After a long, relaxed summer, the art, cultural and opera season around the world is in full swing and only getting bigger and better as the festive season approaches. Here are a few that we feel you must have on your watch list
France
The Opera Comique
The Opera Comique in Paris will be featuring John Blow’s Venus & Adonis this December (€6-€110 or Dh29-Dh522) and David Et Jonathas is a biblical tragedy in five acts by Marc-Antoine Charpentier from January 12 (€6-€120). www.opera-comique.com
Opera Bastille
Don Quichotte by Rudolf Nureyev (€5-€92) will be performed from November 16 to December 30 at Opera Bastille. www.operadeparis.fr
Tribal museum spins age-old story of hair
What do Louis XIV, the Kanaks of New Caledonia and the punk generation have in common? For starters, all paid a great deal of care to their hair, subject of a major new show at Paris’ museum of tribal arts that runs until July 14.
Dubbed Cheveux Cheris (Dear Hair), the exhibition features jewels, wigs and headdresses, talismans, mummies — or human scalps — from the Quai Branly Museum’s treasure trove of artefacts from Africa, Oceania or Latin America. But the show takes the millennia-old history of hair in its stride, from the way a hairstyle defines us, to its shifting fashions and codes, why people grow or shave it, and what happens when we lose it. www.quaibranly.fr/en
The United Kingdom
Royal Opera House
Catch Wayne McGregor’s abstract ballet Infra from November 3 to 14, or Viscera, another abstract ballet in three sections that follows the contours of American composer Lowell Liebermann’s score with complementing intense and sensual choreography by Liam Scarlett. Or watch Christopher Wheeldon’s Fool’s Paradise, composed by Joby Talbot. By The Royal Ballet from November 5 to 14 on the main stage. Tickets priced from £3-£37.5 (Dh17-Dh222). Or participate in the Tea Dance (November 16 to March 22) in the Paul Hamlyn Hall and waltz, cha cha cha or tango to the Royal Opera Dance Band. Tickets not on sale at the moment. www.roh.org.uk
London Colosseum (Coliseum Theatre)
Watch The Nutcracker by the English National Ballet from December 12 until January 5 (from £19). http://london-coliseum.official-theatre.co.uk
Gielgud Theatre
Dame Helen Mirren stars in The Audience, directed by Stephen Daldry, from February 15, 2013. Tickets priced at £32, bookings until June 15. Chariots of Fire on Stage, composed by Vangelis, showing until February 2. Tickets start from £17.99. gielgud.london-theatre-guide.org.uk
Buxton Opera House
On November 9, catch Marley, A film by Kevin Macdonald, as part of the Buxton Festival of World Cinema 2012 at Pavilion Arts Centre (£4, festival runs until November 11). Les Miserables on November 14 (£8) and Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales (adapted for the stage by Mike Poulton) on November 23 and 24. Tickets priced £7. Join the Ballet Theatre UK for A Christmas Carol on November 25. Tickets from £15. www.buxtonoperahouse.org.uk
Grand Opera House, Belfast
The Flying Dutchman by NI Opera and Ulster Orchestra from February 15 to 17. Tickets priced from £19.25. Shakespeare’s Othello from March 6 to 9. Tickets priced from £17.25. Cinderella, a pantomime from December 8 to January 26. Tickets from 12.75. www.goh.co.uk
Theatre Royal, Glasgow
A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Royal Conservatoire of Scotland on January 25 and 26, as part of Benjamin Britten’s 100th birth anniversary celebrations. Tickets from £6 to £23. www.scottishopera.org.uk
Ireland
Wexford Opera House
The Sleeping Beauty presented by Cork City Ballet at O’Reilly Theatre on November 25. Tickets priced at €28 (adults) and €20 (children). Vladimir’s Viennese Christmas featuring guest stars Claudia Boyle (soprano) and Simon Morgan (tenor) and Jablokov family at O’Reilly Theatre on December 14. Tickets for €25. www.wexfordoperahouse.ie
Denmark
Det Kongelige Teater
Until June 7, 2013, catch free music concerts by Royal Danish Orchestra, Bottle concert, opera sing-a-longs, Jazz and courtyard ballads as part of the Open Foyer at Det Kongelige Teater. Or Giacomo Puccini’s Madame Butterfly until December 4 (prices from 100-895 kronas or Dh64-Dh570) and Gioachino Rossini’s Semiramide (prices from 125-895 kronas) from November 22 until January 16. http://kglteater.dk
Belgium
Vlaamse Opera
Catch Mozart’s The Magic Flute directed by David Herman from December 12 to January 20 (tickets: €14 to €110) or Giuseppe Verdi’s Nabucco from February 7 to March 9 (tickets: €14 to €103) at The Flemish Opera in Antwerp and Ghent. http://vlaamseopera.be
Le Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie
Giuseppe Verdi’s La Traviata runs from December 4 to 31. Giacomo Puccini’s Manon Lescaut from January 24 to February 8. Tickets prices start from €12. www.lamonnaie.be
