As we approach the end of 2012, several critics have considered Lincoln Center productions among the best of this year’s performances. Here are some highlights:

The New York Times:

• Making the Most Of Their Moments (Amber Star Merkens in Dido and Aeneas/Mostly Mozart Festival, Paris Opera Ballet/Lincoln Center Festival)

• Pleasures of Unexpected Programming (David Greilsammer/Mostly Mozart Festival, Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Philharmonia Orchestra/Great Performers)
  
  
• One Man, 10 Favorites, Guvnor (Uncle Vanya/Lincoln Center Festival)
  
  
• The Hottest Tickets of the Year (Uncle Vanya/Lincoln Center Festival)
  
  
• Violinist With Flag, Film With Diva, Allegory of Aging (Christine Brewer/Great Performers, Paul Lewis/Great Performers)
  
  
• Worth Hearing And Rehearing (Sergey Khachatryan/Great Performers)

The New Yorker:

• Ten Memorable Classical Performances of 2012 (Collegium Vocale Gent Choir and Orchestra/Great Performers)

WQXR:

• The Best Opera in 2012 (The Murder of Crows/Mostly Mozart Festival)

(Cate Blanchett as Yelena and Richard Roxburgh as Uncle Vanya; Photo of Uncle Vanya by Lisa Tomasetti 2010)

(Photo by Stephanie Berger)

“Mr. Ascher, a Hungarian director who has seldom worked in English before, has delivered what may be the most profoundly physical, and physically profound, interpretation ever of this 1897 play, which Chekhov disarmingly subtitled ‘scenes from provincial life,’” wrote The New York Times’ Ben Brantley about Uncle Vanya, which opened at Lincoln Center Festival last Saturday night. “Working with a cast that dares to spend most of its time onstage somewhere way out on a limb, Mr. Ascher solves the eternal Chekhov conundrum that often brings strong directors to their knees.”

Uncle Vanya is being performed at New York City Center through this Saturday.

(Photo by Lisa Tomasetti 2010)

Read what NY1’s Frank DiLella had to say about Cate Blanchett’s return to the New York stage in a revival of her husband’s translation of Uncle Vanya, which began its run at Lincoln Center Festival last night and will continue until next Saturday.

Read what Playbill.com’s Harry Haun had to say about the very talented Cate Blanchett, who will be performing in the Sydney Theatre Company’s production of Uncle Vanya beginning this Thursday through next Saturday as part of Lincoln Center Festival.

(Photo by © Lisa Tomasetti 2010)

“It’s an absolute privilege, and it’s wonderful to be juxtaposed against all the other extraordinary things that you program for the Lincoln Center Festival,” actress Cate Blanchett told Nigel Redden, the director of the Festival, on bringing the Sydney Theatre Company’s production of Uncle Vanya to Lincoln Center this July. “Often when theater is talked about in New York, it is talked about as if it were a sort of homogeneous blob. There are so many different types of audiences in New York, and we are very excited to be there in a festival context because it generates a way of looking for an audience that’s very different than if we were doing a four-month run. There is a special, ‘see it now or you miss it’ feeling that we are all very excited by.”

Don’t miss Uncle Vanya July 19-28 at New York City Center as part of Lincoln Center Festival.

JUST ANNOUNCED: Lincoln Center Festival 2012!

Highlights include:

- The return of the Paris Opera Ballet to NYC after a 16-year absence, dancing three programs

- Mikhail Baryshnikov in a new play, In Paris

- The Sydney Theatre Company’s acclaimed Uncle Vanya

- Alan Cumming in the National Theatre of Scotland’s one-person Macbeth

- DruidMurphy, a play cycle staged by Garry Hynes for the Druid Theatre Company

- A tribute concert celebrating the music of Curtis Mayfield

- China’s TAO Dance Theater with new works

- Émilie, an opera by Kaija Saariaho and Amin Malouf, starring Elizabeth Futral

- Feng Yi Teng, a chamber opera by Guo Wenjing, directed by Atom Egoyan

…and MUCH more! (Read the entire press release here.)