As operatic theater this staging of Janacek's song cycle by Ivo van Hove falls short. As an opportunity to hear great music performed with dedication and finesse by fine singers, I'll take it.

Can we ever leave our pasts behind? 'Charlie's Waiting' by Mêlisa Annis poses this eternal question in the fresh context of modern love.

The first freestanding work for orchestra by film composer Danny Elfman has been recorded by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra with violinist Sandy Cameron.

Be prepared to laugh yourself silly as actor-comedian Bill Posley delivers a serious message about biracial identity.

Whoops and hollers from a student-heavy audience at Juilliard greeted the head of the school's viola department at his concert featuring music by Mozart, Hummel, and John Harbison.

Brightly inventive in the service of a dim mood, the songs on Beat Circus' 'These Wicked Things' smell of existential desperation. It's one of the cooler albums to cross my transom this year.

The noise and ache that stream through these songs recall the blues, and support literate and often poetic lyrics.

In her solo show 'Paper Cut' Yael Rasooly lurches through a careening collage of movie tropes and references by means of paper cutouts and popups. It's an off-the-wall tour de force.

Harking back to the 20th-century theatrical avant-garde, the LGBTI-themed political burlesque '55 Shades of Gay' from Kosovo reminds us of the endurance of homophobia.

Exploring what it means to be beautiful, this vivid show inspired by a West African fable lenses familiar passions and traumas into high relief.