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Tanglewood tickets go on sale Sunday, valentines

Tickets for the 2010 Tanglewood season, including performances by James Levine and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, June 26-September 5, go on sale this Sunday, Valentine's Day, Feb. 14, online at tanglewood.org or by phone through SymphonyCharge at 888-266-1200, as well as at the Symphony Hall box office. Hint for the fanatical: Online sales begin at 8 a.m., SymphonyCharge and box office sales at 10 a.m. Regular season ticket prices range from $9-$115. Tickets for open rehearsals are $17. In-person sales at the box office at Tanglewood begin June 18.

The BSO's Tanglewood season opens on July 9 with Music Director Levine leading the orchestra in Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, Resurrection, featuring soprano Layla Claire and mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe, along with the Tanglewood Festival Chorus. Other highlights include former BSO music director Seiji Ozawa leading an all-Brahms program July 24. (And by the way, the Tanglewood site has sold out of tickets for all three James taylor-Carole King concerts in July, though the performers' web sites may have more.) A complete schedule is after the jump.

(Pic: Christian Tetzlaff performs with James Levine. By Hilary Scott.)

Renee Fleming. At Harvard. For free.

Celebrated soprano Renée Fleming won Grammy numero tres on Sunday night, for classical vocal performance, for her album "Verismo Arias." And now you can see her at Harvard for free. OK, she's giving a master class, not a concert, but still. Fleming is coming to town to sing with James Levine and the Boston Symphony Orchestra next week. And Harvard announced today that she'll give a master class with Harvard student vocalists in Paine Hall, at Harvard University’s Music Building, 1 Oxford St., Cambridge, on Tuesday (Feb. 9) at 3 p.m. Presumably she'll utter a trill or two by way of example, right? The event  is presented by Learning From Performers, a program of the Office for the Arts at Harvard, in association with the Harvard University Department of Music. Admission is free and open to the public (Tickets or RSVPs are not required). For more information, call 617.495.8676 or visit www.ofa.fas.harvard.edu.

Morning reading: Music, theater, fashion!

One of our best weeks ever for readership! Thanks everybody! Feel free to show your support by clicking on "Post a flyer" over there on the top right. And now a few links to start off your morning ... Here's a piece on an interesting holiday concert by Juventas and the Lorelai Ensemble. ... Also from the Globe, here's my Stages column about the Salem Theatre Company moving to a new home, its first, despite the bad arts ecnomy. ... The Boston Musical Intelligencer reports that WGBH will discontinue Friday afternoon BSO broadcasts. ... And a writer for North Shore Art Throb writes about her personal connection to Iris Apfel's fashions, now on display at the Peabody Essex Museum. ... And my current favorite for best Christmas song ever? This National Lampoon 1970s soul classic.

Opera Boston commissions "Madame White Snake," takes it to China

This is a big deal. Opera Boston has commissioned its first work, an exciting project that will take the troupe to China. "Madame White Snake" is a new opera based on an ancient Chinese legend, by composer Zhou Long and librettist Cerise Lim Jacobs of Brookline. It's Opera Boston's first commission - actually a co-commission with the Beijing Music Festival (BMF), which will become the first world premiere collaboration between the BMF and an American company. "Madame White Snake" make her world debut with three performances Feb. 26 and 28, and March 2, 2010 at the Cutler Majestic Theatre in Boston and two performances in Beijing in October 2010, before moving to several other Chinese cities. The proposed tour is the first by an American opera company in China since 1987. Opera Boston Music Director Gil Rose will conduct; Robert Woodruff will direct. Soprano Ying Huang will sing the title role, and male soprano Michael Maniaci will sing the role of Xiao Qing.