After 17 seasons at Tanglewood, Garrison Keillor retires from 'Prairie Home Companion.'

Lindsey Ferrentino has written a play weaving the end of the NASA shuttle program with the return of a severely wounded war veteran. As directed by Daniela Varon, the ensemble group of actors, turns in a bravura performance, with Christianna Nelson at its center, as Jess returning from a third tour of Afghanistan.

While looking into the concept of Faerie or Fairy Festivals, one might discover that there are quite a number of such events happening each year all over America. 'The Faerie Festival Bug' hit six months ago in the town of Adams, MA, among a group of believers, at the Adams Arts Advisory Board. They enlisted many participants, word spread quickly among like-minded fantasy lovers, and here is the result in photos and report of the First Berkshire Mountains Faerie Festival.

In playwright Ayad Akhtar’s blistering comedy, “Disgraced” he explores the dark underbelly of the politically correct subject matter of anti-semitism and Islamophobia that is simmering just beneath the surface at first only to boil over later on, dragging its five characters into open verbal warfare.

The beautifully curated exhibit at the Art Institute of Chicago shows the full range of Siskind’s abstract expressionist photography in scenes shot in Chicago, New York, Gloucester, Martha’s Vineyard, Rome and other locations all over the world.

Florencia en el Amazonas is exactly the kind of opera and production New York City Opera should mount. Now producing in a suitably-sized house, the revived opera company has mounted a wonderfully satisfying opera.

Artists committed to the continuing attraction of opera as a form that draws an audience are experimenting. A workshop of Bounce, an opera conceived by Grete Holby and her Ardea Arts in conjunction with the University of Kentucky, is performed in a park in East Flatbush, Brooklyn. With dribbles as drumming and heros like Flight and Future, the future of opera itself is secured.

This summer there will be two Tennessee Williams plays in the Berkshires. The first is Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Berkshire Theatre Group in Stockbridge. It is a great play being given a so so production.

The Metropolitan Playhouse is producing two early Eugene O’Neill plays as part of their season on the topic of Hope. A satisfying evening of theatre makes a trip to the East Village a must for theatre buffs.

When he plays it straight Chris Botti is among the elite trumpet players of his generation. There is no question of his musicianship. But at times his performance at Tanglewood was way to Vegas. It seemed more Wayne Newton than Miles Davis. This jarred with hearing a superb rhythm section which was cut loose only occasionally.

In a ripped from the headlines, award winning play, American Son having its world premiere at Barrington Stage, the theme that black lives matter is explored with riveting power, The company comissioned the play by Christopher Demos-Brown and is flaunting conventional wisdow by opening the main stage season with something other than the usual light summer fare.

During the 1970s Kenworth Moffett, while a full professor at Wellesley College, was hired part time as the founding curator for contemporary art at the Museum of Fine Arts. After a long illness he passed away at the age of 81. Long after our days as aesthetic adversaries we remained friends. During annual visits to Palm Beach we would meet for lunch in Ft Lauderdale where he was director of its museum. In 2015 we collaborated on an extensive interview which is linked to this obituary.

Fiorello La Guardia (1882-1947)a true man of the people was a study in contradiction. Of Italian and Jewish heritage he was an Episcopalian Republican who was elected Mayor of New York on a fusion ticket. A small, portly, homely man in a rumpled suit he possessed towering charisma. The 1959 Tony and Pulitzer winning musical Fiorello! is being given a compressed and powerful production at Unicorn Theatre in Stockbridge.

Rodin was the first truly "modern" sculptor. His work was an evolving process in creating figurative pieces that expressed and integrated emotional, psychological and even spiritual notions of humanity. Rodin sometimes mixed, recycled,, and re-combined used “spare parts”: plaster-cast heads, torsos, arms, and legs. His mix-and-match sensibility was the inevitable result of his deep belief that art is always in transition, never complete. And these hybrid assemblages were put together in ways that are intended to evoke passion and reaction. This PEM show is a visual treat.

The Maxim Gorki Theater is situated in the center of Berlin, just off the boulevard 'Unter den Linden.' Since 2013, after a change in directors, 'The Gorki ' has again become a most vital forum for current socio-political and humanistic themes and plays. We are discussing here some on the 2016 playlist.

Fifty years after the release of 'Pet Sounds', Brian Wilson and his band played the album in its entirety. The music sizzled during a scorching afternoon at Tanglewood.

In Kimberly Akimbo by David Lindsay-Abaire, as played by the masterful Debra Jo Rupp, Kimberly, celebrating her sixteenth birthday is about to die of old age. In a superb performance Rupp conflates giddy youth and the world weary wisdom that comes with time and lifde experience.

Dolly Parton brought her act to Koussevitzky Hall on June 17th. And what an act it was.

Charles Olson (27 December 1910 – 10 January 1970) was a second generation American poet and link between Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams and the New American poets, which includes the New York School, the Black Mountain School, the Beat poets, and the San Francisco Renaissance. In his epic Maximus Poems he celebrated Gloucester which in turn honors him the the launch of the Maud/ Olson Library,

Pretend we’re on an airplane, because the oxygen mask above will prove beneficial. Certainly it will help you deal with the spectacular, breathtaking special effects of the mostly impressive non-equity national touring version we will see of the beloved Broadway musical “Beauty and the Beast.”

With a reviw of The Golem our Charleston correspondent, Sandy Katz, completes her coverage of the annual Spoleto Festival 2016. The mytical Golem was an exotic and exciting production.

60,000 visitors to Dublin visited Teeling Irish Whiskey's plant. Since opening the facility to tourists, business has grown immensely.

Brian Wilson will perform for the first time at Koussevitzky Hall on the grounds of Tanglewood on Sunday, June 19th at 2:30pm

Catalonia is known for Barcelona, the Pyrenees mountains and now, wine that is world-class and made by boutique wineries.

At about $150 each my pal and BFA contributor, Jack Lyons, managed to get a few "cheap seats" for the Broadway smash Hamilton. We even got to go back stage and chat with now Tony winner Leslie Odom, Jr. Back in November I asked him "what's next." It was a bit premature but all of the original contracts expire this summer. Its creator and star, Lin-Manuel Miranda, has already announced plans to leave. The show will continue indefinitly on Broadway while several touring companies are launched.