Our guide to the city’s best classical music and opera.
‘THE BOOK OF DREAMS’ at National Sawdust (Dec. 17, 4 p.m.). The premiere of a new work by the composer David T. Little is always worth exploring, and his operas — “Dog Days,” “JFK” — reveal him to be an especially powerful composer for the voice. “The Book of Dreams: Chapter Sand” is a song cycle for baritone and electronics based on poetry by the surrealist Sonja Krefting. David Adam Moore is the singer here, in a production directed by Vita Tzykun.
646-779-8455, nationalsawdust.org
CHAMBER MUSIC SOCIETY at Alice Tully Hall (Dec. 15, 7:30 p.m., through Dec. 19). Escape the Handel that surrounds us every holiday season with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s annual holiday presentations of that other Baroque great, Bach. The complete “Brandenburg” Concertos are on offer, as ever, with an array of players that includes the violinist Cho-Liang Lin, the cellist Nicholas Canellakis and the New York Philharmonic’s flautist, Robert Langevin.
212-875-5788, chambermusicsociety.org
‘HANSEL AND GRETEL’ at the Metropolitan Opera (Dec. 18, 7:30 p.m., through Jan. 6). Humperdinck’s fairy tale with darkness at its heart returns in a holiday version, sung in English and performed in the Richard Jones production. Donald Runnicles, a sure hand in any music, conducts a cast including Lisette Oropesa as Gretel, Tara Erraught as Hansel, Gerhard Siegel as the Witch and Dolora Zajick as Gertrude.
212-362-6000, metopera.org
JACK QUARTET at National Sawdust (Dec. 21, 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.). The American premiere of Georg Friedrich Haas’s String Quartet No. 9, from a quartet that has developed a particularly strong relationship with the composer. Like several of his more recent works — including “in vain” and the String Quartet No. 3, “In iij. Noct” — this one takes place in darkness.
646-779-8455, nationalsawdust.org
‘MESSIAH’ at Trinity Church (Dec. 15, 7:30 p.m., through Dec. 17). “All we like sheep,” sings the chorus in Handel’s “Messiah,” and most of classical music’s more traditional institutions appear to agree when it comes to programming at Christmas. No matter, when it comes to Trinity Wall Street’s “Messiah,” which is undoubtedly the best on offer every year. With Julian Wachner at the helm, there is never a hint of routine, and the story is not comforting, but a gripping, edge-of-the-pew drama. If the performances are sold out, they are all broadcast live on the church’s website, and available later on demand.
212-602-0800, trinitywallstreet.org