Playbill looks back at the actors, directors, choreographers, and other theatre legends who died in the past year.

Gerard McBurney's multimedia explorations of groundbreaking works, called Inside the Music, begin this month at the New York Philharmonic.

The eighth week of titles also includes the documentary The Opera House.

Following her roles in TV's "Six Feet Under" and "Brothers and Sisters," Australian actress Rachel Griffiths relishes solving the puzzle of Brooke Wyeth in Broadway's Other Desert Cities.

Following her roles in TV's "Six Feet Under" and "Brothers and Sisters," Australian actress Rachel Griffiths relishes solving the puzzle of Brooke Wyeth in Broadway's Other Desert Cities.

The Met opens its 2009-10 season Sept. 21 with a brand new production of Tosca starring Karita Mattila, Marcelo êlvarez and George Gagnidze. The 6:30 performance will be transmitted to screens in Times Square and Lincoln Center's Josie Robertson Plaza.

Wagner will dominate the Royal Opera's 2007-08 season, with three complete Ring cycles. Other highlights include soprano Deborah Voigt singing the title role in Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos and Anna Netrebko singing Violetta in La Traviata.

It's la rentr_e in Paris — the return to the city, the world of work and the regular season after August vacation. The Op_ra National de Paris makes its rentr_e tonight at the Op_ra Bastille with Andrei Serban's production of Lucia di Lammermoor. Natalie Dessay stars as the unhinged heroine, a role in which she brought the house down last year in Chicago. Matthew Polenzani, Ludovic T_zier, Salvatore Cordella and Kwangchul Youn co-star and Evelino Pid‹ conducts in 12 performances through October 16.

Northern California is the scene for yet another small Internet milestone tonight, as National Public Radio transmits its first live webcast of a classical music concert.

Just in time for the holidays, Playbill Travel, in association with Dailey-Thorp Travel, invite you to take part in two exciting travel packages. The first spans the whole holiday weekend of Thanksgiving in New York Nov. 22 through 26 and includes a New York Philharmonic performance, two Broadway musicals and two Metropolitan Opera performances. The second lets you spend a long weekend of Holiday Shopping in the Big Apple while enjoying three opera classics at the Metropolitan Opera and a performance by the New York Philharmonic Nov. 30-Dec. 3.

HOUSTON – "I don't think there's a difference between lighting theater and opera," declared lighting designer Ken Billington, who in his prolific career has to his credit 70 Broadway productions and 65 operas worldwide, including 22 for Houston Grand Opera. The latest is HGO's current revivals of Richard Strauss' Arabella, which opened on April 17 and continues on April 22, 25, 28, May 1, and 3, and Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, which opens April 24 and continues on April 26, 29, May 2, 5, 8, 9, and 10. Both operas take place in the Wortham Center's Brown Theater; Arabella stars the internationally acclaimed Renee Fleming, while versatile director Harry Silverstein, a frequent collaborator with Philip Glass, guides The Marriage of Figaro. "As long as there's an emotional connection," Billington continued, "if you have reason and context, then all lighting is the same."