Breach: a manifesto on race in america through the eyes of a black girl recovering from self-hate is a world premiere at Victory Gardens Theater. The play’s long title might mislead you into thinking you’re going to see a different sort of play. Lisa Portes directs a solid cast of five in this funny, moving, but somewhat predictable play by Antoinette Nwandu.

Suffering on a tumultuous ocean voyage, Wagner conceived of an opera based on a man eternally condemned to the sea. Eternal punishment as a literary theme is broadly established, but the libretto for The Flying Dutchman drew largely on Memoirs of Mr. von Schnabelwopski, by Heinrich Heine, who in turn had adapted folk tales of the Wandering Jew.

Check it out. , San Diego’s The Old Globe Theatre is presenting a new translation and a new way of staging Anton Chekhov’s masterpiece dramedy “Uncle Vanya”.

The Burn by terrific Chicago playwright Philip Dawkins. I think you'll be hearing that name again. It is a tense and smoothly choreographed play, directed by Devon de Mayo. All five characters are on stage at all times in the 90-minute production.

Imagine over 170 wineries from nine different countries following stringent rules to achieve their goal of pesticide-free wines. The project was spearheaded by Angiolino Maule and has grown to a movement throughout the world.

What is it like to be a black man in America? Lawrence Brownlee was haunted by this question. He wanted to answer it in his art form, the classical song and aria. Joining forces with two MacArthur fellows, composer Tyshawn Sorey and poet Terrance Hayes, Brownlee, the artistic advisor to Opera Philadelphia, developed six songs, "Cycles of My Being." Its stunning world premiere was on stage at the Kimmel Center this week.

As stories not written with each other or the stage in mind, Lucia Berlin: Stories lacks the cohesiveness and unswerving trajectory that you would expect in a good play. But this production delivers the sharp-eyed insights of an empathetic and accomplished story teller in a well-crafted, entertaining manner.

Is there a point, in the creation of art for the entertainment of others, where the value of that creative act has to be weighed against the limitations that the human body can endure? That question applies to both the audience and performers attending Friday night's concert at Carnegie Hall featuring the first New York concert performance in 38 years of Philip Glass' 1970 composition Music With Changing Parts.

Thought-provoking themes will keep If I Forget in your mind. A relateable Steven Levenson play will make you laugh and cry at suburban Miami's GableStage.

Printing four decades of images for, Heads and Tales, an exhibit at Gallery 51 in North Adams this summer has kicked up a treasure trove of memories. A series of photos of Carol Channing with Craig Russel who impersonated her evoked the ambiance of a fabulous night at Boston's jazz club Lulu White's.

Sustainability, with the goal of 60% of the wine region following safe environmental practices is the two year goal of the Consorzio Tutelage Vini Valpolicella, the unified body of the appellation.

Nadine Sierra has won the prestigious Marilyn Horne Foundation Vocal Competition and recently the Richard Tucker Award. It is said she will soon become a fixture on the international music stage. She certainly fits in with the beautiful, warm fixtures of the Officers’ Room at the Park Avenue Armory.

The North Adams Winter Arts Festival was launched in December with a holiday celebration at the Eclipse Mill Gallery. It resumes with four events starting with Kathline Carr Wednesday, February 28. It continues with Mark Miller, Wednesday, March 7, then Charles Giuliano and Astrid Hiemer, Wednesday, March 14 concluding with Sarah Sutro on Wednesday, March 28. Speaking well for the depth of the creative community all of the authors live and work in North Adams.

Two great wines were dropped off at my front door. They proved to a pleasant surprise. We share a taste test of affordable wines at under $20 a bottle.

Harriet’s Return, written and performed by Karen Jones Meadows, is presented by the New Federal Theatre through March 4 in New York. Harriet Tubman was recently suggested to replace Alexander Hamilton on the US twenty dollar bill, but this honor has been delayed. We are left to remember, even more significantly the life of a remarkable woman.

When Jaap van Zweden was announced as the new music director of the Philharmonic, he was seen by pundits and punters alike as a firm, conservative voice designed to return America's oldest orchestra to its role as guardian of the standard European repertory of the 19th and 20th centuries. This week, he confirms that hope with a performance of Act I of Wagner's Die Walküre.

Tonya Harding’s story just won’t go away. Surrounded by media frenzy that fanned the fires around OJ Simpson's trial, which occurred at about the same time, it is a big, ugly, fascinating tale. Harding’s main competitor in figure skating competition got whacked in the leg. There enough images and tales to last for a long time. Toe Pick by Zachary Grady, who also plays Tonya, creates the frenzy in video images.

The always innovative Opera Parallèle has taken Leonard Bernstein’s modest one-act opera Trouble in Tahiti from 1952 and framed it with complementary wrapper to produce an exciting entertainment. This evening of opera is not traditional in many ways, but it is delightfully sophisticated and well executed

Fear and Misery in the Third Reich can be described as Bertolt Brecht’s ghost arriving to warn us about the United States of Donald Trump turning into a fascist dictatorship. The play, now being staged by Haven Theatre, is a series of 18 loosely related scenes illustrating the progression of the German dictatorship from Breslau 1933 to Hamburg 1938.

Now 72, John Lithgow is a charming and much loved, award winning actor. His solo show Stories by Heart is both hilarious and poignant. It conveys stories told by his father during Lithgow's childhood. The show continues at American Airlines Theatre on Broadway through March 25.

Soave Bolla once was an inexpensive wine with little depth or complexity. It was an accepted wine and used often for parties and entertaining. Times have changed, although Soave Bolla has remained the same. Winemakers have been lured to the volcanic soil that is in the Soave region and brought Soave and other varieties, like Durello, to new heights.

For the past year the Berkshire based photographer, David Ricci, has been working on a large format, expensive and ambitious book. It has a working title of Edge of Chaos and surveys four decades of his oeuvre. During a studio visit we viewed the work and how it is evolving into a publication.

The soprano Pretty Yende is one of the more sensational discoveries at the Metropolitan Opera this decade, wowing audiences with her sweet tone and superlative bel canto technique since making her debut in the company’s January, 2013 revival of Rossini's Le comte Ory. This month, she sings Adina in the revival of Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore, a charming love story that maintains its front rank among the most popular Italian operatic comedies.

One Drop is a family drama with music by Andrea J. Fulton. It brings to life the politics of a young mixed-race man in post-reconstruction Louisiana. He bravely risks love despite the bigotry of the community around him.

History comes to vibrant life in Theatre Lab's fun, funny and touching production of The Revolutionists. Colorful, visually appealing production is on stage at university's professional resident company through Feb. 25. Gunderson is the most-produced playwright for the 2017-2018 theater season in the U.S., according to American Theatre magazine.