Concerts
Iris
At once opulent and eerie, Pietro Mascagni’s Iris, composed in 1898 with libretto by Luigi Illica, received its North American premiere at Bard SummerScape in 2016. The American Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Maestro Leon Botstein performed with a brilliant cast of accomplished singers including the Australian tenor Gerard Schneider as a menacing and callous…
Read MoreHenri VIII
Henri VIII is French grand opera at its most magnificent. In this love triangle for the ages, an infamous Tudor king is determined to divorce Catherine of Aragon in favor of the ambitious, beautiful Anne Boleyn. Saint-Saëns’s exquisite vocal passages and rich orchestration bring this rarely performed masterpiece to vivid life in this captivating new production.…
Read MoreThe Silent Woman (Die Schweigsame Frau)
Considered Strauss’s only true comic opera, this rarely performed work is by turns elegiac and incisively witty. The brilliantly written libretto by Stefan Zweig (loosely based on the Renaissance play by Ben Jonson) features a madcap cast of characters in a variety of guises. The imaginative and colorful production by Christian Räth (Das Wunder der…
Read MoreBeyond the Hall
Performed live at Bryant Park on September 6, 2024, Beyond the Hall highlights music sourced from dance salons, opera houses, cabaret, and the silver screen. A full livestream of the concert is available to watch on-demand on ASO Online through October 21, 2024. For our third consecutive year debuting our season at Bryant Park, the…
Read MoreGurre-Lieder
A short film about the American Symphony Orchestra’s massive undertaking of Arnold Schoenberg’s Gurre-Lieder. The film takes a behind-the-scenes look at the rehearsal process leading up to the highly anticipated March 22, 2024 performance at Carnegie Hall with context provided by music director Leon Botstein and chorus director James Bagwell. The film will be released…
Read MoreJoe Hisaishi Symphonic Concert: Music From the Studio Ghibli Films
Joe Hisaishi Symphonic Concert: Music from the Studio Ghibli Films of Hayao Miyazaki will take place July 11, 12 & 13. We are thrilled to be making our third appearance accompanying the celebrated film composer for three consecutive nights at Madison Square Garden.
Read MoreLe prophète at Bard SummerScape
Religion, power, ego, and manipulation collide in composer Giacomo Meyerbeer’s glorious psychodrama. Director Christian Räth (Die schweigsame Frau, 2022 and Das Wunder der Heliane, 2019) returns for a third SummerScape to lead a visionary new production of a grand opera with colorful vocal passages, inventive orchestrations, and a catastrophic end. Sung in French with English supertitles.…
Read MoreBard Music Festival: Berlioz and His World
The 34th Bard Music Festival: Berlioz and His World A singular composer, writer, and conductor, Hector Berlioz (1803–1869) is the definitive Romantic composer. Drawing music and sound into dialogue with a wide range of cultural, political, scientific, and literary currents, the impact of his musical thinking and innovations is felt to this day. The 2024…
Read MoreBeyond the Hall
The ASO presents a free concert as part of the Picnic Performance series at Bryant Park with a program of music sourced from dance salons, opera houses, cabaret, and the silver screen. For our third consecutive year debuting our season at Bryant Park, the American Symphony Orchestra is pleased to present, Beyond the Hall, a program exploring music that…
Read MoreBeyond the Hall
The ASO will co-present a free Saturday matinee with Kupferberg Center for the Arts at Queens College/CUNY. Beyond the Hall explores music that draws its inspiration from outside the traditional concert setting. From the dance salon (Florence Price’s Suite of Dances) and the theater (Weill’s Threepenny Opera and Bernstein’s On the Town), and from the opera stage (Joplin’s Treemonisha), to the silver screen (Herrmann’s film score for…
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