Last month, two newly-reconstructed Beethoven works were given world premieres within weeks of one another. But can these fragmentary thoughts bring genuine insights?

Opera fans can be woefully sloppy, writes Fred Plotkin, taking their seats with rumpled coats and multiple shopping bags in tow. Theaters make matters worse by not providing adequate coat check facilities.

The actress and soprano Audra McDonald is moving to the role of host for the PBS series “Live From Lincoln Center.” She will fill a position that has been vacant since another soprano, Beverly Sills, died in 2007.

A new 600-page history of opera is a "bracingly intelligent postmortem" that "inspires a good deal of hope about a supposedly lifeless corpus," writes Marion Lignana Rosenberg.

New Yorkers have no shortage of opportunities to celebrate the holidays with festive music. Here is a guide to some of the noteworthy Christmas-related concerts.

Rivera originated some of theater's most memorable roles, including Anita in 1957's "West Side Story," and is currently starring in the ensemble musical "The Mystery Of Edwin Drood."

Today we are tripping the light fantastic with F. Paul Driscoll, Editor-in-Chief of Opera News magazine. He joins WQXR Host Midge Woolsey in the studio to share his three favorite opera dance scenes.

The chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts is stepping down after three years on the job.

Berenice is suddenly everywhere, writes Fred Plotkin. "In the past week I have encountered her in London, at Carnegie Hall and, Tuesday night she was at the Metropolitan Opera."

As many music lovers prepare for Thanksgiving meals, we've sniffed out the five tastiest feasts that are served up on the opera stage.

Having brought together Arab and Israeli musicians for his West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, the conductor Daniel Barenboim now plans to create a school in Berlin for musicians from the Middle East.

Learning an instrument isn't easy, but getting to fake one for a Hollywood film is no picnic either. Christopher Walken talks about his role as a cellist in "A Late Quartet."

A visit to the Handel House Museum, the composer's former home in London, inspires blogger Fred Plotkin to consider his place in the operatic canon. 

The music could be over soon at Steinway Hall, the elegant, 87-year-old piano showroom near Carnegie Hall.

A cellist who had been collecting frequent flier miles on his instrument for the past 11 years won’t be getting any more free flights.

"Michelangelo is to art what Beethoven is to music," writes Fred Plotkin. "Beethoven’s music is so life-affirming and we get a sense of the greatness of human potential in his music and in Michelangelo’s art."

When Opera Boston folded early this year and its ambitious plans were scrapped - almost. The planned centerpiece of the company’s 2012 season was reconceived as a concert opera Saturday night.

Kelli O'Hara will be taking a break from singing Gershwin songs on Broadway early next year - to sing Rodgers & Hammerstein tunes with the The New York Philharmonic.

"Every musical career has an arc, and right now Joyce DiDonato is at the apogee of vocal and artistic splendor," writes Marion Lignana Rosenberg. Tenor Nicholas Phan "seems in thrall to his illustrious forebear Sir Peter Pears."

"Opera in English is particular, and often challenging, because our vowels are not always beautiful and unfriendly consonants tend to intrude," writes Operavore blogger Fred Plotkin.