Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Lorenzo Da Ponte, a librettist, first met in Vienna in 1783. They shied away from the staid Greco-Roman mythologies, used frequently in opera until then, choosing to collaborate on human interest stories. Musicologists rightly praise Mozart’s ability to "draw" character in very few bars. In 1786 "The Marriage of Figaro" was their first collaboration.

Don Giovanni, antihero of Mozart’s eponymous 18th century operatic masterpiece, is a man with insatiable appetites — for women, for corporeal pleasures, and, in Berkshire Opera Festival’s new production at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, for the escape offered by drinking and drugs.

In 1910, Maurice Ravel wrote five pieces for two pianos based on the “Mother Goose” stories for the two children of friends. The youngsters must have been gifted, if, at the ages of 6 and 7, they were able to play Ravel’s enchanting score. The following year Ravel orchestrated the piece, and it will be in its orchestral version that it will be played on Saturday evening at Tanglewood.

It’s surprising that the FX series "Pistol," which tells the story of the infamous band the Sex Pistols, ends with a joyful scene, a recreation of the band’s benefit performance on Christmas day 1977 for the children of striking firefighters in Huddersfield. It’s a giddy spectacle that shows the band in good cheer and good unity. The scene highlights what could have been, had the band not self-destructed.