Out West Arts: Performance at the end of the world

September is already fully upon us and the Fall season is raging our way. After a particularly lazy summer here at Out West Arts, things are heating up again and what better way to start that a preview of the things you shouldn’t miss before we’re already in October. The big event this month is undoubtedly one of the highlights of the U.S. operatic season. Los Angeles Opera Artistic Director and superstar Placido Domingo will take on his 140th role when he appears again in a baritone part in Verdi’s I due Foscari on September 15th. He’ll be joined by a great international cast including Francesco Meli and Marina Poplavskaya under Music Director James Conlon in a new production that will travel with Domingo around the world including appearances at the Royal Opera House in London. LAO will also present a star studded production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni with Ildebrando D’Arcangelo in the title role and both Julianna Di Giacomo and Angela Meade making their company debuts sharing the role of Donna Anna. Meanwhile in San Francisco, Music Director Nicola Luisotti is heading up a revival of Verdi’s Rigoletto with two casts including among others Željko Lučić and Aleksandra Kurzak that will wrap up just in time for the not to be missed Joyce DiDonato to arrive as Romeo in Bellini’s I Capuleti e I Montecchi starting on the 29th.

The Los Angeles Philharmonic will return to Walt Disney Concert Hall at the end of the month as well for the opening performances of their season under Gustavo Dudamel. After a Gala opener on the 27th, Dudamel will take his first crack locally at a specialty of the orchestra under his predecessor Esa-Pekka Salonen with Starvinsky’s Le Sacre du Printemps. The members of L.A.’s favorite indie orchestra collective, wildUp, will also continue their widely regarded and very exciting residency at the Hammer Museum this month with a solo recital from pianist Richard Valittuto on the 15th with music both new and older from the likes of Cage, Stockhausen and others. But perhaps the biggest new music event of the month will take place in Carlsbad starting on Sep 21st when the Calder Quartet will usher in this year’s installment of their own Carlsbad Music Festival which promises to be just as adventuresome as previous years. The three days of programming will feature appearances by Timo Andres, Matt McBane, Sara Watkins, Wu Man, and a performance of Michael Gordon’s excellent Timber for wood percussion instruments by the Mantra ensemble on the 22nd. The Calder Quartet of course will wrap the weekend up with a show to include work from this year’s Composers Competition winner Andy Akiho.

On the theater side there are six shows not to miss. REDCAT will kick of its fall with an appearance from Gob Squad who collectively will recreate Warhol’s Factory with a multi-media piece entitled Gob Squad’s Kitchen (You’ve Never Had it so Good) starting on the 20th. Meanwhile, the Geffen Playhouse returns with the local premiere of another well received new play from Lynn Nottage on the 26th with By the Way, Meet Vera Stark that is rightly highly anticipated. And though it would require a trip to San Francisco, you’d be foolish to miss the West Coast premiere of the recent Broadway production of Larry Kramer’s The Normal Heart which opens on Sep 13th. The unwieldy monikered CAP UCLA series also will bring two performances of one of this years highlights on the 21st with the Théâtre de la Ville-Paris who’ll bring Ionesco’s Rhinoceros to the stage at Royce Hall on the 21st. I would also mention that Shakespeare’s more rarely performed Cymbeline will make a local appearance at the start of the A Noise Within season when in kicks off in Glendale on the 22nd. And finally for those in San Diego, Th Old Globe will present the world premiere of a new musical by Jay Kuo, Allegiance, set during the 20th Century internment of Japanese Americans in California starring George Takei, Lea Salonga, and Telly Leung. As usual this list only scratches the surface, but hopefully it sets you out in the right direction. Stay tuned for more.

