The Metropolitan Opera has announced its 2010-11 season, which features the Met premiere of John Adams's Nixon in China. The composer makes his Met debut on the podium conducting the Met premiere of the opera. It also marks the Met directorial of Peter Sellars, who led the 1987 world premiere of Nixon in China at the Houston Grand Opera. James Maddalena returns as Nixon, the role he originated and sang on the Nonesuch recording.

Out now is Ali and Toumani, the second and last album pairing Ali Farka Touré and Toumani Diabaté. NPR's All Songs Considered calls it "breathtaking." The Philadelphia Inquirer gives it four stars, calling it a "moving, peerlessly beautiful album." The New Jersey Star-Ledger says there is "a timeless depth, a gentle profundity" to it. "It’s irresistible." Dusted calls it "timeless" and "transcendent." Popdose says: "You’ll feel it speak to you on a level few pieces of music ever reach."

Here Lies Love, the David Byrne / Fatboy Slim song cycle about Imelda Marcos, is the subject of a feature in the Sunday Times Magazine (UK). The article examines why its creators and score of vocalists would take on a project about so notorious a figure, finding echoes of "Nixon in China, a work that presented another controversial political figure in an unusually favourable light." BoingBoing recently spoke with Bryne at the TED conference.

Nonesuch Records will release Natalie Merchant’s new album, Leave Your Sleep, on April 12 (April 13 in the US). The album is the culmination of six years of research and collaboration and is, in Merchant’s words, “The most elaborate project I have ever completed or even imagined.” It is her first studio album since 2003 and her first for Nonesuch. To coincide with the release, she has announced a European tour in May–her first in eight years–including seven dates in the UK.

Randy Newman spends an evening at Royce Hall ... Alarm Will Sound supports Dirty Projectors at the Allen Room ... Laurie Anderson is in Vancouver's Cultural Olympiad ... Colvin keeps close to home in Austin ... Courtin tours with Mike Doughty ... Frisell is in Austria with Iva Bittová ... Glass talks Brainwaves ... Goode joins NDR Symphony in Hamburg ... Magnetic Fields play Portland ... Metheny stops in Spain ... Punch Brothers play the South ... Redman Trio plays outside DC ... Sara Watkins opens for John Prine ... Wilco plays sold-out trifecta ... and more ...

Wilco will stream a live webcast from its sold-out show at Overture Hall in Madison, Wisconsin, Saturday night at 8:30 PM CST. The band is in Duluth, Minnesota, tonight, and East Lansing, Michigan, on Sunday. The Lansing State Journal says, "Fifteen years and seven albums since getting together, Wilco's music still sounds edgy and alive." The documentary Ashes of American Flags is showing at the Screenland Armour in Kansas City, Missouri.

The Joshua Redman Trio performs at the University of Maryland's Clarice Smith Center on Sunday. The trio appears on Compass, Redman's latest Nonesuch release, which the Washington Post says "easily ranks among his most rewarding." DCist says, "The music is challenging, but remains accessible even to the untrained ear." The Washington City Paper insists the trio has "one of the surest and most intoxicating sense of melody you’ve ever heard."

Laurie Anderson unveiled her latest multimedia piece, Delusion, at the Vancouver Playhouse Theatre this week as part of the 2010 Cultural Olympiad. "Delusion ranks with Anderson’s best," says the Georgia Straight. It is, above all, "smart, funny, emotionally engaging, and flat-out beautiful—in short, everything you’d expect from an artist of Anderson’s stature and reputation."

The Low Anthem will release a special limited-edition vinyl 7-inch of its single "Charlie Darwin" on March 2 [now March 23], featuring "Charlie Darwin," off the band's Nonesuch debut, Oh My God, Charlie Darwin, and two staples from the band's live show, the previously unreleased "Sally Where'd You Get Your Liquor From" and "Don't Let Nobody Turn You Around." The band is preparing for its first headlining tour and will hit this year's SXSW and Sasquatch festivals. Before that, the band will support The Avett Brothers for ten dates.

Vinicio Capossela, one of Italy’s most celebrated and best-selling artists, releases his latest album, The Story-Faced Man, now available digitally from the Nonesuch Store. This compendium offers American audiences an introduction to the music of the man described by the Sunday Times as "Italy’s greatest rock star" and by Mojo as "Italy’s most intriguing musical traveler." Renowned for concerts that fuse rock, theatre, and performance art, Capossela brings the show to North America for one week in March.

Ricky Ian Gordon unveils the two-act concert version of his opera The Grapes of Wrath at Carnegie Hall on March 22, starring Jane Fonda, Nathan Gunn, Victoria Clark, and Christine Ebersole. "With a slyness worthy of Weill," said The New Yorker of the original 2007 opera, "Gordon wields his hummable tunes to critical effect." This spring, Gordon premieres his Sycamore Trees at the Signature Theatre. In a preview, the Washington Post says "Gordon has shown over the course of his career that he's anything but cut from a mold."

k.d. lang followed up her recent performance of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" at the Vancouver Winter Olympics with a rousing rendition of "Constant Craving" on ABC's Good Morning America this morning. She spoke with host Robin Roberts about Recollection, her new career retrospective. Says Roberts: "One thing that has not changed—her voice. Your voice is timeless." k.d. spoke with BBC Radio 5 about the album yesterday afternoon.