Around the U.S.

CHICAGO – The energy of Lahav Shani's program with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra reflected how younger conductors are forging a new sound world. Shani, a 35-year-old Israeli, is a friend of CSO music director-designate Klaus Mäkelä, 28.

SEATTLE – In the intimacy of a 536-seat recital hall, violinist James Ehnes and pianist Orion Weiss performed the full cycle of 10 sonatas over two concerts presented by the Seattle Chamber Music Society, of which Ehnes is artistic director.

NEW YORK – How great, indeed thoroughly exciting, is this Metropolitan Opera revival of Strauss' Die Frau ohne Schatten? Like many others I know, I went home and purchased seats for more than one subsequent performance.

ORLANDO, Fla. – It was a night full of orchestral swells, deep rumblings, and colossal fortes as Amsterdam’s revered ensemble invoked Mahler and Schoenberg to launch a six-date tour led by Klaus Mäkelä, its chief conductor-designate.

LOS ANGELES – In the latest edition of the LA Philharmonic's adventurous musical marathon, elements that made past festivals pop remained in place. $12 got you a day of events cutting across jazz, electronic strains, art installations.

PORTLAND, Ore. – The Juliet Letters, an evocative collection of songs for the lovelorn by English rocker Elvis Costello and the Brodsky Quartet, opened the Portland Opera season with vocal performances accompanied by string quartet.

NEW YORK – Soprano Lucy Shelton, 80, stars as a retired opera singer in early-stage dementia and living with her adopted son in Lucidity, an intimate one-act opera by composer Laura Kaminsky and librettist David Cote produced by On Site Opera.

NEW YORK – Norwegian soprano Lise Davidsen is the latest in a short list of Nordic voices, including Karita Mattila and Birgit Nilsson, who have taken on Puccini's heroine. Her role debut at the Met came amid a run of Toscas from Berlin to Vienna.

LOS ANGELES – Día de los Muertos (Day of The Dead) is a Mexican holiday Nov. 1-2 that's catching on north of the border. The LA Phil offered a celebratory program of colorful, propulsive music led by Gustavo Dudamel.

PASADENA, Calif. – It was a long, rocky road the Pasadena Symphony Orchestra traveled to get to its first concerts with Brett Mitchell installed as music director. Mahler's Symphony No. 1 capped the program in lavish Ambassador Auditorium.

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – Can a city of 155,000 support a professional orchestra? The Springfield Symphony, which has flourished for more than 80 years, tapped its regional roots in a winning concert led by artistic adviser Mei-Ann Chen.

SAN FRANCISCO –The San Francisco Opera's music director, just signed to an extension through 2031, shaped a knockout performance in her first go at Tristan und Isolde with Simon O'Neill and Anja Kampe in the ill-fortuned lovers.

NEW YORK – Osvaldo Golijov’s entrancing Ainadamar is really a chamber opera, maybe not an opera at all, with flamenco dancers and non-traditional voices. But it belonged in this grand opera house, even in less than ideal conditions.

SEATTLE – Creator and director Tazewell Thompson stitched together a generous collection of 40 spirituals for Jubilee, something of a quasi-operatic theater piece that lacked a solid narrative arc as it unfolded to begin a run at Seattle Opera.

NEW YORK – The Light After, presented in the crypt beneath the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, initiated a new series from Death of Classical, which uses eerie venues like catacombs and cemeteries. This spot was particularly effective.

DALLAS – With performances of Siegfried and Götterdämmerung, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra under Fabio Luisi capped off an ambitious, even history-making Wagner project usually reserved for full staging in opera houses.

PORTLAND, Ore. – Music director David Danzmayr led the Oregon Symphony and soloist Jeffrey Ziegler in the West Coast premiere of a concerto by virtuoso percussionist-composer Andy Akiho that struck sparks of rhythmic intensity and wit.

NEW YORK – Meredith Monk has been creating, performing in, and recording multi-disciplinary music-based works for more than 60 years. At age 81, she offered the U.S. premiere of her expansive performance piece and installation Indra’s Net.

SAN DIEGO – With a performance of Mahler's massive and sonorously complex Resurrection Symphony, the San Diego Symphony Orchestra under music director Rafael Payare unveiled the $120-million transformation of its concert hall.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Well-balanced performances of Barber's Violin Concerto with the Australian teen Amaryn Olmeda and Saint-Saëns' Organ Symphony bespoke qualities the orchestra has sustained through a decade under Carlos Izcaray.