Cape Town Opera performs ‘Mandela Trilogy’ (Photo: Kim Stevens)
This morning, the Joan W. and Irving B. Harris Theater for Music and Dance announced its 2020-2021 season. The season, which runs from August 19, 2020, to May 6, 2021, features 36 performances including vocal recitals, symphonic concerts, and ballet performances.
The season’s lineup of vocal concerts includes performances by acclaimed mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato, who will perform music from her Grammy-winning album Songplay, soprano Patricia Racette, who makes her Harris Theater Presents mainstage debut with a program of works by Édith Piaf, and Mexican tenor Javier Camarena, who will give a concert of Bel canto favorites.
Sir Antonio Pappano will conduct a performance featuring the famed Saint Cecilia Academy Orchestra and violin virtuoso Maxim Vengerov. In its Chicago debut, the Cape Town Opera will present the “Mandela Trilogy,” in tribute to Nelson Mandela.
The Paris Opera Ballet appears in February to perform choreographer Angelin Preljocaj’s Le Parc. The English National Ballet, which last year performed Akram Khan’s Giselle at the Harris, will return next season for another Khan ballet, Creature, in its North American premiere.
Another key emphasis of 2020-21 programming is the presentation of a wide variety of music traditions featuring artists representing 11 countries and countless cultural influences. The “Mix at Six” series offers music from Ethiopia, Algeria, Chile, and Haiti performed by Nathalie Joachim and Spektral Quartet, among others.
Returning for four performances will be the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center featuring programs inspired by Spain, Brahms, and more. The Percussion Collective will make its Harris debut perform Garth Neustadter’s work, Seaborne.
Still to come this season at the Harris Theater is the Complete Beethoven Symphonies performed by Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique under the baton of Sir John Eliot Gardiner.
For more information on the 2020-2021 season, visit: harristheaterchicago.org.