Labels: In the Wings

As the gray of a Southern California June settles in, the Spring performing arts season sighs its last sigh before our real summer months kick in. There’s still a lot to take in around town, but it's also one of the prime times to consider getting out of town. The prime example of this is right up the Pacific Coast Highway where this year’s Ojai Music Festival will kick off for four days of adventurous 20th Century and contemporary music on June 7th. This year’s music director is Leif Oven Andsnes and he’s put together a great program that includes the West Coast premiere of John Luther Adams’ Inuksuit which will open the festival on Thursday with its dozens of percussionists spread throughout Liibbey Park. (The video above will give you an idea of what the show was like indoors at the Park Avenue Armory in New York last year.) There’s so much else though, and you can read further about the program and the festival's many guest artists who’ll be visiting Ojai in my interview with Mr. Andsnes from last month.

Further up the road in the Bay Area, there are some other high priority out-of-town events for the month. San Francisco Opera will present Verdi’s Attila starring Ferruccio Furlanetto in the title role on June 12th. But perhaps the bigger temptation will be John Adams' Nixon in China which will receive its company premiere on the 8th with an excellent cast that includes Brian Mulligan as Nixon. And if you are in town the weekend I will be, you’ll likely want to see the San Francisco Symphony who’ll be performing Bartok’s Duke Bluebeard’s Castle for three nights starting the 21st with Michelle DeYoung and Alan Held under Michael Tilson Thomas. (P.S. If you missed Kander and Ebb’s excellent The Scottsboro Boys in San Diego, don’t make the same mistake when the show comes to A.C.T. in San Francisco starting June 21st after finishing its run down south this coming weekend.)

If you want opera closer to home, June’s big offering down south will be Long Beach Opera’s production of Michael Nyman’s The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat which will receive the first of two performances on the 16th. There’s other music in town to put on your calendar. The PARTCH ensemble will return to REDCAT on the 14th with Bitter Music, another evening of music from the quintessential American outsider composers, Harry Partch. Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Mater Chorale will honor another revered composer with a tribute to Henryk Górecki at Walt Disney Concert Hall on the 10th. Meanwhile in Orange County, the Philharmonic Society welcomes Simone Dinnerstein who'll play on all Bach program on the 18th. There’s dance too when the Bolshoi Ballet comes to the Music Center starting on the 7th for five nearly sold out performances of Swan Lake.

There’s theater big and small of course. Center Theater Group’s Mark Taper Forum will present the world premiere of a new musical from Michael John LaChiusa, Los Otros starting on the 3rd. The Porters of Hellsgate will mount Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor starting on the 15th. Further south, the Old Globe Theater will kick off its summer festival season with Shakespeare’s Richard III on the 3rd, As You Like It on the 10th, and just for contrast, Inherit the Wind on June 17th. This year’s festival and two of the three productions will again be headed up by director Adrian Noble. Also in San Diegp, the LaJolla Playhouse will present the West Coast Premiere of J.T. Roger’s Blood and Gifts starting on the 12th. And if you’re looking for something even more adventurous, there is the return of Robert Cucuzza's take on Miss Julie, Cattywampus on the 22nd and Theatre Movement Bazaar's Anton's Uncles on the 8th both part of the South Coast Repertory Studio series. You may also want to consider one of the dozens of theatrical events this month that will take place this month as part of the Hollywood Fringe Festival focusing on the breadth of experimental theater in Los Angeles. I'll be constrained from participating myself this year and there are far too many shows to mention, but you can peruse their website for details. And before the month is out, you’ll want to see Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine’s A Missionary Position at REDCAT starting the 28th which examines the particular conflicts of gay identity in certain parts of Africa.

