Opera on the Avenue: The Madison Avenue Business Improvement District is staging a 10-day festival to support the Metropolitan Opera and celebrate its fall 2023 season.
Opening night is Thursday, 5 p.m., with a live opera performance on an outdoor stage rigged in front of Ralph Lauren on Madison and 72nd Street. Soprano Amanda Batista and baritone Eleomar Cuello, both rising stars from the Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artists, will perform a repertoire of arias and duets.
Costumes, accessories, headdresses and model set designs pulled from the archives of the Met will be displayed by many brands and designers on the avenue including De Beers, Dolce & Gabbana, Flora on Madison & Anne Barge, Ippolita, Lady M Confections, Mackage, Ralph Lauren, Marina Rinaldi, Max Mara, Montblanc, Reinstein Ross, Versace and Vhernier. Stores are making donations to support the Met.
For example, Kwiat/Fred Leighton at 773 Madison Avenue will display costumes and hats from the Met’s productions of Aida, Die Zauberflote and Turrandoton, and on Thursday at 3:45 p.m., will have a by-invitation-only discussion on “Powerful Women in Opera: On Stage and Off,” led by Maurice Wheeler and John Tomasicchio, Metropolitan Opera director of opera archives and associate director of opera archives, respectively.
Buccellati New York will introduce its “Opera Galileo” diamond pendant necklace. Montblanc is launching a limited-edition Maria Callas “Muse” turquoise pen. The Paul Morelli flagship is setting up miniature set designs from operas.
Isaia, 819 Madison Avenue, on Oct. 19 at 4 p.m., will have a reception and performance by the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artists.
Soprano Amanda Batista
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