The Berlin Philharmonic completed a three-day visit to Carnegie Hall in New York. The world’s greatest orchestra and its greatest conductor, Kirill Petrenko, did not disappoint.  The programming combined an anniversary  (the 200th birthday of Anton Bruckner), with fresh visits to favorites like Anton Dvorak’s 7th Symphony and a Violin Concerto by the film composer Erich Korngold.

Designed by the leading Dutch architecture firm Mecanoo, the reimagined Doris Duke Theatre occupies the site of the former studio theater from 1990, destroyed by fire in November 2020.  The new theater aims to become one of the world’s most technologically advanced dance venues, providing a makerspace for artists seeking to integrate artificial intelligence, extended reality, robotics, and immersive platforms into live performance.

A pioneer of Surrealism, Carrington’s work crosses boundaries and mediums, embodying a boundless curiosity and unorthodox spirit that transcends the conventional. Born into a staid upper-middle-class Anglo-Irish family, Carrington would spend her life freeing herself from the gendered strictures imposed upon her.

David Lang's Pulitzer Prize-winning Passion opera The Little Match Girl will be performed in its original form with four artists both singing and playing instruments at the Crypt in New York.

We viewed the stunning 2017 retrospective “Salvatore Del Deo: A Storied History” at the Cape Cod Museum of Art in Dennis. In 2023, then 95, he was the subject of national news when there was an attempt to evict the renowned artist and chef from his historic summer Provincetown dune shack.

Once again, Pittsfield-based Barrington Stage Company (BSC) was the big winner of the evening with their productions of Next to Normal, La Cage Aux Folles, Primary Trust, and Boeing, Boeing taking home many top prizes. The Mac-Haydn Theatre, in Chatham, NY, tied with BSC artists in the categories of Outstanding Choreography and Outstanding Direction of a Musical, and with artists from the Berkshire Theatre Festival for Outstanding Sound Design.

Thornton Wilder’s classic play Our Town, which many consider it one of the great American plays – is getting a very good revival at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on Broadway.

n the morning after the election, I woke up to an America that is the “same as it ever was,” to borrow lyrics from The Talking Heads.  I just didn’t realize what that “same” was. America had spoken, revealing its true self at this moment to me, and I am deeply saddened by what I heard.

Founded in 1983 by Gregorij von Leitis, Elysium—between two continents is an organization dedicated to combating hate, racism, and anti-Semitism through the transformative power of art.

The Matthew Swift Gallery recently paired two of the leading contemporary Gloucester artists. There is compelling synergy though the artists are quite different. Gabrielle Barzaghi reflects on her family heritage with inventive mythology. The range of Susan Erony embraces the cosmos in minute detail. They breathe the salt air that has inspired generations of leading Cape Ann painters. They thrive in a community that has long been indifferent to the experiments of modernism.

Oakland Theater Project presents Dave Malloy's 23 dramatic vignettes about love, loss, whiskey, and the afterlife built into a song cycle. Calling on all manner of musical idioms, but with the constant of a mournful cello, it engages both musically and dramatically.

Aided by bird catcher Papageno, Prince Tamino sets out to rescue abducted Pamina, whom he has fallen in love with based only on a portrait. His quest faces the challenge of three trials and the threat of the Queen of the Night, mother of Pamina.

The 331 works of art in the gift include 132 paintings, 130 sculptures, thirty-nine drawings, and thirty decorative arts objects, creating an important addition to the Clark’s holdings. The entirety of the Tavitian gift will be on view when the new Aso O. Tavitian Wing opens. Following an introductory presentation at the time of the new wing’s opening, the works on paper included in the gift will be made available for study purposes and be presented in periodic displays. The majority of paintings, sculpture, and decorative arts objects will be shown on a continual basis, both in the new Tavitian Wing and in the Clark’s permanent collection galleries.

The play opens with the five-member team (one is an alternate), already a tight-knit bunch who have known each other forever. A new girl, Hilary, arrives and wants to be part of the team. The coach, Mr. K, decides she can be the second alternate; it is unlikely that she would ever be asked to substitute.

Logan receives a grant to create a "First Thanksgiving" play for schools. She finds that the woman she hired as "the Native American" in the small cast is anything but. How should she proceed with political correctness when she lacks a Native American voice in a project for Native American Heritage Month? Farcical situations ensue.

The book – the story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons – by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice is one of the things that sets it above many jukebox shows. Each of the original members of the group narrates a part of the story. This allows for different perspectives on the group’s history and personalities.

My Curious Years with Charles Henri Ford is much more than a history of famous writers,  artists and glamorous parties. At its heart, it is about Tamang’s own evolving role from a simple soul without a formal education and no knowledge of  English, into a trusted member of the Ford family’s inner circle.

As their husbands depart for an overnight golf outing, Julia and Jane find that a French lover from before their marriages is coming to London. Both women have settled into marital boredom and are tantalized by the prospect of reviving their earlier passions. The playwright exposes class and gender issues amidst continuing laughter.

Contemporary composers scramble for relevant subject matter. Opera companies overlook repertoire which is excellent and seldom staged. As the 100th anniversary of Hans Werner Hene's birth approaches in 2026, his work, produced in timeless fashion, offers fresh opportunities. Frankfurt Oper shows the way.

When composing this opera, Richard Wagner was obsessed with love fanned by his infatuation for the married poet Mathilde Wesendonck and death driven by the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer. The two existential forces are melded in the opera's thematic thrust "liebestod" (love-death), which is also the dominant leitmotif in the music. While the orchestral score soars, the dramatic action is grounded, yet it remains a pioneer of modern music.

Hudson Hall in the Hudson Hall Opera House will present No Cowards in Our Band, an intertwined stage piece that combines nine spirituals with the reciting of original text by Frederick Douglass. In this drama,  an aging and contemplative Frederick Douglass (1818-1895). considers the social, economic, and political ramifications of slavery and the Civil War and their impact on the future of the United States. 

During the 80 minutes or so, we hear 11 songs. Most are duets between the two characters – Jessie and Lana. Jessie and Lana are fictionalized versions of Falconer and Wilde and their story. From the first meeting, when Lana goes to a bar and meets the older Jessie through a courtship of sorts, the birth of their son, and Jessie’s departure on a US tour with a band, where they are the backup/opening act.

The tradition of Baba Yaga, an old haggard witch, exists in many Slavic cultures. Playwright Kat Sandler integrates witchcraft themes into a comic detective mystery with three actors playing 14 parts.

Part 2 - Perestroika provides closure on many of the relationships and issues raised in Part 1 - Millennium Approaches. Thematically, it invokes the need for change in order to go forward and thrive, rejecting the resistant bastions of vested interest - entrenched religions and conservative politics.

Tony Kushner's award-winning two-part classic centering on homosexuality and AIDS during the epidemic in the 1980s is given a magnificent production by Oakland Theater Project with taut direction and exceptional acting. Fiction that is anchored in reality with one real historical figure, also drifts into fantasy. Its powerful treatment finds corollaries in today's world.