Tamino falls in love with Pamina's picture and runs the gauntlet in order to meet and marry her. His sidekick Papageno also seeks marriage but lacks the courage to confront the challenges before him. Both will succeed, but one more than the other.

A Complicated Woman has elements that need rethinking. For one, almost the entire first act takes place in 1928; when act two begins, we are in the late 1950s-60s. The jump seems too extreme and not clearly defined.

Upon Henry Lehman's immigration to the U.S., he peddles textiles in Alabama. The result of the ingenuity of Henry and later family members is one of the great investment banking firms in the country. Long after the family has exited, the firm's failure represents one of the signal episodes in the financial collapse of 2008.

In the spirit of the centennial of Surrealism Rafael Mahdavi has created a mural on an exterior wall. "The wall for the mural is part of a friend’s house on the Cycladic Island of Paros. I spend my summers there. I first met Frank at my first solo painting show in NYC at the Tibor de Nagy Gallery in 1973. Frank and I stayed in touch, he liked my work. Last year he commissioned the mural. Seven by seven meters."

An American Soldier, an opera by Huang Ruo and David Henry Wang, has been developing for a decade. The 2024 version is co-commissioned by PAC NYC and Boston Lyric Opera. Audiences at the new Perelman Performing Arts Center in lower Manhattan, are the beneficiaries of deep thought and a moving musical response to a seemingly uncomplicated subject: the wish of a young man, born in the USA of Asian immigrants, to be considered ‘American.’

English nightclub entertainer Sally Bowles lives on the edges of society in the hedonism of Berlin during the Weimar years. Aspiring novelist Cliff Bradshaw alights from America and becomes both Sally's lover and her mark. This dark musical also explores the rise of Naziism through a young convert and the relationship of an elderly couple, one of whom is Jewish.

Our Surreality Lives: Michelle Wiley, 2020 to 2021 and Astrid Hiemer, 2023 to 2024, at the Eclipse Mill Gallery, 243 Union Street, North Adams from June 7 to July 7. Opening Celebration, Friday, June 7, 6-8 pm. The gallery will be open from Thursdays to Sundays, noon to 6 pm . See how we celebrate Surrealism and DADA at 100!              

Serpentine and The Royal Parks  announce the unveiling of a new large-scale sculpture by Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama (b. 1929, Matsumoto, Japan; lives and works in Tokyo, Japan). Located by the Round Pond in Kensington Gardens, Pumpkin (2024) will be staged from 9 July to 3 November 2024.

Over and over again, in the Pulitzer-nominated play Here There are Blueberries, now playing at the New York Theatre Workshop in co-production with Tectonic Theater Project, we see photos of the commandants of the Auschwitz facility where the final solution was executed. They are comfortable, laughing together, being rewarded for work well done (gassing people) and in lounge chairs at a spa retreat on the property in Poland. 

Mark Morrisroe, who died at 30, was the most innovative of the artists shown as the Boston School at the ICA in an exhibition curated by Lea Gangitano. Since his premature death his reputation has continued to grow. This is his fifth solo with Clamp Gallery. His work has been acquired by numerous museums.

To hear great singers in the Officer's Room of the Park Avenue Armory is a special privilege. One of the largest rooms in the Armory, today it feels like a salon room in an elegant apartment. A lost world is very present for the audience up close and personal. The cherished tenor, Matthew Polenzani, a regular star at the Metropolitan Opera, gives us his special textures and dynamics. 

In the middle of the night Leo arrived at his grandmother's Greenwich Village apartment. His bike trip started in Seattle. Initially his request to crash with Vera for a couple of days turns into a month. This award winning play by Amy Herzog is on stage at Unicorn Theatre in Stockbridge.

The Williams College Museum of Art (WCMA) presents SO–IL \ WCMA: Building a New Museum, an exhibition that showcases the design process behind WCMA’s new home, projected to open in 2027.

Conceptual artist Jay Critchley is based in Provincetown but has had a global career. He is having his first Boston exhibition at Spoke Gallery.

In 1996 artist Barbara Bosworth (b. 1953) began photographing a meadow in Carlisle, Massachusetts, just northwest of Boston. Returning regularly over the next 15 years, she used a large-format camera to capture images of the land at different times of day and in all seasons.

In fall 2012, Leslie Ferrin and Paul Scott met for the first time in Adelaide, Australia as presenters at the Australian Ceramics Triennale Subversive Clay. It was their shared interest in printed ceramics, and one particular plate that brought them together.

ArtWeek Berkshires, a county-wide celebration, includes the Eclipse Mill's show, 'Spring Forward: Recent Work from 27 Eclipse Mill Artists.' The overall festival takes place from May 17 to 27, and the Opening at the Mill will be on May 18 from 6pm to 8 pm. You are invited!

Always on the move the artist Katherine Porter died in New Mexico at 82. For several years in the late 1960s she was an integral part of a movement of emerging Boston artists. She was part of the Studio Coalition which mounted the nation's first Open Studios. She was the first new Boston artist selected for the Whitney Annual. Until the tide changed she was among the most admired abstract artists of her generation.

As part of its 30th Anniversary Celebration, Barrington Stage Company announces Tony Award-winner Bernadette Peters in Concert on Tuesday, August 27 at 8:00 p.m. on the Boyd-Quinson Stage (30 Union Street). 

The Guggenheim presents the solo exhibition Jenny Holzer: Light Line, featuring a reimagining of Holzer’s 1989 landmark artwork.

The most touching moment in the play is when the detainees talk about writing poetry on the walls. The poetry is periodically covered over; but years after Angel Island closes, the putty and paint covering the poetry begins to chip away, and the heartbroken lines of poetry reappear.

Launching a season of specially curated activations, the 23rd Serpentine Pavilion will play host to a new commissioned soundscape, a library and a series of performances and talks. 

Playwright Lloyd Suh won the Harold and Mimi Steinberg/American Theatre Critics Association New Play Award for his piece, "The Heart Sellers." Jennifer Vosters received the 2024 M. Elizabeth Osborn Award for her play, "Songs Without Words." ATCA presents the honors annually.

With a book by Harvey Fierstein (Broadway: Kinky Boots, Torch Song Trilogy) and music and lyrics by Jerry Herman (Broadway: Hello, Dolly!, Mame), La Cage aux Folles is based on the play by Jean Poirot that also inspired the 1978 French film of the same name and its American remake, The Birdcage, starring Robin Williams and Nathan Lane.

The core concept in Daoist understanding of the breath is Qi (pronounced “chee”). Qi is not simply oxygen, but a subtle energy force believed to permeate all living things and the universe itself. It is the dynamic interplay of Yin and Yang, the fundamental polarities that govern existence. Deep, mindful breathing is seen as a way to cultivate and refine Qi, leading to improved health, inner peace, and a deeper connection to the Dao.