“Summer in the City” at Lincoln Center features free events with thousands of artists celebrating New York City. The program is full of dance, international pop, stage plays, and more. For this article, only classical vocal performances are listed.

Things kick off in June with “Nehanda,” an opera conceived and created by Nora Chipaumire. Billed as a juridical opera, Chipaumire’s sonic libretto uses the case law “Regina v. Nianda, 1896” to explore questions of jurisprudence in defense of the freedom fighters who the British South Africa Company murdered under the guise of Queen and Empire.

Chipaumire explores the intricate world of Shona spirituality, politics, power, and the different methodologies of anti-colonial resistance.

Performance Date: June 10, 2023, at Alice Tully Hall

Next up is Toshi Reagon and Bernice Johnson Reagon’s “congregational opera,” “Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower.” The show is co-directed by Eric Ting and Signe V. Harriday.

Based on Octavia E. Butler‘s sci-fi novels “Parable of the Sower” and “Parable of the Talents,” the fully staged production brings together 30 original anthems drawn from 200 years of Black music, recreating Butler’s Afrofuturist masterpiece for the stage.

Toshi Reagon and Bernice Johnson Reagon’s music and lyrics trace the spiritual awakening of Lauren Olamina in an American society full of greed, systemic injustice, and climate change denial.

The performance uses audio description, asl-interpretation, and captioning.

Performance Date: July 14 & 15, 2023, at Wu Tsai Theater, David Geffen Hall.

In July, a thrilling lineup of opera stars Erin Morley, Kate Lindsey, Nicholas Phan, and Jonathon Adams join trumpeter Amir Elsaffar and Two Rivers Ensemble for a unique presentation of Middle-Eastern music inspired by Mozart’s Mass in C Minor. There will also be the world premiere of a yet-to-be-named work by Elsaffar.

Conductor Louis Langrée brings together Mozart‘s grand work and Middle-Eastern traditional and jazz-infused maqam, reflecting the spiritual elements of both. Malcom J. Merriweather serves as choral director.

Performance Date: July 25 & 26 at Wu Tsai Theater, David Geffen Hall.