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Mark LeVine, an author, musician and professor of Middle Eastern history, talks about the young generation of heavy metal fans in the Middle East and Northern Africa.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy may not like some of his wife's lyrics. In one cut, Carla Bruni compares her lover to high-grade heroin. We hear what Parisians think of the new album.

Poor Iphigeneia. She comes from Greek drama's most dysfunctional family — matricide, patricide and madness. It's all in her past, but somehow she triumphs in Christoph Willibald Gluck's emotional drama, Iphigenie en Tauride, from the stage of the Paris Opéra.

Mark Adamo's Lysistrata preaches a pro-love, anti-war message that dates all the way back to a satire by Aristophanes in the 5th century B.C. The piece was commissioned by Houston Grand Opera.

Early video game music wasn't symphonic, but it was effective. Video game composition has become a power unto itself, with its ability to guide the player. As Andrea Seabrook reports, the themes are now played by orchestras in concert halls.

The Washington National Opera presents George Gershwin's landmark opera, in a performance originally webcast live on NPR.org from the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. The show also includes interviews with director Francesca Zambello, conductor Wayne Marshall and more.

Three years ago, journalist Steve Lopez met a homeless musician on skid row in Los Angeles. He soon learned that the man, Nathaniel Ayers, had once been a promising violinist, and that he had left the Juilliard School because of his struggle with mental illness. Ayers is the subject of Lopez's new book, The Soloist.

The widely acclaimed pianist serves up nearly 200-year-old music by Chopin mixed with a contemporary work that looks back in time.

Steven Kurutz spent a year on the road with Sticky Fingers, one of the nation's more successful Rolling Stones tribute bands. His new book is called Like A Rolling Stone: The Strange Life of a Tribute Band.

The teen pop trio Smoosh play "Dark Shine," another cut from their Bryant Park Project cubicle concert.