Jon Sobel

With all its high-tech spectacle and stagecraft, 'Suppose Beautiful Madeline Harvey,' Richard Foreman's first new work in a decade, revels in the retro.

The music was polished, the atmosphere cheery and informal at this year’s edition of New York Festival of Song’s (NYFoS) “A Goyishe Christmas to You!” A cabaret-like sequence of holiday songs written by Jewish composers, the show ranged from the purely comical (“ Can I Interest You in Hanukkah?

This time around, the Clarion Choir presented a New Year’s concert program that could be described as a miscellany. It included music by Rachmaninoff, whose complete choral music the Clarion has presented over a series of recent concerts marking the composer’s 150th birth anniversary. The first half of the program also included selections by Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky, as well as two other Russian contemporaries of Rachmaninoff, Maximillian Steinberg and Pavel Chesnokov. In the second half we heard Bruckner and Monteverdi, contemporary American composers, and American spirituals.

'Against War' from composer Stanley Grill shows his creative gifts and the passion with which he deploys them remain as strong as ever.

I must admit I did not know what to expect at SpaceBridge, the bold theater piece now at La Mama. Scenographer and stage polymath Irina Kruzhilina aimed to tell the stories of Russian children forced to flee their country, with or without their families, because of their parents’ anti-Ukraine-war activities. Kruzhilina conceived and directed the show in partnership with 11 such refugee children aged 10 through 15 who are living mostly in New York City shelters, and eight Melpomene-minded American children of the same age.

'The Third Temple' by Yishai Sarid is a creepily imaginative depiction of a decimated Israel reverted to a biblical kingdom.

I’ve been following the master puppeteers of Wakka Wakka since at least 2008, and they’re back in New York City with what may be their grandest show yet. Critics throw the words “astonishing” around a lot; I think it’s important to reserve it for what truly astonishes, and the compendium of puppetry and stagecraft that is Dead as a Dodo surely qualifies.

Music by Antonio Vivaldi. Words by Sara Ruhl. A bird dance. A set made of water, soap bubbles and suds. English, Italian, Latin. The Seasons, debuting in March in Boston, draws on 300-year-old music to obliquely address present-day climate change. On January 14 New York City’s Works & Process series presented a discussion and preview that suggested an impactful production is in store.

Timed to coincide with the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the music recasts traditional harmonic structure in a distinctive, subtly contemporary idiom. The libretto brings together ancient prayers, Latin texts and Jewish melodies in a patchwork version of a Ukrainian memorial service known as the Panakhyda. The combination of sources and traditions is intricate. Suffice it to note that Sheehan describes the work as a Ukrainian “Catholic/Orthodox” memorial service. And then just listen.

The new album from the Curious Bards, 'Sublimation,' is a blast, and illustrates the cross-cultural world of the 1700s.