As for me, I’ll be catching up on some out of town opera in two very different locales. I’ll be in St. Louis Missouri for Opera Theater St. Louis’ festival season to report on the American premiere of Unsuk Chin’s spectacular Alice in Wonderland which starts June 13 as well as to catch their revival of Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd with Rod Gilfry in the title role which continues through the 24th. After that it’s off to Europe for 10 days which will stretch into July where I’ll be sampling a variety of offerings including the Royal Opera House’s now Kaufmann-less premiere of Berlioz’ Les Troyens on July 1 to be followed by Billy Budd and the new opera from Blur’s Damon Albarn, Dr. Dee both at English National Opera. In Paris, Emmanuelle Haïm will return to the Garnier to conduct a new production of Rameau’s Hippolyte et Aricie while the Bastille will welcome Renée Fleming in one of her signature roles as Strauss’ Arabella. The time away will be capped off with a regisseur tour de force all brought to us by the Komische Opera Berlin who’ll give us a Stefan Herheim vision of Handel’s Xerxes, Calixto Bieito’s double barreled view of Der Freischütz, and Andreas Homoki's takes on both Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, and Janacek’s The Cunning Little Vixen. Hopefully there's something here for a sunny start to your own performing arts summer.

Labels: In the Wings

There are three things I’m super excited about today. You should be too. In no particular order:

1) Los Angeles’ most exciting young chamber orchestra, wildUp, has just announced they will serve as the first orchestra-in-residence at the Hammer Museum in Brentwood. The orchestra will be involved in a myriad of musical art projects over a six month period that will kick off with the first of three full scale concerts, WEST on July 21st. Although details of the rest of the projects are forthcoming, I’m told there will be dozens of appearances between July and December from various members of the collective all over the museum in conjunction with numerous other projects and installations. If you want to know how orchestras are changing and what the future of classical music may look like, plan on spending time in Brentwood later this year.

2) There are still a few days left to stream the best orchestral concert of 2011 on line. Last Sunday, KUSC broadcast one of last year’s visits from Esa-Pekka Salonen to the Los Angeles Philharmonic stage in December. The program included the world premiere of the prologue to Shostakovich’s uncompleted opera Orango alongside the composer’s Symphony No. 4. The orchestra was amazing in this searing, profound and worldly-wise performance that outpaced anything they done all season. And you can still relive it now online until Sunday. Don’t miss it.

3) And speaking of listening to broadcasts, KUSC will also be kind enough to deliver a double dose of Los Angeles Opera this weekend when they’ll revisit the company’s opening production of the 2011/2012 season on Saturday at 10AM (PST natch’) with Tchaikovsky Eugene Onegin from last September. This is followed on Sunday by a live broadcast of the company’s current and final production of the same season Puccini’s La Bohème with a young all-star cast including Ailyn Perez, Stephen Costello, and Janai Brugger. Sunday's sold out performance can be heard on line and on the old-fashioned radio starting at 2pm.

All this and I’m going to see Sondheim’s Follies again tomorrow night at the Ahmanson. There, I've said it.

Labels: In the Wings

Four operas will dominate L.A.’s performance landscape over the next month, each as wildly different in its inception as the next. If you have any interest in opera, or think you should have one, there is absolutely something that will likely turn your head this month. Let’s start with perhaps the most traditional offering, Puccini’s La Bohème which will return to L.A. Opera for the 6th revival of Herbert Ross' production starting May 12 with a bevy of young stars including Stephen Costello, Ailyn Perez, and Janai Brugger. Meanwhile across the street, the L.A. Philharmonic will present Mozart’s Don Giovanni under Music Director Gustavo Dudamel, who will continue his ongoing onstage education about the most standard of operas. Mariusz Kwiecien will take the title role for all four performances starting May 18. On the less conventional side, Long Beach Opera will take their undoubtedly different stab at Osvaldo Golijov’s Ainadamar for two performances on the 20th and 26th. But perhaps the most unexpected and anticipated opera event will be the hugely ambitious staging of Anne LeBaron’s Crescent City by the start up company, The Industry LA at Atwater Crossing on the 10th, which you can read more about in my preview of the show.

The other big event this month will be the world premiere of the new oratorio/opera from John Adams, The Gospel According to the Other Mary, which will again take place under Gustavo Dudamel with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. It looks to be an immensely challenging piece in that the company announced late last week that the preparations are such a concern to Dudamel that he won’t be able to participate in the “Green Umbrella” New Music program the orchestra is presenting a full 23 days before on May 9 that includes a world premiere percussion concerto by L.A. Phil principal timpanist Joseph Pereira. Dudamel will also lead a smattering of two different mostly Mozart programs in the interim.

