We Speak Arts
St. Petersburg Opera Turns Opera Central into a Séance with ‘The Medium’
St. Petersburg Opera is leaning into the Halloween season with a double bill built for chills: Gian Carlo Menotti’s The Medium, paired with Voices from the Other Side, at Opera Central in St. Petersburg.
In The Medium, a fraudulent psychic’s act begins to unravel with chilling consequences. Paired with Voices from the Other Side — a haunting collage of operatic ghost scenes conceived by Maestro Mark Sforzini — the double bill transforms Opera Central into an intimate séance for 150 guests, with performers moving among the audience, candlelit tables, and eerie pre-show encounters in the lobby. This is opera you don’t just watch — you feel it breathing beside you.
Performances are Friday, October 23, at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, October 24, at 2:30 p.m.; Wednesday, October 28, at 7:30 p.m.; and Friday, October 30, at 7:30 p.m., at Opera Central, 2145 1st Avenue S in St. Petersburg.
Founded by Artistic Director Mark Sforzini, St. Petersburg Opera performs with the St. Petersburg Opera Orchestra and is known for traditional opera presented with innovative sets and costumes — up close and personal.
WQXR and Carnegie Hall have announced the lineup for the 2026–27 season of Carnegie Hall Live, the broadcast series that brings performances from the legendary New York venue to audiences nationwide and around the world. Now in its 16th season, the series airs live on WQXR-FM and streams at WQXR.org and CarnegieHall.org, with broadcasts also distributed to public radio stations across the country.
The season opened on October 9 with the Berliner Philharmoniker, conducted by Kirill Petrenko, joined by pianist Víkingur Ólafsson in a program of Brahms and Strauss — part of the orchestra’s four-concert Carnegie Hall residency that launched the Hall’s 2026–27 season.
Among the season’s highlights, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s performs an all-Berlioz program on November 5, 2026, led by Louis Langrée and starring tenor Benjamin Bernheim in a rare New York appearance, pairing Les nuits d’été with the Symphonie fantastique. On January 19, 2027, Franz Welser-Möst conducts The Cleveland Orchestra and the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus in Beethoven’s Missa solemnis, with soloists Golda Schultz, Taylor Raven, Julian Prégardien, and Anthony Robin Schneider.
The series also carries performances by the Vienna Philharmonic and The Philadelphia Orchestra as part of Carnegie Hall’s season-long Mahler symphony cycle led by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, alongside chamber music programs spotlighting Beethoven and Brahms.
Carnegie Hall Live is hosted by WNYC and WQXR’s John Schaefer, with guest hosts Elliott Forrest and Paul Cavalconte. The series is produced by WQXR in partnership with Carnegie Hall and American Public Media. For the full broadcast schedule, visit carnegiehall.org.
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