Third Annual "Let's Celebrate" Holiday Opera Series

Hailed for creating diverse, timely and relevant opera, activist opera company White Snake Projects (WSP) hosts the third installment of Let’s Celebrate!, an annual holiday tradition presenting brand-new operas that celebrate the diversity of the Boston area and the myriad holidays celebrated here. Mirroring the city’s demographics, Let’s Celebrate! serves up a collection of three 20-minute operas telling stories about holidays and families from various cultures around the world. With post-show panel discussions about intersectionality during the holiday season, this year’s concert embraces the traditions of Mexico’s Black Christ at Chalma, Uzbekistan’s Navruz, a national holiday celebrating the new year and new life, and Spain’s La Tomatina, a tomato throwing festival.

Huntington Theatre

Gershwin Brothers Two Political Satire Musicals in Concert, Oct 12

Hailed by The New York Times as “one of the nation’s most intriguing opera companies,” Odyssey Opera, in partnership with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP), presents a rare Boston showing of the Gershwin brothers’ two political musicals at New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall, Saturday, October 12, 2024, at 7:30 p.m. With scores by George Gershwin, libretti by Ira Gershwin, and books by George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind, the stories of Of Thee I Sing (1931) and Let ‘Em Eat Cake (1933) are both centered on American politics: the former being a politically correct Pulitzer Prize-winning musical; the latter, a politically incorrect flop. Reimagined as a live concert experience, conductor Gil Rose leads a formidable ensemble of established singers including Heather Buck, Aaron Engebreth, Neal Ferreira, and more, accompanied by the Odyssey Opera chorus and the acclaimed BMOP orchestra.

NEC's Jordan Hall

Civil Rights Opera "Is This America" Premieres at The Strand Sep 20-22

Celebrated for creating diverse, timely and relevant opera, activist performing arts&nbsp;company&nbsp;White Snake Projects&nbsp;(WSP) and its founder&nbsp;Cerise Lim Jacobs&nbsp;today announced the upcoming world premiere of&nbsp;Is This America?&nbsp;at Dorchester’s The Strand Theatre from&nbsp;Friday, September 20, to Sunday, September 22. This new 90-minute fully-staged opera celebrates the life and legacy of civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer.&nbsp;Is This America?&nbsp;features performances by the Massachusetts-based Victory Players chamber orchestra alongside a small ensemble of singers with the lead role of Ms. Hamer played by mezzo-soprano&nbsp;Deborah Nansteel&nbsp;(Met Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago).&nbsp;The composer, 85-year-old&nbsp;Mary D. Watkins,&nbsp;has blazed the trail for other Black women composers in the field of opera. Haitian American queer woman&nbsp;Pascale Florestal&nbsp;stage directs.

The Strand Theatre

annual Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival July 30-August 16

Hailed by The New York Times as “a triumph of quality,” the Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival (CCCMF) today announced its 2024 summer concert series, running from July 30-August 16, 2024. Celebrating its 45th season, the Festival presents 10 live performances over three weeks in five venues across Cape Cod. In what has become one of the region’s largest cultural events attracting thousands of concertgoers each year, this summer’s Festival is bursting at the seams with creativity and virtuosity. Prominently showcasing acoustic sounds, this year’s Festival is centered around the string quartet. Each week is anchored by back-to-back concerts by today’s leading string quartets: Borromeo, Ying, and Escher. Other Festival highlights include a free jazz concert, the Cape Cod debut of Tangent Winds, and more. The complete schedule is below and available at <a href="http://www.capecodchambermusic.org/">www.capecodchambermusic.org</a>.

Cape Cod (multiple venues)

Free May 25 Concert at Jordan Hall Presented by Boston Modern Orchestra Project

The&nbsp;Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP),&nbsp;the nation’s premier orchestra dedicated exclusively to commissioning, performing, and recording new orchestral music, concludes its 26th season with a free concert at New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall, Saturday, May 25, 2024, at 8:00 p.m. The daring program premieres&nbsp;Hawking Radation&nbsp;by contemporary female composer Yu-Hui Chang as well as orchestral works by three composers intertwined by Boston universities — Harvard University classmates Harold Shapero and Leonard Bernstein, and Brandeis University alumnus Henri Lazarof (under the tutelage of Shapero) — all led by GRAMMY Award-Winning&nbsp;Conductor and Artistic Director of BMOP,&nbsp;Gil Rose.&nbsp;

Jordan Hall

"Domme and Giovanni" - a Modern Twist on a Classic Opera

In an intimate dinner-theater experience, "Domme &amp; Giovanni" is a modern retelling of Mozart's famous opera "Don Giovanni". In this sexy, modern and comedic twist of the centuries-old opera, Giovanni better ensures the relevancy told from a female point of view.

