New York Times

The Mount, the historic estate of Edith Wharton, has announced its 2011 summer season. The official opening day is Saturday, May 7. The Mount will be open daily from 10 am to 5 pm through October 31, 2011.

Opera Boston presented the world premiere of Madame White Snake on Feb. 26, 2010 at the Cutler Majestic Theatre in Boston, where there were three performances and one preview. Madame White Snake, the first opera commissioned by Opera Boston was conceived by its librettist, Cerise Lim Jacobs, of Brookline, Massachusetts, and her late husband Charles.

"Madame White Snake’" by Zhou Long, premiered on Feb. 26, 2010, by the Boston Opera at the Cutler Majestic Theatre won for music. Sebastian Smee of the Boston Globe won for criticism.

The summer season at Mass MoCA launches with a concert by Rosanne cash on May 28. Not long after, June 24 to 26, North Adams will be transformed into a tent city ersatz Woodstock for the Wilco Solid Sound Festival. There's also lots to see and enjoy in the galleries of North America's largest contemporary art museum.

For the past 21 years Fred Taylor has been booking the renowned jazz club Scullers. Before that he ran the legendary Jazz Workshop and Paul's Mall. With razor sharp memory Taylor discussed highlights of a career in music that started almost by accident in 1952. With amateur equipment he recorded Dave Brubeck and Paul Desmond at Storyville for Fantasy Records. He has been at it ever since.

Ella Baff, the artistic director of Jacob's Pillow, described meeting the President and First Lady during an award ceremony at the White House as a "peak experience." She discussed travel to Cuba where she covered 30 companies in five days. This summer Mark Morris and his company will open the season for Tanglewood and close it for The Pillow.

This spring, Jacob’s Pillow Dance and MASS MoCA come together once again to present acclaimed Afro-Cuban folkloric music and dance group Los Muñequitos de Matanzas. The rumba celebration will occur at Mass MoCA April 30 and May 1.

While drawing no salary for the past 25 years, as president of the renowned National Arts Club in New York, O. Aldon James, with his twin brother John, and their inner circle of friends have enjoyed remarkable perks. After decades of fights, feuds, law suits and scandals it is the end of an era as the NAC Board announced recently that James is taking a "well earned vacation."

The New York Times today in an e mail blast is announcing that it will no longer put out for nothing. While it makes sense to charge for world class content there is a glut of free information on line. Why does this feel like a desperate last stand for the once mighty media giant. What is not evident in this move is the potential decline of readership and an erosion of authority and influence. While older Times readers may well pony up it is unlikely that anyone under 40 will bother and the Times, accordingly, has abandoned its next generation of potential readers.

Blythe Danner, Ted Danson, Parker Posey, Peter Dinklage, Lili Taylor, Michael Stuhlbarg and more to perform at the Soho Rep SPRING GALA 2011 honoring Marian Seldes. Hosted by Tim Blake Nelson the evening will also feature musical performances by Jomama Jones & The Lisps.

Gaetano Donizetti’s tragic masterpiece, Lucia di Lammermoor, comes to the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute on Saturday, March 19 at 1 pm, live from the Metropolitan Opera as part of the Peabody- and Emmy Award-winning series The Met: Live in HD.

The Boston Athenaeum is currently exhibiting an exhibition of the elegant but somehow amusingly sinister works of writer/artist Edward Gorey. A deft draftsman of both line and word, Gorey's works are American originals created by an eccentric individual that gave both delight and dread with pen and ink.

The organization Broadway Across America is bringing the touring versions of a number of major musicals to Boston in a variety of venues for limited engagements. The schedule of shows is bound to appeal to a road segment of theatre goers. The schedule of shows extends into 2012.

Blogs and the social networks routinely scoop print media on news, previews and reviews. By the time newspapers cover arts stories they may be days old. Arts organizations continue to rely primarily on print reviews to sell tickets but that has changed dramatically in the past few years. Through blogs and tweets Broadway shows with long previews may be dead in the water by opening night. Through internet coverage audiences make up their minds on ticket sales before reviews appear in print.

