Performer: Elizabeth Futral

San Francisco Opera's production of Sweeney Todd brings nothing new to the musical, but the cast includes wonderful surprises – most notably Stephanie Blythe's Mrs Lovett.

Although opera, as a genre, is easily celebrated for its capacity to move and transport an audience, it is rare to be emotionally disturbed by one. Tobias Picker’s Dolores Claiborne, which received its world première by the San Francisco Opera this week, achieves such a feat. In doing so, it will certainly garner notoriety, both as well-deserved praise and well-deserved condemnation.

This past Saturday night at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, opera superstars Anna Netrebko and Joseph Calleja successfully transformed an otherwise ordinary, four-star La Bohème at the Lyric into an extraordinary, five-star experience.

On Monday night – and, one might guess from the way the opera crowd gripped their collars as they swept into the Civic Opera House, the coldest night in Chicago this winter – a new La Bohème opened at the Lyric (it’s on loan from the San Francisco opera).

What influence does a place exert on art? Surely there is an agreed-upon “French” sound in music, a distinctive look to Flemish portraiture, but how different might the work of a Muscovite sculptor be from one based in St Petersburg? And in a global age, does place still matter? The first concert of this season’s CONTACT! New Music Series presented works by four New York composers, none natives, b

Want to know what small-town America looks and feels like in the thick of summertime, circa 1940? The Glimmerglass Festival’s purest musical theater offering, The Music Man, is festive, frolicsome Americana, brimming with spectacular sets, clever staging, and a sensational ensemble showcasing Olympic-sized talent.