Tanglewood

In April James Levine, the artistic director of Boston Symphony Orchestra and Metropolitan Opera, underwent back surgery. While he planned a season for Tangelwood he has now withdrawn from the program. It is hoped that he will recover in time for the fall seasons of the BSO and Met. This is a repeat of his absence from Tanglewood following surgery after the opening concerts in 2008. Given chronic health issues there is speculation about his long term role in Boston and New York. Renowned conductors will fill the vacant slots in Lenox this season.

.The music of Cole Porter bubbled like champagne at Symphony Hall. Keith Lockhart conducted in a thoroughly enjoyable evening of Pops. He was joined by Broadway stars including Kelli O’Hara, Jason Danieley and Matthew Anderson.

Free concerts in New York with A list talent can be found if you look, and one of the best venues to scour is Town Hall's. Here on Sunday, for free, lucky listeners got to hear Stephanie Blythe accompanied by Warren Jones. Blythe opens Tanglewood's season in Mahler's Second Symphony on July 9th.

The New York Philharmonic presents performances of György Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre by the composer who joined forces with Richard Strauss in the score of Space Odyssey:2001. Kudos for recent productions in London, Paris, Adelaide and Rome suggest the performances will be SRO. The work combines 15th century music, breadth of line, puppetry, adventures musical and otherwise.At Avery Fisher Hall on May 27, 28 and 29.

The Longwood Symphony Orchestra which is made up of medical professionals will perform at Ozawa Hall in Lenox for the first time. The Boston Jewish Film Festival ENCORES AND MORE will be staged at the Museum of Fine Arts through June 27. Don't miss The Great American Trailer Park Musical at Speakeasy Stage.

The Fifth Annual Richie duPont Award Benefit will take place at 8 pm Saturday, May 22, at Firefly on Church Street in Lenox. What began in 2006 as a memorial to Richie duPont, a promising young actor lost in his prime, will be a celebration of his life at a party to raise funds for awards for budding local thespians to attend Berkshire Theatre Festival’s summer and school vacation acting camps.

The launch of the Fourth of July arts season in the Berkshires will be like an explosion in a fireworks factory. There has never been a greater offering of superb and diverse performances. While three days of James Taylor and Carole King at Tanglewood sold out ages ago there are many other top options. Mass MoCA is going head to head with Tanglewood on Friday night. It has Richie Havens vs. The Pops. Barrington Stage and Williamstown Theatre Festival will duke it out with dueling Sondheim musicals. There is a ton of stuff at Shakespeare & Company including the opening of John Douglas Thompson in Richard III. Jacobs Pillow and Berkshire Theatre Festival are in the mix. We offer a complete rundown.

James Levine has given so much joy and musical pleasure during his tenure at the Metropolitan Opera. A musician of the highest order, we have all appreciated his insights. No one can replace him. But Fabio Luisi, a classically trained conductor who started as a pianist and accompanist, clearly can convey composers' intent and musicians' best efforts. He will start his new position at the Met this fall. Berkshire Fine Arts has covered him this season.

Acclaimed actors Robert De Niro, Ed Harris, and Morgan Freeman give life to the words of John, Robert, and Edward Kennedy, respectively, when they join conductor Keith Lockhart, the Boston Pops Orchestra, and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus for the world premiere performance of The Dream Lives On: A Portrait of the Kennedy Brothersâ€"the centerpiece of the Boston Pops 125th anniversary season celebrationâ€"on May 18, at 8 p.m. (repeated on May 19), at Symphony Hall in Boston, MA

Celebrating the 8oth Birthday of God, AKA Stephen Sondheim, there are many productions for audiences to chose from. The biography and review, with Sondheim appearing in video clips, Sondheim on Sondheim, has opened on Broadway. It features a lively cast headlining Barbara Cook, Vanessa Williams and Tom Wopat. In the Berkshires productions of Sweeney Todd will open at Barrington Stage Company while A Funny Thng Happened on the Way to the Forum will be presented at Williamstown Theatre Company. The dueling musicals open on Fourth of July weekend.

Roll Over Beethoven. Yes, rock is coming back to Tanglewood this summer. Well, kindah, with Crosby, Stills and Nash on September 1. Mid season jazz pianist Herbia Hancock will appear on August 9.

