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Tracing the impacts of militarism on the American landscape, through the lens of art, environmental studies, and politics.

The program has had a good long run of 16 years. It was a writing program for people who wanted to write about art, with an emphasis on literature, philosophy, the relation between aesthetics and politics, and the history and future of the image.

SchifferNolandStudio will be the featured artist for the September/October show with Blue Heron Gallery Online. The show will run from September 13 until October 14. Peggy Schiffer and Sam Noland are the two-person collaborative known as SchifferNolandStudio, and their creative practice includes photography, digital media, painting, and other elements

What is it about “Tosca” that endows it with near universal appeal?  There have been naysayers who find the action and music of verismo to be too violent and vulgar, but they are now few.  To begin with, this is a mature and confident Puccini in the follow up to his equally renowned “La Boheme.”  The opera’s dissonant, ominous opening salvo of the Scarpia theme announces the tragedy to come, while the ensuing score resounds with rich melody, haunting leitmotifs, and several memorable “greatest hits” arias.

Sweet Land by a consortium of artists formed by the adventuresome Los Angeles company The Industry has won the award for best new opera in 2020 from the Music Critics Association of North America.  Music by Du Yun and Raven Chacon. Libretto by Douglas Kearney and Aja Couchois Duncan . Directed by Cannupa Hanska Luger and Yuval Sharon.

The Clark took a chance in featuring an unknown artist as its major summer exhibition. By word of mouth momentum has built for "Nikolai Astrup: Visions of Norway." The work of the artist was as narrow and deep as the fjords of his native Norway. While beloved in his native land he is unknown to all but a few art historians and specialists of 20th century Scandinavian art.

These two sisters, 103 and 101 at the time of the play, regale us with incidents and observations on their lives and opinions. And what experiences they are. They talk about their family’s history (and photos are projected) of slavery and freedom.

Sandra Oh stars as The Chair in a six episode comedy on Netflix. Set on small college Pembroke it is a broad and hilarious satire of cancel culture on campus. While played for laughs the hit comedy has evoked a dialogue about its uncanny, over the top, accuracy. It's the truth that makes this hilarious series sad and all too compelling.

La Damnation of Faust is a glorious dramatic legend.  It bombed in Paris, much to composer Hector Berlioz’ dismay and confusion. Yet even members of the orchestra he conducted at the premiere asked the composer about notes he wrote.  “That note does not exist,” complained a horn player. “It sounds like a sneeze.”  “That’s just what I wanted,” replied Berlioz. No one contests the musicality of the "Romane" aria, "D'amour l'ardente flame," so beautiful that it was selected to conclude the memorial service for Maria Callas.

Drawing from the Guggenheim’s exceptional collection of works by Kandinsky, the exhibition features approximately eighty paintings, watercolors, and woodcuts, as well as a selection of his illustrated books, spanning the artist’s earlier years in Russia and Germany and through his exile in France at the end of his life.

After a mild winter, a dry mid-spring and a July that seemed more like a November, our wine-growers have really been through the mill.

Elektra, the stage drama that underlies the opera Elektra, was written by Hugo von Hoffmansthal for a theatre venue run by Max Reinhardt in Berlin. Reinhardt would go on to found the Salzburg Festival in 1920. After a hundred years, this Festival is inarguably one of the world’s most satisfying. Their new production of Elektra is classic and thrilling.

After a nearly 15 year hiatus from art making and exhibiting, Lorie Hamermesh is back in a daring and spectacular fashion at Gallery NAGA for a solo exhibition accompanied by a fully illustrated catalog and essays by fellow Boston artists Carol Daynard and Cameron Barker.

Lynn Gall started working as a collagist more than 15 years ago.  First, while living in Bristol, in the United Kingdom, in a flat with very little space to call her studio; in fact, she had not much more than a desk and some storage space for her material. in 2019 she published in New York City a 269 page handbook with 120 full color images. She also makes a myriad of suggestions: 'how to create successful collages.'

On Saturday, September 4, at 4 pm, the renowned Knights Orchestra returns to the Clark as part of its programming to highlight Norwegian culture in celebration of its Nikolai Astrup: Visions of Norway exhibition.

Tanz im August (no translation necessary) opened the way for live performances with and for the public after Covid-19 had stopped all cultural activities since late last year.

“Eugene Onegin” not only represents the greatness of Russian opera but is one of the fine representatives of the whole operatic idiom. Director Alessandro Talevi marshals the creative team to give a look that blends traditional and modern elements. 

A remarkable program features Insight with Andrea Brachfeld. The quartet represents a who’s-who of today’s jazz scene. Headed by the acclaimed award-winning flutist Andrea Brachfeld, Insight includes Bill O’Connell, piano; Harvie S, bass; and Jason Tiemann, drums. The repertoire will feature “If Not Now, When,” Andrea’s original composition, made possible by a New Works grant from Chamber Music America.

Martin Mugar posted this in 2005 to the site Art Deal. Overcoming many physical and emotional handicaps Chuck Close prevailed leaving a daunting legacy of work.

Shakespeare’s frequent conceits include mistaken identities, confused love matches, supernatural interventions, play-within-a-play, and multiple plot lines, but “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” embraces them all, and more.  Several  threads are interspersed and overlapping throughout the play and opera’s narrative that may cause confusion to the uninitiated.

BIFF continues to celebrate independent film and this year we share stories of hope, of our future, of our past, of heroism, of inspiration and of laughter, loss and love.  So, we invite you to check out the program and watch all the films you want, whenever you want, wherever you want. Specific instructions will follow on the BIFF website for passholders and all others interested in the virtual event.  

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.

“The Lord of Cries” is an unusual melange of two literary works written two millennia apart.  The more recent is Bram Stoker’s “Dracula,” which has been used as the basis for operas before, but none have entered the repertoire.  Adamo concludes that Stoker must have known the other contributing piece, Euripides’s “The Bacchae.” 

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.