The Knights, a Brooklyn based chamber music band, play music from numerous genres and somehow unite the opposing styles into a wonderful evening of entertainment. From Hadyn to Dylan, with a little Schubert thrown in for good measure, The Knights journey begins.

Composer Huang Ruo talks about dimensionalism. You don't have to understand what the term means to get totally caught up in new dimensions in his opera Paradise Interrupted which opens the Lincoln Center Festival. Ruo's music, and Jennifer Ma's libretto based on the Biblical story of the Garden of Eden are enmeshed in The Peony Pavilion, a truncated version of the 16th century Chinese Opera. The original lasted 22 hours and has been performed by Qian Yi, a force of nature who weaves the song of the central character in the new opera.

Between Riverside and Crazy is a rowdy, raunchy play with lots of action. (Sensitive ears alert: When I said raunchy, that’s what I meant.) Yasen Peyankov directs it with style and glee.

Seth MacFarlane is known for his several tv projects, including the 14th year of the syndicated program, Funny Guy, as well as his skill in writing the movie, 'Ted.' What we didn't know was that he is a professionally trained singer, who could have had a second career if the first didn't work out.

Wastwater by Simon Stephens is a loosely connected trilogy of stories, skillfully directed by Robin Witt. They’re set near London’s Heathrow Airport, where the village of Sipson is threatened with obliteration for the sake of a new airport runway. The playwright is best known for his Tony-winning adaptation, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.

Under the deft direction of Brian Kulick, this ‘Macbeth’ production has been updated to a visual setting more or less around the time of World War I. However, the language, spirit, and the murderous intrigues that Shakespeare loved so dearly are still present. It’s a clever way to update the core story that is familiar to all without sacrificing any dramatic elements or story points as conceived by the Bard.

On the occasion of the national gathering of the American Theatre Critics Associaton our correspondent visited the City of Brotherly Love. In addition to theatre she allowed time to explore other attractions.

A great production of Merchant of Venice requires inspired casting. The Tina Packer production has a truly magnficent Shylock in company member Jonathan Epstein taking on the complex and demanding role for the fifth time. It is his second with Packer. This version also has a first rate Portia in Tamara Hickey and suitably apathetic and melancholy Antonio played with nuance by John Hadden. It was Packer's intent to take the gloves off in attacking issues of race, religion, gender, homosexuality and racism.

Whatever mood you are in, Zonin research has designed a Prosecco that fits your 'state of mind'

A lot of theatre this season is feeding us heavy duty, pc, brain food. But for pure fun release and esape the best show in the Berkshires, Little Shop of Horrors, is presenting a hilarious musical comedy about a man eating plant which is chewing the scenery and devouring audiences at the Colonial Theatre.

After three weeks of pop concerts drawing an audience of some 100,000 opening night of official Tanglewood 2016 seemed more like mid season.

Nine years ago the Montreal born choreographer Eric Gauthier started a company with six dancers. The Stuttagart based group is performing with week with 16 international dancers. It is thriving with the generous support of Mercedes and Porsche which manufacture luxury cars in that industrial city.

Scale is an important factor in how we respond to objects, art and theatre. Using the small frame of a puppet theatre, Torry Bend tells the story of a man who distributes paper hats on the Chicago Transit system. We could be anywhere in this intriguing take on urban life.

Fifty years ago, Olana was saved from the brink of destruction. The Olana Partnership is celebrating the past fifty years of art and style with a lawn party

Puck, the 19th century literary-political-humor magazine, was revolutionary in ridiculing everything about Gilded Age society through cartoons created by gifted artists of the period. With a Wink and a Nod: Cartoonists of the Gilded Age is the new exhibit from Puck magazine on view at the Driehaus Museum, a magnificent 19th century mansion just off Michigan Avenue in Chicago.

Since 1974, James Taylor, known as 'JT' performed some 25 times at Tanglewood. He is obviously the most revered popular artist performer to grace the grounds of this historic music center.

The Gift Theatre’s eloquent new production of The Grapes of Wrath is a story of Dust Bowl migrants during the Great Depression of the 1930s, but it bears witness to many of the personal tragedies of today’s ongoing Great Recession.

In the quid pro quo of museum trades, through October 10, the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown is hosting “Splendor, Myth, and Vision: Nudes From the Prado.” This includes 28 paintings by primarily Italian, Flemish, and Spanish masters of the 16th and 17th centuries.

Bob Dylan brought his current act, the 'Never Ending Tour' to Tanglewood. His opening act was Mavis Staples, formally one of the Staples Singers.

Indigenous to Argentina is the traditional folk form of Malambo which is described as the machismo dance of the gauchos. With striking resemble to Flamenco, Irish step dancing, and African drumming this artform first evolved in the 17th century. The irony is that this ancient dance is new to American audiences.

The family based Long Day's Journey Into Night is regarded as the masterpiece of Eugene O'Neill. In a Broadway revval now closed Jessica Lange won a Tony Award for the paradigmatic role of the morphine addicted mother Mary Tyrone.

The powerful drama Cost of Living, by Martyna Majok, having its world premiere at Williamstown Theatre Festival entails two individuals with disabilities and those who provide care for them. The production will transfer to Manhattan Theatre Club during the coming season. It is an evening of theatre that audiences will never recover from.

Based on the casting of Academy Award winner, Marisa Tomei, the production of The Rose Tattoo at Williamstown Theatre Festival is the most anticipated theatre event of the summer season in the Berkshires. For the most part audiences will be thrilled with her perfomance in a sprawling and chaotic production of the Tennessee Williams classic play.

A brilliant new take on the Orpheus myth by Anaïs Mitchell and Rachel Chavkin. The story of Orpheus and Eurydice was the basis of the first opera written in 1600. It has intrigued artists ever since, from Monteverdi to Christoph Willibald Gluck to Jacques Offenbach. Dramatists too have found the tale impossible to resist, Thomas Pynchon, Salmon Rushie and Tennessee William among them. This may be the first time the audience sits in purgatory.

The enormously sucessful first Berkshire Mountains Faerie Festival in Adams, Mass. was a midwinter brain storm of a group of local artists and activists. With this event they aspired to put Adams on the map as a community for artists and unbridled imagination. Now their ambition has been given a serendipitous boost. The Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling has announced that her latest venture “Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry” takes place on Mt. Greylock. The Adams festival was staged in the shadow of the tallest peak in Massachusetts where wizards and faeries abound.