1 pm ET: Wiener Staatsoper presents
Giselle. Conductor: Valery Ovsyanikov, choreography: Elena Tschernischova after Jean Coralli, Jules Perrot and Marius Petipa. With Nina Poláková, Masayu Kimoto, Rebecca Horner, Andrey Kaydanovskiy, Alice Firenze, Leonardo Basílio, and Soloists and Corps de ballet des Wiener Staatsballetts. Production from September 2017. Register for free and view here.
2:30 pm ET: Philharmonie de Paris presents Casadesus conducts Debussy, Ravel, Schumann & Beethoven. Jean-Claude Casadesus conducts the Orchestre du Conservatoire de Paris in a Franco-German program of Debussy’s
Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune, Ravel’s
Pavane pour une infante défunte Schumann’s Piano Concerto with soloist David Kadouch, and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1. View here. LIVE
Verdi’s
Un Ballo in Maschera. Starring Aprile Millo, Harolyn Blackwell, Florence Quivar, Luciano Pavarotti, and Leo Nucci, conducted by James Levine. From January 26, 1991. View here and for 24 hours.
Wagner’s
Das Rheingold. Conductor: Adam Fischer, director: Sven-Eric Bechtolf. With Tomasz Konieczny, Norbert Ernst, Jochen Schmeckenbecher, Herwig Pecoraro, and Michaela Schuster. Production from January 2016. Register for free and view here.
Sunday, January 3 Handel’s
Semele. First streamed on OperaVision at its premiere in Berlin on May 12, 2018. Barrie Kosky’s production returns as part of the Komische Oper winter streaming festival. Konrad Junghänel conducts a cast including Philipp Meierhöfer, Nicole Chevalier, Katarina Bradic, Eric Jurenas, Allan Clayton, Ezgi Kutlu, and Nora Friedrichs. View here for one month.
Christmas Oratorio. Ensemble Resonanz presents Bach s
Christmas Oratorio as Hausmusik among friends. With a small cast and no large choir, the ensemble has arranged 30 arias, recitatives, choruses, and chorales from Bach s masterpiece in its own version. The score remains untouched, but electric guitar and Hammond organ sound in the continuo, there’s only one trumpet, and the whole ensemble joins in the chorales. View here.
Delibes’s
Sylvia. Conductor: Kevin Rhodes, choreography: Manuel Legris after Louis Mérante. With Kiyoka Hashimoto, Masayu Kimoto, and Davide Dato. Production from November 2018. Register for free and view here.
2 pm ET: VOCES8 Live from London presents
Buche de Noel The 2020 Christmas season has fallen victim to the same pandemic restrictions as Thanksgiving. Because large indoor gatherings promote the possibility of infection, most of us will spend the day only with those in our immediate household. We stay home and don’t travel to visit family. There will be no baking cookies with grandma. We keep our holiday small and set a table for two or three instead of ten or twelve. We mail gifts to relatives and visit with family via a computer screen. Those are the sacrifices we make to stay healthy this year. But we can still hear the jingling of Salvation Army kettles. Homes are decorated in red and green. Christmas cards are sent to cheer us. Carols play on the radio or CD players.
Christmas Without Music? Churches Are Finding a Way
At churches like St. James in Louisville, Ky., services this Christmas will not have in-person choirs or orchestras. But music directors are finding ways to persevere.
Phil Hines, the music director at St. James Catholic Church in Louisville, Ky., played the church’s 1885 pipe organ during a December rehearsal for Christmas services.Credit.Andrew Cenci for The New York Times
Published Dec. 20, 2020Updated Dec. 21, 2020
In a normal year, Phil Hines takes a deep breath, lays his hands on the keys of the 135-year-old pipe organ and begins to play.
The first notes of “O Come, All Ye Faithful” ring forth from some of the organ’s 2,200-plus pipes, creating a soaring herald that welcomes worshipers to St. James Catholic Church in Louisville, Ky., on Christmas Eve.