China
Shanghai Grand Theatre
Contemporary ballet Jane Eyre performed by the Shanghai Ballet on November 18-19 at the Shanghai Grand Theatre. Tickets prices start at 80 yuan (Dh47). www.shgtheatre.com
Australia
Sydney Opera House
World premiere of Giuseppe Verdi — A Masked Ball, a production by La Fura del Baus, on January 16. Until February 12. Jacques Offenbach’s Orpheus In The Underworld from February 28 to March 27. Tickets start from A$44 (Dh166), performances at Joan Sutherland Theatre. www.sydneyoperahouse.com
United States
Metropolitan Opera, Lincoln Centre for the Performing Arts
Composer Thomas Ades’ The Tempest continues until November 17. Tickets priced from $30 to $360 (Dh110 to Dh1321). Le Nozze di Figaro also continues until November 17. Tickets from $20 to $320. Catch Verdi Il Trovatore from January 9 to 24. Tickets priced from $420 to $4,340.www.metoperafamily.org
Juilliard Dance Drama Music
Double Bill: One-Act Operas by Britten and Vaughan Williams from December 9 to 13. Pianists from Juilliard’s Collaborative Piano Department perform vocal repertoire with singers from the Ellen and James S. Marcus Institute for Vocal Arts on December 13. Entry free. www.juilliard.edu
The Kennedy Centre
Romeo & Juliet performed by San Francisco Ballet and music by Sergei Prokofiev, at the Opera House. Tickets priced from $25 to $109. Hansel & Gretel by Washington National Opera at the Terrace Theatre from December 21 to 23, tickets priced at $44 to $69. Opera Lafayette and Kalanidhi Dance present Lalla Roukh at Eisenhower Theatre on January 26. Tickets priced from $40 to $100. www.kennedy-center.org
NYC museum explores Warhol’s impact on artists
Andy Warhol’s far-reaching impact on contemporary art is the subject of a new exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York: Regarding Warhol: Sixty Artists, Fifty Years runs through December 31. It juxtaposes 45 Warhol works with 100 works in various media by 60 artists, including Richard Avedon, Jeff Koons, Damien Hirst and Chuck Close. The exhibition also deals with Warhol’s appropriation of historic images such as his famous Mona Lisa and obsession with endless repetition and patterns. These are paired with works by Richard Prince and Christopher Wool.
Other exhibitions at The Met feature 50 masterly terracotta models and approximately 30 drawings from the hand of Gian Lorenzo Bernini (Bernini: Sculpting in Clay, until January 6), Matisse’s dialogue with his own earlier works and focuses on repeated images and themes executed in pairs, trios and series (Matisse: In Search of True Painting, from December 4 — March 17), the Guggenheim Museum’s Picasso Black and White (until January 23). www.moma.org.
Women who rock the world
The most memorable items in the Women Who Rock: Vision, Passion, Power exhibit at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington aren’t the sequined, barely there or beehived looks of Britney Spears, Cher and the B-52s. They aren’t the Gibson L-5 guitar of country artiste Mother Maybelle Carter, or the Epiphone electric of rocker Joan Jett. It’s everyday tools and quotes that tell stories of a get-out-the-house-and-hit-it work ethic. It’s the 1963 Lesley Gore (You Don’t Own Me) suitcase that looks like a makeup case but was a gift from Quincy Jones to carry her musical scores. Or the Lady Gaga quote that reads, “They can’t scare me, if I scare them first.” It’s Loretta Lynn’s photo, apple-pie sweet, on the cover of her 1975 birth control anthem, The Pill. The exhibit, which first opened at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, features more than 250 artefacts from 70 artistes, plus an additional ten artistes who are included in brief performance bios. The exhibit spans eight eras, from Suffragettes to Juke-Joint Mamas: The Foremothers/Roots of Rock, about blues and country singers of the 1920s, to Ladies First: The’90s and the New Millennium, as “the era of the riot grrrl, the rapper and Lilith Fair” reshaped ideas of feminism and empowerment. Until January 6. www.nmwa.org
Katharine Hepburn as fashion icon
Katharine Hepburn: Dressed for Stage and Screen at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, is an exhibition hailing the fashion sense of the actress, whose trademark khakis and open-collar shirts were decidedly unconventional in the 1930s and 1940s, when girdles and stockings were the order of the day. Hepburn was slender — she had a 20-inch waist. Among the highlights is a stunning satin and lace wedding gown created by Howard Greer for her role as Stella Surrege in The Lake and a grouping of seven khaki pants artfully arranged on a pair of mannequin legs.
