The Garden of the Finzi-Continis

National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene and New York City Opera present the world premiere of an opera with music by Ricky Ian Gordon (whose Intimate Apparel also premieres this month) and a libretto by Michael Korie (whose Flying Over Sunset just closed). Adapted from Giorgio Bassani’s 1962 novel—which was also the basic of a 1970 film that is considered Vittorio De Sica’s final masterwork—the piece depicts an aristocratic Jewish-Italian family in denial about the rise of anti-Semitic fascism around it in the 1930s. James Lowe conducts the production, which is directed and choreographed by Richard Stafford; the cast includes Rachel Blaustein, Brian James Myer, Mary Phillips, Stephen Powell and Victor Starsky.