the best new events in the world of the arts in february

The Dandelion Chandelier Luxury Calendar for The Arts highlights noteworthy events around the world in February 2018 in ballet, modern dance, performance art, classical music, opera and jazz – as well as new art museum exhibits and installations. Looking for ideas for date night? Or for a transporting art exhibit? Look no further. For the rest of the Luxury Calendar, click here. 

Given that February includes a holiday that pays homage to the life of St. Valentine, it’s no surprise that many of the listings on this month’s Arts calendar feature tales of romance and songs of love and seduction.  You’ll find Carmen in London, Romeo + Juliet in New York – and not just one, but two ballets in Paris with the theme of passion and heartbreak.

But perhaps romance isn’t your thing? No worries. There are a number of performances and exhibits focusing on global culture going on this month, too: the Khajuraho Dance Festival in India; Degas in Denver; a Vietnamese artist in New York; and a French art historian’s exhibit in Mexico City, just to name a few. If reading this month’s Travel calendar doesn’t activate your wanderlust, then this month’s overview of the Arts surely will.

Performing Arts

Carmen is the best-known work by French composer Georges Bizet and one of the most famous works in the operatic canon; Barrie Kosky directs the much-loved work at the Royal Opera House – Feb 6-March 16

Carnegie Hall hosts the Chicago Symphony Orchestra with a program of music from living American composers, including recent works by Jennifer Higdon and Samuel Adams, as well as classics from Britten, Brahms, Stravinsky, Chausson and Verdi – Feb 9-10

Meanwhile, experience swanky New York City romance at Jazz at Lincoln Center when Dianne Reeves returns to set the mood for Valentine’s Day weekend, continuing a beloved tradition  (now in its seventh year!). One of the most recognized voices in music, the five-time Grammy Award-winner is known for her effortlessly powerful sound and unusually broad spectrum of sensual repertoire – Feb 9-10

At the New York Philharmonic, Music Director Designate Jaap van Zweden will conduct Act 1 of Wagner’s Die Walkure, in which burning passion seizes a god’s two children, climaxing in a love duet whose emotional impact will stay with you. Also on the program is Pulitzer Prize winner John Luther Adams’s Dark Waves; though responding to the “ominous events of our times,” Adams reminds us that “we find ourselves immersed in the mysterious beauty of this world” – Feb 14-17

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, the New York City Ballet opens its production of one of the greatest romances of all time, Romeo + Juliet at Lincoln Center – Feb 13-23; later in the month, the company performs a program of Stravinsky & Balanchine – the works were selected to showcase the height of visual and aural mastery – Feb 24 & 27, March 1, 3-4

Gioachino Rossini may best be remembered for his comedies such as The Barber Of Seville, but the composer himself gave greater weight to his monumental dramas. Chief among them was Semiramide, a melodrama set in ancient Babylon, which this month is making a rare appearance (the first in 25 years) at the Metropolitan Opera. Fair warning, the run time is an estimated 3 hours and 29 minutes – Feb 19

Welcome the Year of the Dog with the Lunar New Year Concert and Gala by the New York Philharmonic at Lincoln Center; experience Beethoven’s grand Choral Fantasy as never before with 13-year-old pianist Serena Wang and the Farmers’ Chorus of the Yunnan Province – Feb 20

Staying with the February theme of romance, Benjamin Millepied / Mauritius Bejart brings together two ballets on the themes of love and seduction at the Opera Bastille in Paris.  The show is named for the production’s two choreographers: Millepied has choreographed Daphnis and Chloé, while Bejart has choreographed Boléro – Feb 23-March 24

The classical dances of India are the center of the Khajuraho Dance Festival, held in an open-air auditorium at the Khajuraho Group of Monuments in Madhya Pradesh, India.  The festival is an annual celebration recognizing the end of winter and the emergence of spring – Feb 25-March 3

Visual Arts

While best known for his paintings, Pablo Picasso was also a printmaker, ceramicist, stage designer, poet and playwright. The Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark (about 45 minutes out of Copenhagen) is exhibiting Picasso Ceramics, which includes 150 works that reflect an experimental stage of the artist’s career as he worked with new materials and glazes to create a range of sculptural pieces – Feb 1-May 27

Danh Vo is the subject of Take My Breath Away at the Guggenheim Museum in New York – the artist was born in Vietnam and raised in Copenhagen after being rescued at sea by a Danish firefighter while fleeing his homeland, and his  installations, photographs, sculptures, and actions have, over the past 15 years, focused on authorship and crisscrossing peoples and cultures – opens Feb 9

The six-decade survey Jasper Johns: Something Resembling Truth moves from the Royal Academy of Arts in London to Los Angeles’ Broad Museum; the show features over 150 paintings, sculptures, prints, and drawing – Feb 10

In its only US appearance, Degas: A Passion for Perfection brings highlights of the French artist’s works from 1855 to 1906 to the Denver Art Museum. The exhibit includes more than 100 pieces, including paintings, drawings, pastels, etchings, monotypes and sculptures, covering his artistic interests in dancers, nudes and horses – Feb 11-May 20

At the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn museum, Brand New: Art and Commodity in the 1980s celebrates the East Village arts milieu of the 1980s – Feb 14

Figuring History: Robert Colescott, Kerry James Marshall, Mickalene Thomas at the Seattle Art Museum brings together the works of three singular African-American artists whose work redefines history painting in a contemporary context. Bridging three generations and shaped by distinctive historic events, their works feature compelling perspectives on Black culture and representation in an ever changing social and political landscape – Feb 15 – May 13

Art Wynwood will debut its seventh edition during Presidents Day Weekend at the former Miami Herald headquarters site – Feb 15-19

Uprisings is a sweeping show curated by French art historian Georges Didi Huberman that has a rather topical feel: the exhibition features documentation of literal revolt—paintings, films, photographs, even engravings—set within the largest public institution in Mexico – The Contemporary Art Museum of Mexico City – Feb 24 – July 29

Klimt and Schiele: Drawn at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts will feature drawings by the two Austrian artists – Feb 25 – May 28

See other February 2018 Events:

— Travel

— Food & Drink

— Planes, Yachts & Autos

— Fitness & Sports

— Fashion & Design

— Entertainment

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