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  • World Premiere Opera in Washington

    Four A List Composer/librettist Teams Contribute

    By: Susan Hall - Feb 07th, 2022

    Works & Process at the Guggenheim Museum offered a preview of a world premiere opera developed by Washington National Opera. Written in Stone will be staged at the Kennedy Center from March 5 to March 25. It will be a must-see production.

  • Authority and Freedom by Jed Perl

    Ancient Dichotomy in Art

    By: Martin Mugar - Feb 05th, 2022

    At the end of his life did the wrong politics give Auden the possibility of cancelling Yeats’s greatness as a poet. It suggests that behind the concern for art being politically correct is the illness that Nietzsche said awaited our culture as a whole: the waste land grows: Resentment or “Ressentiment” as he used it is the deeply sour well out from which we channel art into predetermined realms of activity. Perl's new book is its diagnosis.

  • BSO Appoints Executives

    Maureen Flores, as Chief Development Officer, Asadour Santourian, as Vice President

    By: BSO - Jan 07th, 2022

    Gail Samuel, Eunice and Julian Cohen President and CEO of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, today announced the appointment of two new executive leaders Maureen Flores, as Chief Development Officer, and Asadour Santourian, as Vice President, Tanglewood Music Center & Learning. Both appointments are effective January 2022.

  • My Father's Portraits

    Aesthetic and Psychic Legacy of Raeford LIles

    By: Barbara Liles - Jan 05th, 2022

    During three years in New York in the 1960s I (Charles Giuliano) was assistant director of East Hampton Gallery. Raeford Liles was one of the artists we represented. A native of Birmingham, Alabama he came from a military family. During WW11 he was a fighter pilot in the South Pacific and later served with SAC based in Paris where he studied art and cooking. There PTSD caused a breakdown leading to a lifetime of treatment and medication. He often spoke of his daughters with whom he had a complex relationship. This is explored in a remarkable essay by Barbara Liles. A chapter of a larger work in progress it was published by Southern Humanities Review.

  • 39th Re-Rooters Day Ceremony

    What to Do With Post Holiday Trees

    By: Jay Critchley - Jan 01st, 2022

    You are invited to attend the 39th Re-Rooters Day Ceremony, Friday, January 7, 2022, 4:00 pm, Harbor Hotel beach, Provincetown Harbor (snow, storm or shine); bring something non-toxic to burn on a tree boat. Sponsored by the IRS, International Re-Rooters Society, Jay Critchley, President

  • What’s on Netflix and Amazon.

    Good, Bad and Ugly

    By: Charles Giuliano - Dec 28th, 2021

    In the dead of winter baby it's cold outside. It's time to curl up on the couch and hunker down with Netflix and Amazon. Here is a cheat sheet of what we've been watching.

  • When Comes the Moment

    By: Cheng Tong - Dec 08th, 2021

    As ever in our prayers a universal wish.

  • Be Bamboo

    By: Cheng Tong - Dec 08th, 2021

    Bend but don't break.

  • A Tribute to Stephen Sondheim

    Genius in a Minor Key

    By: Jack Lyons - Dec 03rd, 2021

    It may sound like ‘Heresy’ to some of my colleagues, but for me personally, the gifts that resided inside the genius that was Stephen Sondheim was an acquired taste.

  • If They Should Meet When I’m Not Here

    By: Chen Tong - Dec 01st, 2021

    Sharing morning tea with a squirrel come rain or shine for past eighteen months. Then the bobcat prowled about. Evoking fear of losing a friend. Yet nature is what it is.

  • Fittness Tips for Seniors

    Be the Envy of All

    By: Charles Giuliano - Nov 28th, 2021

    It's time for sweating to the oldies. Or is it time for oldies to be sweating. Ok gang, all together now. Get off the couch, Start with a five pound potato sack in each hand.

  • The Butterfly Process

    Boston Lyric Opera Fires the Canon

    By: BLO - Nov 17th, 2021

    Madama Butterfly inspires a deep look at its historical context through a contemporary lens. Internal and public discussions are part of the project dubbed The Butterfly Process by Boston Lyric Opera.

  • Berkshire Theatre Critics Association

    2021 "Berkie" Award Winners

    By: Berkie - Nov 16th, 2021

    The big winners of the Berkies were A Crossing: A Dance Musical, presented by Barrington Stage Company, which won the Sally and Robert Sugarman Award for a World Premier of a New Work as well as many acting and design awards, and Nina Simone: Four Women, presented by the Berkshire Theatre Group. 

  • Giuliano at Williams Faculty Club on November 19

    To Discuss Museum of Fine Arts Boston, 1870 to 2020: An Oral History

    By: Charles Giuliano - Nov 15th, 2021

    Remarkably, Museum of Fine Arts Boston , 1870 to 2020, by Charles Giuliano is only the second comprehensive history of the MFA. Much has transpired since the centennial publication some fifty years ago. Over those decades the author interviewed directors, curators, trustees and administrators. The museum's great collections as well as issues of elitist exclusion, racism and anti Semitism are conveyed in their own words. The Me Too and Black Lives Matter movements have impacted all of America's cultural institutions. Giuliano will discuss the book at the Williams Faculty Club on Friday, November 19 at 7 PM.

