Performer: Renée Fleming

In his first New York appearance since the termination of his contract as BSO Music Director, Nelsons courts public sympathy and makes some thrilling music.

Excellent vocal acting from Thomas Hampson, Renée Fleming, Xiaomeng Zhang and a magnificent orchestral performance conducted by Kent Nagano can't make Valentina Carrasco's production fully grip.

Fleming's program, an outgrowth of her Grammy-winning album Voice of Nature: The Anthropocene, makes an urgent case for the preservation of the world's natural wonders.

Kevin Puts' song cycle inspired by the correspondence of Georgia O'Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz makes its long-awaited New York debut, featuring Renée Fleming and Rod Gilfry. 

Debutant conductor Thomas Guggeis filled out the programme with a creation of his own – a fusion of Tannhäuser, Lohengrin and Meistersinger.

Based on letters between Georgia O’Keeffe and her husband, Alfred Stieglitz, Kevin Puts’ The Brightness of Light at the Lyric Opera of Kansas City portrays marriage as a collaborative work in progress.