Critic's Picks: Choral

How better to celebrate the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra’s fiftieth anniversary than to engage a musical icon such as choral conductor Dale Warland? He returns as artistic director of the SPCO Anniversary Chorale, which opens the SPCO season with Handel’s Ode for St. Cecilia’s Day and the 1993 cantata Seven Last Words from the Cross by James MacMillan. Sept. 5–6. Ordway Center for the Performing Arts, 345 Washington St., St. Paul, 651-291-1144

SPCO artistic partner Dawn Upshaw continues her groundbreaking tenure with the premiere of a work by Grammy–winning jazz composer Maria Schneider called Carlos Drummond de Andrade Stories. The soprano, known for pushing boundaries, has “challenged and terrified” the Minnesota native into creating her first classical composition, a five-movement, fifteen-minute work that Schneider will conduct. Oct. 23–25. Ordway Center, 651-291-1144

Experiencing election fatigue from the endless presidential campaign? Join Bloomington Civic Theatre for a journey back to an era when politics was done right. Fiorello (by the team that created Fiddler on the Roof), which is about the New York City mayor who cleaned up the city in the 1930s, is an uplifting new perspective on what politics can be. Oct. 24–Nov. 16. Bloomington Center for the Arts, 1800 Old Shakopee Rd. W., Bloomington, 952-563-8574

In a creative bit of casting, the Minnesota Opera has imported three singers from the Mariinsky (Kirov) Opera in St. Petersburg, Russia, for its opening production of Verdi’s Il trovatore. The singers may not be household names, but they are members of one of the world’s great opera companies, and their joint appearances promise to add excitement to Verdi’s melodic thriller. Sept. 20–28. Ordway Center, 651-333-6669

The Minnesota Opera sets Mozart’s frothy The Abduction from the Seraglio aboard the Orient Express from Istanbul to Paris in the 1930s. The production, staged by James Robinson (familiar from many Minnesota Opera productions, including Turandot and last season’s Masked Ball), has been a hit wherever it’s played. With the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra in the pit, this should truly be a glamorous ride. Nov. 1–9. Ordway Center, 651-333-6669

The Minnesota Orchestra presents Ralph Vaughan Williams’s Sea Symphony. A sublimely huge choral piece, it captures both the majesty of the sea and the exalted Walt Whitman poetry from which the text is derived. With the Minnesota Chorale featured, it’s hard to imagine the music being better served. Soprano Measha Brueggergosman also appears. Sept. 26–27. Orchestra Hall, 612-371-5656