During its initial seasons the 100-year-old former vaudeville house, the Colonial Theatre, renovated at a cost of some $23 million, seemed more like a white elephant than a tangible asset. Coming into its first season in a merger with the Berkshire Theatre Festival is proving to be a game changer for theatre and the performing arts in the Berkshires. Artistic director, Kate Maguire, is leading with an ace by headlining Randy Harrison in the rock musical Tommy. See me, feel me, touch me.

This year’s lineup includes three world premiere theatre performances produced by BTF, three separate BTF musical productions on the Colonial stage, a rare appearance by noted columnist Frank Rich and live performances of some of the leading artists in the worlds of theatre, jazz and comedy. Among the organizations that will be co-promoting events will be Lift Ev’ry Voice, the Pittsfield 250th anniversary committee, Pittsfield CityJazz Festival, Word x Word Festival, and ZipStohr Comedy.

It was a dark and windy night for the Shakespeare & Company dead of winter production of the Charles Ludlam camp classic The Mystery of Irma Vep. It was an evening of fact and furious costume and character changes for the brilliant actors Aaron McCabe and Ryan Winkles. But his oh so gay play was presented way too straight. Which was, indeed a drag.

In addition to writing about art for the Boston Phoenix and the new England Journal of Aesthetic Research Greg Cook is also a studio artist. In this final installment of a dialogue Cook describes how he attempts to avoid any perception of conflict of interest. As an artist, however, he feels solidarity with their struggles. In particular he resents the lack of national recognition for all but a few Boston artists.

TimeLine, the Wall Street Journal's pick as number one theatre company in the nation, has produced a riveting drama about rape and genocide in the Sudan. It is wonderful theatre and raises unanswerable questions about US policy.

The cameras of the Live at the Met broadcast of the John Adams opera Nixon in China provided stunning details of singers who proved to be skilled actors. While there is nothing that compares to being there this came rather close to the experience. We attended with just half a house at the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown.

Images Cinema in Williamstown will host the Secrecy and Scandal in New French Film series on Mondays, February 7 – March 7 at 7pm. Admission is free; all films will be in French with English subtitles.

Barrington Stage Company (BSC) and Knesset Israel (KI) continue the “Live from NY’s 92nd Street Y” Simulcasts at Barrington Stage with seven programs for winter/spring 2011. The popular satellite broadcast series brings lectures, interviews and readings from nationally and internationally recognized political figures, entertainers, newsmakers and authors to communities across the U.S. and Canada.

The Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston (ICA) presents ambitious performing arts programming for Winter/Spring 2011, including world-premiere dance, revolutionary theater and a vaudevillian spectacular. The New Music Now series returns with three exciting concerts of adventurous music, and the ICA presents its first "live documentary," narrated by filmmaker Sam Green alongside live performances by sound artist David Cerf and band The Quavers (featuring special guest Brendan Canty of Fugazi).

The world-premiere adaptation of LYSISTRATA by the renowned puppet artist, writer and director Theodora Skipitares – which mixes Aristophanes’ ancient comic tale about a group of Greek women who withhold sex from their husbands and lovers with video and newsreel footage of actual modern-day international sex strikes – is being presented by La MaMa ETC in association with Skysaver Productions, with an opening set for Sunday, February 6 at the Ellen Stewart Theatre (66 E. 4 St.) in Manhattan.

Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival will present more than 160 ticketed and free dance performances by companies from Argentina, Cuba, Canada, France, Germany, Norway, South Korea, Switzerland, and across the United States. Executive Director Ella Baff has crafted an international festival of dance, music, and the visual arts spanning three months and including six world premieres, seven U.S. premieres, five engagements with live music, three U.S. company debuts, and more than 300 total ticketed and free events, talks, performances, classes, and tours.