There’s never a dull moment in the greatest city on the planet.
There are so many ways to enjoy New York City this week, with Halloween events already underway, a FREE virtual Carnegie Hall gala, a FREE seminar the role of strongmen in history, another week of FREE performances from the Metropolitan Opera. Plus, NYC museums are open, there’s indoor and outdoor dining in 10,000 NYC restaurants, and so much more.
Add these events to your calendar for Monday, Oct. 26 through Halloween Weekend, Oct. 31 and November 1.
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Early Voting Now Underway
Every election is important, and this one may be more important than any.
Early voting is now underway in New York City and New York State.
Remember – if you don’t vote, you don’t have the right to complain about who wins.
See our complete early voting guide.
Halloween Events Underway
See our complete list here.
FREE on Tuesday – How Strongmen Shape History
What is the playbook used by authoritarians from Mussolini to the present day? What can we learn from the past ? What does it tell us about the future?
Ruth Ben-Ghiat is the expert on the “strongman” playbook employed by authoritarian demagogues from Mussolini to Putin. In her new book “Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present,” she lays bare the blueprint these leaders have followed over the past 100 years, and empowers us to recognize, resist, and prevent their disastrous rule in the future.
This program will be moderated by “How Fascism Works” author Jason Stanley.
- 7pm, sponsored by the Museum of Jewish Heritage.
- FREE, but a suggested donation of $10 enables the museum to continue presenting programs like this one.
Visit the important exhibit on Auschwitz at the Museum of Jewish Heritage. It’s a sobering look at how and why the nightmare started, with lessons for today.
Free on Wednesday – Nine Theater Groups Join Forces for One Play
Nine NYC theater companies come together to present one play – in six languages.
The play is “It Can’t Happen Here”, a dramatization of the 1935 novel by Sinclair Lewis imagining the rise of fascism in America.
Adapted for the stage by John C. Moffitt and Sinclair Lewis in 1936, “It Can’t Happen Here” was presented simultaneously by 21 theater companies under the auspices of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) Federal Theater Project as fascism was on the rise in Europe. The work chronicles the rise of a demagogue who is elected President of the United States after fomenting fear and promising sweeping economic and social reforms while promoting a return to patriotism and “traditional” values.
More than 60 actors with Israeli Artists Project, Kairos Italy Theater, National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene, New Heritage Theatre Group/Impact Repertory Theatre, New York Classical Theatre, Pan Asian Repertory Theatre, Playful Substance, Repertorio Español and Turkish American Repertory Theater & Entertainment will participate in this one-time event.
The play will be performed in Yiddish, English, Spanish, Italian, Turkish and Hebrew
The reading is Wednesday, October 28 at 1:00 PM and then available for viewing until Sunday, November 1 at 1:00 PM
Watch on National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene’s website at https://nytf.org/live.
FREE on Thursday – Carnegie Hall 130th Season Opening Gala
Take a closer look at Opening Night 2020 and a new season of Live with Carnegie Hall, virtually, of course.
Revisit archival footage of artists who have graced Carnegie Hall stages, including violinist Isaac Stern, who led the fight in the 1950s to prevent the magnificent hall from being torn down.
The special gala includes a behind-the-scenes peek of how the event came together across three continents, and watch a full, unedited performance by 2020–2021 Perspectives artist Rhiannon Giddens with Our Native Daughters.
- Tune in Thursday, October 29 at 7:30 PM EDT
- Watch on Facebook Live
New Play by Author of The Vagina Monologues
Join performers including Billy Porter, Marisa Tomei, Rosario Dawson and others in That Kindness: Nurses in Their Own Words, a new play by the former Eve Ensler, now known as V.
It’s a virtual fund-raiser in support of The Brooklyn Hospital Center’s COVID-19 Fund, streaming all weekend, to support nurses, doctors and other healthcare professionals.
Drawing on frank, impassioned interviews with these “radical angels of the heart,” That Kindness: Nurses in Their Own Words is a soul-stirring portrait of kindness and activism amid crisis. In this most critical of election years, V lifts up the voices of intrepid nurses caring for patients without personal protective equipment—and calls on Americans to raise their own voices by getting out the vote.
Featuring performances by Ed Blunt, Connie Britton, Rosario Dawson, Stephanie Hsu, LaChanze, Liz Mikel, Rosie O’Donnell, Billy Porter, Dale Soules, Marisa Tomei, and Monique Wilson, with original music by Morley and company.
All donations made during the event go to The Brooklyn Hospital Center.
- Streaming through Tuesday, Nov. 3
- Sign up on the BAM website to get the link.
NYC Museums & Attractions Now Open Include:
- National September 11 Museum at the 9/11 Memorial
- New York Aquarium at Coney Island
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art
- The Museum of Modern Art (MOMA)
- American Museum of Natural History
- The Guggenheim
- New York Historical Society
- The Rubin Museum of Art
- The Museum of Jewish Heritage
- Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum
All museums and attractions have advance ticketing requirements for social distancing, and mask-wearing requirements.
See the full list here.
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Ongoing Events
Riverside Park
Limón Live
Join the company of the José Limón Dance Foundation on Instagram for daily dance classes. All classes will be available on their story for 24 hours after start time! Donation-based.
