One hundred and thirty-nine years after Richard Wagner’s final opera Parsifal premiered at the Festspielhaus in Bayreuth, it was performed in concert in this house that Wagner built for its performance. Apparently, Richard Wagner himself took the podium to conduct Act III of Parsifal at the Festival performance in 1883.  He died later that year in Venice. There is  no recording of the performance, but witnesses  commented on the extremely slow tempos and the majesty of the reading.

For many years and especially in this long period of Covid-19 isolation, Susan and Leslie have spent many days independently walking the beaches and woods of Cape Cod, Susan in Provincetown (and other far flung places), and Leslie in Brewster.  Confirmed tree huggers, they have been scavenging for weathered or fallen wood.

Maltz Jupiter Theatre in Southeast Florida will kick off this upcoming season by presenting "Jersey Boys" in a baseball stadium. The season opens on Jan. 11, with Jersey Boys running from Jan. 11-30. Maltz Jupiter Theatre will re-open following a $36 million expansion. Highlights of the theater’s expansion include a new larger stage.

We are all spokes on a wheel. We need to turn this wheel together and steer it towards our common humanity. The mask erased our face and revealed our eyes. Hopefully we can redress bias with new understanding when we take them off and see our faces again.

 Our Laundry & Machine Shop desperately needs a new roof. What's involved? 24,320 cedar shakes. 48,640 nails. 4,500 square feet of roof.

Here Martin Mugar considers two abstract painters. The gesture of Forge is one of the traditional hand-application of the brush to canvas. The notion of a painting existing in time took on some meaning when I saw the show of David Row at the Center for Maine Contemporary Art. It is probably one of the more perfect installations I have ever seen.

When was the last time you listened to music that was composed by a piece of birch wood? Eve Beglarian, in collaboration with superstar bassist Robert Black, one of the founding members of the renowned Bang-on-a-Can All-Stars, has composed a fascinating new work entitled "A Murmur in the Trees."

One of the most accomplished artists of the Berkshire region, Pennie Brantley is displaying her crisply rendered painting at Real Eyes Gallery in September. She states that, "Perhaps ironically, my attraction to painting unpeopled structures, especially from travels to other cultures, is inspired by a keen awareness of those who have lived in or made them -- or simply the march of humanity past them sometimes over centuries.  The images that stir my need to paint them have made me more intensely aware of the connectedness people share..." 

“The Lord of Cries” is an unusual melange of two literary works written two millennia apart.  The more recent is Bram Stoker’s “Dracula,” which has been used as the basis for operas before, but none have entered the repertoire.  Adamo concludes that Stoker must have known the other contributing piece, Euripides’s “The Bacchae.” 

Shakespeare’s frequent conceits include mistaken identities, confused love matches, supernatural interventions, play-within-a-play, and multiple plot lines, but “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” embraces them all, and more.  Several  threads are interspersed and overlapping throughout the play and opera’s narrative that may cause confusion to the uninitiated.

Martin Mugar posted this in 2005 to the site Art Deal. Overcoming many physical and emotional handicaps Chuck Close prevailed leaving a daunting legacy of work.

A remarkable program features Insight with Andrea Brachfeld. The quartet represents a who’s-who of today’s jazz scene. Headed by the acclaimed award-winning flutist Andrea Brachfeld, Insight includes Bill O’Connell, piano; Harvie S, bass; and Jason Tiemann, drums. The repertoire will feature “If Not Now, When,” Andrea’s original composition, made possible by a New Works grant from Chamber Music America.

“Eugene Onegin” not only represents the greatness of Russian opera but is one of the fine representatives of the whole operatic idiom. Director Alessandro Talevi marshals the creative team to give a look that blends traditional and modern elements. 

Tanz im August (no translation necessary) opened the way for live performances with and for the public after Covid-19 had stopped all cultural activities since late last year.

On Saturday, September 4, at 4 pm, the renowned Knights Orchestra returns to the Clark as part of its programming to highlight Norwegian culture in celebration of its Nikolai Astrup: Visions of Norway exhibition.

Elektra, the stage drama that underlies the opera Elektra, was written by Hugo von Hoffmansthal for a theatre venue run by Max Reinhardt in Berlin. Reinhardt would go on to found the Salzburg Festival in 1920. After a hundred years, this Festival is inarguably one of the world’s most satisfying. Their new production of Elektra is classic and thrilling.

Sandra Oh stars as The Chair in a six episode comedy on Netflix. Set on small college Pembroke it is a broad and hilarious satire of cancel culture on campus. While played for laughs the hit comedy has evoked a dialogue about its uncanny, over the top, accuracy. It's the truth that makes this hilarious series sad and all too compelling.

These two sisters, 103 and 101 at the time of the play, regale us with incidents and observations on their lives and opinions. And what experiences they are. They talk about their family’s history (and photos are projected) of slavery and freedom.

The Clark took a chance in featuring an unknown artist as its major summer exhibition. By word of mouth momentum has built for "Nikolai Astrup: Visions of Norway." The work of the artist was as narrow and deep as the fjords of his native Norway. While beloved in his native land he is unknown to all but a few art historians and specialists of 20th century Scandinavian art.

Sweet Land by a consortium of artists formed by the adventuresome Los Angeles company The Industry has won the award for best new opera in 2020 from the Music Critics Association of North America.  Music by Du Yun and Raven Chacon. Libretto by Douglas Kearney and Aja Couchois Duncan . Directed by Cannupa Hanska Luger and Yuval Sharon.

SchifferNolandStudio will be the featured artist for the September/October show with Blue Heron Gallery Online. The show will run from September 13 until October 14. Peggy Schiffer and Sam Noland are the two-person collaborative known as SchifferNolandStudio, and their creative practice includes photography, digital media, painting, and other elements

The program has had a good long run of 16 years. It was a writing program for people who wanted to write about art, with an emphasis on literature, philosophy, the relation between aesthetics and politics, and the history and future of the image.

The press release for fall programing at American Repertory Theatre contained a signifying statement.

After a two block walk, the audience arrives at the lawn of the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum for The Caterers by Tony Menses. At least you can understand why a museum dedicated to recent art was chosen, since the play takes place sometime after 2030.

Angela's Ashes: The Musical is a new musical adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Frank McCourt memoir. The award-winning, Off-Broadway Irish Repertory Theatre will stream the show from Sept. 9 through Sept. 22. The online production follows an in-person, critically-acclaimed run in Ireland in 2017.