Alex Steinweiss, who dreamed up the concept of album cover art in the 1930s and gave us the first examples of creatively illustrated record sleeves, died on July 17. He was 94. Check out some of his handiwork in this slideshow.

Placido Domingo, the peripatetic tenor, conductor and opera house impresario, added another feather to his cap on Tuesday: as the new chairman of IFPI, a British trade group representing the recording industry.

There is a generation of people who work in the performing arts, mostly in their 50s and 60s, who are known as “Gilbert’s Children.” All of us had the same master instructor and draw on his wisdom as if it were genetically part of who we are. Gilbert Hemsley (1936-1983) was the kind of inspiring teacher one is lucky to have. He drew the best out of each student and knew how to shine a light on every person’s strengths.

Situated on 26 acres of farmland on the bank of Otsego Lake a few miles north of Cooperstown, NY is the Alice Busch Opera Theater. It’s not where you might expect to find one of America’s largest summer opera festivals, but driving so far out of the way to find the Glimmerglass Festival is one of the biggest reasons why it makes for such a wonderful weekend trip.

With three operas in rotation this weekend, WQX-Aria blogger Olivia Giovetti wonders if Princeton, NJ is becoming a new destination town for summer classical music. Weigh in with your own thoughts.

The term maestro has two meanings. It is a conductor, of course, but it also means teacher. To some degree, every conductor is also a teacher, but some few of them so fully embrace pedagogy that it seems to dwarf their other achievements. A few maestros are also composers. Mahler and Leonard Bernstein both belong in this category, as did Mendelssohn in his short life.

Many Americans who have never set foot in an opera house know popular arias through TV shows like Seinfeld, Saturday Night Live, The Simpsons and Gilligan’s Island. Read about the top ten operatic references on TV and share your own favorites.

The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra is the example of an orchestra for which everything seemed to be going well. Now it's reported that the orchestra is in considerable debt.

Many of the world's great opera companies double as ballet companies, including those in London, Paris and Russia. But has anyone lately mentioned the Metropolitan Opera Ballet? On WQX-Aria, blogger Fred Plotkin has a proposal for the Met.

Last week, American pianist, Van Cliburn celebrated his 77th birthday. This came just weeks after the Russians gave Cliburn a warm welcome when he returned to their country to serve as honorary juror in the International Tchaikovsky Competition. He was a true hero "returning home" 53 years after winning the country’s premiere musical competition at the height of the Cold War.

"One could make a full-time (and fulfilling) career out of just seeing student and young artist performances in the New York metro area," writes WQX-Aria blogger Olivia Giovetti, who reviews one such performance given this weekend.

With the Glimmerglass Festival's production of Annie Get Your Gun opening this weekend, WQX-Aria blogger Olivia Giovetti looks at the tradition of performing musicals in the opera house.

Opera fans know that Verdi wrote three brilliant operas based on Shakespeare: Macbeth, Otello and Falstaff. And then there is the great Shakespeare opera that Verdi struggled to create, but did not: Il Re Lear. Here's why.

"In the course of a highly concentrated twelve days, the Lincoln Center Festival’s A Magic Flute illustrates what happens over the course of a season or multiple years in houses such as the Met," writes WQX-Aria blogger Olivia Giovetti: "How do different artists shape and reshape the art?"

New York City Opera lays out a promising season divorced from Lincoln Center, writes WQX-Aria blogger Olivia Giovetti. But can they also reach a labor negotiation to help get the struggling company back on its feet?

On WQX-Aria Fred Plotkin reports on the Caramoor revival of Rossini's William Tell and asks: "What opera has been forgotten, ignored or badly served that you would present in five years?"

As the Met revisits its new tradition of summer recital series, WQX-Aria blogger Olivia Giovetti asks whether these summer offerings may be better than full-length operas.

Mikhail Arkadyev, the conductor of Vladivostok's Pacific Symphony Orchestra, found out what happens when you refuse to get on board in Vladimir Putin's Russia.

WQX-Aria Blogger Olivia Giovetti previews Vertical Player Repertory's production of La Calisto, a 17th-century Cavalli gem that's transported to an industrial area of Brooklyn.

On WQX-Aria, Fred Plotkin reports on the revival of the Terrence McNally play "Master Class." "Daly fully stakes her claim as heir to a role that has prismatically brought forth distinct traits of Callas with each actress who plays her."