Rarely has an esteemed opera endured the ignominy of its birth as “Dido and Aeneas.”  Although its composer, Henry Purcell, would reign as the preeminent producer of serious British music from his death in 1695 until the 20th century, his only pure opera borrowed slavishly from a crypto-opera, John Blow’s “Venus and Adonis,” that has not even remained in the canon.

In revealing the existence of the Bob Dylan Archive to the public in 2016, Ben Sisario wrote in The New York Times, "It is clear that the archives are deeper and more vast than even most Dylan experts could imagine, promising untold insight into the songwriter's work." The three-story façade of the Bob Dylan Center will face downtown Tulsa's hugely popular public gathering space, Guthrie Green, and will depict a rare 1965 image of Dylan, donated to the center by renowned photographer Jerry Schatzberg.  

Playwright Lisa Ramirez draws on Jean d’Arc’s motive force as the basis for examining the will of young women to effect change in today’s frightening world.  Her vehicle is a riveting, uber-energetic, often chaotic and confrontational clash of five young people one fateful night.  “sAiNt jOaN” grabs the attention by the throat and throttles it for 60 exciting and exhausting minutes.  

The Band’s Visit is almost a chamber musical; limited cast, no big dance numbers, no flashy sets or projections. It tells a simple story, but one that slowly creeps up on you and, if you let it, packs an emotional wallop. It’s based on a 2007 Israeli film that won critical acclaim and success.

Middletown: The Ride of Your Life! is a touching and humorous tale of friendship, life's joys, and difficulties. Actors' Playhouse and GFour Productions is presenting the comedy-drama through Dec. 12. The play reminds us how we missed in-person human interaction and connection during the pandemic.

The Public Theater Presents Cullud Wattah, a timely social protest drama written by Erika Dickerson-Despenza and directed by Candis C. Jones Adam Rigg (scenic design) creates a set full of profound contradictions. They weave through the drama on every level. A cozy furnished home of a working class African-American family is surrounded by a macabre curtain of plastic bottles of dirty water.

Ft. Lauderdale-based New City Players presents Duncan Macmillan's drama, Lungs, in an uneven production running through Nov. 28. In Macmillan's play, a couple are trying to decide whether to have a baby in a world plagued by many problems. Lungs, which runs less than two hours with no intermission, speaks to a new generation of folks for whom uncertainty has become the norm.

The Public Theater presents Cullud Wattah, a timely social protest drama written by Erika Dickerson-Despenza and directed by Candis C. Jones Profound contradictions are dramatized and shown throughout the drama. Adam Rigg (scenic design) creates a cozy furnished home of a working class African-American family surrounded by a macabre curtain of plastic bottles of dirty water.

Palm Beach Dramaworks in South Florida will present the world premiere production of Michael McKeever's new historical drama, The People Downstairs. The play explores the challenges faced by the folks who hid Anne Frank's family during World War II as the Nazis attempted to round up European Jews.The People Downstairs runs from Dec. 3 to Dec. 19 at Palm Beach Dramaworks' playing space in West Palm Beach.  

America's only two encyclopedic museums, the Museum of Fine Arts Boston and the Metropolitan Museum of Art were both founded in 1870. The Met is larger with an endowment of $3 billion compared to $608 million for the MFA. In aspects of the collection- Asiatic, classical Greek and Roman, Old Kingdom Egypt and Nubia, American art to 1900, prints, drawings and photography, it is second to none. In the area of European painting and French impressionism and post impressionism it ranks with other American museums. Other than the Lane Collection of American modernism the MFA is weak in 20th and 21st century art. It ceased to collect Boston artists when they were dominantly Jewish by the 1930s.

The painter Vasily Kandinsky belongs in the Guggenheim Museum. The new show titled "Around the Circle" spirals up to the top of Frank Lloyd Wright's monument.

Sharing morning tea with a squirrel come rain or shine for past eighteen months. Then the bobcat prowled about. Evoking fear of losing a friend. Yet nature is what it is.