There is plenty of other music to hear. On top of that pile would be the next program for L.A.’s adventurous wildUp chamber orchestra, which will consider themes military and otherwise on the 12th at the Pasadena Armory. The Formalist Quartet will give a concert celebrating their 5th anniversary on Feb 26 as part of the continuing music series at Beyond Baroque in Venice. For some more established new(ish) music, the place to be will be Santa Monica where Jacaranda will wrap up there current season with a California-based program including works of Terry Riley and Lou Harrison on the 20th. The Southwest Chamber Music 25th Anniversary season will wrap up this month as well with four performances as part of what they're billing as their first L.A. International New Music Festival, which takes place on the 9th, 12th, 24th and 26th at Zipper Concert Hall with programs that take "new" as some time within the last seventy years and composers who may well be international, though only rarely from L.A. The newfound Los Angeles Trombone Collective will give a concert of new works specifically for their unique corner of the musical world at the wulf on the 19th. Pianist Mark Robson will revisit works for the left hand at a recital at Boston Court in Pasadena on the 18th. Camerata Pacifica will wrap up their season as well with Beethoven, Heggie and Mozart in L.A. County on the 10th and the 16th. The always-interesting Brad Mehldau Trio will be at The Broad Stage on May 21. And lest I forget there are two very big musical out of town guests to remember this month. The New York Philharmonic and their music director Alan Gilbert will bring Magnus Lindberg’s new Piano Concerto for Yefim Bronfman to the Walt Disney Concert Hall on the 9th after performances of a different program with Beethoven and Debussy on offer in Orange County with the Philharmonic Society on the 8th. And the legendary Elaine Stritch will bring her one woman Sondheim show to L.A. on the 19th.

Theater-wise, I should first remind you that you absolutely must see the Tony-nominated production of Sondheim’s Follies, which is now running at the Ahmanson Theater if you do nothing else this month. Center Theater Group will also open a world-premiere musical from Michael John LaChiusa at the Mark Taper Forum on the 23rd entitle Los Otros. In San Diego, the Old Globe currently is offering Kander and Ebb’s The Scottsboro Boys while just a hop away the La Jolla Playhouse will soon open the world premiere musical Hands on a Hardbody (which is currently in previews) with a book by Doug Wright. Pasadena’s Theater at Boston Court will open with a world premiere play The Children by Michael Elyanow on the 3rd. Meanwhile, South Coast Repertory will go with the more tested Jitney by August Wilson starting on the 11th. REDCAT will be offering a number of interesting programs this month including Cold Dream Color, a new dance work from Arcan Collective on the 16th. And with all of this, you won’t want to miss the exclamation mark on American culture, Sandra Bernhard, who’ll bring her new show Sandrology to REDCAT starting on the 30th. And by that point June will be on the horizon including the 2012 edition of the Ojai Music Festival which will be led by Leif Ove Andsnes this year and will kick off on June 7th with the West Coast Premier of John Luther Adams Inuksuit. Stay tuned for a full preview.

Labels: In the Wings

L.A. has always been home to refugees, culturally and otherwise, from just about everywhere else. And yet out-of-towners can sometimes unfairly dominate local stages. So before you spend one more second or one more dollar on a performance from some visiting artists, how about getting to know some of the great home grown music and performance in town in the next week or so. Here’s some things to consider. On Friday April 13, one of the other major axes of Los Angeles’ new music scene, the what’s next ensemble, will present two one act chamber operas at Royal-T in Culver City. The program includes Michael Gordon’s Van Gogh and Shaun Naidoo’s Nigerian Spam. Yes, Naidoo’s piece is what it sounds like, a setting of the variant faux hard-luck stories from Nigeria that clog email boxes daily around the world. The piece is scored for percussion and electronics and will be performed by Nick Terry of the Los Angeles Percussion Quartet. The show is only $10 and a great chance to hear what local artists are making right here.

