Bill and Nancy have been married for 50 years, and on the surface, they have been happy, or at least content.  But when they dispassionately announce their decision to divorce to their visiting adult sons, Brian and Ben, the boys are flabbergasted.  As expected, they have questions like “What happened?” but worse, they have answers, like “We can fix this,” as if the breakup could be within their control.  And when they finally realize that it could actually happen, it’s “Why couldn’t you get divorced when we finished school, like normal people?”

In 1923 Edward Hopper spent his second summer in Gloucester. He met and later married the artist Josephine Nivison. That summer he painted several pictures and created a number of water colors. They worked side by side. A century later, on the occasion of Gloucester 400 Plus their work will be on view at the Cape Ann Museum.

The Boston Modern Opera project is making its Carnegie Hall debut this weekend (April 15).  Bostonians have had the privilege of hearing and seeing this company for many years.  The program at Carnegie is enticing

As part of a rolling world premiere, Refuge is running at Theatre Lab in Boca Raton, Fl. in an intense and believable production through April 23. The production features music, magical realism, and puppets. Refuge is about the migration crisis, but does not deal with politics. Rather, it is a piece brimming with humanity.

In their respective practices, Sue Williamson (b. 1941) and Lebohang Kganye (b. 1990) incorporate oral histories into films, photographs, installations, and textiles to consider how the stories our elders tell us shape family narratives and personal identities. Implicitly and explicitly addressing legacies of racial violence and social injustice, their work offers a cross-generational dialogue on history, memory, and the power of self-narration.

Passages in American Art is a fundamental reinterpretation of the collection, platforming multiple voices, revealing new ways of looking at some of the museum’s most beloved works of art, and inviting community members to drive the conversation. Opening May 27, 2023, the project examines the existing collection, and along with recent acquisitions, commissions, and select long-term loans, integrates Atlantic narratives and Indigenous perspectives to expand the story of American art. 

The Huntington announces its complete lineup for the 23/24 season, featuring an eclectic mix of 7 highly acclaimed shows by a wide variety of diverse artists, the first full season completely programmed by new Huntington Artistic Director Loretta Greco. 

Haskell Free Library and Opera House straddles the border between the U.S. and Quebec Province in Canada as a result of a surveying error that occurred before the library was built.  A line on the floor designates the border.  The playwright has deftly used this real-life anomaly as the crucible for the play’s conflicts. After the Muslim Travel Ban of 2017, a kerfuffle arises as a result of a social media posting which suggests that the library is a good crossborder meeting place.  The message is not lost on Muslims, particularly families with members on both sides of the divide.

Announcing the opening of my artist-in-residence exhibition at the Kinney Center for Interdisciplinary Renaissance Studies at UMass, Amherst.

In Bold Ventures: Thirteen Tales of Architectural Tragedy (Other Press), author Charlotte Van den Broeck asks some interesting questions: When is a mistake so all-encompassing that an individual feels he or she can’t go on? What is the line between creator and creation? If the art deconstructs, should the artist as well?

Born to immigrant parents, Iranian-American playwright Sanaz Toossi looks at a part of a global industry that has derived from the ubiquitous nature of English – teaching English to non-native speakers.  Calling upon her own heritage to generate a narrative, her incisive dramedy “English” won both the Lucille Lortel and Obie awards for best new play in 2022.

Richard Strauss preferred to spell the title of his most popular opera: Der Rosencavalier.  Although the opera began with conversations between librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal and Count Kessler, a diplomat, scholar and director of the Cranach-Presse in Weimar, the opera is very much Strauss’s.  Kessler promised Hofmannsthal that he could pay for his children’s education with the proceeds from productions.  That he did. 

The Velvet Underground & Nico: Scepter Studio Sessions highlights the Velvet Underground and the music from their first recording sessions in April 1966 at Scepter Studios in New York City. The exhibition centers on the original tapes of the nine initial tracks recorded by the band, recently identified while processing Andy Warhol’s archive at The Warhol, which became the bedrock of their debut album The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967, Verve Records), one of the most jarring and influential albums in rock music.

Composer Allen Shearer and librettist Claudia Stevens's “Prospero’s Island” borrows from the “The Tempest.” But they have moved it a significant measure from the source material. In addition to lyrics in modern American-English vernacular interspersed with poetic accents, a plot update and revision gives the material more contemporary relevance while altering the moral profile of the main character. The result is a riveting chronicle of moral corruption followed by a quest for redemption that is accompanied by equally compelling music, calling on diverse idioms. Although the narrative arc is clearly dramatic, the creators frequently punctuate the proceedings with humorous interludes.

MASS MoCA announces Summer 2023 programming including the exhibitions Joseph Grigely: In What Way Wham? (White Noise and Other Works, 1996-2023), on view beginning May 28, Anne Samat: Love, on view beginning June 24, and Elle Pérez: Intimacies, on view beginning July 22

The flamboyant bon vivant Noël Coward excelled in many aspects of the performing arts, but he is best remembered today as a playwright who exposed the foibles of English society in several between-the-wars, comedy-of-manners plays.  The last of these was “Blithe Spirit.”  Many of us, having seen the movie and perhaps productions of the play as well, may wish to pass on seeing this war horse once again.  That would be a mistake.  City Lights has produced a sparkling rendition that hits the mark on every measure.

The Jean Paul Riopelle Foundation, in collaboration with the Department of Canadian Heritage and Culture pour tous, is proud to announce the Canadian artists who have been selected to realize 9 cultural mediation projects as part of the Riopelle Dialogues Program, one of the most ambitious cultural mediation programs ever seen in Canada.

Rafael Mahdavi, is a global artist who lives and works in France and Greece. Some years ago he commuted from Wellesley to Paris. At that time I curated an exhibition simultaneously for New England School of Art/ Suffolk University and Boston's French Library. We have been in touch ever since. This is an update on the latest work.

Cicely Carew, Venetia Dale, and Yu-Wen Wu have been named the recipients of the 2023 James and Audrey Foster Prize Exhibition. Their exhibition at the ICA, on view August 24–January 2, will encompass a wide range of media—from sculpture and installation to time-based media and works on paper.

The American Theatre Critics Association (ATCA) has announced the six finalists for the 2023 Harold and Mimi Steinberg/American Theatre Critics Association New Play Award. ATCA presents the honor annually. The presentation will take place on May 7 at South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa, Calif as part of the annual Pacific Playwrights Festival.

Images Cinema presents its 14th annual farming and food film festival: Fresh Fest. Fresh Fest seeks to connect local farmers and food producers with the community around important conversations that impact all of us.

Noche Flamenca creates a diverse theatrical body of performance through song, music, and dance that expresses a rigorous, spell-binding aesthetic in the form of flamenco; one that exceeds the highest artistic expectations.

The Clark Art Institute recently added three new paintings to its permanent collection, enhancing its holdings of works by women artists. The paintings, two by Marguerite Gérard and one by Evelyn De Morgan, are the first by either artist to enter the Clark’s collection.

Those familiar with 42nd Street Moon will see how this offering fits the company’s modus operandi. Obviously, it is a musical, and one that calls for a large ensemble, but with limited orchestration and minimal staging, all of which suit the company. But for that, you get Sondheim – witty, and sometimes searing lyrics, creative rhythms, often delivered in patter style, and great music. The music, however, is a little off the composer’s beaten path – a bit more conventional Broadway and a bit less dissonance.

The Boston Symphony Orchestra  announces that Elvis Costello and The Imposters with Charlie Sexton as special guest have joined the lineup for the Popular Artists Series at Tanglewood. This will be the 2003 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee’s first appearance at Tanglewood.