The Milwaukee Ballet’s Mirror Mirror.
Michael Pink’s original dance drama closes out the MB’s season. A dark and psychologically rich retelling of the Snow White myth, it features several of the company’s A-list dancers in juicy roles, including Nicole Teague-Howell, Marize Fumero, Davit Hovhannisyan, Lahna Vanderbush, Annia Hidalgo, and Parker Brasser-Vos. The original score is by Philip Feeney.
June 1-4
Photo by Mark Frohna
Present Music’s Boundaries
Present Music closes out its season with a program that shows how labels like “classical” or “jazz” mean very little in the intermingled styles of contemporary music. PM regular Cory Smythe (piano and electronics) is joined by guest also saxophonist Steve Lehman for a program at The Wherehouse that includes their own compositions, plus work by Anthony Braxton, Kaija Saariaho, and Ben Johnston.
June 2
Real Time
In the past 26 months, Andrea and Daniel Burkholder’s series of Monthly Dance Performances have featured guest artists from around the country and brought audiences to unconventional performing spaces, both indoors and outdoors. After this concert, held at the Danceworks Performance Space, the pair will concentrate on some of their other dance ventures. So this ersatz finale will feature a greatest hits compendium of past Real Time projects, appearances by guest artists, and some brand new work to boot.
June 2
Photo by Eddee Daniel
UWM’s Fine Arts Quartet’s Summer Evenings of Music
For its final summer season as UWM’s resident string quartet, the ensemble will again present four weekly concerts with a wide range of music and guest artists. This year, the composers range from Franz Joseph Haydn to Arnold Schoenberg. And guest artists include string players (and a pianist) that are among the finest in the world. Sunday nights at 7:30 pm. Zelazo Center.
June 4, 11, 18, 25
Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra
How do you follow a spectacular month of performances conducted by departing MSO Music Director Edo de Waart? With a little bit of everything. This month, the MSO takes to the streets with outdoor concerts–Chill on the Hill (June 20), Buttermilk Creek Park (June 21), Boerner Botanical Gardens (June 22) — it goes to the movies with La La Land in Concert (June 23-24), it plays the music of Simon and Garfunkel (June 6-7), performs the music of local composer Rabbi Michel Twerski (June 25), and backs the sultry dancers of Tango Caliente (June 9-11). For those looking for a good, old-fashioned classical program, Assistant Conductor Yaniv Dinur is at the podium for a performance of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, and Samuel Barber’s daunting and beautiful Violin Concerto, performed by MSO Associate Concertmaster Ilana Setapen (June 16-17).
American Players Theatre
Spring Green, Wisconsin, is once again one of the theater centers of North America, as APT opens its new season with a newly remodeled outdoor stage. The superb company again stages eight plays in two venues, including works of Shakespeare, Chekhov, and Arthur Miller. The first wave of shows opens throughout June, with director John Langs’s vision of A Midsummer Night’s Dream leading the way. It’s an appropriate choice to break in the new stage, as it was the first show staged by the theater way back in 1980.
Performances start June 10.
Florentine Opera’s Opera’s Greatest Hits
Join the Florentine’s talented Studio Artists in an evening of songs that will have you throwing flowers and yelling, “Encore!” The program is in the intimate environment of the Florentine’s Riverwest Opera Center, and features singers Rachel Blaustein, Jessica Blau, Thomas Leighton, and Leroy Davis, and pianist Ruben Piirainen. June 16 & 17
Handel’s Bestiary
Milwaukee Opera Theatre and Danceworks Performance Company combine forces again to bring more magic to Lynden Sculpture Garden. As with 2015’s Faery Queen Fantasy, the piece takes its baroque-era source material to create something contemporary and magical. Here, Jill Anna Ponasik has chosen arias from Handel’s operas with particularly vivid animal imagery, and Danceworks performers have created dances that will turn Handel’s zoological creations loose around the Lynden grounds.
June 16 & 17
