The Glimmerglass Festival, Opera Saratoga, Finger Lakes Opera and Seagle Festival will join forces to bring  their production of Kurt Weill, Bertolt Brecht and Elisabeth Hauptmann’s “Happy End” to Merkin Hall at Kaufman Music Center on Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026.

The performance, which kicks off at 7:30 p.m. local time, is the New York City premiere of a new English concert version of the work. The work is coming off a tour across eight venues throughout New York State and Western Massachusetts.

“This production of Happy End shows what can happen when the Upstate New York opera community comes together to make something that no one organization could have made on its own,” Rob Ainsley, Artistic and General Director of The Glimmerglass Festival, said, per an official press release. Ainsley will conduct and perform at the piano for the showcase.

Instrumentalists from the Manhattan School of Music’s jazz program will join him. Mary Birnbaum, General and Artistic Director of Opera Saratoga, directs.

The production uses all of the original songs, including “Bilbao Song,” “Mandalay Song” and “Surabaya Johnny,” with English lyrics from Michael Feingold’s American adaptation and a new English book by Glimmerglass dramaturg Kelley Rourke. It runs without intermission.

Ana Karneža, Christine Taylor Price, Gregory Feldmann, Lisa Marie Rogali, Jonathan Pierce Rhodes, Bradley Bickhardt, Jason Zacher, William Raskin, and Lauren Torey.

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