In addition to appearances by Bebe Neuwirth and Chita Rivera, and the honoring of various artists (including Twyla Tharp and Trisha Brown), the gala will feature performances by Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre ("Sinner Man"), Parsons Dance (the thrilling solo "Caught"), and American Ballet Theatre, which will present a pas de deux from "Don Quixote".
An evening gala will feature entertainment by Tony Bennett and the appropriately Minnesotan Garrison Keillor.
(One, a big gala, will feature Steve Martin and Bette Midler; another, a demonstration of guitar technique, will be intimate; a third concert will be devoted to his music's roots).
At 8 p.m. tomorrow and Wednesday in Avery Fisher Hall, the festival's opening-night galas will feature the violinist Itzhak Perlman and the violist Pinchas Zukerman.
Star-packed opening nights are the norm, but this gala will also feature several Ballet Theater alumni.
On opening night a gala performance will feature a world premiere created by the Houston Ballet artistic director, Stanton Welch.
After months of sound checks and acoustical tweaks, Thursday evening's gala concert will feature dozens of musicians, singers and dancers, including the soprano Anna Netrebko and the ballet dancer Diana Vishneva, who are among the many stars born at the original Mariinsky, which opened in 1860.
According to the Obama campaign, about 600 people paid at least $1,250 each to attend the gala, which will feature television star Ellen DeGeneres and a performance by Darren Criss, who plays an openly gay high school student in the TV show "Glee".
The opening benefit, Gala de Sevilla, will feature artists including Manuela Carrasco, El Chocolate, the Gypsies of Jerez, Israel Galván and Arcángel.
The gala will also feature an act each of Saint-Saëns's "Samson et Dalila and Verdii's "Otello," all with Plácido Domingo.
