Theater & The Arts
In partnership with Carnegie Hall+ — Carnegie Hall’s premium video streaming channel— audiences can enjoy free outdoor film screenings, inviting music lovers to enjoy world-renowned opera productions in the open air at the Public Square & Gardens at Hudson Yards. Featuring star-studded performances of Cavalleria rusticana, Pagliacci, and Rigoletto, these opera screenings are part of the free Carnegie Hall Citywide series. Both evenings will begin with a live musical introduction and synopsis by celebrated opera singer Anthony Roth Costanzo, who will also demonstrate how opera singers develop their incredible voices, accompanied by pianist Myra Huang.
Screenings are free and open to the public, with seating available on a first-come, first-served basis, compliments of Wells Fargo customers.
August 13 | 5PM
Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci
Enjoy a free screening of opera’s ultimate double feature: Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci. Jonas Kaufmann leads an extraordinary cast in back-to-back performances from the Salzburg Easter Festival, joined by the Staatskapelle Dresden and conductor Christian Thielemann. Composer Pietro Mascagni’s one-act opera Cavalleria rusticana —staged in cinematic black and white—reveals a tight-knit Sicilian village bound by ritual, honor, and simmering resentment, where private emotions erupt into public consequence. Then, Ruggero Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci explores a true story of love and murder, told through the colorful, improvisatory lens of a commedia dell’arte troupe. This well-known opera features the unforgettable aria, “Vesti la giubba.” The cast includes Liudmyla Monastyrska, Maria Agresta, Dimitri Platanias, Tansel Akzeybek, and Alessio Arduini.
September 23 | 6PM
Rigoletto
Carnegie Hall+ will present Verdi’s Rigoletto, filmed during a spectacular staging at Austria’s Bregenz Festival, home of the world’s largest floating stage. Verdi’s enduring classic pairs some of opera’s most recognizable music with a story of passion and consequence. This rare feat of imaginative stagecraft, directed by Philipp Stölzl, transforms the entire court of Mantua into a circus troupe, with the duke himself as the ringmaster. An exceptional cast includes Vladimir Stoyanov, Mélissa Petit, and Stephen Costello performing alongside the Vienna Symphony and Prague Philharmonic Choir conducted by Enrique Mazzola.
See All Events at Backyard at Hudson Yards