The exhibition is supplemented by film clips, movie posters, and archival photographs of Hepburn wearing the very costumes worn by the mannequins. Her false eyelashes, make-up trays and sensible shoes are also on display. Until January 12. www.nypl.org
Canada
The National Ballet of Canada
The National Ballet of Canada performs popular dramas such as Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Giselle, The Nutcracker, Romeo & Juliet and Carmen from November 10 to June 23 at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts in Toronto. Ticket prices start from Can$25 (Dh95). www.national.ballet.ca
Egypt
Cairo Opera House
Our Land, a ballet and poetic performance with Cairo Opera Ballet Soloists from November 5 and 6. The Magic Flute by Cairo Opera Company and Cairo Opera orchestra from November 20 to 22. The Nutcracker by Cairo Opera Ballet Company and Cairo Opera Orchestra from December 23 to 27. www.cairoopera.org
Switzerland
Zurich Opera House
Die Schatzinsel, an adventure opera by Frank Schwemmer and Michael Frowin from November 17 to July 13. Tickets priced from CHF15 to CHF60 (Dh59-Dh235). Richard Wagner’s Der Fliegende Hollander from December 9 until July 5. www.opernhaus.ch
Russia
Ekaterinburg Opera and Ballet Theatre
Fikret Amirov’s One Thousand and One Nights on November 14, Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake from November 21 to December 26. Gioachino Rossini’s Le Conte Ory premieres on December 4 (until December 25). www.uralopera.ru
Bolshoi Theatre
Premiere of Ivan The Terrible on November 8, until November 14. La Fille Mal Gardee, a liberetto by Jean Dauberval on November 16 and 18 and Prince Igor by Alexander Borodin premiere on December 16 (until December 23). www.bolshoi.ru
Marinsky Theatre, St Petersburg
Watch Don Carlo on November 29 and 30, tickets priced from 600 to 3,840 roubles (Dh70-Dh499). Rigoletto on December 7 (960 to 3,200 roubles) or Carmen on December 20 (960 to 3,840 roubles). www.mariinsky.ru/en
Poland
Opera Narodowa Teatre Wielki
Madame Butterfly at Moniuszko Auditorium from December 1 to 4. Oniegin from December 8 to 12. Don Carlo from January 13 to 22. www.teatrwielki.pl
Austria
Vienna State Opera
Richard Strauss’ Ariadne Auf Naxos premieres at Vienna State Opera on December 19. Tickets start from €65. www.viennaconcerts.com or www.viennaclassic.com
Naked men: two new exhibitions in Vienna
The naked male body is the focus of two new exhibitions in Vienna. While the Albertina museum is showing works from the collection of Kaiser Maximilian I including paintings by Bernhard Strigel, Hans Burgkmaier and Albrecht Duerer until January 6, The Leopold Museum is staging a show called Naked men from 1800 to the present, until January 28, showcasing various media such as painting, sculpture, graphic art, photography and new media. Complementing the theme of naked males in modern-day art are works from the Renaissance and Antiquity. www.albertina.at and www.leopoldmuseum.org
Italy
La Fenice theatre
Catch Richard Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde, directed by Paul Curran and conducted by Myung Wung Chung, from November 18 to December 1. Tickets start from €88. Cesare Sterbini’s The Barber of Seville, from January 25 to February 9. Tickets start from €55. www.teatrolafenice.it
Teatro alla Scala
Siegfried (Der Ring des Nibelungen) is showing until November 18. Tickets start from €12. www.teatroallascala.org
Teatro della Pergola
Moscheta directed by Charles Repetti and Marco Sciaccaluga showing from December 4 to 9, Eduardo De Filippo’s The Big Magic from December 11 to 16 and Filippo Timi’s Amleto2 (Hamlet2). www.fondazioneteatrodellapergola.it
Hungary
Hungarian State Opera House
Watch Giacomo Puccini’s La Boheme or Verdi’s La Traviata or Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker this December. Tickets prices start from 500 Hungarian francs (Dh9). www.opera.hu
Greece
Greek National Opera
Watch The Magic Flute from December 14 to January 5 at Olympia Theatre or I Vespri Siciliani at Athens Concert Hall from January 18 to 27, as part of Giuseppe Verdi’s 200th birth anniversary celebrations. www.nationalopera.gr
Germany
Leipzig Opera
Lola, a musical comedy by Mario Eick and Hannes Ferrand opens on November 27. Tickets priced from €27. www.oper-leipzig.de
Chinese imperial splendour
A special exhibition marks the 25th anniversary of the city partnership between Cologne and Beijing as well as 40 years of diplomatic relations between Germany and China. The East Asia Art Museum is holding the Glanz der Kaiser von China (Splendour of the Emperors of China: Art and Life in the Forbidden City) exhibition until January 20, 2013, displaying items from Beijing’s Imperial Palace Museum. Portraits, ceremonial garments, monumental chimes and a throne provide a glimpse into the royal court rituals. www.museenkoeln.de
Opern- und Schauspielhaus Frankfurt
Giulio Cesare in Egitto by Georg Friedrich Handel from December 2 to May 11. Sergej Prokofjew’s Der Spieler from January 13 to February 24. Tickets priced from €17. www.oper-frankfurt.de
Oman
Royal Opera House Muscat
Catch The Stravinsky Ballet Evening on November 12 and 13 (tickets start from OMR8 or Dh76) or The Nutcracker on December 27, tickets priced from OMR3 to OMR35. Simon Boccanegro on December 13 and 15. Tickets priced at OMR10 to OMR80. www.rohmuscat.org.om
