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  • Awakenings by Tobias Picker

    Opera Theatre of St. Louis Presents Premiere

    By: Susan Hall - Jun 15th, 2022

    Awakenings is a new opera by the very American opera composer Tobias PIcker. In the past, he has musicalized the stories of Judith Rossner, Theodore Dreiser, and Stephen King. His new opera premieres at the Opera Theatre of St. Louis.

  • Berkshire Opera Festival

    Three Decembers by Jake Heggie

    By: Susan Hall - Jun 16th, 2022

    The spirited and ambitious Berkshire Opera Festival opens its 2022 summer season with a compelling new production of Jake Heggie's intimate THREE DECEMBERS on July 21 and 23 at PS21 in Chatham, NY, conducted by Christopher James Ray and directed by Beth Greenberg. This contemporary American opera is based on Tony Award-winning playwright Terrence McNally's original script for Some Christmas Letters. It marks BOF's 2nd Second Stage event, following Tom Cipullo's highly praised Glory Denied last summer.

  • 2022 Berkshire Mountains Faerie Festival, Adams, MA

    Return After Three Years

    By: Astrid Hiemer - Jun 20th, 2022

    Last Saturday marked the return of the Berkshire Mountains Faerie Festival after three years, the fifth celebration since 2016. Cold weather and stormy winds could not keep away faeries and fair minded goblins from near and far.

  • B.R.O.K.E.N. Code B.I.R.D. Switching

    World Premiere by Tara L. Wilson Noth at Berkshire Theatre Group

    By: Charles Giuliano - Jun 26th, 2022

    The playwright, Tara L. Wilson Noth, has taken on a lot as the program notes state: Racism, incarceration, justice, and relationships. There can be turmoil trying to follow and resolve this mélange of subplots.

  • The Mystery of Irma Vep

    At Island City Stage near Ft. Lauderdale

    By: Aaron Krause - Jun 26th, 2022

    The Mystery of Irma Vep by Charles Ludlam is a spoof of genres such as Gothic melodrama and horror. Island City Stage in Wilton Manors, near Ft. Lauderdale, has mounted a consistently entertaining production. The play is purely escapist entertainment.

  • Mega Award Winning Once

    Impeccable Berkshire Theatre Group Production

    By: Charles Giuliano - Jul 04th, 2022

    Directed by Gregg Edelman, Berkshire Theatre Group has created a stunning production of Once the multiple award winning musical. The twelve actors in this work are also the musicians and singers. Set in a Dublin pub it tells the tale of unrequited love between a Guy and Girl. For this critic it proved to be an emotionally shattering theatrical experience.

  • Hurricane Diane by Madeline George

    At Chicago's Theatre Wit

    By: Nancy Bishop - Jul 06th, 2022

    Dionysus/Diane has messages for us. The messages we continue to ignore about the serious dangers that climate change portends for our future—and more importantly, for the futures of our children and grandchildren. Yes, while we seethe with anger about SCOTUS decisions and the January 6 insurrection, playwright Madeline George wants us to get mad about climate change too. She’s right, of course.

  • Eva Hesse: Expanded Expansion

    Guggenheim Museum Exhibition

    By: Guggenheim - Jul 08th, 2022

    In the late 1960s, Eva Hesse sought to make objects that were neither painting nor sculpture, but a hybrid that was all her own. Simultaneously adopting and pushing against the prevailing Minimalist language of repetitive forms and hard edges, her work is imbued with a haptic experience that reflects her keen interest in materiality and incongruity.

  • Phil Kline at Mass MOCA

    Wide-Ranging Magical Music

    By: Susan Hall - Jul 11th, 2022

    Three Phil Kline concerts at Bang on a Can's LOUD Weekend, from a duo with Jim Jarmusch to anti-war classic Zippo Songs (7/28-30, MASS MoCA)

  • Dreaming in Cuban by Cristina Garcia

    World Premiere by by Central Works

    By: Victor Cordell - Jul 12th, 2022

    Cristina Garcia, who has adapted her 1992 National Book Award finalist novel into a world-premiere play, delves into a number of stock motifs and stock character types, but in a vivid, imaginative, and entertaining way.  The story, which takes place in Havana and Brooklyn in 1979-1980, reveals a family with four determined women of Cuban ancestry; representing three generations; living in two countries; and sharing one common condition – zero male partners impede their personal pursuits at this point in their lives.

  • ABCD By May Treuhaft-Ali

    World Premiere at Barrington Stage Company

    By: Charles Giuliano - Jul 14th, 2022

    Barrington Stage Company in its tradition of encouraging new voices is providing playwright May Treuhaft-Ali with her first professional production. She has created a topical work based on ripped from the headlines reporting on the crisis in American public education.

  • Inna Faliks Returns to The Barge

    Splendid Music by Freidlin. Clara Schumann and Ravel

    By: Susan Hall - Jul 14th, 2022

    Inna Faliks is not only a pianist of the highest order.  She programs to reveal new insights into the music she performs. She is especially striking as a commissioner of new music. She also honors living composers, some  too seldom performed.

