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Opera’s legendary femme fatale returns to Lyric Opera of Chicago with Bizet’s Carmen — March 11 – April 7, 2023 — starring J’Nai Bridges, a leading interpreter of the famous title role and a singer with deep Chicago roots.

“Mah nishtanah, ha-laylah ha-zeh,mi-kol ha-leylot” (Why is this night different from all other nights?). This invocation, spoken by the youngest capable person at the dinner table at seder, is perhaps the most famous and evocative sentence in Judaism. Not only does the ritual that follows those words reflect on the traumatic history of the Jewish people, but it speaks to their very existence.

The exhibition highlights Behind Blue Eyes, a project started by Dima Zubkov and Artem Skorohodko, volunteers who distribute food and supplies to residents in liberated Ukrainian villages.

The Clark Art Institute continues its art in public spaces program in 2023 with a year-long installation presenting the work of contemporary artist Elizabeth Atterbury (b. 1982, West Palm Beach, Florida; lives and works in Portland, Maine). Elizabeth Atterbury: Oracle Bones is a free exhibition on view in the Clark Center’s lower level and in the reading room of  the Manton Research Center through January 21, 2024.

 Front Porch Arts Collective and The Huntington announce the cast and creative team of K-I-S-S-I-N-G, their co-production of the world premiere play written by Massachusetts playwright and Huntington Playwriting Fellow Lenelle Moïse and directed by The Porch’s Co-Producing Artistic Director Dawn M. Simmons. Front Porch Arts Collective is in residence at The Huntington as part of a multi-year strategic partnership.

All of us have had that restaurant experience in which we thought the food would never come. In this case, the cause is not a lost order or long prep time or overtaxed restaurant staff. It is willful delay by the server from hell.

The 90th birthday of composer Pauline Oliveros was celebrated on Saturday at the newly reconfigured Zankel Hall in Carnegie Hall.  The steeply raked seating on two sides of the hall, leading to a central stage area embedded in seats on all four sides, felt like an Oliveros’ creation.  We are brought to the hall to listen, deeply.

Berkshire fans will recall seeing Crosby Stills and Nash at Tanglewood, September 2, 2010. Crosby known for a crash and burn lifestyle, as well as an angelic voice that made gorgeous harmonies, has died at 81. I first heard him with the Byrds at Soundblast '66 at Yankee Stadium.

This major exhibition is the first dedicated to Hopper’s formative development on Cape Ann, marking the centennial of the pivotal summer of 1923 when Edward Hopper and his future wife, Josephine “Jo” Nivison, visited Gloucester. Edward Hopper & Cape Ann opens on Hopper’s birthday, July 22, 2023, and runs through October 16, 2023, and is presented in collaboration with the Whitney Museum of American Art, the major repository of the Hoppers’ work.

Look for this production to come to Broadway and finally redeem the show. Merrily We Roll Along isn’t a great musical, but in reality, it is more interesting than many of the long-running “hits.”

The Williams College Museum of Art (WCMA)  presents Across Shared Waters: Contemporary Artists in Dialogue with Tibetan Art from the Jack Shear Collection, on view from Feb. 17 through July 16, 2023.

This spring, theater companies around Wisconsin are launching World Premiere Wisconsin, a statewide festival celebrating new plays and musicals that has been years in the making.  We have 52 participating theaters along with festival partner Ten Chimneys. Quite the undertaking as we look to put new plays back at the center of our work post-pandemic.  

A strong equity national touring production of "Turner: The Tina Turner Musical" is playing in Ft. Lauderdale through Jan. 29. This jukebox musical focuses on the life of a legendary performer. Triple threat performers shine in the production.

David Lang is not surprisingly a highly educated, impish composer. We can’t take him at face value. Or perhaps we can. Discussing his new opera, presented as part of the Prototype Festival, he said that although he had first been intrigued by Ryunosuke Akutagawa's short stories at age 16, he knows nothing about Japanee culture. Yet he is Japanese.

Who does not remember Stanley Kubrick's 1971 film 'A Clockwork Orange' based on the novel by Anthony Burgess from 1962!? It was one of the most chilling cinematic affairs then, and it remains today on stage. Here, the photographs speak a million words....

A fine cast delivers with lesser material in Broadway in Lauderhill's opening season production of "The Full Monty." The Full Monty is charming and amusing in places, but a musical mess in others. The production runs through Jan. 29 at the Lauderhill Performing Arts Center.

MASS MoCA has promoted veteran curator Denise Markonish to become its new Chief Curator, the first in MASS MoCA’s nearly 25-year history. Markonish joined MASS MoCA in 2007.

Thanks to the popularity of the instantly recognizable Great Wave—cited everywhere from book covers and Lego sets to anime and emoji—Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849) has become one of the most famous and influential artists in the world. This major exhibition organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), takes a new approach to the work of the versatile master.

Julianne Boyd says, “I am thrilled to be directing Faith Healer, Brian Friel’s hauntingly beautiful play that has been on my short list for years – and I am excited to be reunited with three tremendously talented actors and BSC Associate Artists, Christopher Innvar, Mark Dold and Gretchen Egolf.”

Victoria Bond will conduct at the UN on January 27. The event can be live streamed. She will then travel to Stockton, California for a tribute to Ray Charles .

The Rose Art Museum names Arghavan Khosravi (b. 1984) the 2023 Ruth Ann and Nathan Perlmutter Artist-in-Residence. Since 2002, the Perlmutter Residency has been part of the Rose Art Museum’s longstanding tradition of promoting emerging artists of extraordinary talent whose work addresses contemporary issues of vital urgency.

In a fast-moving 60 minutes, mime comic Ennio provides cleverly curated cartoon characterizations of celebrities and lip syncs to songs, mostly recorded by the people portrayed. The music is the songbook of our lives (if you’re middle aged or older!), including rock-and-roll, pop of various sorts, and rap.

While manager of the Boston Tea Party Steve Nelson booked, first the Yardbirds with Jimmy Page, then later the Jeff Beck band for four nights. Beck was touring with Rod Stewart, Ron Wood and Mick Waller. (Editor: I saw that lineup at the Newport Jazz Festival.) On the cusp of superstardom Beck broke up the band. Rod went solo and Ron eventually joined the Rolling Stones.

"Time Alone" is a moving and intense play about two prisoners. Boca Stage is presenting a riveting production of Alessandro Camon's play. The production runs through Jan. 22.

All the big opera companies have something to learn from the Prototype Festival, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary.