… which doesn’t really lead to a punchline because Thursday’s roundtable, sponsored by Art & Seek and the Dallas Museum of Art, actually led to a wide-ranging, intelligent conversation about the local contemporary arts scene.

There’s sixty years of history behind Giant,, the big-budget musical opening at the Dallas Theater Center. When it came out, Edna Ferber’s novel angered many Texans. Four years later, the movie version became Warner Brothers’ biggest hit. It always helps if you make us look like Elizabeth Taylor or James Dean.

Cowboys Stadium is already known for the contemporary art on its walls. Now it’ll have an opera on its massive video screen – Mozart’s The Magic Flute, live from the Dallas Opera’s production at the Winspear Opera House.

Today in the roundup: Local talent on the SDCC stage, building a better arts board and recapping the Oscar nominations.

Conductor Jaap van Zweden is getting a proclamation from Mayor Rawlings this week — while financially, the DSO has shifted from staving off insolvency to trying to retire its multi-million dollar deficit.

Today in the roundup: Gaultier speaks, Booker T’s big field trip and local theater bits.

There are only three operas this time — two classics and the revival of one of the DO’s world premieres. Plus, the return of baritone Nathan Gunn and the Dallas debut of mezzo Susan Graham.

Both sides of the metroplex are generating new operas — but in different ways. And the big beneficiary has been Jake Heggie, composer of Moby-Dick.

Remember Mark Nerenhausen? He used to run the AT&T Performing Arts Center — then he was gone.

Composer Jake Heggie continues his long-running ties to North Texas — and this time, he’s bringing renowned mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato with him.