Hall is only one block away from AVerdi’ melodrama Nabucco. The brilliant casts the 58th street rear entrance. will feature Nina Stemme and Michael Volle in Strauss’s demanding score; and Russian diva Anna Ne- A cocktail trebko in a new MET assumption as Verdi’s ferocious buf e t o rf din- warrior Abigaille. A change of pace will take us to ner will be en- Carnegie Hall for a sold-out subscription concert by Michael Volle joyed on the the revered Philadelphia Orchestra, where the en- first evening, semble’s Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin will which will pro- be on the podium with pianist Mitsuko Uchida as the vide an oppor- soloist. Our fourth performance will take us to Lincoln tunity to meet Center’s Koch Theatre for the New York City Ballet, other members which has proven a rewarding addition to our spring of the Tour. On Central Park near the NYAC weekends for the past several years. our last day, we plan to take advantage of the NYAC’s lavish Sunday Accommodations for four nights will be at the pri- Brunch in the Main Dining Room. vate New York Athletic Club (NYAC), beautifully lo- cated on Central Park South (59th street at 7th We are pleased to offer you a Guest Pass to the Metropol- 1 ering work: South African soprano Elza van den Heever as the Empress, Swedish Nina Stemme as the Dyer’s Wife, German mezzo-soprano Evelyn Herlitzius as the Nurse, German tenor Klaus Florian Vogt as the Emperor, German bari - tone Michael Volle as Barak the Dyer, and the rising young Amer - ican bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green will be heard as the Messenger. The Swiss conductor Patrick Furrer will be in charge. Sung in German with MET titles.

Friday evening, May 7th, a short walk will take us to Carnegie Hall for an 8:00 pm concert by the Philadelphia Orchestra Metropolitan Museum under the baton of Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin , cur - itan Museum of Art on Fifth Avenue at 82nd Street. Your pass rently the MET’s esteemed Music Director. Tonight’s program will allow for free entry at your own convenience into the extensive (one of a trio of subscription concerts by the Philadelphia Orches - permanent galleries and all exhibitions not requiring a reserved tra) will feature Maurice Ravel’s Piano Concerto with the peerless ticket. Japanese-born Mitsuko Uchida as soloist; Symphony No. 8 by Dmitri Shostakovich (composed in 1943 and regarded today as an eloquent threnody to the fallen of World War II); and a bonus for opera enthusiasts in the form of the American composer Mason Bates’ Suite from ‘The (R)evo - a r lution of Steve Jobs’ e p O

t which was premiered

e Elza van den Evelyn Herlitzius M / by the Santa Fe Opera d Heever r a

w in 2017. o H

n e K Saturday afternoon, Richard Strauss’ Die Frau ohne Schatten May 8th, our perform - ance at 1:00 pm will be Transfers are included for all of our performances not at Carnegie Nabucco , Giuseppe Hall. (The Club is only a few minutes walk from Carnegie Hall.) Verdi’s first major suc - cess, which maintains Klaus Florian Vogt Ryan Speedo Green Our first performance on Thursday, May 6th, is at 7:00 pm (early its importance in the curtain) at the MET Opera: the innovative and dazzling produc - composer’s output due to Abigaille’s challenging arias, the fully de - tion of Die Frau ohne Schatten (‘The Woman without a veloped title role for a consummate ‘Verdi baritone’, and the Shadow’) directed and designed by Her - beloved closing-act choral lament of the He - bert Wernicke . Premiered in Vienna in brews (‘Va pensiero’). Enthusiastic audi - 1919, the complex libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal centers on the barren emo - tional plight of the childless Emperor and Empress on one level, the unsatisfied de - sires of the burdened human couple Barak the Dyer and his wife on another, and the turbulent manipulations of the Empress’ guardian nurse on yet a third level. All five of these major roles require extraordinary singers to override Strauss’ rich orchestra - Mitsuko tion and to extend into the upper registers Uchida of his demanding vocal writing. ‘Frau ohne Schatten’ might best be viewed as Strauss’s ‘RING Cycle’ in one opera, as compared Yannick with Wagner’s exhausting four-part tetrol - Nézet-Seguin, Music ogy. The superlative cast assembled by the Carnegie Hall Director MET is well equipped to present this tow -

2 ences usually insist on an encore of this most fa - mous piece in all of Verdi’s operas. Heading the MET’s cast will be today’s reigning Verdi so - prano Anna Netrebko in the notoriously de - manding role of Nabucco’s usurping daughter Abigaille, Georgian baritone George Gagnize in the title role of Babylon’s King Nebuchadnezzar, Russian bass Dmitry Belosselskiy as the High George Gagnize a r

Priest Zaccaria, and Verduhi Abrahamyan op - e p O posite Najmiddin Mavlyanov as the ill-fated t e M / lovers Fenena and Ismaele. The conductor will l h o S be , and the production is di - Marco Armiliato y t r rected by with suitably grand a Elijah Moshinsky M scenery designed by John Napier . Sung in Ital - ian with MET titles. Verdi’s Nabucco

On May 9th, we expect to join the gourmet Sunday Brunch in Dmitry the Main Dining Room of the NYAC. Belosselskiy

Our weekend will conclude on Sunday afternoon with the 3:00 pm New York Spring Holiday diversified program of the New York City Ballet (NYCB) at Lin - coln Center’s Koch Theater . We have included this superlative Price per person, based on double occupancy $ 3,180 company in several of our recent spring weekends, when our Tour Single room supplement $ 680 members were unanimously enthusiastic to discover the excep - tional level of dancing and the imaginative repertoire. In addition to providing a showcase for the iconic works choreographed by IMPORTANT: Our tickets for the MET will be in the George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins, the NYCB has also be - Prime Orchestra for ‘Die Frau ohne Schatten’ and in come a fore - the Dress Circle (where sightlines and acoustics are op - front advocate timal) for ‘Nabucco’. At Carnegie Hall, our tickets for of new works the Philadelphia Orchestra are confirmed in the Or - chestra. Our tickets for the NY City Ballet will be in the by Justin Peck Orchestra. (Resident Choreo grapher Because the New York Athletic Club has a limited num - since 2017), ber of king-bedded rooms, couples requesting a one-bed - Chris topher ded room will be accommodated in a queen-sized bed. Wheel don, and For any couples requesting a king bed, there will be an Alexei Ratman - additional charge of $70 per night ($280 for the Tour) sky. Music Di - for this upgrade, depending on availability. New York City Ballet; The Four Temperaments rector Andrew Litton , formerly in charge of the Dallas Symphony, is often in the pit and has been singled out for maintaining the high standards of the orchestra. (Program TBA).

Independent departures should be on the morning of Monday, May 10th.

3