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It's the 35th year that New Orleans hosts one of the largest, free, music festivals in the world. Add the culture of the Big Easy and the unique food choices to the festival and you have a four day stint of true debauchery.

The New York Philharmonic is back on its home stage of David Geffen Hall, after an extensive tour that saw the orchestra visit multiple Asian countries in March. This week's program, seen Thursday night features a rare podium appearance from composer-conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen and the premiere of a new work Metacosmos by the young composer and Kravis Prize recipient Anna Thorvaldsdottir.

It’s not unusual to spot a herd of colorful deer right in the center of Idyllwild, the famously art-hearted small town (pop. 3,874 year-round) in the mountains (elevation 5,413) above Palm Springs. Not your ordinary deer, mind you, but 22 fabulously painted aluminum bucks, does and fawns, each decorated to reflect a part of Idyllwild’s history.

A Berkshire Fine Arts contributor, the renowned arts critic, David Bonetti, was found dead in his Brookline, Mass. apartment while listening to classical music. His writing career started with Art New England and the Boston Phoenix. He joined the San Francisco Chronicle and then St. Louis Post Dispatch. After that he retired writing the occasional feature on the fine arts. In his final years he wrote on opera for this site. He was widely regarded as one of the best critics of his generation.

Under the smart and crisp direction of Artistic Director/Actor Michael Shaw, “Motherhood Out Loud” brings insights and revelations to the males in the audience and smiles and a multitude of laugh-out-loud- moments from the ladies in the audiences; be they mothers or not.

We met Chicago theatre critic Nancy Bishop during a conference of American Theatre Critics. In the past few years she has covered theatre for us. This is an interview posted to the website she edits Third Coast Review.

It's Berlioz. It's puppets. It's a supershow. The twentieth anniversary production of Basil Twist's remarkable Symphonie Fantastique is at the ever enterprising and surprising HERE in New York. Christopher O'Riley performs Liszt's piano transcription of Berlioz's love letter/nightmare. Twist performs his magic in an aquarium filled with 1,000 gallons of water.

Though somewhat rare in Boston, every attempt at public art is not necessarily a triumph. Unfortunately, the recent commission by Alexandre da Cunha in the Fenway Neighborhood is not great, inspiring or even provocative. Just something to fill a space or a true lost opportunity, the civic and artistic bar needs to be set higher.

A.R. Gurney's “The Cocktail Hour”, is a semi-autobiographical comedy that offers a peek into the world of one upper-crust waspish family as they engage in their nightly ritual – the cocktail get together before dinner.

The Metropolitan Opera's revival of its 2001 production of Luisa Miller looks backwards and forwards at once. It features Placido Domingo singing the latest in a line of Verdi baritone roles that the aging tenor has used to extend his already distinguished career. (It was also supposed to re-unite the singer with James Levine, but the conductor's firing due to repeated accusations of sexual misconduct by multiple parties spoiled that happy event.) It looks forward in that its two leads, Piotr Beczala and Sondra Yoncheva, represent the cutting edge of a new generation of opera singers that are having their well-deserved moment in the spotlight.

Pittsfield used to have a small, charming, eclectic regional museum. As of today that's no longer true.

The Wild Yeast wine movement is here to stay. Organic and biodynamic grapes, unfltered and on occasion, sulfite free.

Nine Iranian born women composers presented their work in the inaugural concert of their new organization, Iranian Women Composers Association. Is there anything that characterizes this music as Iranian contemporary classical as distinguished from contemporary classical music? Tuning often gives a middle Eastern feel, with harmonies of the region. Classical forms are used. Sometimes the work is an impression. Romantic notes and counterpoint are abundant.

It’s only a few months before the 26th anniversary of the first American appearance of Edward Albee’s masterpiece, Three Tall Women, yet we’ve seen surprisingly few revivals. Certainly those who love Albee’s plays can rejoice at this masterful new version with the legendary actress Glenda Jackson.

Is Bertolt Brecht the playwright for the Trump era? We will argue that he should be so designated. Round Heads is more a pageant than a play; there are few plot intricacies and little character development.

The Radicalization of Rolfe shines a spotlight on The Sound of Music's minor characters. Andrew Bergh's intriguing, suspenseful and humorous play imagines what supporting characters might have been doing or saying when they're not part of the main action. The world premier production at Island City Stage achieves mixed results

In The Wolves, Sarah DeLappe has written a play about a group of high school girls on a soccer league team that can satisfy theater goers of many ilks. It triggers waves of laughter and perhaps some amazement and embarrassment to those who haven’t peeked behind the curtains of young girls’ social behavior.

After two near fatal car crashes Patsy Cline confided in friends that she sensed her number was up. She drew up a will on TWA stationary and gave away personal possessions. That was not unusual as she was notably generous to family, friends and emerging women performers. A month later, at 30, she was dead in a plane crash. At Milwaukeee Rep in the two hander Always Patsy Cline we had a vivid evening of her unique and stunning music.

Until The Flood can be seen at the Milwaukee Rep until April 22nd. Dael Orlandersmith wrote a performance piece in response to the Ferguson shooting and riots. How will a community like Ferguson heal?

In a world premiere, One House Over, by Catherine Trieschman, an undocumented Mexican couple are hired as live in care providers for a divorced woman and her elderly father. There are comic elements in this tragedy of living under the constant threat of deportation. Camila and Rafael have lived in the States all of their adult lives but she longs to go home to the family she has never known.

We sit through 60 minutes of ambiguity and tension—about what? When "hang" by DebbieTucker Reed finally reveals (almost reveals) its essential point in the final 25 minutes, we are caught up in the conversation among three people in a small room. It is devastating–and maddening. It is the final production in Remy Bumppo’s 21st season for which the theme is “21: Truth Be Told.”

A big box sits on the stage at 59E59 Theaters before the show begins. Has an Amazon drone has delivered it before the audience is admitted? Curtain time and the door of the box swings open to reveal a band, playing their hearts out in familiar klezmer style, impassioned and soulful. A sign reads, Halifax, Nova Scotia. A boat load of immigrants has landed, with all the hopes of a new life threaded into the notes of song.

The story lines of Iron Shoes are simple and somewhat predictable with feminist tropes. However, they are delivered with great enthusiasm and charm and provide delightful entertainment as good fairy tales should.

Shooter, a new play by Sam Graber is on stage at TheaterLab in New York. Perhaps it takes a woman like director Katrin Hilbe to mount this for maximum effect. On the face of it, the play is about a young man who plots to take out as many school students as possible with his assault rifle.

From March 23 to 25 Milwaukee Repertorty Theatre hosted a conference Intersections Summit. It was convened to address equity, identity and inclusion through diversity and community outreach. In a letter to ATCA president, Bill Hirschman, managing director, Chad Bauman, who hosted us said in part "All in all, nearly 200 theater professionals from 80+ organizations from 30+ states attended including ATCA, TCG, funders such as the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, and journalists from media outlets such as The New York Times and The Chicago Tribune. More than 50 engagement leaders presented sessions and several of which were live streamed via our Facebook page as well as Howlround."