Celebrated for creating diverse, timely and relevant opera, activist opera company White Snake Projects (WSP) and its founder Cerise Lim Jacobs today announced its 2023-24 season comprising all original operatic works including two fully-staged operas, a quartet of holiday operas as part of its annual Let’s Celebrate! series, and two WSP’s community engagement showcases: Sing Out Strong and Show Out Boston!

“Madame Butterfly” integrates the best of the earlier "La Boheme" and "Tosca" and overlays pentatonic scale Japanese folk melodies to add a whole new dimension to the score. The popularity of this beautiful and exotic wonder should be no surprise. San Francisco Opera’s wonderous creative and visually striking production is led by four powerful singers - Karah Son, Michael Fabiano, Hyona Kim, and Lucas Meachem.

The world premiere play by Jacqueline Bircher attempts to deal with arbitrariness as well as the continual change in language and meaning, the politicization of language, and what is called “cancel culture.” It is a lot to ask one play to handle.

Treat Williams, the actor known for his roles in the movies “Hair” and “Deep Rising” and the TV show “Everwood,” has died. He was 71. A  S.U.V. crashed into his motorcycle in Dorset, Vt. He was 71. We spoke with him in 2013 following a performance as King Henry in “Lion in Winter.”

Rhiannon Giddens curated the Ojai Music Festival this year.   She often sings “I shall not be moved.”  And yet, in the strong force you feel in her wake, you know and feel she is moving and you are moved.  Giddens is fond of the double and triple entendre.  For four days we are sailing with her and we are also in her wake.

Henri Giraud is a family-owned Champagne House located in Aÿ-Champagne since the 17th century. It combines a unique viticultural heritage, rooted in exceptional Champagne terroirs where Pinot Noir reigns supreme, with remarkable expertise in blending and aging, making it one of the most amazing players in Champagne.

Composer Gabriela Lena Frank’s special compassion for Frida Kahlo may derive from their shared experience. Cuban-born, Pulitzer Prize winning (“Anna in the Tropics”) playwright Nilo Cruz provides the literate libretto.  Wishing to integrate aspects of Mexican culture into the story in a magical realism fashion, he builds the narrative around the culturally significant Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) and Aztec mythology.

Trembling Earth features seventy-five objects, ranging from brilliantly hued landscapes and three stunning self-portraits, to an extensive selection of his innovative prints and drawings. The exhibition includes more than thirty works from MUNCH’s world-renowned collection, major pieces from other museums in the USA and Europe, and nearly forty paintings, prints, and drawings from private collections, many of which are rarely exhibited. The Clark is the only American venue for this stunning exhibition.

Trouble in Mind, at Hartford Stage, was written in the mid-50s. It was the first full-length play by Alice Childress whose career encompassed acting and writing both plays and novels. The play deals with topics that are major points of discussion today both in our society and the theatrical world: representation, authenticity, sexism, and workplace bullying

Love All, a new play by Anna Deavere Smith and directed by Marc Bruni, is running at the La Jolla Playhouse through July 2.  'Love all' is the score of a tennis match before it starts.  It is a word used often during the course of a game. It means zero.  And that is what athletes were making when Billie Jean Moffit (later King) started playing tennis. She also loved men and women.

San Francisco Opera celebrated its centenary at War Memorial Opera House with a grand concert of 21 operatic pieces, performed by 15 principals and the company’s orchestra and chorus.  Artistic Director Eun Sun Kim, past Artistic Director Donald Runnicles, and past Principal Guest Conductor Patrick Summers shared the baton.  Matthew Shilvock, only the seventh General Director of the company, hosted the glorious event.

With his first production, Cabaret, Alan Paul, the artistic director of Barrington Stage Company, has set a new benchmark for musical theatre in the Berkshires. Given the unchecked rise of fascism in America the musical which focuses on the beginnings of Nazi Germany could not be more powerful and relevant. This is a scorching production which will blow you away. Barrington's version of the iconic musical clicks on all cylinders,

"Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks" is a touching comedy about an odd couple who share at least one thing in common: their humanity. An impressive production is running through July 3 in the tiny Empire Stage in Ft. Lauderdale. Stage veterans Larry Buzzeo and Lory Reyes co-star.

We announce the lineup for our popular Berkshire Jazz Showcase, a free event on Pittsfield’s First Street Common Saturday, July 8, 1-5pm.  

At the 2023 Ojai music festival, Rhiannon Giddens, musical director, and a supremely talented group of musicians, presented a program that challenged the audience to take a musical journey with them around the world.  

Chinese American artist, advocate and director Phil Chan, whose book Final Bow for Yellowface altered the conversation about Asian representation on ballet stages around the country, turns his attention to opera this September, when he directs a new, Asian American take on "Madama Butterfly" for Boston Lyric Opera (BLO). 

For the eighth year, the performing arts centers at The Egg and the University at Albany have announced that they will present Dance in Albany, a joint dance series featuring eight offerings for the 2023-24 season.  Six of the performances will take place at The Egg at the Empire State Plaza with the remaining two at the UAlbany Performing Arts Center on the uptown University at Albany campus.  

In a co production with Chautauqua Theater Company, Barrington Stage Company is presenting a world premiere tiny father by Mike Lew and directed by Moritz von Stuelpnagel. There is another production scheduled for Geffen Hall in Los Angeles.

Near the 60th anniversary of the movement’s founding, this exhibition highlights the contributions of four pioneering Japanese artists—Shigeko Kubota (1937–2015), Yoko Ono (b. 1933), Takako Saito (b. 1929), and Mieko Shiomi (b. 1938)—and contextualizes their role within Fluxus and the broader artistic movements of the 1960s and beyond.  

To make money Deborah Sampson told her story to Hermann Mann who published The Female Review: Life of Deborah Sampson: The Female Soldier in the War of Revolution. To boost sales he played loose with the facts. Jan Lewis Nelson expresses Sampson’s anguish over fabrications. She saw action but did not fight in the Battle of Yorktown as Mann falsely claimed.

A powerful production of “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” at the Yale Repertory Theatre and an exuberant production of “42nd Street” at Goodspeed Musicals took top honors at the 31st annual Connecticut Critics Circle Awards (ctcritics.org).

Jacob's Pillow launched its season with the Mark Morris Dance Group performing an hour long work Bacharach/ David's The Look of Love. During this soggy summer how apt that Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head.

Drawing from the collection of the late Leslie and Johanna Garfield, this exhibition focuses on the work of six artists: Ada Gilmore Chaffee, Maud Hunt Squire, Ethel Mars, Mildred McMillen, Juliette Nichols, and B. J. O. Nordfeldt—the first pioneering group that came together in Provincetown to practice color woodblock printing.

In response to an article The Disappeared of Cape Ann, posted to the Giuliano book site, Mary Ellen Lepionka, an authority on the subject sent a lengthy response. During the occasion of Gloucester 400th Plus much scholarly information is coming to light. Her research is presented here as a letter to the editor.

Roman officers, including Prince Tarquinius, who are in a military camp wager whether their wives have remained constant.  Investigations prove that the wives of all of the men in the discussion have had indiscretions, with one exception.  Lucretia has remained faithful.  Tarquinius is determined to corrupt her morals.  Returning to Rome, his amorous advances toward Lucretia are repelled, and he forces himself on her.  Although not dealt with in the opera, this incident was the crowning blow to the king’s reign, and his overthrow led to the period of the Republic of Rome.