The Berlin Philharmoniker has a sound and texture of its own. Smooth, but richly-textured, their performance of Beethoven's 6th and 8th Symphonies was a revelation at Carnegie Hall.

Glass's opera is based on the Franz Kafka story of a prison colony where prisoners discover their crimes only as they are slowly killed. A true believer is the Executioner, and the failed execution is witnessed by the Visitor, a representative of liberal society. With only two singing actors, the work is dependent on the performances, which in this case were excellent.

New York New York. It's a wonderful town. Critics from all over America gathered for a conference of the American Theatre Critics Association. It was co-chaired by the New York critics Sherry Eaker and Ira Bilowit. There were five insightful panels as well as the traditional Lunch at Sardi's with a dazzling array of special guests.

I spent last week in Cuba with a group of about 30 charming and interesting travelers as part of a Smithsonian Journeys tour. The week was fascinating and intellectually invigorating while also being tiring and enervating.

Greg Allen's clever adaptation of Ghosts by Henrik Ibsen is set "in a moribund historic store-front theater on the North Side of Chicago in its final season before it gets turned into bicycle storage for luxury condos." That about sums up the current state of Mary-Arrchie Theatre in its last season after 30 years of staging fine, thought-provoking theater.

Never the Sinner is the story of Chicago's 1924 "crime of the century," its prelude, publicity and trial aftermath. It's retold in a tightly woven and acted play at Victory Gardens Theater.

When I curated a solo exhibition of work by the Visionary artist Paul Laffoley it was his first Boston show in 20 years. The exhibition was ignored by the Boston Globe. A few years later, during his brief time at the Globe, Ken Johnson declared Laffoley to be the most important Boston artist of his generation. In recent years he enjoyed national and international recognition

Each year, the Berkshire Museum, hosts the Festival of Trees. Both a fundraiser and a social event, this years theme is 'Westward Ho Ho Ho!' The goal is for the eighty participants to decorate their holiday trees in the theme of the event. The theme coincides with the museums 'American West' and 'Go West' exhibition.

What if you are obsessed with dance, entertain dancers, embrace them as friends? Yet you are not a dancer, just an observer who is steeped in the traditions and the pas de deuxs. So it was for balletomane Richard Curtis, who couldn't resist a charming tale about an audience member who finally makes it to a dressing room after weeks of watching performances and is able to fully embrace the lead dancer. Rollicking good fun and true to the spirit of dance.

The National Aviary is open daily except Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Eve, and Christmas. Although some of the birds must be fed in private, almost all feedings (both vegetarian and carnivorous) are scheduled to be viewable by visitors. Since 1999, annual attendance has consistently topped 100,000.

From the pen of Irish playwright Christian O’ Reilly, comes “Chapatti”, a tender, poignant, and charming tale that bubbles with the lilt of Irish laughter, wit and charm for which those silver-tongued Gaelic writer/philosophers are known.

Winemaker Mariaono Di Paola of Rutini Wines of Argentina was recently acknowledged as one of the top 30 winemakers in the world. Decanter magazine, a British publication, awarded Mr. Di Paola with this honor,

The Women's Project Theatre is presenting "Dear Elizabeth", a delightful, insightful and warm correspondence between two of America's great poets, Eiizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell. The leads revolve week to week. After seeing completing satisfying performances by J. Cameron-Smith and John Douglas Thompson we yearned to see the play over and over with alternate casts like Cherry Jones and Rinde Eckert.

The big boobs and porn of Lisa Yuskavage: The Brood at the Rose Art Museum are sure to delight some and offend many. With sensual, candy colors and finger licking erotic surfaces the Yale educated artist has made a nifty career of conflating high art and kitsch. If you visit this exhibition be sure to leave the kids and your inhibitions at home.

Every New Years Eve different cities and towns host celebrations of varying caliber, but Saratoga outshines them all. This year marks their 20th anniversary.

The world premiere of “Breaking Through”, a musical with a book by Kirsten Guenther and music and lyrics by Cliff Downs and Katie Kahanovitz, is now on stage at The Pasadena Playhouse under the direction of Playhouse Artistic Director Sheldon Epps.

The Mattress Factory, featuring site-specific installations created by artists in residence from around the world, was founded in 1977 by Artist Barbara Luderowski in a former Stearns & Foster mattress warehouse in Pittsburgh’s historic Central Northside.

Elias Hanna moved from Syria to America to further his education. Eventually, he was awarded a medical doctor degree and practiced during the Viet Nam war era. He never forgot the principles and values he grew up with, one being farming. This is the story of what evolved.

It took four years for former ICA curator Helen Molesworth and current one Ruth Erickson to organize 200 works by 100 artists as the landmark exhibition "Leap Before You Look: Black Mountain College, 1933-1957." In a provocative catalogue essay, however, Molesworth states why she has come to no easy conclusions about what occurred in Appalachia during the formative years of the American avant-garde.

The End is the beginning of Beckett's most productive and distinctive phase and in this wonderful production by Gare St. Lazare, the mysteries of his final period begin to be revealed. Since the state of unknowing and almost non-being is revealed best in monologue, this novella told in the first person lends itself to the stage. Conor Lovett captures every nuance and all the humor as well.

“Happy Hour” centers around aging widower father Harry Townsend (Gavin Macleod) and his forty-year old son Alan (John Hawkinson) who come to grips with the vexing, but immutable, fact that aging is a human process that comes to most of us. The one longer lives, the tougher it becomes to accept it. A frequently asked question by people of a ‘certain age’ is ‘how did I get so old so quick?’

Regarding Boston Theatre it is broke and time to fix it. This fall as one shoe after another dropped the Boston Theatre Community seemed to collapse like a house of cards. In 2004 through a partnership between Druker Development, Boston Center for the Arts and the Huntington Theatre Company the multi-stage Calderwood Pavilion was created in the South End. Is it possible that Huntington can swing a similar development to save, renovate and expand its antiquated facility? That's just a part of dramatic changes for the city.

Paul Jacobs, head of the organ department at the Juilliard School, and a magnificent performer invited Christine Brewer, the huge-voiced soprano of great delicacy, to join him in concert. Their alliance is for the ages.

If you live in, visit or are near Manhattan, the Pays d'Oc IGP Wine Week takes place from November 2nd through November 8th. Quality wines made from international varieties exist from this sun swept Mediterranean outpost.

A Confederacy of Dunces was published in 1980 eleven years after John Kennedy Toole's suicide. Recently the creative team- adapter Jeffrey Hatcher, director David Esbjornson, and actor Nick Offerman- met with the media to discuss the production for Boston's Huntington Theatre Company. The comedy will run from November 11 through December 13.