Reversing the usual sequence, for classical aficionados, April came in like a lamb and it's going out like a lion. In addition to Florida Grand Opera opening its production of Handel's Julius Caesar on Saturday night, the New World Symphony is offering an intensive three-program Viennese festival, and there are several other worthy events.
For its final production of the season, the Florida Grand Opera is making a rare foray into the Baroque with a revival of its acclaimed 2000 staging of Julius Caesar. Soprano Leah Partridge stars as Cleopatra with countertenors John Gaston as Caesar and Brian Asawa as Tolomeo, Gary Thor Wedow conducting. Julius Caesar opens 7 p.m. Saturday at the Adrienne Arsht Center's Ziff Ballet Opera House, running through May 11 with performances May 15 and 17 at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts in Fort Lauderdale. Tickets are $10-$250. Call 800-741-1010 or go online to www.fgo.org.
Michael Tilson Thomas and the New WorldSymphony open ''Viennese Musical Traditions'' this weekend with three different programs taking us from Haydn to Alban Berg. At 8 p.m. Friday, MTT and the orchestra will be joined by Seraphic Fire and the University of Miami Chorale in Schubert's Mass in E flat in a program that also includes Berg's Lyric Suite. At 8 p.m. Saturday, members of the Vienna Philharmonic will join the New World for Haydn's Sinfonia concertante, and MTT will lead the orchestra in Schubert's Unfinished Symphony and Berg's Three Pieces for Orchestra. Sunday brings soprano Rinnat Moriah, at 3 p.m., in Berg's Suite from Lulu as well as Schubert's Symphony No. 9. All performances are at the Lincoln Theatre, 541 Lincoln Rd., Miami Beach. Tickets are $28-$84. Call 305-673-3331 or visit www.nws.edu.
The Juilliard String Quartet returns, courtesy of Sunday Afternoons of Music. The esteemed chamber ensemble's meat-and-potatoes program will offer Haydn's Quartet in E flat major, Op. 76, no. 6; Shostakovich's Quartet No. 13; and Beethoven's Quartet in F major, Op. 59, No. 1. Concert time is 4 p.m. at Gusman Concert Hall, 1314 Miller Dr., Coral Gables. Tickets are $40, $32 for seniors and $10 for students. Call Ticketmaster at 305-358-5885 or 954-523-3309, or go online to www.sundaymusicals.org.
This weekend, the Miami Symphony Orchestra wraps up its season with guest pianist Susan Starr. The program will offer Wagner's Meistersinger Overture, Sibelius' epic Symphony No. 2, and Starr as solo protagonist in Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4. Performances are 8 p.m. Saturday at Gusman Concert Hall and 8 p.m. Sunday at the Lincoln Theatre. Tickets are $15-$60. Call 305-275-5666.
-- LAWRENCE A. JOHNSON
