International companies will travel to Becket, Massachusetts, from Denmark, Israel, Belgium, Australia, France, Spain, and Scotland. Notably, representation from across the United States ranges from New York City, Minneapolis, and Houston to Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Chicago, among others.

Since Biblical times, wine has been produced in Israel. Originally for religious observances, but, now for consumers, who compose 85% of the market, with the United States, as the leading importer. Kosher wines are produced the same way as non-kosher wines. For that reason, consumers are looking at the wine for what it s, not because its Kosher. Six wines were sampled for this article.

Hancock Shaker Village, near Pittsfield, Massachusetts, was decorated for the holidays during a late afternoon stroll with carolers, musicians and dressed-up staff from this timeless Shaker community. Drinks, Shaker Holiday carols and festive food was served as guests listened to Shaker stories and songs.

The tedious work of sampling six-hundred plus Portuguese wines for TAP airlines in-flight wine service was an involved project. There were ten wine tasters, seven from Portugal, two from Brazil, and myself from America . Wines were first sampled on the ground and then the top fifty were sampled in the air on a round trip flight from Lisbon to Prague.

An historical comic-drama about Tennessee Williams and William Inge receives admirable world premiere production in West Palm Beach. This engrossing memory play focuses on the little-known relationship between the two great playwrights. The play is a new work by Wall Street Journal Critic, Terry Teachout. His first play was Satchmo at the Waldorf which premiered at Shakespeare & Company in the Berkshires.

On Thursday night, Dr. Botstein directed his ASO forces in a long and compelling program titled The Triumph of Art at Alice Tully Hall. Its purpose: provide much needed exposure to composers whose careers largely took place on the shadow side of the Soviet empire. This concert featured two works by the Polish composer Grayna Bacewicz and important symphonies by Bohuslav Martin and Alfred Schnittke. All are worthy of inclusion by some future artistic director with ambition and taste.

American Composers Orchestra performs at Carnegie Hall each year. Their December 8 concert at Zankel Hall was the first to honor the holder of the Debs Composer’s Chair this season, Philip Glass. Glass was over forty when he was able to give up his day job. He has created a world in which young composers can compose full time much earlier in their careers. We heard two of his protégés and the master himself in an intriguing and moving program.

The playwrights are a highly diverse group, and not surprisingly, so is the topic matter and the casting. By its nature, this format does not provide a continuous dramatic arc, but a number of small climaxes.

If you were a runaway slave in the mid 19th century, where did you go to find a new life? Cowboy seemed a good profession. It was far from the south and the new country opening up was not so sensitive to color. Cross That River at 59E59 Theaters looks at one cowboy's life through song and story.

The story, of “Something Rotten”, in short, is set in 1590s England where playwright brothers Nick and Nigel Bottom, sensationally played by Rob McClure and Josh Grisetti, respectfully, are desperate to write a hit play to pay their rent, keep food on the table, and pay back their theatre investors. But they’re stuck in the shadow of that Renaissance rock-star known as Shakespeare, the Bard of Avon, a self-indulgent, preening (Adam Pascal).

“King Charles III has some of the Shakespeare-like quality of the text that combines verse and modern vernacular, make this intriguing production directed by Michael Michetti, a provocative evening in the theatre that is resonating with audiences on both sides of the Atlantic.

The Mad Ones takes its title from Jack Kerouac. It is a kind of prequel to On the Road and also the film Thelma and Louise.   Samantha is a high school senior who is ambivalent about following the path for which she has been prepped by her mother.

For those seeking an alternative to traditional holiday theater fare, Pear Theatre offers the world premiere of The Millionth Production of “A Christmas Carol.” A comic paean to all that is black box theater, the result offers much that will appeal to theater lovers, with a behind-the-scenes exposé about the people and processes involved in launching a production, without any real connection to Christmas.

The playwright Rajiv Joseph, a Pulitzer Prize winning finalist and winner of Lortel and Obie Awards, arrives at the Atlantic Theater Company with his new work, Describe the Night. The play is almost three hours long, and whizzes by in jewel-like nuggets of high drama. Giovanna Sardelli, Joseph’s frequent collaborator, directs.

A cancellation by a major international conductor is never an occasion for happiness. However, attendees at Thursday nights concert by the New York Philharmonic may have felt fortunate in that august orchestra's choice of substitute. Stepping in for the indisposed Christopher von Dohnányi, Dutch conductor Edo de Waart proved to be an able and welcome substitute.

The 19 year old Handel inherited this ridiculous opera libretto when the composer assigned it abruptly left town. Ambitious to get out of Hamburg himself, he gave it better than it deserved, writing some gorgeous arias for his dueling pair of sopranos. A superb cast and expert orchestral playing made the opera a hit for the Boston Early Music Festival.

Much of the ambiance of A Civil War Christmas derives from the music supporting the narrative. Several traditional Christmas carols are sung, including an audience-quieting, a cappella “Silent Night” delivered by Alicia von Kugelgen, who offers the strongest singing voice of the show. Additional music comes from mostly African-American spirituals of the period such as “Children Go Where I Send Thee” and “There is Balm is Gilead.”

You may have heard Bach, Beethoven and Rachmaninoff before, but probably not delivered with such passion, panache and pure musical mastery. The fourth composer on Conrad Tao's program for Lincoln Center's Great Performer series was Jason Eckardt, a composer who is jazzy, harmonic-cloud-infested, crossing of the hands and collapse into silence before tones can emerge again. Tao is a listener and leads us to listen in a new way as he performs.

All are invited to join a holiday celebration and launch of the Eclipse Mill Winter Arts Festival. A gala evening of music by Michelle Wiley, and poetry by Stephen Rifkin, will occur on Wednesday, December 13, starting at 7:30 pm, at the Eclipse Mill, 243 Union Street, in North Adams. A program of other events will be announced in the New Year.

Puff is a world premiere translation by Ranjit Bolt of the original script by the prolific French playwright, Eugène Scribe, known for his complex plotting of the well-made play. With Nick Sandys’ capable direction, the actors keep who-knows-what-and-loves-whom-when mostly straight. It is a smart, funny poke in the eye of the contemporary affection for fake news and hype about nothing, set in an 1840s Parisian drawing room.

My pre Thanksgiving travel in Portugal ended with a weekend in Porto. With 2.4 million inhabitants it is the small nation's second largest city. On a glorious, summer-like afternoon a highlight of the adventure was a river cruise in the romantic City of Bridges.

In Handel's time, there was no orchestra conductor. The Orpheus Chamber Orchestra is committed to rotating leadership. A member of the orchestra keeps the group together with bow and movement of the instrument itself. Democracy works well. The resulting performance is exuberant and joyful.

“The Play That Goes Wrong”, is written by three talented British playwright/actors: Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer, and Henry Shields, who are members of the London-based, Mischief Theatre Company. The production is wowing New York audiences at the Lyceum Theatre on Broadway. Last summer there was a change to an American cast which is every bit as hilarious as the original Brits.

Pulitzer-prize winning playwright Ayad Akhtar, (“Disgraced”) is back on Broadway with a riveting new play "Junk." Crisply directed by Doug Hughes, the play is a searing indictment of financial perfidy and recklessness and its seeming disdain for the rule of law when ‘it’ comes too close to getting in the way of the art of the all-important deal.

While Steve Martin’s comedy work pays the mortgage on the mansion, he plays banjo professionally as well. Collaborating with rock/pop/folk artist Edie Brickell on the acclaimed bluegrass album Love Has Come for You led to the deeper involvement of developing the stage show Bright Star. Inspired by a true 1904 event, the artists created a fiction around the occurrence.