NEW YORK— Plácido Domingo has starred on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera for a whopping 50 years - and is still singing, amazingly, at age 78. On Sunday, the Met literally turned the tables and threw a dinner on the same stage … » Read

LONG BEACH, California--Franz Kafka’s short story In the Penal Colony  is a surreal little shocker that was published in 1919 just after the end of World War I. It’s about a Visitor from an unnamed country who is invited to … » Read

The Manhattan-based Little Orchestra Society (LOS), now in its 71 st season, has appointed David Alan Miller as its artistic advisor. James Judd, its music director of the last five seasons, stepped down in February, although his name and title … » Read

After seven weeks, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra strike is over. Saturday afternoon the musicians approved a tentative agreement that had been drawn up on Friday in the offices of Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who had offered his services to move things … » Read

The Chicago Symphony and its musicians have reached a tentative five-year agreement, announced more or less simultaneously Friday evening by each side plus Mayor Rahm Emanuel, at whose office the two parties met Friday. Details will be issued … » Read

“Don’t clap too early!” warned Austrian composer Thomas Larcher as he strode onto the David Geffen Hall stage to introduce the April 24 U.S. premiere of his Second Symphony with the New York Philharmonic. Not that Larcher should … » Read

In a sign of the times, the Eugene (OR) Opera announced it is giving up its residency at a prime venue in town in order to gain more flexibility in its programming. As a resident company at the Hult Center, it is required to produce at least two … » Read

A reporter visits the tiny audio studio at the top of the Metropolitan Opera 30 minutes before a live Saturday Tosca broadcast and interviews cohosts Mary Jo Heath and Ira Siff. He writes of them and the nearby audio engineer, “Everyone is … » Read

LONDON—Covent Garden was due a new Billy Budd . The opera debuted there in 1951 and reappeared regularly until the turn of the century, but of late Britten’s opera has been conspicuous by its absence from the London stage, except for … » Read

Characterizing the Chicago Symphony Orchestra as “a crown jewel within Chicago’s rich cultural landscape,” Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has offered to assist in the negotiations between management and the musicians. Both sides … » Read