La Voile

Odyssey Opera Resurrects "Voyage of Edgar Allan Poe" 4/5

Hailed by&nbsp;The New York Times&nbsp;as&nbsp;“one of the nation’s most intriguing opera companies,”&nbsp;Odyssey Opera, in partnership with the&nbsp;Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP), presents the New England premiere of Dominick Argento’s opera&nbsp;The Voyage of Edgar Allan Poe,&nbsp;on Friday, April 5, 2024, in&nbsp;Poe’s birthplace of Boston. In a one-night only, semi-staged production, Grammy Award-winning conductor&nbsp;Gil Rose&nbsp;leads a formidable cast including tenor&nbsp;Peter Tantsits&nbsp;playing the lead role of Poe,&nbsp;the Odyssey Opera chorus, the acclaimed BMOP orchestra, and more.&nbsp;

"Let's Celebrate" Holiday Opera Series

Hailed for creating diverse, timely and relevant opera, activist opera company White Snake Projects (WSP) and its founder Cerise Lim Jacobs follows up its fall mainstage production of MONKEY: A Kung-Fu Puppet Parable with the second installment of Let’s Celebrate!, an annual series comprising four 20-minute operas that supplement traditional holiday programming with stories that more closely mirror the demographics of the Boston area and its diverse community. This season’s operas expand the meaning of celebration to include not only holiday festivities, but also the intersection of identities: gender, race, culture, LGBTQ, and/or religion. Each performance will follow a free pre-show panel discussion about the joys and challenges of intersectionality during the holidays.

Emerson Black Box

Four Orchestral Premieres at Jordan Hall Performed by BMOP

The Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP), the nation’s premier orchestra dedicated exclusively to commissioning, performing, and recording new orchestral music, begins its 26th season at New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall, October 7, 2023, at 8:00 p.m. The ambitious program celebrates three world premieres and one East Coast premiere all commissioned by BMOP and written during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Family-Friendly Puppetry-Opera "Monkey" Premieres in Boston 9/22-24

Celebrated for creating diverse, timely and relevant opera, activist opera company White Snake Projects (WSP) and its founder Cerise Lim Jacobs today announced the upcoming world premiere of MONKEY: A Kung Fu Puppet Parable on the Robert J. Orchard Stage at Boston’s Emerson Paramount Center. There will be three performances from Friday, September 22, to Sunday, September 24. Set to a libretto by Jacobs with a score by composer Jorge Sosa, this family-friendly transmedia show combines unique, life-scaled Bunraku puppetry, Kung Fu, computer generated images, and live opera. Based on the epic Chinese fable “Monkey King: Journey to the West,” MONKEY is rewritten to reflect contemporary issues from the multicultural mosaic of American life. With a cast carefully chosen to reflect the diversity of the characters, the movement-based ensemble of experienced puppeteers, physical theater performers, and Kung Fu practitioners animates the story’s three main characters – Monkey, Pig (Zhu), and Sandwoman (Shu) - alongside opera singers and members of Voices Boston.

Emerson Paramount Theater

East Coast Premiere of Tobias Picker's Fully-Staged Opera "Awakenings"

Hailed by The New York Times as “One of the nation’s most intriguing opera companies,” Odyssey Opera, in partnership with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP), presents the East Coast premiere of Tobias Picker and Aryeh Lev Stollman’s Awakenings (2022) Saturday, February 25, at 7:30 p.m. In a one-night only, fully-staged production, Awakenings marks the first operatic performance in the reopened Huntington Theatre. Baritone Jarrett Porter plays the lead role of Dr. Oliver Sacks, alongside a cast including sopranos Joyce El-Khoury and Adrienne Danrich. They are joined by the Odyssey Opera chorus, and the BMOP orchestra as part of its extended 25th anniversary celebration season. The creative team includes Grammy Award winning conductor Gil Rose and celebrated director James Robinson (Artistic Director Opera Theatre of Saint Louis). A world premiere studio recording will follow on BMOP/sound (TBR Summer 2023).

 The Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP) and Odyssey Opera Present the East Coast Premiere of John Corigliano and Mark Adamo’s The Lord of Cries Featuring Anthony Roth Costanzo

The Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP) and Odyssey Opera, two of today’s leading innovators on the classical musical scene, present the East Coast premiere of John Corigliano and Mark Adamo’s new opera The Lord of Cries. Considered to be one of the major operatic events of the new decade, Cries dwells on the dangers that result from the repression of our darkest desires, told through a plot that combines elements of Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Euripides’s The Bacchae. As part of BMOP’s extended 25th anniversary celebration season, the full BMOP orchestra will perform alongside one of today’s biggest opera stars, Anthony Roth Costanzo (Dionysus), and several rising vocalists, all at the helm of celebrated conductor Gil Rose. A world premiere recording will follow on Pentatone.

