The Opera Theatre of Saint Louis concludes its production of John Adams's opera The Death of Klinghoffer, about the hijacking of the Achille Lauro, Saturday night. This production marks the first US staging of the opera since its premiere in 1991.

Reviewing last week's St. Louis premiere, New York Times music critic Steve Smith write: "The controversy surrounding The Death of Klinghoffer will probably never go away, nor should it, given that the work deals openly with political and spiritual crises that are still very much a part of everyday life. But what the opera has to say is worth hearing; here, an immediate ovation reached its thunderous apex when Mr. Adams took the stage for an unambiguous hero’s welcome."

Associated Press reviewer Mike Silverman says that in St. Louis, "the terrific performance made a strong case for Klinghoffer as a gripping and eerily beautiful work, more ambitious in scope than the basically light-hearted and ebullient Nixon."

The Chicago Tribune's classical music critic John von Rhein raves: "Klinghoffer's time has come. We can now see it for what it is, a landmark in late 20th century American opera."

You can hear what Adams has to say about The Death of Klinghoffer in a recent piece on NPR's All Things Considered at npr.org.

And there's more Adams opera in store next week with the Cincinnati Opera's performances of the composer's latest, A Flowering Tree (2006), next Thursday and Saturday.

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As noted yesterday in the Nonesuch Journal, the 2011 ROMP (River of Music Party) Bluegrass Roots & Branches Festival takes place this weekend at Yellow Creek Park in Owensboro, Kentucky, with three Nonesuch artists scheduled to perform as festival headliners: Punch Brothers, Carolina Chocolate Drops, and Emmylou Harris. The festival benefits the Bluegrass Music Museum in Owensboro.

Punch Brothers are the first of the Nonesuch artists to hit the stage, with an 8:30 PM set Friday night. Prior to their performance, each band member will lead a ROMP festival workshop targeted to his instrument throughout the day today. As noted earlier today in the Nonesuch Journal, Punch Brothers head next to Atlantic City, New Jersey, to perform in the first iteration of the Dave Matthews Band Caravan on Saturday.

Carolina Chocolate Drops have a 7 PM ROMP set on Saturday. Before reaching Kentucky, they help kick off the DMB Caravan in Atlantic City tonight.

Emmylou Harris rounds out this group of Nonesuch ROMP performances with a show Saturday night. Harris performs at the next DMB Caravan, which will be held at Chicago's Lakeside July 8–10. Harris performed a number of shows in Texas this week, which the Houston Press likened to "a private audience with Michaelangelo at the Sistine Chapel. No wonder they call her a Renaissance woman." Reviewer Chris Gray concluded: "She could make you feel God's breath in your ear one minute, and the next, when she let that silver hair down, like she and her Boys were playing to beat the devil himself. A master at work."

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Laurie Anderson is in Cork, Ireland, for performances of her piece Transitory Life on Saturday and Sunday at Triskel Christchurch as a part of the Cork Midsummer Festival, an annual, 16-day citywide celebration of contemporary arts and culture. In addition to these two performances, Anderson will participate in a public conversation with Director of the Lewis Glucksman Gallery, Fiona Kearny, on Sunday afternoon, also at Triskel Christchurch.

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Wanda Jackson's performance on Mountain Stage will be broadcast on NPR stations across the United States starting Saturday. Also featured on the show are Jimmie Dale Gilmore & the Wronglers, Joe Ely, the New Rope String Band, and Carolyn Wonderland. Watch a preview in today's Nonesuch Journal.

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k.d. lang and the Siss Boom Bang head back to Canada on Saturday night for a performance at the Ottawa Jazz Festival, where lang and the band have an 8:30 PM set on the Canal Stage in Confederation Park. Following last weekend’s Luminato Festival performance in Toronto, the Toronto Sun described lang's voice as “one of the world’s best."

Canada's Daily Gleaner, reviewing k.d. lang and the Siss Boom Bang's new Nonesuch album, Sing it Loud, writes: "Through it all, she proves in a fresh way that she is one of the great song stylists of this or any era." San Francisco's Bay Area Reporter calls the album "joyous," saying lang and the band "sound spectacular, providing the marvelous material with a solid backbone."

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The Low Anthem launches the European leg of its tour this weekend, with a performance in Spain, making its Madrid debut at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid tonight as a part of the dcode Festival. The band then heads to Belfast, Northern Ireland, for the 13th annual Open House Festival on Saturday, playing at 7 PM at the Cathedral Quarter, for a triple-bill with Fleet Foxes and the Villagers. There's more festival fun on Sunday when The Low Anthem plays two sets at the Glastonbury Festival: on the Pyramid Stage at 12:10 PM and the Avalon Stage at 7:45 PM.

The New York Times, previewing the band's recent performance at the Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn, said the band makes music "that could soothe even the achiest of hearts."

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Today is St-Jean-Baptiste Day and so la Fête Nationale, the national holiday, in Québec, Canada. As part of the day's Grand Spectacle in Montreal's Maisonneuve Park, Rufus Wainwright and Martha Wainwright are due to perform a couple of French-language tunes written by their mother, Kate McGarrigle, and aunt Anna, such as "Complainte pour Ste-Catherine," which can heard on the Nonesuch three-disc set Tell My Sister.

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Brad Mehldau has two sets in Canada this weekend at the Montreal International Jazz Festival, at which he previously won the Miles Davis Award in 2006. Mehldau offers a sold-out solo performance at the Gesù Theatre Saturday night, followed by a duo concert with label mate Joshua Redman at the Théâtre Maisonneuve on Sunday night.

The duo performs next at the Ottawa Jazz Festival, with two sold-out sets at the National Arts Center Monday night. The Ottawa Citizen's Peter Hum says: "The award for the 2011 TD Ottawa International Jazz Festival's hottest indoor-concert ticket goes to Brad Mehldau and Joshua Redman—not that anyone should be surprised by huge interest shown in music from two of contemporary jazz's most celebrated players." Read Hum's interview with Redman and Mehldau at canada.com.

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Allen Toussaint, who was recently inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, is in California for a show in Stanford University's Dinkelspiel Auditorium tonight, part of the 40th annual Stanford Jazz Festival. Toussaint recently stopped by the studios at NPR member station KPLU/Jazz24 to perform a New Orleans-themed set, which you can hear at npr.org.