On paper the Boston Symphony Orchestra has planned a full and ambitious season. October 2, when James Levine leads an all-Wagner program with Bryn Terfel on opening night, we will know whether this is wishful thinking. The health of the 66 year Levine impacts not just the BSO but the Metropolitan Opera and the coming season at Tanglewood. For the past three years there has been a scramble to find conductors for concerts he has dropped out of. This grueling schedule assumes his full recovery from yet another surgery,

Rock fans in the Berkshires just got a shot in the arm. Wilco, the Chicago band that blew the roof off of Tanglewood two summers ago, will give two performances at Mass MoCA during the Solid Sound Festival from August 13-15. Far out. The weekend of music, art, and interactive events will feature Wilco's only East Coast performance this summer.

The Boston Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall performed Mendelssohn's glorious oratorio, Elijah. It was presented with a cast worthy of Cecil B. de Mille. It featured the orchestra, a chorus of 110 voices, four principal soloists and five ensemble soloists. The musician count does not itself make a memorable evening, but this one surely did. Maestro de Burgos, substituted for an ailing James Levine.

In 2008, with $8 million in debt and missed payments, Berkshire Bank initiated foreclosure on Edith Wharton's Lenox estate The Mount. Under executive director, Susan Wissler, that debt has been reduced to $5.1 million with an annual budget of $2 million. The Mount is about to launch a new season with expanded programming. While The Mount is back on track it faces daunting challenges.

The San Francisco Symphony presented the premier of Post-Scriptum by Victor Kissine, which brought the house down. This was followed by Christian Tetzlaff playing Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto in D Major with intelligence and passion.

Chronic back pain will cause Boston Symphony Orchestra conductor and artistic director, James Levine, to end his season in Boston. This year he has been absent for 22 performances or 60 % of his schedule. Jayce Ogren will lead the world premiere of Peter Lieberson's Songs of Love and Sorrow March 25, 26, and 27. The following week, April 1, 2, and 3 in Boston, and April 5 at Carnegie Hall in New York, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos will conduct Mendelssohn's Elijah. The conductor for the world premiere of John Harbison's Double Concerto for violin and cello on a program with Mahler's Seventh Symphony, April 8, 9, and 10, will be announced.

The soprano Dawn Upshaw, first vocalist to win a MacArthur genius award for her promotion of new composers, and the infinitely apt pianist Emanuel Ax performed Chopin, Schumann and former poet laureate Billy Collin's Piano Teacher poems set to music by Stephen Prutsman. They brought extraordinary musicality to this performance.

Brahms, Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor, Op. 15 opened the program for the New York Philharmonic. Second up on the program conducted by Riccardo Muti was a symphony composed by Paul Hindemith, composed for Serge Koussevitsky during Tanglewood's first season.

Compared to other Berkshire theatre companies it seems that Barrington Stage plays it safe in running the hits. This season opening with Sweeney Todd. But Julianne Boyd in a recent interview responded that it just smart business in a tough economy. She takes pride in developing six productions that have moved on to New York. She is also excited by the cultural renaissance and economic development in Pittsfield.

In a great Boston tradition the Pops will open its 125th season at Symphony Hall on May 4. Keith Lockhart will conduct. A richly varied program continues through June 20. An evening of Pops will launch the Carole King James Taylor Tanglewood love in on Friday, July 2. A number of concerts have already sold out.

Back in the day the Berkshire Museum, the oldest in the region, collected everything from soup to nuts. The museum's director, Stuart Chase, is challenged to find projects drawn from a vast collection of 30,000 objects. The interactive exhibitions are fun for families and instructive for 13,000 annual visiting students.

In what has become a season ending Labor Day Weekend event the 2010 Tanglewood Jazz Frestival will wail in Lenox on Saturday and Sunday, September 4 & 5. John Pizzarelli, his Dad, Bucky, and wife Jessica Molaskey will kick it off at 2 pm with a live broadcast of their popular "Radio Deluxe." Perhaps like last year, Kurt Elling will fall by to scat with John. He is featured that night.

The 2010 Tanglewood season will start with a blokbuster Fourth of July weekend featuring Keith Lockhart and the Pops on Friday, with James Taylor and Carole King on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. And that's just the beginning. Tickets go on sale February 14

There is something magical about James Taylor and Tanglewood. But add his pal, Carole King, and wow. With the Pops on Friday, and three concerts by the dynamic duo, Tanglewood is set to draw some 60,000 visitors on the Fourth of July Weekend. Talk about fireworks. Zowie.