In Beethoven's day, variations on a popular tune -- especially one from a favorite opera or oratorio -- sold well to the burgeoning home music-making market.

When a Scottish publisher approached Beethoven about creating some genteel arrangements of folk songs -- from Scotland to Italy -- he accepted. The results are utterly charming.

When the Montreal Symphony opened its new concert hall to the public on Wednesday night, the festivities included acrobats from the Cirque Éloize. Host Naomi Lewin reports on the three-ring festivities from our neighbors to the north.

The "people's opera" will have a reduced season next year, but George Steel, its general manager, hopes it's not for long.

Get your Foster fix in our one-hour special devoted to the American songsmith on July 4 at 6 pm. Included are many of his classic songs, including Oh, Susannah, Beautiful Dreamer and Old Folks at Home.

For the second year in a row, WQXR jumped into the June 21st "Make Music New York" festival with both feet. Actually, with many more feet than that -- Jeff Spurgeon and I both sang, accompanied by Jing Li, who's a member of the WQXR music team, and we brought along an audio/video crew of three to capture it for you to enjoy on our Web site.

I've sung plenty of outdoor gigs (including WQXR's appearance last summer at the "Play Me I'm Yours" piano near Columbus Circle, where the video producer was kind enough to cut away at the point when I nearly tripped over a tree root in mid "Amour!"). Outdoor performances proliferate in summer -- and so do the hazards that come with them.

Last week, PBS aired a program in its American Masters series called James Levine: America's Maestro. The show included great footage showing how James Levine gets the results he does from his musicians, and interesting insights from some of the people who work with him. If you missed it, you can watch it online, through June 16.

With the first-ever Gilbert and Sullivan sing-along taking place at Symphony Space and Caramoor kicking off its summer season with H.M.S. Pinafore, Naomi Lewin and Midge Woolsey talk about the timeless charm of the dynamic operetta duo.

Editor's Note: On Tuesday Riccardo Muti won Spain's Asturias Arts Award.

Earlier this month, I heard two of the Chicago Symphony programs that Riccardo Muti conducted in Carnegie Hall – the concert performance of Verdi’s opera Otello, and the concert that included Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5. Both were extraordinary examples of music-making, which left me wondering: Why is this conductor different from all other conductors? I put that question to a former cellist from the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, who happened to be sitting next to me at the first concert. His answer was, “Only one thousand and two hundred different ways, but it’s impossible to put into words.”

Naomi Lewin remembers being asked to sing "I Don't Know How to Love Him" from Jesus Christ Superstar at a wedding.

Just in time for Passover, Naomi Lewin shares two of her favorite holiday recipes, both featuring the scrumptious macaroon.

Who knew that Alban Berg's opera Wozzeck would be, hands down, the best all-around performance this year at the Met? (Fred Plotkin, maybe – he posted about it earlier this week on our blog WQX-Aria.)  But I was totally unprepared to be blown away – by the singing, acting, staging, orchestral colors… the total package. The evening began with cheers for James Levine’s appearance in the pit at the beginning of the opera, and ended with a standing ovation. A real one.

On the WQXR blog, Naomi Lewin is pleased with the trend of orchestras like the New York Philharmonic playing show tunes. "Some may call it crossover, but I call it great musicians giving a performance of great American music," she writes.

Last night, I had the extreme pleasure of seeing Gioachino Rossini’s opera Le Comte Ory. Hard to believe that it premiered in 1828, and this is the first time it’s being done at the Met.  Granted, there’s almost no plot, and what there is seems hopelessly politically incorrect. But then so are lots of opera plots, so how much does it matter when there's such delightful music involved?

The Naomi Lewin Theory of Obscure Music says that obscure music is usually obscure for a good reason. But every once in a while, a piece comes along that disproves the theory. What piece do you think is neglected?

When I heard that James Levine was resigning as music director of the Boston Symphony, I felt what many people probably did: relief that he might now be able to recuperate fully from the hard few years he’s had, medically.

Naomi Lewin observes: "Through a combination of good genes and career choices, some singers, like Placido Domingo, are the Energizer Bunnies of their profession; others crash and burn far too young."

The Yale Glee Club is celebrating its 150th anniversary this weekend. Alumna Naomi Lewin returned to her alma mater to speak to fellow glee club members and trace the history of the group, its camaraderie and choral arrangements over a diverse repertoire.