The Munich State Opera is presenting Salome, the opera by Richard Strauss. The set is dark, yet in full view as we enter the opera house. A man is fidgeting over a desk deep in the set. On it sits a banker’s lamp with its classic green hood. A patent for this lamp was taken out in 1909. In a prologue to the opera, Mahler songs are being sung, another brief clue to date the monumental, elegant setting created by Malgorzata Szczesniak. 

In “Elizabeth Cree,” the eminent Pulitzer Prize winning team, composer Kevin Puts and librettist Mark Campbell, have crafted a score and a darkly comic libretto with Gothic atmosphere that is absolutely riveting.  West Edge Opera’s stellar new production at its wonderful outdoor venue channels the creepiness of the events even at a broad daylight matinee.  

The Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) announces its first annual PEM Prize to celebrate creative expression and civic engagement. The inaugural recipient of the PEM Prize and its $25,000 award is multidisciplinary Cuban artist Carlos Garaicoa. Over the next year, Garaicoa will lead a series of events and civic engagement initiatives with the museum to coincide with the reopening of Partitura (August 1, 2021–February 6, 2022).

Singer-songwriter Paul Beaubrun was born into Haitian musical royalty (his parents are lead singers in the Grammy nominated band Boukman Eksperyans, and his grandfather is Haiti's beloved actor/comedian Languichatte Debordus). He will perform at Hancock Shaker Village on July 31.

Our first outdoors headliner concert takes place on Sunday, Aug. 15, at newly-refurbished Gateways Inn in picturesque downtown Lenox.

The Boston artist, Kahlil Gibran, is best remembered for his welded steel and bronze sculptures. Recently the Ogunquit Museum of American Art presented an exhibition of small early paintings that make us reconsider the relationship to his teacher Karl Zerbe and the Boston Expressionists.

Perhaps unique among performed operas, Francesco Cavalli’s 1667 “Eliogabalo”’s world premiere was delayed – by over three centuries – until 1999 to be precise.  Why, one might ask? 

ArtWeek Berkshires is a collaboration among Berkshire County’s five cultural districts (Great Barrington, Lenox, Pittsfield, North Adams, Williamstown), supported by 1Berkshire and the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission, with media support from Berkshire Magazine and Lamar.  

HallSpace is pleased to present monotypes and shaped, multi-panel paintings by Rob Roy in "Dispatches from America."  The Dorchester based gallery exhibition continues to September 4

The production is enjoyable due to the hard work and talent of the cast. Because of various complications caused by Covid, the cast does not include any members of Actor’s Equity.

The two season Israeli series "Fauda" was a boffo smash on Netflix. Accordingly I binged on its more or less sequel "Hit and Run." The creative team jumped the pond to create an Israeli/ American production in English and Hebrew. In seeking a wider and American audience the team lost its Sabra base and churned out yet another mediocre action thriller. If you are a 'Fauda" fan this will be a major disappointment.

It happened during the last week in June. Two prominent paintings by 20th-century masters were recovered nearly a decade after they had been stolen from a gallery in Athens. A contractor was arrested for committing what had become a notoriously audacious theft of works by Pablo Picasso and Piet Mondrian.

The musical “I Do!  I Do!” covers familiar ground that is nearly universal in most places and times.  The vignettes from 60 years of marriage include that unforgettable first night; gender roles; pregnancy and the challenges in rearing children; how people change over time, and often in opposite directions; the special highs of being a couple; infidelity, disinterest, and reconciliation; and ultimately, shared dotage.  Whew! 

The forecast for Lenox on August 15 is for hot, swing Jazz, provided by the inimitable Svetlana and the Delancey 5.  Their outdoors performance will take place at the historic Gateways Inn  in picturesque downtown Lenox, and starts at 4pm.  

This fall, the Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) and the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain are proud to present the North American premiere of The Great Animal Orchestra, a collaborative work between pioneer bioacoustician Bernie Krause and United Visual Artists. Over the course of nearly 50 years, Bernie Krause collected more than 5,000 hours of recordings of natural environments.

Born in Bolivia, but now living on a 38-meter boat on a Belgian Canal, Florinda Suárez Heredia paints what she feels.  Knowing from an early age that she would be a painter, she began her artistic career in her native country, later moving to Belgium.  Her work has been presented in galleries all over Europe, as well as the United States.

Please join Close Encounters With Music for an End-of-Summer Celebration and Auction. You will enjoy beautiful vistas, a scrumptious lunch, an appearance by the PRISM quartet (saxophones). and an auction of exciting items to bid on,

This production features a translation by Ian Johnston, who has translated many Greek works. I have read better translations, this one lacks poetry. At times the wording is jarring, too informal for such a work.

The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden will present the largest-ever U.S. exhibition of artwork by groundbreaking multimedia artist, performer, musician and writer Laurie Anderson from Sept. 24–July 31, 2022. “Laurie Anderson: The Weather” will debut more than 10 new artworks, interspersed with select key works from throughout her career.

Welcome to Walden the new play presented by TheaterWorks in conjunction with Riverfront Recapture running through Sunday, Aug. 29. It will also be available for streaming from Sunday, Aug. 15 to Sunday, Aug. 29.

“Viral Load”, an exhibition of works by artist Suzette Marie Martin at the Eclipse Mill Gallery, is a meditative suite of ten mixed-media paintings on canvas, bearing witness to the cumulative, collective loss of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Woodie King Jr. will receive a Tony Honoring for Excellence in the Theatre on September 26. These awards were established in 1990. It's about time! King and his New Federal Theatre have been producing excellent work for over fifty years.

The Irish Repertory Theatre (IRT) is streaming a shortened version of George M. Cohan Tonight! through Aug. 29. IRT gave the piece its theatrical debut in 2006. The original IRT production earned award nominations. While reservations are free, IRT suggests a $25 donation for those who can afford it.

2021 Music Director John Adams  announces initial programming for its 75th Festival  2021 Festival composers include Samuel Carl Adams, Timo Andres, Dylan Mattingly, Gabriela Ortiz, Rhiannon Giddens, Carlos Simon, and Gabriella Smith 

Garmisch Partinkirchen is less than two hours by train from Munich, where Richard Strauss was born.  After the smashing success of his opera Salome, Strauss hired the Art Nouveau architect Emanuel von Seidl to build a villa on the property located at Zoeppritzstraße 42 in Garmisch.