The week in NY opera (March 14-20)

Doing these posts reminds me: it's disgraceful that all arts organizations don't already have obvious and accessible calendars that one can easily add (via CalDAV or the like) to one's personal electronic schedule. I can put every sports team schedule in the world onto my smartphone with a few simple clicks -- why not the Met, or Carnegie Hall? Not to mention the less prominent organizations whose dates might otherwise be forgotten.

Metropolitan Opera:
Romeo (M/SE), Queen of Spades (Tu/F), Lucia (W/SM), Boris (Th)
The Queen of Spades is a fantastic show nearly (that is, not quite) ruined by endless stage-change pauses between scenes. And what happened to the fog for Lisa's last scene? A long post will follow. Lucia -- in which Joseph Calleja continues to drop jaws, and Natalie Dessay seems to have kept her improved form since the premiere -- finishes with two more performances including Saturday's matinee moviecast. Boris is finishing too, still sans Gergiev.

Avery Fisher Hall:
New York Philharmonic Bluebeard's Castle (F/SE)
Salonen conducts Bartok's masterpiece of inviolable human loneliness after some Ligeti and Haydn. Michelle deYoung and Gabor Bretz are the leads for these concert performances.

Atlantic Stage 2 (330 W.16th St.):
Pocket Opera NY Alcina (Th/SaE/SuM)
The small company takes on a big Handel opera. Thursday night is a $75 opener; the other shows are $25.

OT:
No Levine, but the Boston Symphony's Carnegie Hall visit still has promising nights -- violinist Christian Tetzlaff plays concertante pieces by Mozart, Bartok, and Harrison Birtwistle on Tuesday, and Andris Nelsons takes a night off from the Met's Queen of Spades to conduct Mahler 9 on Thursday.