Robert De Niro is set to appear at Carnegie Hall this week, where he will recite excerpts from a Philip Glass opera centred on Abraham Lincoln.
The performance comes after the composer cancelled the opera's intended premiere at the Kennedy Center in protest against President Donald Trump's removal of the venue's leadership.
Glass's Symphony No. 25, titled 'Lincoln', will be featured during a benefit event on Tuesday night for Tibet House US, a nonprofit educational institution. The organisation confirmed De Niro's participation, with Glass and Laurie Anderson serving as artistic directors.
The opera draws inspiration from Lincoln's 1838 'Lyceum Address', in which the future president condemned mob violence and highlighted its threats to democratic principles. 'I am so pleased Robert De Niro is going to read the Lincoln speech,' Glass stated. 'He is absolutely the right person.'
De Niro joins a growing list of artists, including Renée Fleming, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and Bela Fleck, who have cancelled events at the Kennedy Center. President Trump has controversially renamed the venue the 'Trump Kennedy Center', a move legal scholars assert can only be enacted by Congress.
The president, who has positioned the centre as a focal point in his campaign against 'woke' culture, announced last month that the facility would close in July for a two-year construction project.
