Founded by Peter the Great as the Venice of the North, St. Petersburg lives up to that image with inspired art and architecture. Opulent palaces, grand cathedrals, and ornate buildings line its canals connected with beautiful bridges. The fantastic art and cultural programs that fill the monumental buildings make the visit all the more compelling.

Hubbard Hall Opera Theater offers up something for everyone with their summer season.

From 1987 to 2006 the French playwright, Yasmina Reza, has written seven plays of which two, Art (1994) and God of Carnage (2006) have been hits. From 1995 Shakespeare & Company is presenting the rarely produced two-hander of strangers on a train, an author and a woman who has read him in depth, The Unexpected Man.

The stage at City Center was beautifully packed with an array of instruments designed by Harry Partch, a modern American composer of original theatrical events. Classifying him as a composer of concert music is, as Partch said, as foolish as saying he is a kangaroo. The brilliant director Heiner Goebbels expands the Partch experience with set objects and lighting. Here is the future of American musical production conceived over a half century ago.

For the fourth production of the season at Williamstown Theatre Festival yet again it is a world premiere with the casting of stars like Blair Underwood and De'adre Aziza. Unlike the prior three productions last night there was a genuine and encouraging standing O from the enthusiastic audience. There are compelling components in an uneven play by Dominque Morisseau. She aspires to do for her native Detroit what August Wilson achieves in his Century Cycle for Pittsburgh,

Guess who's coming to dinner? Turns out Pere and Mere Ubu and their coterie of political acquaintances. Cheek by Jowl embeds the Jarry play at a dinner party. We can not decipher the dinner table conversation, but surely it is the same subject as the century-old play that is fresh and even futuristic. Here we see war, and regicide. Czars are toppled and Ukraine and Lithuania are in the news. Gold is hidden away in beneficial accounts. Plus ca change, plus ca la meme chose.

My grandfather James Flynn was noted as a man of few words. This is a verbatim transcription of a rare note that he wrote to my father on the occasion of my birth. On many levels it is a remarkable document.

By the time he took part in The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona Territory, Wyatt Earp was already famous; after that October afternoon in 1881, he was a legend.

The newly opened exhibit, The Freedom Principle: Experiments in Art and Music, 1965 to Now, celebrates the 50th anniversary of Chicago's experimental jazz collective, the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), which continues to expand the boundaries of jazz.

This summer Chris Busa has published the 30th annual issue of Provincetown Arts Magazine. The publication which is organized as a non profit is a widely respected compendium of the arts in the Lower Cape, past and present. The award winning magazine covers the fine arts, literature with and emphasis on poetry, film and theatre.

Dance drink and enjoy the stars from the Blue Moon Rooftop in downtown Pittsfield. It's a benefit for the Farmers Market.

Naumkeg needs your support by attending the annual Garden Party.

In fear and desperation James Flynn one and only time traveled by train from Boston to Brooklyn. There to seek care from my father. It was emblematic of love and trust.

The old part of Tallinn is a chronicle in stone of the city's history. Carefully conserved narrow little streets, cathedral spires, 15th- 16th- and 17th-century houses define the character of old Tallinn. The new glass and steel high-rise buildings add a youthful touch to a picture-book city.

Back in January Julianne Boyd announced to the media how she had always wanted to present a play by an American master, Neil Simon. She chose his Pulitzer and Tony winning Lost in Yonkers a bitter sweet saga of a poor immigrant Jewish family under the thumb of a mean and brutal matriarch. Director Jenn Thompson earned a Drama Desk nomination for a prior production of the play which she has now staged brilliantly in the Berkshires.

Daphne, a one act opera, is more tone poem than drama. Each character has a signature in notes. Particularly Daphne, Apollo and Leukippos are shaped and defined by Strauss. Strauss' new librettist Joseph Gregor finally produced a satisfactory text with a lot of help from Strauss' friends. Daphne was Pauline, Strauss' wife, favorite. A noted soprano in her own right, Pauline recognized the extraordinary musical character Strauss created for sopranos. Regine Hangler took full advantage.

Ring of Fire: The Music of Johnny Cash is a jukebox musical with no plot to speak of. It is playing at the Mercury Theatre in Chicago through August

Faye Butler describes herself as an actor who sings, not a singer who acts. She's a theater and musical star in Chicago and nationally and has won many awards and honors for her work. She currently plays the cleaning lady, Cassandra, who knows the source of her name only too well, in the current Goodman Theatre production, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike. I interviewed her about that role and her other stage and cabaret work. She let me in on a few secrets about her voice, her vocal practices -- and her dreams. (Also see our review of the play.)

In a bold move Berkshire Theatre Group has collaborated with New Neighborhood and a world premiere of its very first production. I Saw My Neighbor On the Train and I Didn’t Even Smile by the brilliant young British playwright, Suzanne Heathcote, is the must see show of the Berkshire season.

Mom married under one condition. That after their internships and residencies the young doctors would return to Boston and her family. Josephine and James Flynn were shocked that their daughter married an Italian even though he was a surgeon. Dad eased into it with pipes on the porch.

Known for her recent role as Billie Holiday, multiple Tony award winning actress and singer, Audra Mcdonald takes center stage at Tanglewood on July 19.

The premise of choreographer Alonzo King is to base his company in the training and disciple of classical dance with a bold move into post modern dissolution of traditional gender hierarchies. Listening to Bach we are surprised to see very different choreography that extends to the present the innovations of the neo classicism of George Ballanchine.

Given the all star casting a number of shows during Mandy Greenfield's first season as artistic director of Williamstown Theatre Festival have sold out. This is particularly true for the smaller Nikos Stage where Tony, Emmy and Grammy winner Cynthia Nixon is featured in the three-hander Kinship by Carey Perloff, directed by Jo Bonney. In an example of gender reversal, the apparent point of this play, a woman in power, a successful editor, mentors a rookie reporter and risks career and family in an obsession that turns as dark as the fate of the Greek queen Phèdre. Perloff was directing a production of the Racine classic when it inspired her to write this play.

Welser-Möst hid behind Tristan and Iseult in Vienna and Salome at Carnegie, two terrific opera productions he conducted. The continuity of the performance he draws from the elegant Cleveland Orchestra, weaving together an unusual whole, swoops the listener into the entire work without a breath, but with infinite attention to dynamic detail. It is a remarkable and uplifting experience to hear orchestral works as Welser-Möst designs them. Orchestra members are willing and more than up to the exciting task.

The oldest of seven children from an immigrant family in Brooklyn Dad was the first to attend college. With a pharmacy degree he worked three jobs to help support the family. He left home to focus on the goal of becoming a surgeon.