2015 Fall Performing Arts Highlights

With so many things happening in Washington in September and October (Hello, Your Holiness!), it’s impossible to fix and fixate on everything. Eschewing any attempt at comprehensiveness, we’ve selected a little bit of this, a little bit of that — the intent being to conjure up in advance the excitement that the first weeks of the new season will bring.

Theater

Gala Hispanic Theatre is celebrating its 40th anniversary by starting the season with a production of a new adaptation of “Yerma,” from a text by celebrated Spanish author Federico García Lorca, directed by José Luis Arelano (Sept. 10–Oct. 4).

Speaking of anniversaries, at the Shakespeare Theatre, they’re celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Shakespeare Free For All series with a staging by gifted director Ethan McSweeney of his 2012-2013 production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” at Sidney Harman Hall. Artistic Director Michael Kahn calls it a love letter to Shakespeare. We agree. And there’s the plus of having Adam Green return as Puck — and the fact that it’s free (through Sept. 13).

As part of the World Stages Series at the Kennedy Center, Lebanese playwright Wajdi Mouawad will direct and star in his semi-autobiographical play “Seuls” (Sept. 18–19), followed by a commissioned song cycle “Wagner, Max! Wagner!” in the Terrace Theater (Sept. 25-26).

Also at the Kennedy Center, in the Opera House, we’ll have the musical hit and tribute to Carole King called “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical” (Oct. 6–25). Star power is the big attraction for “Antigone” at the Eisenhower Theater, starring the luminous French actress Juliette Binoche (Oct. 22–25).

At Round House Theatre, “Ironbound,” a world premiere by Martyna Majok, kicks off the season as part of the Women’s Voices Theater Festival (Sept. 9–Oct. 4).

Olney Theater launches its season with Noel Coward’s still sophisticated “Hay Fever” (Sept. 2-27), and also participates in the Women’s Voices Theater Festival with “Bad Dog” by Jennifer Hoppe-House (Sept. 30–Oct. 25).

Washington playwright Karen Zacarías’s musical takeoff on Latin American Telenovela style, “Destiny of Desire,” opens the Arena Stage season, again as part of the Women’s Voices Theater Festival (Sept. 11–Oct. 18).

Check out what’s going on with U.S. politics in the searing, funny musical “The Fix,” now at Signature Theatre (through Sept. 20).
There’s also the U.S. premiere of “Chimerica” by Lucy Kirkwood, directed by Studio Artistic Director David Muse at Studio Theatre, about a man who took an iconic picture in Tiananmen Square (Sept. 8–Oct. 18).

Opera and Music

As long as people love, die and sing while doing it, there will always be a “Carmen.” Directed by E. Loren Meeker and conducted by Evan Rogister, this “Carmen” — which starts the Washington National Opera season — features Clementine Margaine and Geraldine Chauvet, along with Sarah Mesko in the title role (Sept. 19–Oct. 3).

We’ll have to wait a while for the return of Washington Concert Opera, with its much-appreciated emphasis on staging often neglected operas. This time, the season opens with Rossini’s “Semiramide,” with Jessica Pratt making her WCO debut in the title role at Lisner Auditorium (Nov. 22).

The National Symphony’s Orchestra’s Season Opening Ball Concert will feature Broadway star Sutton Foster and percussionist Martin Grubinger with Music Director Christoph Eschenbach and Principal Pops Conductor Steven Reine on the podium (Sept. 20). With the NSO Pops, Rajaton, a six-member a-cappella group, will perform all the songs featured in “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” (Sept. 25–26).

At Strathmore, Christopher Seaman will conduct the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s Gala Celebration with Lang Lang (Sept. 12). The BSO’s first program of the season conducted by Music Director Marin Alsop will feature Rachmaninoff’s “Paganini Rhapsody” performed by Olga Kern (Sept. 17-19).

Also at Strathmore, the National Philharmonic under Piotr Gajewski will perform “Symphonic Dances from West Side Story” with pianist Thomas Pandolfi at its opening concerts (Sept. 19–20).

Conducted by Kim Allen Kluge, the Alexandria Symphony Orchestra’s opening program will include Holst’s “The Planets,” Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyrie” and John Williams’s “Music from E.T. and Star Wars” (Oct. 3).

Washington Performing Arts gets rolling at the end of September with the world-renowned music duo of violinist Itzhak Perlman and pianist Emanuel Ax, performing in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall (Sept. 28). Two days later, in conjunction with Blues Alley and Strathmore, Washington Performing Arts will present the death- and genre-defying combo of music legends Bela Fleck and Chick Corea at the Music Center at Strathmore (Sept. 30).

The eclectic institution known as the In Series will salute the Women’s Voices Theater Festival with “Latina Supremes,” performing works by Latina songwriters, at Source (Sept. 19–20).

The Russian Chamber Art Society will hold its 10th anniversary gala, “Stars of the Russian Chamber Art Society,” featuring soprano Jennifer Casey Cabot, mezzo-soprano Magdalena Wor, tenor Viktor Antipenko, baritone Timothy Mix, bass Grigory Soloviov and guest instrumentalists, at the Embassy of Austria (Oct. 2).

Speaking of embassies, the long-running Embassy Series opens its season with two of the best rising young violinists in the world returning from last year’s series. That would be Lana Trotovek at the Slovenian Embassy (Sept. 11) and Aleksey Semenenko at the Ukranian Embassy (Oct. 6–7).

The “experimental musical laboratory” known as Post-Classical Ensemble will co-present the first concert of its American-themed season with Washington Performing Arts at the University of the District of Columbia Theater. “Deep River: The Art of the Spiritual” will feature bass-baritone Kevin Deas, the Heritage Signature Chorale and the Washington Performing Arts Gospel Chorus, conducted by Angel Gil-Ordóñez and Stanley Thurston.

Dance

The Washington Ballet will open its 40th anniversary season by launching a multi-year “Project Global” program with a season-opening “Latin Heat” festival, which includes fived varied works at the Kennedy Center’s Eisenhower Theater. Included are “Bitter Sugar” by Mauro de Candia, “Sombrerísimo,” by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, “La Ofrenda” by Edwaard Liang, “5 Tangos” by Hans Van Manen and the Act III pas de deux from Marius Petipa’s “Don Quixote” (Oct. 14–18).

The Suzanne Farrell Ballet marks the 450th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death with “Balanchine, Béjart, and the Bard” — including Balanchine’s “Walpurgisnacht Ballet” and the Emeralds movement from his “Jewels” — at the Kennedy Center Opera House (Oct. 30–Nov. 1).

Choreographer Dana Tai Soon Burgess will present “Fluency in Four,” including his newest work, “We choose to go to the moon,” a collaboration with NASA, at the Kennedy Center (Sept. 19–20).

And Now for Something Totally Different

Giving a new touch to a new season is “Finding a Line: Skateboarding, Music and Media,” a multi-disciplinary festival celebrating a vibrant and influential American subculture by highlighting the creative ties and improvisational elements shared between skateboarding and live music. Kennedy Center Artistic Director for Jazz Jason Moran is spearing this collaborative effort, featuring a ramp at the Kennedy Center Plaza, music by Moran and the Bandwagon and the involvement of students, artists, musicians, skaters and community members (Sept. 5-12).