  • Legendary Boston Gallerist Portia Harcus

    Showed the New Wave in Late 1960s

    By: Charles Giuliano - Jul 15th, 2022

    Portia Gwen Harcus, 88, of Boston, passed away Thursday, July 14, 2022. Graveside services at Sharon Memorial Park, 40 Dedham St., Sharon, MA on Sunday, July 17, 2022 at 9:45 am.

  • Berkshire Opera Festival's Don Giovanni

    First-rate Company Performs Mozart

    By: Susan Hall - Jul 14th, 2022

    "What Loy and his co-founder Brian Garman have pulled off in the Berkshires is some true wizardry." — Parterre Box

  • Athena by Gracie Gardner

    At Thrown Stone Theater in Ridgefield

    By: Karen Isaacs - Jul 18th, 2022

    Teenage angst is not necessarily the material for meaningful drama. Athena by Gracie Gardner one of two plays at Thrown Stone Theater in Ridgefield reveals the hazards. It, and the other play Hysterical! run in repertory through Sunday, Aug. 6.

  • MFA Opens Two Renovated Galleries

    Italian Renaissance and a French Salon

    By: MFA - Jul 19th, 2022

    In August, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), is unveiling two newly renovated galleries for Italian Renaissance art as well as a newly renovated French Salon, an opulent setting for nearly 100 highlights from the MFA's Elizabeth Parke Firestone and Harvey S. Firestone, Jr. Collection of French silver.

  • Israeli Expressionist Artist Ira Kaufman

    Was Director of Historic Brata Gallery in New York

    By: Charles Giuliano - Jul 21st, 2022

    Out of the blue I got a call from Ira Kaufman in Israel. The name was vaguely familiar but didn’t click until he said “It’s me from The Brata Gallery.” Then it all locked in. By phone and e mail we recalled the Downtown scene in New York in the 1960s as well as the Figurative Expressionist and Rhino Horn movements.

  • Jonas Kaufman and Helmut Deutsch in Munich

    Munich State Opera Presents in the National Theater

    By: Susan Hall - Jul 24th, 2022

    Jonas Kaufman and Helmut Deutsch have long been partners in song.  Kaufman recently withdrew from performances at the Royal Covent Garden opera house due to the impact of Covid 19 on his voice.  His return was welcomed at the National Theater in Munich.

  • Bass Player Michael Henderson at 71

    Played with Stevie Wonder and Miles Davis

    By: Charles Giuliano - Jul 25th, 2022

    Michael Henderson was just 20 when I heard him with Miles Davis. "Stolen" from Stevie Wonder the young bass player gave Davis the funk he was seeking during the aftermath of his seminal fusion, double album Bitches Brew. For five years and several albums Henderson was the heart and soul of the band. Cut loose in 1976 Henderson recorded seven album for Buddah Records, His last, for EMI was in 1983 although he continued to perform.

  • Giulio Cesare in Egitto

    The Handel Opera

    By: Victor Cordell - Jul 26th, 2022

    Handel’s 1724 opera masterpiece “Julius Caesar,” dealing with Caesar’s victories in Egypt in 48-47 B.C.E. shortly before his return to Rome and death in 44 B.C.E., may be considered a prequel to Shakespeare's theatrical masterpiece. 

  • Ted Rosenthal’s Jazz Opera, Dear Erich,

    Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center

    By: Jazz - Jul 27th, 2022

    The opera tells a true story of tragedy, love, and redemption in wartime Germany and Chicago, where Erich Rosenthal, Ted’s father, survived the war.

  • Pierre-Laurent Aimard in Salzburg

    Bartok and Ligeti Featured

    By: Susan Hall - Jul 31st, 2022

    Pierre-Laurent Aimard chose as difficult a program as you could imagine. In the Grand Hall of the Mozartareum in Salzburg, the first half of his program focused on Bela Bartok’s small pieces done in grand style: Bagatelles, Etudes, and some Mikrokosmos. Ligeti followed the interval.

  • Sohn Fine Art in Lenox Presents Wonderland

    Photography of the Natural Landscape

    By: Sohn - Aug 04th, 2022

    Sohn Fine Art presents Wonderland, a small group show featuring ethereal, mystical photography of the natural landscape by five diverse artists. The exhibition is on view July 22 – September 5. The images that make up Wonderland are both based in reality and surrealistic. Focused on experience and presented in an Impressionistic form, these works highlight the wonders of the natural world and the human connection to it.

  • We Are Continuous by Harrison David Rivers

    World Premiere at Williamstown Theatre Festival

    By: Charles Giuliano - Aug 05th, 2022

    We Are Continuous by Harrison David Rivers is a "semi-autobiograhical" play having its world premiere at Williamstown Theatre Festival. It conveys the strong relationship between mother and son as he deals with coming out, choosing a life in theatre, marriage, and dealing with HIV. It has been given a stunning production.

  • The Lion KIng

    Broadway San Jose

    By: Victor Cordell - Aug 07th, 2022

    The character Rafiki, a mandrill, sings the goosebump-producing “Circle of Life / Nants Ingonyama” that introduces African voice, thought, music, motion, and rhythm.  Meanwhile, the parade of absolutely stunning human-puppets-as-animals walks the aisles and fills the stage, becoming the most remarkable anthropomorphic array imaginable.  At the opening number’s end, the applause at this performance was deafening.

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