What does rock icon, writer, and visual artist Patti Smith do when she has a night off? Often, she seeks out the opera－especially if German soprano Waltraud Meier is on the stage. The two women share an incredible expressivity, a searching intellect, and a passionate commitment to their craft －inspiring in their fans an almost cult‐like fascination and devotion. Twice Smith has flown to Milan to catch Meier’s devastating portrayal of Wagner’s Isolde, a signature role that helped define her extraordinary career. In performances at the world’s leading opera houses over nearly four decades, Meier has been tapped by many of its greatest conductors and directors, from Daniel Barenboim to Riccardo Muti, Jean‐Pierre Ponnelle to the late Patrice Chéreau (whose acclaimed production of Strauss’s Elektra she appears in this spring at the Met). Don’t miss this unexpected pairing with Smith, the remarkable poet and thinker whose latest book, M Train (“a roadmap to my life”) was released to great acclaim last fall.

The NS+ series is supported, in part, by a generous gift from The Kaplen Brothers Fund.

Meier photo by Nomi Baumgart
Smith photo by Jesse Ditmar