Viewers can always count on Betty to supply some of the weirder, darker subplots on “Mad Men,” and the season six premiere Sunday night did not disappoint.

Tired of grumbling about economic austerity? Maybe it's time to sing about it.

"Reaching the end of Giulio Cesare at its opening night wasn't just a matter of taking in four-plus hours of Handel’s greatest arias, but navigating stories within stories," writes David Patrick Stearns.

A violinist is accusing a Manhattan violin dealer of losing her 1837 violin while it was on consignment – by giving it out for trial to someone who never returned – according to a lawsuit.

Fans often express their frustration with opera administrators, writes Fred Plotkin. But just as influential, in most cases, are the boards that govern opera companies and provide a large part of the money.

Robert Ward, whose operatic adaptation of Arthur Miller's The Crucible won a Pulitzer Prize in 1962, died Wednesday in Durham, NC. He was 95 and had been in failing health.

A documentary and ongoing concert project looks at the Terezín concentration camp, where inmates sang the Verdi Requiem for their own dignity and solace—and to challenge their Nazi captors.

Nearly three weeks after a musician work stoppage shut down the San Francisco Symphony, a tentative deal has been reached.

Phil Ramone, who died Saturday at age 79, was not only a Grammy winning pop producer and engineer. He also worked with artists including Luciano Pavarotti, Renee Fleming and Andre Previn.

If a performance is "numbingly slow" with "no pacing to speak of, no structure or architecture to the rendering of the score" should the conductor be blamed? Absolutely, argues Fred Plotkin.

John Adams's large-scale oratorio The Gospel According to the Other Mary got its New York premiere Wednesday night. David Patrick Stearns writes that its Adams's "biggest and most profusely scored work."

It's the ultimate opera cliche: the diva showered with bouquets of flowers as she takes her bow. But as Fred Plotkin writes, "Strong fragrances, even pleasing ones," can lead to thorny situations.

Steinway Musical Instruments Inc. is selling its stake in the Steinway Hall building in New York to JDS Development Group for about $46 million.

In this video, Juilliard organ department chairman Paul Jacobs shows us how Bach is played on the pipe organ.

A tenor from New Orleans has won the prestigious Beverly Sills Award that signals a star in the works.

The spectacle around Pope Francis's installation prompted Fred Plotkin to think about representations of popes and cardinals and potent Catholic figures in opera. Read on and share your own favorites.

This weekend, a musicians' website featured an open letter “to express our deep frustration and disappointment at our management’s cancellation of our East Coast tour.”

Mezzo-soprano opera star Risë Stevens, who sang with the Metropolitan Opera for more than 20 years spanning the 1940s and 1950s, has died. She was 99.

“Einstein on the Beach” is headed to the Library of Congress. On Thursday, the library announced its 25 newest additions to the National Recording Registry.

Tuesday’s announcement that Alex Beard, 49, has been appointed as the new chief executive at the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden was remarkable for its speed, especially because Beard comes from outside the institution. Typically, such searches take a longer period because the supply of able and qualified individuals is always limited, even for such a prestigious post, as few people have the necessary qualifications.