The Concert for Peace is known for its mixture of inspired music-making, muddy acoustics and a sometimes earnest solemnity. This New Year’s Eve promises to be different.

Claudio Del Monaco, the opera director and son of the late Italian opera tenor Mario Del Monaco, is in critical but stable condition after an incident of operatic proportions.

In anticipation of the world premiere of The Enchanted Island, the new pasticcio (pastiche) at the Metropolitan Opera, a question emerges: just what is a pasticcio?

What do you think was the year's biggest story? What will continue to make waves in 2012? Take our poll and share your thoughts.

Sidle up to a sidecar, take a Manhattan or just unwind with a wine as blogger Olivia Giovetti gets into the New Year's spirit with her countdown of opera's ten best bar tunes.

Blogger Olivia Giovetti reflects on the abrupt closing of Opera Boston and the precedent it sets for the similarly-beleaguered New York City Opera.

In 2011, a growing number of arts organizations embraced digital technology a means of riding out the stresses facing the field.

The year 2011 saw the deaths of major composers, singers, conductors and music presenters. We remember their contributions to classical music and the world with this slideshow.

Opera fans in Berlin can have their pick of three major opera houses, each with distinctive approaches to tradition. Blogger Olivia Giovetti recently sampled the offerings and gives her report.

A rare violin worth $172,000 that was mistakenly left on board a Boston-to-Philadelphia bus by a groggy music student from Taiwan has been found and returned to its grateful owner.

Andrew Shapiro has played the piano at a Manhattan McDonald's for over seven years. Hints of Chopin-esque harmonies mingle with shouts of “May I help the next customer please?”

Certain operas seem like a natural fit for holiday time, writes Fred Plotkin, from Hansel and Gretel to Rimsky-Korsakov's unjustly forgotten Christmas Eve.

Who owns seats—full or empty—in concert halls and opera houses? Do they belong to the theater? The ticket-holder? And does that make a difference if you're switching a seat? Blogger Olivia Giovetti considers these questions.

The Park Avenue Armory has named Alex Poots, currently the director of England's Manchester International Festival, as its first artistic director.

La Scala, despite its famous history of temperamental divas and conductors and its frequent labor strife, also reminds us of the dignity, the glory and the sheer visceral thrill of opera, writes Fred Plotkin.

WQXR's Kerry Nolan asks why holiday traditions -- the nostalgia a piece of music brings, the aroma of a roasting turkey -- propel us to another time and place.

A significant trend in publishing, the Kindle Single format was recently adopted by the pianist Jonathan Biss.

The flamboyant organist Cameron Carpenter offers us another example of his remarkable technical and musical skills in a new recording and video of “Sleigh Ride.”

In a season of Best-Of lists, Operavore Olivia Giovetti names her own picks for standouts of 2011. Find out what made the cut, and leave your own nominations in the comments.

Kim Jong Il, who died Saturday at the age of 69, took an active role in North Korean culture, and had a truly curious relationship to classical music.