From the first scene, the Metropolitan Opera's new production of Un Ballo in Maschera was to be a grand night for booing, writes Operavore critic David Patrick Stearns.

Other than Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute), how many operas can you name that begin with the letter Z? Consult our Zagat-style guide to find out more.

In an age of texting, Twitter and e-mail, the hand-written letter can seem like a relic of ancient times. But not on the opera stage.

"The idea of optimism becomes difficult in difficult times," writes Fred Plotkin. "And yet it is a renewable tonic, one that is not based on naiveté as much as belief."

When Barack Obama took the oath of office in 2009, a group of four musicians played Air and Simple Gifts, a somber, elegiac piece by film composer John Williams. So who should perform in January?

Elliott Carter, the American composer whose formidably complex music helped to define 20th-century modernism, died in Manhattan Monday at age 103.

Gabriela Montero, a classical pianist known for her signature improvisations on themes suggested by audience members, dramatizes a debate between President Obama and Mitt Romney.

The Russian maestro speaks with Fred Plotkin about a range of topics, including concert hall construction in St. Petersburg, Russia, the stigma around Shostakovich and the benefits of constant touring.

Superstorm Sandy has badly hobbled New Amsterdam – a nonprofit label home to a younger generation of composers and performers – destroying much of its CD inventory and equipment.

Verdi's musical transformation of Shakespeare's Macbeth shines the spotlight so brightly on his ruthless and ambitious wife that perhaps the opera should be renamed in her honor.

After cancelling performances for two days, the Met returned Wednesday with – ironically – a scheduled performance of The Tempest, an opera based on Shakespeare by Thomas Adès.

The lights went up again on Broadway Wednesday for the first time since superstorm Sandy hit New York, as entertainers headed back to work in a city still wracked by power-outages and a suspended subway system.

Women and madness is a primal operatic theme, heard in everything from Monteverdi’s Arianna to Donizetti’s Lucia and on to Régine Saint Laurent, the overwrought title character in Rufus Wainwright’s Prima Donna.

Bargemusic, the floating concert hall moored near the Brooklyn Bridge in Dumbo, appears to have sustained only minimal damage during the storm’s relentless pounding.

Spells, potions, black cats, tarot cards and incantations are the stuff of great opera plots. Fred Plotkin considers some of the great scary characters in the opera canon.

Hurricane Sandy is not the only thing barreling through the East Coast this week. The Mariinsky Orchestra has been on a breathless tour that's audacious even by the company's own go-for-broke standards.

Hurricane Sandy has forced many cultural institutions in the tri-state region to close their doors Monday.

"Nobody should be surprised that composer Hans Werner Henze was at the premiere of a new work days before he died on Oct. 27 in Dresden," writes blogger David Patrick Stearns. "He was unstoppable."

While most concerts have resumed, Carnegie Hall remains shuttered. Here is an updated list of shows that have been cancelled or postponed.

While the Giants and Tigers battle it out on the ball field, the orchestras from their respective cities are engaged in their own (online) rivalry.