- Daily at 3pm
- The High Line is now open its entire length, 14th to 30th Street, with FREE timed entry and visitors all walking in the same direction, south to north.
- More information here.
Piano in Bryant Park is back on the Upper Terrace, presenting New York City’s finest ragtime, stride, and jazz pianists performing free lunchtime concerts
- Every Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday from 12:30pm-2:30pm.
Shakespeare in the Park – Much Ado About Nothing
For the first time in over more than four decades, PBS Great Performances presents a Public Theater production recorded live at the free Shakespeare in the Park in Central Park.
After a highly successful, critically acclaimed run at the outdoor Delacorte Theater in New York City’s Central Park, “Much Ado About Nothing” is a bold interpretation of Shakespeare’s comedic masterpiece featuring Danielle Brooks as Beatrice.
- Streaming now
- Link to watch
Wednesday with Wendy
Join the NYC Ballet for Wednesday With Wendy, a series of ballet-inspired movement classes taught by New York City Ballet Associate Artistic Director Wendy WhelanThe FREE virtual classes are suitable for people of all ages and levels of dance training.Classes are on Instagram Live, and each class will also be available after the livestream concludes on NYCB’s IGTV channel.
Every Wednesday at 5pm.
Central Park Virtual Walks
These FREE virtual walks with a Central Park expert showcase some of the flowers and trees currently in bloom, share Park history, and give you the mid-week recharge that we all so desperately need.
Sign up now to access the FREE live Zoom program and learn the history of this incredibly significant site.
- Wednesday, 12:30p.
Carnegie Hall Fridays
Each week for the the forseable future, Carnegie Hall is streaming a concert from its archived recordings.
- Watch each week’s livestream from Friday 3am through Monday at 3 AM
- Watch here on medici.tv
Metropolitan Opera photo
Metropolitan Opera Live Streams
Every night of the week, the world-famous Met Opera is streaming a different performance from its repetoire of recorded performances, including operas by Puccini, Verdi and Mozart, and legendary stars including Luciano Pavarotti and Renée Fleming.
Each day, a different encore presentation from the company’s Live in HD series is being made available for free streaming on the Met website, with each performance available for a period of 23 hours, from 7:30 p.m. EDT until 6:30 p.m. the following day.
The schedule will include outstanding complete performances from the past 14 years of cinema transmissions, starring all of opera’s greatest singers.The streams are also available through the Met Opera on Demand apps for Apple, Amazon, and Roku devices and Samsung Smart TV.
This is the 32ndt week of live streaming nightly operas.
Last week was all operatic comedies. This week it’s politics in opera
Met Stars Live in Concert
If you enjoy the Nightly Opera Streams, be sure not to miss our acclaimed pay-per-view concert series, presenting opera’s greatest stars performing live via satellite from striking locations across Europe and the U.S.
Support the Met and Protect its Future
Hundreds of thousands of people have been tuning in daily to our free performance streams, and many of them have kindly been asking how they can help the Met during this economically perilous time. In response, we have added a “Donate Now” button below. We thank you for your help.
Week 33 (Politics in Opera)
Supplementary content—including synopses, articles, and more—is available here.
Monday, October 26
Verdi’s Don Carlo
Starring Renata Scotto, Tatiana Troyanos, Vasile Moldoveanu, Sherrill Milnes, and Paul Plishka, conducted by James Levine. From February 21, 1980.
Tuesday, October 27
Handel’s Agrippina
Starring Brenda Rae, Joyce DiDonato, Kate Lindsey, Iestyn Davies, Duncan Rock, and Matthew Rose, conducted by Harry Bicket. From February 29, 2020.
Wednesday, October 28
Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra
Starring Adrianne Pieczonka, Marcello Giordani, Plácido Domingo, and James Morris, conducted by James Levine. From February 6, 2010.
Thursday, October 29
John Adams’s Nixon in China
Starring Kathleen Kim, Janis Kelly, Robert Brubaker, Russell Braun, James Maddalena, and Richard Paul Fink, conducted by John Adams. From February 12, 2011.
Friday, October 30
Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov
Starring Ekaterina Semenchuk, Aleksandrs Antonenko, Oleg Balashov, Evgeny Nikitin, René Pape, Mikhail Petrenko, and Vladimir Ognovenko, conducted by Valery Gergiev. From October 23, 2010.
Saturday, October 31
John Corigliano’s The Ghosts of Versailles
Starring Teresa Stratas, Håkan Hagegård, Gino Quilico, Graham Clark, Marilyn Horne, and Renée Fleming, conducted by James Levine. From January 10, 1992.
Sunday, November 1
Philip Glass’s Satyagraha
Starring Rachelle Durkin, Richard Croft, Kim Josephson, and Alfred Walker, conducted by Dante Anzolini. From November 19, 2011.
More information about Metropolitan Opera streaming
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Replays
All Balanchine Program
New York City Ballet
Watch New York City Ballet perform landmark works by George Balanchine, including Concerto Barocco (2004 broadcast) and the third act of the comic story ballet Coppélia (1978 broadcast). Part of the Live from Lincoln Center schedule of virtual performances.
What do you think about this? We welcome your comments.