2005 Year

SENSATION-SEEKING premature reports of the death of a mature art, classical music, did not cease in 2005. Naysayers howled into the wind. But it was a very good year. Peter Sellars continues to make waves and move mountains. If there had been any question that Sellars is the single most creative force in the world of opera today, he took care of that in 2005.

THERE have been a substantial number of good-to-better Hollywood films this year and a wide range of notable independent and foreign films.

THOMAS W. MORRIS Artistic director, Ojai Music Festival I actually have a vivid best, the touring performance of Osvaldo Golijov's "Ayre," with Dawn Upshaw and Eighth Blackbird, which came through Cleveland. It was one of the most refreshing and real concert experiences of the year. As for "worsts," I can't think of a performance this year that says "dog" all over it.

THERE were lots of excellent albums during 2005, but only three brilliant ones: Bright Eyes' "I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning," Kanye West's "Late Registration" and the White Stripes' "Get Behind Me Satan." All three are works of immense ambition and craft, and the reaction to them has been so extreme -- from near suffocating praise in one case to considerable puzzlement in another -- that you wonder about the effect of it all on their creators.

WHEN Philip Johnson died early this year, at the age of 98, a certain alluring but ultimately damaging definition of architecture may well have gone with him. Both in his own designs and in his role as his profession's leading tastemaker, Johnson helped popularize the notion that what architects contribute to the culture has more to do with image and a kind of urbane glamour than with the way people actually use buildings or how cities develop over time.

DANCE in Southern California had its share of milestones in 2005. Three contenders announced their intention to create world-class ballet companies in the Southland -- none more promising than Ethan Stiefel, the new artistic director of Ballet Pacifica. The Dance at the Music Center series presented its first dauntingly expensive, top-of-the-line international ensemble: Russia's superb Kirov Ballet. And two television networks discovered how dance could serve the needs of reality TV through L.A.

LATELY, nearly every conversation with someone in the television news business begins with a common refrain: "Can you believe what's going on this year?" In the last 12 months, the industry has been confronted with waves of change so relentless that they have remade the very appearance, tone and distribution of broadcast news. Think about it: At this time last year, Tom Brokaw had just retired from the anchor desk at NBC. Dan Rather had three months left at the helm of the "CBS Evening News."

WHAT lingers in the memory of my mostly New York theater year -- one that no one of sound mind could possibly call vintage -- isn't a playwright's dazzling new drama or a visionary director's groundbreaking production but a passel of courageous portrayals by actors who reinvigorated familiar roles with difficult, and consequently dignifying, human truth. "Aristocrats," London's Royal National Theatre.

HERE are some notable -- and forgettable -- productions cited by Times reviewers and writers Philip Brandes, F. Kathleen Foley, Lynne Heffley, Daryl H. Miller, David C. Nichols, Don Shirley and James C. Taylor: The true-life controversy at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia provided ripe material for Thomas Gibbons' "Permanent Collection." This glimpse into the internal struggles at an art institution took on issues of race and cultural ownership.