“The Water Goblin is an unbelievably imaginative and evocative piece. I first heard it [as a Neeme Järvi recording] on the radio. Maestro Järvi and his recordings were always a favorite in my household growing up. He is truly wonderful to work with—a gentle soul and a master’s master conductor. The following is a conversation that I overheard from two audience members yesterday … Audience member #1: ‘It seems at times that he hardly moves—is he a minimalist conductor?’ Audience member #2 (laughing): ‘No, not exactly—he just understands very well what a conductor is and is not. He trusts the musicians and lets them heed their musical instincts and play in their own groove, and then just gently suggests musical contours and the occasional big surprise!’”

MADAMA BUTTERFLY
February 4 & 11
Opera New Jersey and the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra present Madama Butterfly, one of Puccini’s most beloved operas. Experience the thrill of live opera, sung in Italian with English supertitles.

ARABIAN NIGHTS
February 25–27
Nights of adventure and intrigue await as Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade and Nielsen’s Aladdin Suite weave a spell with vivid orchestral color. Ranjbaran’s exciting music, based on an 11th-century Persian epic poem, fuses ancient and modern sounds.

AN ITALIAN EXCURSION  
March 11–13
The melodic verve and fleet pacing of Italian opera energized classical and early Romantic composers. That spirit can be heard in Mozart’s tuneful works for violin and orchestra, in Schubert’s Italian overture and in Mendelssohn’s Fourth Symphony, brimming with Italianate warmth and wit.