Feb. 27 and March 5 at 6 and March 2 at noon: In what is arguably the highlight of the Met season, Peter Gelb brings in the acclaimed film director François Girard to helm a new production of Wagner's "Parsifal," the capstone of German Romantic opera. The starry cast features Jonas Kaufmann in the title role, as well as Katarina Dalayman, Peter Mattei, Evgeny Nikitin, and René Pape; the distinguished Italian maestro Daniele Gatti conducts. Following in Scotto's footsteps will be a recently minted star, the dramatic soprano Eva-Maria Westbroek, with the admirable Robert Brubaker and Mark Delavan filling out the leading roles; Marco Armiliato, a dependable Italian hand, is on the podium. One good Brit follows another: after staging Thomas Adès's lurid "Powder Her Face," the company proceeds to offer an opera by Benjamin Britten, Adès's musical ancestor, in which the streams of human depravity are buried deep underground - "The Turn of the Screw," based on Henry James's devilishly convoluted ghost story. Dominic Armstrong, Sara Jakubiak, and Lauren Worsham (the breakout star of David T. Little's recent "Dog Days") take the lead in a new production by Sam Buntrock; Jayce Ogren conducts. (Brooklyn Academy of Music, 30 Lafayette Ave. Feb. 28 at 7:30 and March 2 at 7:30. The Philharmonic's management is getting good at tending to the varied needs of its large and demanding audience. This year's spring musical is Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Carousel," with the director John Rando conjuring up the seacoast of Maine within the golden confines of Avery Fisher Hall. Kelli O'Hara is Julie Jordan and Nathan Gunn is Billy Bigelow in a cast that also features Stephanie Blythe, Shuler Hensley, and John Cullum; Rob Fisher conducts. Feb. 27-28 at 7:30, March 1 at 8, and March 2 at 2 and 8.) Two major works by two popular composers - never performed in the city before - are the subject of James Bagwell's latest concert with his outstanding chorus: Philip Glass's Symphony No. 7 ("Toltec") and Osvaldo Golijov's "Oceana." The latter piece, a colorful cantata set to poetry by Pablo Neruda, features the jazz vocalist Biella Da Costa. With the American Symphony Orchestra. Feb. 27 at 7.) Franz Welser-Möst, Generalmusikdirektor in both Cleveland and Vienna, brings the lustrous orchestra to Carnegie Hall for three concerts that (mostly) bask in the cultural glories of the Hapsburg realm. The first offers Dvořák's Seventh Symphony and Strauss lieder (sung by Herbert Lippert), with a dash of von Suppé ("Poet and Peasant"); the second features Schubert's "Little C Major" Symphony (No. 6) and Strauss's "Till Eulenspiegel's Lustige Streiche," along with a welcome modern work by Jörg Widmann ("Lied"); and the third is given over to two great monuments of Viennese music, Berg's Violin Concerto (aided by the searching virtuosity of Frank Peter Zimmermann) and Bruckner's Symphony No. 4, "Romantic." March 1-2 at 8 and March 3 at 2.) Toronto's world-class period-performance ensemble specializes in concerts that blend music and multimedia. Miller Theatre presents the group in concert at a stately venue even farther uptown than Columbia - the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the pride of Audubon Terrace - in a performance that uses music by Handel, Bach, Vivaldi, and Telemann, as well as images from paintings by Watteau, Canaletto, and Vermeer, to conjure up the atmosphere of the five European cities in which the music was first heard. (Broadway at 155th St. 212-854-7799. March 3 at 3.) Paul Moravec's oratorio from 2008, set to a collection of poetry by the former U.S. Poet Laureate Ted Kooser, is inspired by the deadly "Children's Blizzard" of 1888. Its New York première was cancelled, however, due to another historic weather disaster - Hurricane Sandy, which effectively shut down Carnegie Hall for several days. Now it's here, part of an Americana concert by Kent Tritle's admired chorus that also offers music by Copland (selections from "Old American Songs" and "The Tender Land") and Ives (including "The Circus Band"); the vocal soloists include the young Met star Susanna Phillips. Benjamin Britten is better known for his operas than for his chamber works, but the Society, via the superb Escher String Quartet, is mounting a mini-series on the occasion of his centenary, with each concert anchored by one of the composer's three quartets. The second of the three arrives this week, with the Quartet No. 3 (inspired by the melancholy beauty of Venice, the setting of the composer's final opera) leading off an all-British program that also features music by Bridge, Elgar, and Harrison Birtwistle. (Rose Studio, Lincoln Center. Feb. 28 at 7:30.) After a notable career of three decades, this all-female American string quartet has decided to retire. Its New York farewell concert takes place at Symphony Space, where it will give the world première of a work by Tamar Muskal ("Farewell Letters to the Beloved One," featuring the soprano Lucy Shelton), as well as a performance of Janáček's Quartet No. 2, "Intimate Letters," another ardent exploration of matters of the heart. (Broadway at 95th St. 212-864-5400. This exciting American violinist, who has now moved from the status of an aspiring newcomer to that of an established star, has a sustained interest in the genre of the unaccompanied recital. Her latest offers not only Bach's Sonata No. 1 in G Minor and Partita No. 1 in B Minor but also the solo sonata by Bartók and the New York première of a new Partita by Phil Kline. (92nd Street Y, Lexington Ave. at 92nd St. 212-415-5500. Music by Debussy (the Sonata for Flute, Viola, and Harp), Ravel, and Saint-Saëns fits easily enough into this French-themed program by the longtime band of Gotham freelancers; the more interesting entry will be the brand-new "Quintet," by one of New York's finest young composers, Sean Shepherd, a work inspired by the Paris-in-the-twenties ambience of Prokofiev's Quintet in G Minor, Op. 39. (Brooklyn Museum, 200 Eastern Parkway. oslmusic.org. March 3 at 2.) This commanding pianist, whose sparkling, brilliant style extends to his compositions and to his prose writings, returns to Carnegie Hall, offering his own Sonata No. 2, "Notturno Luminoso," as well as repertory works by Chopin (the Nocturnes, Op. 27), Brahms, and Schumann ("Carnaval"). March 4 at 8.) Gillock, an American organist based in Paris who is renowned for his virtuosity and for his close association with one of the titans of the instrument, the mystical composer Olivier Messiaen, has a New York home at the Church of the Ascension; his next concert, devoted to his mentor's final organ masterwork, "Livre du Saint Sacrement," will be not only popular but authoritative. (Fifth Ave. at 10th St. 212-358-7060.