Odyssey Opera Presents US Premiere of Rachmaninoff's Trilogy of Operas

Hailed by The New York Times as “one of the nation’s most intriguing opera companies,” Odyssey Opera returns to live performance with TROIKA, a concert performance of the complete operatic output of Sergei Rachmaninoff. Though Rachmaninoff is one of the most beloved Russian composers, no American company has ever showcased Rachmaninoff’s trio of one-act operas—Aleko, The Miserly Knight, and Francesca da Rimini—in a single evening. Inspired by timeless tales by Alexander Pushkin and Dante’s Inferno, all three works demonstrate Rachmaninov’s gift for yearning melodies, as well as his mastery of orchestral color and drama. The cast line-up includes two Ukrainian-born singers—soprano Yelena Dyacheck and baritone Aleksey Bogdanov—along with Armenian tenor Yeghishe Manucharyan, American tenors Andrew Bidlack and Spencer Hamlin, Russian bass Mikhail Svetlov, and American bass Kevin Thompson.

S22: conversations

Wondering what to do in Boston? Places to eat? Free activities? Good for a group? Date night spot? Girls night out? The best things to do? Ask Joyraft!

Best places to go in Boston? Things to do? Places to eat?

Questions & answers about things to do in Boston

Recs 💬

Community recs 💬

S4: top picks

The most fun, cool and unique things to do in Boston. Can’t miss events, shows and experiences. Concerts, restaurants, bars, free things in Boston and beyond.

The most fun and cool events happening around Boston

Hot and new things to do in Boston

Hot & new

Hot & new 🔥

S11: happening this weekend

What to do in Boston this weekend? From festivals, concerts, performances, free events, screenings and more, Joyraft has the best things to do in Boston.

25+ things to do in Boston/Cambridge/Somerville this weekend

Things to do in Boston this weekend

This wknd

This weekend for you

S21: roundups

Our top picks: outdoor dining, free events, spring festivals, best bars, upcoming concerts, museum parties - the latest in and around Boston.  Slug: joyraft-top-picks-best-things-to-do-boston-ma

Top picks of the best things to do in and around Boston

Joyraft picks: Boston’s best things to do

Roundups ⭐️

Curated by Joyraft ⭐️

S28: calendar experiences

This week in Boston

This week in Boston 📆

This week 📆

S20: c+d experiences

Discover new, unique events and experiences happening in and around Boston. Perfect for date night, good for a group or with a friend. Be the first to know.

The newest events happening in and around Boston

The newest events on Joyraft

Just added

Just added to Joyraft

S16: editor picks

The most unique and can’t miss things coming up in Boston / Cambridge / Somerville and beyond. Festivals, food, drinks, fairs, concerts, art and free activities.

Unique and Can’t Miss Things to Do in Boston

Can’t-miss things to do in Boston 🚨

Can't-miss things to do 🚨

S2 (A): top experiences

The most popular things to do on Joyraft. Concerts, restaurants, bars, events, parties, openings, kid friendly, date ideas, free things in Boston and beyond.

Top 20 things to do in Boston

Top 20: Joyraft’s most popular

Top 20

Top 20 on Joyraft

S3 (A): trending experiences

Discover can’t miss events and things to do in Boston. The most fun, unique and cool events coming to the Boston area this spring and summer.

The hottest events happening in Boston

Trending events on Joyraft

Trending 📈

S17: interest based

Your guide to everything free in and around Boston. From events, to fairs, to festivals, to outdoors. Joyraft has all the free events happening near you.

100+ free things to do in Boston and beyond

Free things to do in Boston

Free things to do

S19: interest based

Discover kid-friendly fun in Boston, Massachusetts, and surrounding areas! Enjoy hands-on exhibits at the Boston Children’s Museum, explore the New England Aquarium, and visit the Franklin Park Zoo. Find parks, playgrounds, and seasonal events perfect for families across Massachusetts.

Top 20 kid-friendly things to do in Boston, MA

Kid-friendly things to do in Boston

Kid-friendly events

S18: interest based

Where to eat and drink in Boston? Joyraft has Boston’s newest bars, restaurants and specials. Drinks and pre fixe dinner menus. Cambridge & Somerville too.