The hits keep coming! Time Out New York’s “The best (and worst) of 2010” features Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic’s production of Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre at the top of the year’s best! The “audacious” production set the tone for the season and changed “the playing field for opera in New York.” In case you missed it, you can sneak a peek at soprano Barbara Hannigan (above) doing her thing as Gepopo in last May’s performances. Read more: The best (and worst) of 2010 - Classical & Opera - Time Out New York

Spectral Spectacular:

Here’s a sneak preview of the upcoming November 19 and 20 CONTACT! concerts with Barbara Hannigan singing the late Gérard Grisey’s Quatre chants pour franchir le seuil. Grisey’s song cycle — a meditation on the passing from life to death — was written soon before his life’s tragic end, and was never heard by the composer. Recording of the Ensemble InterContemporain, courtesy Casa Ricordi.