A multi-faceted artist in the most classic sense, his songwriting, singing, and guitar playing beautifully reveal Nagy’s personalized music refreshingly and honestly infused with elements of soul, r&b, rock, and gospel. So unique and impressive was his debut release, Walk That Fine Thin Line, that it earned Nagy a prestigious Best New Artist debut nomination from the Blues Foundation in Memphis, as well as favorable reviews from hard-to-please critics at top media outlets like Down Beat, All About jazz, Blues Revue, Chicago Tribune, Detroit Free Press, Living Blues, Hittin’ The Note, Elmore Magazine and more. DJs throughout North America, Europe, and Australia responded enthusiastically to Nagy’s music, which debuted on the National Living Blues Radio charts at #14 and peaked at #3 on XM satellite radio -- no small achievement.

Nagy raised his own bar several notches with the dynamic follow-up, Fell Toward None. Ken Bays of Rollingstone.com called the release one of the best of 2011. Nagy also received high praise from such notables as Bruce Iglauer of Alligator Records, Sing Out Magazine, About.com, and much more. The record further carved out his place in the upper echelon of contemporary blues inspired artists, and charted at #3 on XM radio (again, no small achievement).

SALOME (Strauss)
New Production
Runtime: 110 minutes

Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts his first Met performances of Strauss’s white-hot one-act tragedy, which receives its first new production at the company in 20 years. Claus Guth, one of Europe’s leading opera directors, gives the biblical story—already filtered through the beautiful and strange imagination of Oscar Wilde’s play—a psychologically perceptive Victorian-era setting rich in symbolism and subtle shades of darkness and light. Headlining the new staging is soprano Elza van den Heever as the abused and unhinged antiheroine, who demands the head of Jochanaan, sung by celebrated baritone Peter Mattei. Tenor Gerhard Siegel is Salome’s lecherous stepfather, King Herod, with mezzo-soprano Michelle DeYoung as his wife, Herodias, and tenor Piotr Buszewski as Narraboth. Derrick Inouye conducts two performances in May.