The American Lyric Theater has an annual concert in which the work of their alumni is featured. This year's program included an opera by Patrick Soluri with libretto by Deborah Brevoort; a Christmas opera by Ricky Ian Gordon, libretto by Royce Vavrek; and a one act children's opera.

The extraordinary French conductor, now principal guest conduct at the London Symphony Orchestra and founder of his own orchestra, Les Siecles, which performs works from all ages on the instruments of the period, was in Boston this week for a program of music, each work composed within three years of the other.

When an opportunity to celebrate USCO’s pioneering work came along, I just had to curate it. This acknowledgement of our cultural past, still clearly resonates in our 21st Century present.

Former Peter Pan Sandy Duncan fondly recalls her past during interview at South Florida theater. Beloved star remains vibrant at age 71. Duncan to appear in Love Letters in Raleigh, N.C.

The pressures of being of left political persuasion compounded by an illegal sexual preference were magnified in the Red Scare following the Second World War in the United States. Television brought McCarthy hearings into American homes. Terror was struck in the hearts of citizens. The story of two men who got snared by the scare tactics is touchingly told in Fellow Travelers, an opera which had its New York premier at the Prototype Festival.

Electra Havemeyer Webb (1888-1960) founded the Shelburne Museum which has 150,000 objects and 39 buildings on 45 acres. Her father Henry Osborne Havemeyer was known as The Sugar King. With his wife Louisne they created a vast collection donating 2,000 objects, including French Impressionist masterpieces, to the Met. Electra married polo champion James Watson Webb II of the Vanderbilt family. Well before the controversies of the Berkshire Museum, in 1996, the Shelburne Museum sold $30 million of its art to pay expenses. During the winter just five buildings are open. We viewed two special exhibitions in the Pizzagalli Center for Art and Education which opened in 2013. It was a lively and intriguing experience.

Woody Sez- the life & music of Woody Guthrie — now at Westport Country Playhouse intersperses his life story, mostly told by David M. Lutkin as Woody, with renditions of the music he made so famous.

Murder has never been so much fun than in A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder. An engaging non-equity touring production is playing Ft. Lauderdale's Broward Center for the Performing Arts. One actor plays almost 10 diverse characters in a tour-de-force performance/

The Echo Drift is the second opera staged by the Prototype Festival, a group of creative producers who are working to develop new opera using all the media available, as opera has done from its earliest beginnings.

The 2018 season of Barrington Stage Company which will feature three world premieres, including a major new musical from Tony Awards winners William Finn and Rachel Sheinkin, a new play from Off Broadway Alliance Award winner Lloyd Suh, and the first major production from playwright, Rachel Lynett. The season starts with Typhpid Mary by Mark St. Germain in the theatre named for him.

If there were one word to characterize this year’s selection of possible documentary Oscar nominees, it would have to be nihilism. In its preliminary round of voting, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences selected 15 films of the 170 submissions for Best Documentary Academy Award, many produced by Amazon Studios, Netflix, HBO, et al.

On January 2nd, Palm Springs International Film Festival (PSIFF) officially launched its 29th Annual Film Festival and Gala. More than 2400 guests, attended, along with stars, celebrities, industry professionals, screenwriters, producers, directors, and actors to rub elbows at the Palm Springs Convention Center, as they accepted their Awards for their artistic accomplishments during 2017.

“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” an Amazon Studios series, won two Golden Globes Sunday night—one for best TV comedy series and one for best actress in a comedy series for Brosnahan, who grew up in Highland Park. It’s a hilarious look at a life among the wealthy and the lovably wacky flavor of Greenwich Village before Bob Dylan arrived.

Black Button Eyes’ darkly gothic production of Nevermore: The Imaginary Life and Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe makes good use of the Edge Theatre’s spacious proscenium stage. The world premiere musical with book, music and lyrics by Jonathan Christenson is directed by Ed Rutherford.

Our correspondent, Karen Isaacs, shares the best of what she reviewed on Broadway in 2017.

Finding Neverland is charming to a point, but lacks depth. An equity national touring production of the musical features acting that's too over-the-top. A musical about the birth of Peter Pan may delight young children despite its shortcomings.

2017 offered superb theatre for Connecticut audiences. Our correspondent, Karen Isaacs, has a list of the Top Ten shows. In addition she lists twelve more productions worthy of critical recognition.

The Ramos Pinto brothers founded Ramos Pinto in 1880 and marketed the port wine producing company to Brazilians. They commissioned remarkable artworks illustrating their products and guerilla marketing practices. Today, the posters are iconic and the new owners, Champagne Roederer, have been following in the footsteps of Antonio and Adriano Ramos Pinto.

We welcome Karen Isaacs who covers theatre in New York and Connecticut. Here she has mixed responses to a revival of a 1990 musical. At Cicle in the Square Once on This Island evokes a Caribbean atmosphere. You might want to get your feet wet.

If the Metropolitan Opera’s Isabel Leonard and her partner-in-Bernstein, Ted Sperling, are to be believed, for a long time they’ve been attending the superb and surprising events the Park Avenue Armory puts on, as they waited for an invitation to perform. Now the Armory presents one of the first 2018 events celebrating the 100th anniversary of Leonard Bernstein’s birth. This unusual recital of his songs was perfectly produced in the Officer’s Room. Leonard and Sperling are featured.

When the Peter Gelb era at the Metropolitan Opera is examined in posterity, the recent renaissance of operetta on the stage of that institution may rank among the general manager's more questionable endeavors. This season, the company is reviving its 2014 staging of Franz Lehár's The Merry Widow in its awkward English translation by house scribe Jeremy Sams. The saving grace of this revival is that it is a vehicle for Susan Graham, in her only role at the Met this season.

The walled city of Carcassonne, the heritage site Albi with its Toulouse-Lautrec Museum, the Basque cities of Auch and Bayonne, and the Atlantic coastal cities of Biarritz and Saint-Jean-de-Luz are treasures that make this region of France unique for the visitor.

A lot has been written about the problems with this Tosca. It underwent casting changes in all three principal roles, with Sonya Yoncheva, Vittorio Grigolo and Željko Lucic replacing (respectfully) Kristine Opalais, Jonas Kaufmann and Sir Bryn Terfel. The conductor was also replaced twice: Andris Nelsons pulled out when his wife (Ms. Opalais) did and currently disgraced music director emeritus James Levine was removed in November. In the pit for opening night: the stylish French conductor Emmanuel Villaume, a lucky and late replacement for this all-important show.

A regional production of Flashdance: The Musical achieves mixed results. The lead performer shines in Broward Stage Door Theatre's mounting of the production. Showstoppers "She's a Maniac" and "What a Feeling" make the show worthwhile seeing

These institutions visually and physically reflected Portuguese art and culture, one embracing the nooks and crannies of history while the other exhibited a vibrant openness to contemporary urbanity.