Claudio Monteverdi is considered the first major composer of an opera. The richness of his talent is on abundant display in William Kentridge’s direction of The Return of Ulysses.

“Vicuna” is comedy rich in innuendo and roman à clef portrayals. I’ve seen several of Jon Robin Baitz’s plays in the past, but this one is a little different from his usually serious efforts as a dramatist.

The Eastman Philharmonia under the brilliant Neil Varon, performed Maurice Ravel, Kevin Puts and Serge Prokofiev at Alice Tully Hall.

The brutally honest play From Silence by Anne Marilyn Lucas is based on her observations of second generation Holocaust survivors and their families. The piece centers on a Jewish Holocaust survivor who, as a coping mechanism, has remained silent about her experiences in detention.

Any theatre company, group, or person who wants to do a reading of my feminist political comedy, The Taming, on Inauguration Day 2017 can do so for free, with thanks to Playscripts.

Located in the 'Basque' country, the Navarra region is gaining recognition for producing superb wines at reasonable costs.

The Berkshire theatre gilterrati crammed into Mr. Finn's Cabaret for a raucous evening celebrating The First Annual Berkshire Theatre Awards. Seventeen arts journalists voted on 120 nominees in 25 categories chosen from artists in the 75 live theatre productions mounted in Berkshire County and adjacent areas between October 1, 2015 and September 30, 2016.

For a Venetian Coronation, the golden wood of Alice Tully Hall is lit around the stage by floor floodlights cast upwards. The 1595 Coronation ritual inducted Marino Grimani who would rule until his death in 1605. The Baroque style of the performance was delivered with clarity and beauty Challenges in playing period instruments with fewer vents and using the high larynx to produce tones of exquisite beauty were not apparent in the formal but easy movements of the groups.

“Now what” are the words playwright Michael McKeever wants us to ponder after watching his devastatingly honest, explosive, unflinching and all-too-topical play titled simply “After.”

Young (45 years old) hotshot Thomas Ades is a triple threat: composer, conductor and pianist. In his first outing with the BSO as artistic partner he showcased each of those skills. The results were mostly good. Among the highlights was the local premiere of his "Totentanz," a major work by any standard.

FInian's Rainbow was first produced in 1947, but the tough issues it raises are very contemporary. In Southern United States blacks and whites live comfortably, but are challenged by land grabs, Sears Roebuck salesmen and a Senator ripe for conversion.

The brilliance of Samuel Beckett is captured by the Pan Pan Theatre Company of Dublin. Beckett's magical words never had more music and humor. The irony of death's grip is fully evoked in our mind's eye as we sit in rocking chairs, imagining figures. Beckett is laugh-inside funny, his words ricocheting around the room.

Stephen Adly Guirgis opens the veins of family feelings in his plays, with his gritty, piercing dialogue. He writes scenes we usually don’t see in public, scenes that reveal long histories of family abuse that become painful memories. He does this in Between Riverside and Crazy and The Motherfucker with the Hat, He is is a member of New York’s highly regarded LAByrinth Theater Company. Little Flower premiered at LAByrinth in 2008, directed by the late Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Carnegie Hall programs explore an individual's musicality. For those who are born with the musical gene, their basic instincts are led out into the beat and the song. For those who do not have the gene, music is brought inside and listeners made.

The narrative of Sharr White’s play is not its strongest asset. It’s the performances of the actors that win the day. The technical credits at CV REP are always top tier.

Fun Home, the prize-winning show (five 2015 Tonys including best musical), opened at Chicago's Oriental Theatre last week for a very short run. The play, based on Alison Bechdel’s best-selling graphic novel, is a story of growing up trying to figure out yourself and seeing your parents through new eyes as you mature.

Theatre celebrities, from critics to thespians, will gather at 5 pm on Sunday, November 13, 2016 at Mr. Finn’s Cabaret in Pittsfield. With a champagne toast they will celebrate the first, annual Berkshire Theatre Awards AKA 'The Berkies." The 25 winners in a range of categories, many of whom plan to attend, have previously been announced. The suspense will focus on the winner of the Larry Murray humanitarian award named for the critic and founder of the awards.

British playwright Simon Stephens and director Mark Brokaw weave an engaging obbligato of nicely nuanced, performances by two terrifically talented stars who know how to draw the audience into their small, compelling story and make it sing. It's currently on Broadway at Manhattan Theatre Club.

While the theories of Albert Einstein ushered in the nuclear age his private life, as examined in the new Mark St. Germain play Relativity, was just as volatile. Although he crafted an eccentric and accessible public persona we learn that he was a misogynist and misanthrope. The drama evokes a hypothetical tug of war between Einstein (Richard Dreyfuss) and an abandoned daughter Margaret (Christa Scott-Reed) who has used deception to visit and confront him.

The "Queen of the Harlem Renaissance" would probably be thrilled with the birthday bash Off-Broadway's New Federal Theatre and Castillo Theatre are throwing in her honor. They're presenting a fresh, dynamic production of the bio-play "Zora Neale Hurston: a Theatrical Biography" through Nov. 20 in Castillo's intimate black box theater.

The New Jersey Symphony tours the state, winter, summer and fall. Starting her inaugural season as Music Director, Xian Zhang was welcomed enthusiastically by residents of Englewood.

Squabbling siblings Albert and Jennifer Chen attained academic achievement. But as adults, they’re socially awkward depressed failures: he’s just been passed up for promotion and she’s been dumped by her loser boyfriend. So pivoting to the West and the East, they confront their Tiger parents and launch an Asian Freedom Tour! From California to China and back, this new comedy examines race, parenting, and success.

Bela Bartok is known for his folklore inspired spiky modernism, which he applied distinctively to orchestral and chamber works. "Bluebeard" is his only opera, and it is an awkward undramatic outlier in the repertory. Its lushly beautiful music, however, is a powerful reason why it is revived on occasion. The BSO under Charles Dutoit did it proud.

New Jersey-born Philip Roth has donated his personal library to the safe space home away from home of his childhood. With this gift, he has completed the circle of his intellectual and literary life. The Newark Public Library (built in 1901) is a great temple of literature based upon Florentine Palacio. According to George Abbott White, Roth has added to library's glory.

The bottle tree is a background symbol in Stage Left Theatre’s haunting new play by that name—a world premiere script by Beth Kander—about the U.S. gun culture and its most horrific example, school shootings.