What a silent film can teach us – about history and the relationship between the visual and the auditory. The City Without Jews is a famous 1924 silent film directed by H. K. Breslauer who would go on to become a Nazi, probably out of convenience. In this film, he actually seems to like Jews, to find them charming, bright and funny. Presented at the Baruch Performing Arts Center in New York.

Alvin Ouellet, an Adams-based artist, will present an Artist Talk on Sunday, October 15th from 4:45 pm to 5:15 pm at Images Cinema, 50 Spring Street, Williamstown, MA. His exhibition in the cinema lobby is on view through October 31.

Ivoryton Playhouse’s production of The Color Purple running through Sunday, Oct. 15, deserves big audiences. It is an ambitious show that is very well performed. Unfortunately, some may believe it is too dark.

In collaboration with curator/designer Martina Salisbury, The Friends of Beattie-Powers Place presents Moments in Time :: Pictures 1965-2023. The intimate salon installation offers a rare opportunity to view a selection of over 60 of Gerard Malanga’s photographs, including portraits of some of the most illustrious artists, musicians, literary figures, and cultural icons of the last six decades.  ?

"Eugene Onegin in his Own Words" was created by noted Russian director Dmitry Krymov and presented at LaMama in New York. Dmitry Anatolyevich Krymov (born 1954, Moscow, Russia) is a Russian artist, scenographer, teacher and theater director, five times Laureate of the Golden Mask award. He left Russia for USA the day after invasion into Ukraine started. Seven of his plays were quickly banned in his country. In 2022 he started Krymov Lab NYC, his new theatrical endeavor.

E. Alexander Baker, Erika Berland and Wendell Beavers are all residents at the Eclipse Mill in North Adams, Massachusetts. The mill offers live and work spaces for creative people. Baker’s exhibition can be seen in the Eclipse Mill gallery until October 29 with hours from Thursday to Sunday, 11 am to 6pm.

Many adjectives have been thrown at or glued to the conductor Rafael Payare, who came to Carnegie Hall with the San Diego Symphony he conducts.  We haven't heard him live. He has a life-and-death urgency to his music-making. Carlos Simon and Shostakovich seemed so present, so thrilling and so important.  

Lisa Sanaya Dring’s "Sumo," playing at La Jolla Playhouse, tells the story of six sumo wrestlers living and training at an elite facility in Tokyo.

For many regions, 2023 was a difficult vintage, torn between heat waves often coupled with heavy rainfall, and drastic drought. In view of this record, Alsace is in a privileged position, and 2023, at a time when the wines are still fermenting (the harvest ended on Thursday, October 12), looks like a miraculous vintage.

Anthony Rapp revives his 2013 one-man show, supported by a five-piece rock band. He shares vignettes about the launch of the 1996 rock musical "Rent," singing songs from the musical as well as his own compositions. But his real emphasis is on the deaths of two people close to him. The creator of "Rent," Jonathan Larson died unexpectedly after the dress rehearsal to "Rent," while Rapp's loving mother suffered decline before her death from cancer.

The homely but whip smart Mary is the middle sister of five. Unmarried; without a dowry; and at risk of being dispossessed from her family home when her father dies, a suitable marital match would be welcomed. Newly title young duke, Arthur de Bourgh, is visiting for the holidays. While he and Mary share interests, he does have baggage.

Berkshires Jazz, Inc. brings the legendary Django Festival Allstars to the area on Sunday evening. Nov. 12, for an 8pm concert at the Sydelle and Lee Blatt Performing Arts Center (Barrington Stage’s facility at 36 Linden Street, Pittsfield). It’s the only New England appearance of this remarkable group, who will be en route to their 5-day residency at the annual Django Reinhardt New York Festival at Birdland.

As co-founder (with Ralph Gleason) of the most influential rock and popular culture magazine of its era, Jann S. Wenner is anointed and had the platform to make Zeus-like Olympian statements. But pure ego consumes his assumption that his short list of “friends” represents “the greatest rock stars and cultural icons of our time.” The seven that he crowned in his book The Masters are all white, straight and male.

A stirring production of "I Love a Piano" is playing at Boca Raton's Wick Theatre in South Florida. The production runs through Nov. 12. Triple threat performers and backstage artists shine.

It is disappointing to find the current production of Sunset Boulevard not living up to that standard.

The Kronos String Quartet and their collaborators, among them Carnegie Hall which presented this evening, celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the creation of this radical and exciting group.  

Kim Noltemy, the Ross Perot President & CEO of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, joined the Dallas Symphony Association (DSA) in January 2018. (She had worked for the Boston Symphony Orchestra for 21 years). One of her first initiatives was a symposium for Women in Classical Music. Noltemy moved fast and the first conference was held in 2019

Several categories saw ties this year, including the top honors for Outstanding Musical Production and . Barrington Stage Company’s production of Cabaret and the Sharon Playhouse production of Something Rotten shared the musical award. Shakespeare & Company’s production of August Wilson’s Fences shared the top play production honors with Bridge Street Theatre’s East of Berlin.

These were seen by the reviewer on a trip to NYC for the American Theatre Critics Association conference. Each of the four is worth seeing with history and music being common threads. Supported by excerpts of period music, "Spies" tells the true story of a 17th century friar who was charged with preventing what would become the 30 Years War. The dark "Watch" uses operatic form and modern dance to tell a story related to the real-life mass murders in a Charleston church with a black congregation and a Pittsburgh synagogue. "Wholesale" is a heavily adapted revival of the 1962 musical that launched Barbra Streisand's career. "Love" tells the story of former Philippine First Lady Imelda Marcos in sung-through immersive disco fashion!

The Clark Art Institute announces its summer 2024 schedule, featuring a robust program of exhibitions, events, and activities. Leading its summer program is a major new exhibition of works by French artist Guillaume Lethière featuring some eighty paintings, prints, and drawings. Organized in partnership with the Musée du Louvre (Louvre Museum), the exhibition premieres at the Clark and then travels to Paris for an autumn 2024 exhibition at the Louvre.

I was seduced into binge watching Sanctuary, an eight episode Japanese series on Netflix. It focuses on sumo wrestling, the national sport that is unique to Japan. Obesity is essential to success in the sport resulting in disease and premature death. While I had no prior knowledge of the sport I am now a fan.

BSC will produce the Tony Award-winning musical La Cage aux Folles, and the Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning musical, Next to Normal, which will be directed by Alan Paul, in a co-production with Round House Theatre, Bethesda, MD.

David Hertzberg's opera, The Rose Elf, opened The Angel Space series, a collaboration between Unison Media and Green-Wood Cemetery. After whiskey amidst gravestones, the audience took a walk through the glorious grounds, where ancient trees are thick, tall and promising. The production in the Catacombs was thrilling.

Carnegie Hall ended its 2017-18 season Tuesday night with the last of three concerts featuring the MET Orchestra. This year, the pit band at the Metropolitan Opera has been playing under a succession of different conductors. This one was conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas.

Betrayal through informing is at the core of Athol Fugard’s masterful A Lesson from Aloes, one of several penetrating plays that earns the South African playwright a position in the pantheon of modern authors. First produced in 1980, the play is set in 1963, a full three decades before the end of apartheid. Weathervane Productions renders this classic with exceptional skill.