William Christie is as busy as ever in a season celebrating his 80th birthday, conducting, playing the harpsichord, administering his Les Arts Florissants orchestral and vocal ensemble and teaching at The Juilliard School as he sticks with Baroque repertoire on period instruments, staying away from more modern composers.

Offbeat operas have been some of the Salzburg Festival’s best in recent years, the latest a colorful, outlandish and entertaining staging of Sergei Prokofiev’s “The Gambler” by director Peter Sellars.

Bill Viola, a video artist who combined with director Peter Sellars on a groundbreaking production of Wagner’s “Tristan und Isolde” originally seen in Los Angeles, Paris and New York, has died at age 73.

Composer John Adams’ work is returning to the Metropolitan Opera for the first time in a decade in a new staging of his Nativity oratorio “El Nino.”.

Renée Fleming spent decades portraying generals' wives, a countess and a courtesan.