The holidays are hard on arts writers. Other than the usual fare, it's slim pickings out there.

Everyone is busy buying, baking, trimming and partying. And frankly, who has time to launch their major opus while they have to cook for their 47 visiting relatives? Trust me, I have unearthed every "Nutcracker" angle known to dance writers. If you have slogged through some of these stories, then you know that holiday classics are better left to others.

Plus, I am more of a new art person.

So, when I glanced over the barren artscape and found the words "American premiere" on the Ars Lyrica calendar, I instantly recovered from my holiday melancholy.

A premiere at Ars Lyrica? I thought they were early music folks.

It seems that America has not gotten around to performing or recording J. A. Hasse's Neapolitan masterpiece Marc Antonio e Cleopatra. It's true, America can be sometimes slow on the uptake, but really, this piece was written in 1725. Were we just too busy for 285 years?

I needed to get to the bottom of this musical quandary. Hasse was a German rock star of his generation. Why did he fall out of favor?

I headed off to speak to Matthew Dirst, Ars Lyrica's artistic director, associate professor of music at the University of Houston Moores School of Music, and overall super smart guy on the subject of musical mysteries. Dirst is also a musicologist, so musical sleuthing is his job. When Dirst speaks (sparingly during Ars Lyrica concerts and more frequently on The Front Row) people listen, not just to the music, but what he is asking us to listen for. He's a smooth classical music operator, telling us just what we need to know, in his own brand of straightforward elegance.

Turns out, there's a boatload of music that has never been played in the U.S. before, and Ars Lyrica seeks to change all that. "We like exploring things that haven't been played to death," says Dirst. "We regularly perform American premieres."

Why did Hasse fall through the musical cracks? Apparently, he was fond of writing four-hour operas with convoluted plots that were all the rage in the day, but did not travel well into the 20th Century. "And it wasn't just Hasse who drifted into obscurity, but an entire generation of Baroque opera," says Dirst.

Dirst is convinced Hasse's work is ready for a second wind. "Hasse is where Handel was in the 1960s," he says. "We are just getting on the bandwagon."

The holidays are hard on Dirst, too. "We all need some kind of holiday program. Usually we can do the Messiah, and the Messiah, and the Messiah. I can see it doing every once in a while, but not every year," he says. "When I considered a New Year's Eve event, it opened a whole world of programming possibilities. You can get away with anything on New Year's Eve."

And it just so happens the Hasse piece is perfect for a New Year's Eve event. "It's the jolliest double suicide in all of music," quips Dirst. "The couple discovers that life in eternity is better than the real thing. The new year dies and the next one begins."

The piece will be performed on Dec. 31 at the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts by two rising star singers, Jamie Barton and Ava Pine. "They are on the fast track for big international opera careers," insists Dirst. Barton, an HGO Studio alum, makes her Metropolitan Opera debut this April in Die Zauberflote. She also stars in Susan Froemke's documentary film The Audition, which chronicles the The Met's audition process. (Barton was a winner.) Pine's rave reviews just keep on coming. Read her most recent New York Times review.

Star power feels about right for the occasion, but there's more. You don't have to forgo the obligatory party either; the concert ends with a smart party at the Founder's Club featuring bottomless champagne, tri-colori delicacies (think Italian flag) and a killer view of the city. Pine and Barton will serenade the crowd with Neapolitan songs with Keith Webber at the piano.

It's possible to have an artful New Year's Eve after all.