  • Hamlet and Me

    The Danish prince and I Go Way Back

    By: Nancy Bishop - Nov 14th, 2021

    I saw college productions—and I read Hamlet in a memorable Shakespeare course at one of my alma maters, Harvard on the Rocks—the two-year University of Illinois in Chicago at Navy Pier. (Later it became a four-year university and moved to its current campus.) The first Hamlet production that I remember vividly was during the 1963 opening season of the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis.

  • MFA Union On Strike November 17

    Administration Nickle and Dimeing Staff

    By: Maida Rosenstein - Nov 12th, 2021

    Over 96% of staff at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston,voted to strike on Wednesday, November 17 in support of a fair union contract. Workers in departments across the Museum will picket at 465 Huntington Avenue that day starting at 8:30 am. The MFA Union includes curators, conservators, library workers, public-facing staff, educators, and administrative and professional workers.

  • Letter About Charles Giuliano’s Seventh Book

    Museum of Fine Arts Boston, 1870-2020: An Oral History

    By: Bill Wadsworth - Nov 05th, 2021

    The poet and Columbia University professor, Bill Wadsworth is a neighbor and friend. He has been on the road for the past month. I sent an e mail inquiring when next we might enjoy another witty and insightful literary luncheon. His response comprised a critique of my current MFA book. This ‘review’ is posted with his permission.

  • Julianne Boyd Steps Down at Barrington Stage

    Co Founded Theatre Company in 1995

    By: Charles Giuliano - Nov 04th, 2021

    In 1995 Julianne Boyd co-founded Barrington Stage company producing sparsely attended but critically well received shows in a high school auditorium in Sheffield. In 2005 the company purchased and renovated a formed vaudeville house in Pittsfield. Coping with Covid-19 Boyd mounted a successful 2021 season. With the company is good shape, citing age, she is passing the reins to new leadership. In December she turns 77. She will stay on through the search and transition for a new artistic director.

  • Shakeup at Williamstown Theatre Festival

    Mandy Greenfield Out and Jenny Gersten Back In

    By: Charles Giuliano - Nov 01st, 2021

    After seven seasons of woke programming Mandy Greenfield has resigned as artistic director of Williamstown Theatre Festival. There was a tech crew walkout last summer over brutal conditions during hazardous and stressful outdoor productions. During a production of Row in a reflecting pool at Clark Art Institute there were days of delays due to rain and thunder storms . Problems were widely reported in the media. Former artistic director, Jenny Gersten, has rejoined WTF as interim artistic director.

  • Magic and Stillness

    Autumn in the Berkshires

    By: Cheng Tong - Oct 27th, 2021

    My life is mostly solitary. This is by choice.  When I returned from my first year in China to visit my daughters, I found living in society once again to be noisy.  The temple where I lived is isolated in the Wudang mountains 30 kilometers from the nearest city, Shiyan.  The temple complex sits atop the mountain, and life is very quiet, simple, and hard.

  • Lewis Hine and North Adams Eclipse Mill

    Children Once Labored in Artists/ Loft Complex

    By: Charles Giuliano - Oct 22nd, 2021

    During the era of KIng Cotton North Adams thrived by processing bales shipped north from plantations. The Eclipse Mill produced thread which was woven across the street in the Delftree Mill. Until 1938 the mills employed child labor. During a single visit Lewis Hine created nine photographs outside the mill. These images as well as vintage views of the Eclipse Mill comprise a special exhibition. They flank the entrance ramp to the vast artist/ loft complex. The community based project is an aesthetic, historic and humanistic accomplishment.

  • Mussorgsky's Original Boris Godunov at the Met

    How Do we Assess Versions

    By: Susan Hall - Oct 18th, 2021

    Alternate versions of an opera arouse controversy.The multiple versions of Verdi’s grand opera Don Carlos (Don Carlo) were a response to different productions. Terrence Blanchard adapted his opera Fire Shut up in My Bones for the Metropolitan Opera’s stage. Now we have the magnificent, original Boris Godunov.

  • Facing Columbus

    Four Italian American Artists at NY's Museum of Arts and Design

    By: MAD - Oct 13th, 2021

    Italian American Artists Grapple with Christopher Columbus's Legacy at MAD Museum. The Museum of Arts and Design will host 4 NYC artists of Italian heritage for a discussion about the colonial legacy of Christopher Columbus and his importance to the Italian American community. 

  • The Mount Calendar

    Events Update

    By: Mount - Oct 08th, 2021

    Experience the beauty and splendor of Edith Wharton’s beloved estate. The Mount is currently open Wednesday – Sunday for tours. We are open on Saturdays and Sundays in November & December. See the mansion all dressed up for the Holidays! Holiday House tours start November 27. Tours can be booked online at EdithWharton.org. Please visit our website for the latest calendar of events.  

  • Clark Presents Zoom Lecture on Stockbridge-Munsee Community

    By Heather Bruegl, Director of Education at Forge Project

    By: Clark - Oct 07th, 2021

    On Saturday, October 16, Heather Bruegl, Director of Education at Forge Project, discusses the history of the Stockbridge-Munsee Community, the indigenous people who once lived on these lands.

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