BEIJING—When Italian opera star Leo Nucci set off in 2009 on his first-ever working visit to China, he concedes he felt a measure of excitement.

When you’re an opera you’re not necessarily an opera all the way. Such is the case with West Side Story – best known as a Broadway musical and subsequent movie musical. But there’s an operatic version of the Leonard Bernstein classic, and such a production will open Vancouver Opera’s 2011-2012 season.

You’re at a farmer’s market, looking for that elusive perfect tomato, when suddenly people around you burst into song. No, it’s not a particularly vocal group of produce vendors. It’s a new trend in classical music: spontaneous performances in public places, or flash concerts.

It is the story of an immoral Lothario, a tale which begins with sexual violence and ends with divine justice. You’d have thought seasoned opera-goers would be well prepared for the exploits of Don Giovanni. But that hasn’t stopped a new production from being accused of “shock tactics” by suggesting scenes involving gang rape.

Avant garde art and architecture are loved, but in music we cling to the past. We’re missing out.

IN a drab classroom at Lewisham in Sydney’s inner west, the chairs and tables are pushed to the edge of the room.

UN culture organisation adds flamenco, French cuisine and 44 other global cultural practices to preservation list.

The anti-Semitic composer still resonates badly in the Jewish state, but a new society hopes to change that.

Move over the singing Priests… it’s time for the singing lawyers.

It’s rare for a concert to have quite as many selling points as the one that Robert McDuffie, the violinist, managed to compile in the program he presented at Strathmore on Sunday night. The program had going for it a crack ensemble, the Venice Baroque Orchestra. It had one of the most popular classical works in the repertory: Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons.” Rarest of all, it had a new work with considerable popular appeal: Philip Glass’s second violin concerto, “The American Four Seasons,” written for McDuffie himself.