The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), is unveiling an ambitious transformation in the George D. and Margo Behrakis Wing for Art of the Ancient World: five reimagined galleries for the art of ancient Greece, Rome and the Byzantine Empire that tell new stories about some of the oldest works in the MFA’s collection. A gallery of modern and contemporary works located within the wing explores the reception of ancient art by 20th- and 21st-century artists. The first of the multiyear rotations features the works of the modern master Cy Twombly (1928–2011), an alumnus of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts.

The Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden has successfully completed the public consultation process for the revitalization of its Sculpture Garden. The Hirshhorn is the only Smithsonian museum directly integrated into the National Mall. The revitalization project will connect the 1.5-acre garden on the National Mall with the 4-acre plaza surrounding the museum, which welcomes 1 million visitors annually.

There's lots of fun for the whole family on stage in Connecticut. Here's a cheat sheet.

Jeremy Denk performed “The Old Testament of Keyboard Music,”  Bach’ s Well Tempered Clavier (WTC) , at the 92nd Street Y in New York. The artist selects works to which he can bring new insights. Bach, he sensed, was trapped by the Glenn Gould performances in the mid-20th century. Audiences found the neuroses Gould implanted in Bach suitable for the century’s mood. They also appreciated the humming he added to the piano notes. Other performers flatten the work to sound more like a harpsichord, sewiwgmachine style.

Bend but don't break.

In Jacob Marley's Christmas Carol, playwright Tom Mula tells the familiar tale, but from Jacob Marley's perspective. City Theatre in Miami has mounted an engaging production that runs through Dec. 19. Long-time British Actor Colin McPhillamy plays 18 characters in this minimalist production.

It comes as no surprise that the oldest piano in the world, created in 1720 by Bartolomeo Cristofori (1655–1731) of Padua, is now housed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. An earlier instrument was recorded in the inventory of the Medici family in 1700, but the Met’s piano is the oldest to survive today.  It has hammers and dampers, two keyboards, and a range of four octaves, C–c”’ The instrument was on view for concertgoers, who enjoyed a talk by Leon Botstein om the development of the instrument. He focused on Beethoven's response to more notes with a wider dynamic range, The Orchestra Now performed the Emperor Concerto, Shai Wosner at the modern Steinway and Leon Botstein conducting.

The play is set two years after Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy have married and settled at his home. The family is arriving to celebrate Christmas.

Inna Faliks is a superb concert pianist, who also heads the piano studies department at the University of California, Los Angeles.  Her recordings are devoted to revealing kindred spirits. Husband and wife, Robert and Clara Schumann, are offered together in The Schumann Project. Their entwined influence is suggested. Her interpretations of Beethoven will be presented as part of a Barge Concert in New York on December 16.

NFT art is a new way of categorizing digital artworks that enables artists to monetize their creations. A pertinent question: how does valuing a physical artwork compare to valuing a virtual work of art? It turns out that the value of NFTs and crypto art is based on the value of cryptocurrency. NFTs are sold on the basis of Ether or Ethereum. The Ethereum is translated into monetary value. For example, if an NFT sells for 2 Ethereum, that would translate at the moment into about $2,255 dollars. If the speculative value of the Ethereum drops, then so does the value of the artwork.

Conrad Tao is a special pianist. He is a master of technique and so much more. He performs as a listener, always hearing the harmonics of a note he strikes (or even plucks). In his own compositions and in his interpretation of the work of others, he calls our attention to the richness of a tone,  colored by many notes, in geometric order above the note struck.

The premise of the play that actually goes wrong is introduced by Chris Bean, president of the Cornley University Drama Society (played by Matt Mueller). The drama society is staging the play The Murder at Haversham Manor in the USA, a production made possible, the program notes, by the British-American Cultural Exchange Program.

A new work by George Meyer and commissions by Inna Falik are performed in New York. This program took place on The Barge, one of New York’s most charming venues.  You rock on the boat as you watch perfumers reflected in the boat’s windows.  Boats pass by outside, traveling up and down the East River. The Wall Street skyline shimmers in the background. A welcome way to end a difficult year.  Live music.