The opera by Gordon Getty, Goodbye, Mr. Chips, had its New York premiere as an opera reimagined for film. Co-presented by New York City Opera (NYCO) and Festival Napa Valley, Getty’s fourth opera is based on the popular 1934 novella Goodbye, Mr. Chips and other stories by James Hilton.

After a slow opening in Praha, Czech Republic, in 1927  Schwanda, der Dudelsackpfeifer (Schwanda, the bagpipe player) by Jaromir Weinberger turned into a huge success around the Western World - and before Hitler came to power.

Despite its musical and dramatic excellence, “Otello” has never achieved the audience popularity of “Aida” or Verdi’s great middle-period trio of “La Traviata,” “Il Trovatore,” or “Rigoletto,” which are among the most performed operas year after year.

The Chinese Lady produced by Ma Yi Theater Company and The Public Theatre has arrived in New York.  This production was created for its world premiere by The Barrington Stage Company and Ma Yi. Written by Lloyd Sun, Ralph B. Pena directs.  Women’s history month is the occasion for this mounting.

Berkshire Opera Festival mounts a new production of THREE DECEMBERS by Jake Heggie as its Second Stage production this year. BOF to partner with PS21, a state-of-the-art green-energy theater in Chatham, NY, which since completing its new theater has evolved into the Hudson Valley's mecca for innovative programming by leading and emerging artists in contemporary music. It will be staged July 21 & 23 at PS21 in Chatham, NY.

The Clark Art Institute’s popular First Sunday Free program continues on Sunday, April 3, offering free admission to the galleries and special exhibitions from 10 am–5 pm, along with a series of special activities. April’s theme is “Photography.” As a part of the Clark’s special programs, visit a pop-up installation of early photography in the Manton Study Center for Works on Paper from 11 am–1 pm, enjoy art-making in the Clark Center’s lower lobby from 1–4 pm, then bring along a camera (phone cameras work just fine) and head outdoors to join a guided hike from 2:30–4 pm to learn best practices for photographing nature.

The Boston Symphony’s archival concert stream of its 1963 American premiere of Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem, recorded at Tanglewood, will be made available free of charge at bso.org/now, March 10 through April 8. Under the direction of Erich Leinsdorf (BSO Music Director, 1962–69), the historic recording features vocalists Phyllis Curtin, Nicolas di Virgilio, and Tom Krause, as well as Chorus Pro Musica and Columbus Boy Choir.

The Irish Repertory Theatre was preparing to present Eugene O’Neill’s Touch of the Poet when Covid struck and theaters closed.  Sets were ready.  Costumes had been fitted. Rehearsals underway. Ever inventively, the troupe re-grouped to put the production on streaming. Directed by Ciarán O’Reilly,  this work was  a masterful performance on screen. Now it is back live

In part, “Red Winged Blackbird” is a classic play about two special generations of Americans – the parents being from the “greatest generation” who sacrifice all for their progeny, and the children being of the loving but self-indulgent “flower power” generation

Joshua Harmon’s Prayer for the French Republic has been extended until March 27 at the Manhattan Theatre Club in New York.  In constructing a multi-generation family on stage, playwright Joshua Harmon has given director David Cromer a rich opportunity to explore presentation.

Check out what your favorite actors and filmmakers will be sipping all night long at the 94th Oscars®. Fleur de MIRAVAL - the only Champagne house exclusively devoted to Rose? Champagne - announced today it will be the Champagne poured at this year's Oscars, taking place on Sunday, March 27.

Lyudmila Dakhova wrote in a message to us just a few days ago: "Art is civilization." And when we watch the news, Lyudmila is never far from our thoughts.

At seven AM, March 16, 20221 my friend Michael drove me to Berkshire Medical Center in Pittsfield. Along the way he told truly terrible jokes to distract me from major surgery for severe spinal stenosis. It entailed five vertebrae. Thankfully, the next three days were a blur and I was out of my gourd on oxy. In rehab/ slammer there was a homeless woman camped in my room with her daughter. They ordered pizza but wouldn't share. That now seems so long ago and far away.

Opera Philadelphia will return with the O Festival in September. 2022.

With “Passing Strange,” musician/playwright Stew created a multi-faceted coming-of-age story set to music and verse.  The music is a mashup of rock era styles that never hits a false note.  Both song lyrics and spoken sections set to music drive the narrative forward.

On Sunday, September 4 at 7 p.m., Grammy Award-winning singer, songwriter, author, poet, and multi-instrumentalist Van Morrison performs for the first time at Tanglewood.

Berlin is dancing again, despite the rumblings of war from the Ukraine. Despite this horrible situation Germany tries to keep going. Against all odds, the Tanzplattform Deutschland returned in 2022.

In conjunction with "Strict Beauty: Sol LeWitt Prints," exhibition curator David S. Areford gives a lecture exploring the Jewish dimensions of Sol LeWitt’s art through five projects—two structures, two wall drawings, a work of architecture, and a site-specific installation—which together represent the most socially and historically contingent of LeWitt’s career.  

“Motherwhere” continues Jeremy Gill’s ongoing collaboration with the award-winning Parker Quartet, and is his first work for New York Classical Players. It premieres in New York on April 1. The author of the book that inspired the work, Zsófia Bán, is arriving from Hungary for the performance.

Annie Baker has established herself with a naturalistic stream of plays, including the trilogy taking place in the town of Shirley, Vermont, of which this play is a member.  These are narratives about ordinary people doing ordinary things, often written and acted with such uninflected manner as to elevate boredom and long silences as virtues.

The Board of Trustees of Hancock Shaker Village announced today that director Jennifer Trainer Thompson will step down in July. Thompson has been widely credited for her transformational leadership of the museum and is recognized as an innovator in the museum community. Since her appointment in September 2016, Hancock Shaker Village has grown in size and stature and has been infused, as The Boston Globe noted last summer, “with great gusts of contemporary vitality”.

Michel Van der Aa's music theatre works.  This is a miracle, because he deploys many instruments, not only a libretto, often based on wild imaginings, yet sensibly based on a very simple story. In Upload, we are in the revere of the last act of Walkerie. Now a father is defying his daughter, not the reverse. The Park Avenue Armory mounts a compelling case fot his work

Simon Dinnerstein performed Bach's Goldberg Variations at the Miller Theatre. She is a magician at the keyboard, giving us all the spiritual richness of the work along with great joy.

This spring, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden will present an exhibition by pioneering abstractionist artist Sam Gilliam. Between May 25 and Sept. 4, “Sam Gilliam: Full Circle” will pair a series of circular paintings (or tondos) created in 2021 with “Rail” (1977), a landmark painting in the Hirshhorn’s permanent collection.

Yussef El Guindi’s new play deftly delves into a constellation of differences – not only cultural, but marital, economic, power, gender, and generational – some between cultures and some within.  The result is a lively dramedy that reveals the causes and consequences of the cracks in the American couple’s marriage.