If new art music isn’t your thing, how about some of the funniest and sharpest performance artists around. The unassailable Miss Ayana Hampton and her director/collaborator Clayton Farris have had their current production The Morning After Show extended at the Bootleg Theater through this weekend. I’ll be reporting on the show later, but if their prior outing in L.A. are any indication, this show, especially at $20 a person, is a great deal. It will show on the 12th through the 14th this weekend.

I’d encourage you to pick up tickets for the world premiere of Julie Adolphe’s new chamber opera, Sylvia at the Lost Studio on La Brea this Saturday and Sunday the 14th and 15th, but there’s no point in that the tickets have already been spoken for. This ambitious chamber sized piece recounts a story of therapy, childhood trauma and the children of Holocaust survivors.

And even though it technically falls in next weekend on April 28th, Isaac Schankler and Aron Kallay will present the latest program form People Inside Electronics at Beyond Baroque in Venice. The program entitled Misfits and Hooligans is a co-production with Catalysis Projects and was organized by Veronika Krausas. The evening includes a wide variety of pieces for the outliers of the instrument world from accordions to toy pianos including pieces form Schankler, Krausa, and others. Check out their site for more detail.

And if you don’t want to go out, you can always stay at home and download the new recording of Daniel Corral’s Zoophilic Follies. (As pictured above) Corral’s chamber opera about Daedalus and his relationship and work for King Minos was first seen in September 2011 as part of the REDCAT New Original Works Festival. The substantial support of musicians from Timur and the Dime Museum as well as the puppet theater collective Tandem contributed to this highly ambitious piece that has now been recorded with the original soloists including Timur Bekbosunov, Maesa Rae, Abby Travis, and Dorian Wood. The recording, which includes a full libretto with the download, highlights Corral’s sly and accessible score and the witty libretto of Sibyl O’Malley. The performance is enthusiastic with clear, well-balanced sound and even when the vocals flag, the charm of the piece remains intact. So support your local artists and get out there this weekend.

Labels: In the Wings

April is a big month for out of town activity here at Out West Arts as much of the American opera season enters its home stretch. (Not here in L.A. however where May will be the opera month to watch.) And while I’ll be out and about at times, there are at least three events I’m going to miss that I’m already kicking myself for so I’m going to start with them so you don’t make the same mistakes as me. Do not miss an opportunity to see the Netherlands’ superb Wunderbuam who’ll return for their third appearance at REDCAT after the devastatingly good Looking for Paul in 2010. This time around they’ll bring their latest Songs at the End of the World on the 28th. Then there is the program from the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra on the 28th and 29th which will include the local premiere of a new work from Gabriel Kahane, Crane Palimpsest hot on the heels of Timo Andres' great success with the ensemble last month. And you’ll also want to be in Santa Monica on the 21st for the latest program from Jacaranda, which will focus on works from Messiaen, Gubaidulina and Henri Dutilleux.


Don’t feel too sorry for me though. First of all I won’t miss the most hotly anticipated shows of the Los Angeles Philharmonic season, which will occur during the week of the 16th when one of the great living interpreters of Lieder, Matthias Goerne, will be in town. He’ll give two recitals with Christoph Eschenbach on piano and three concerts where the famous conductor will take his more traditional spot on the podium the weekend of the 20th. All of the concerts will be dedicated to the music of Schubert including Winterreise on the 18th, Die schöne Müllerin on the 16th, and other orchestrated songs which nicely coincide with the latest release in Goerne’s remarkable recordings of Schubert Lieder for Harmonia Mundi which includes Schwanengesang. There’s other music from the this month from the L.A. Phil to consider including a visit from Herbert Blomstedt who’ll lead Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis the weekend of the 13th and John Adams returning on the 5th to conduct his own Violin Concerto with Leila Josefowicz followed by the West Coast Premiere of Philip Glass’ Symphony No. 9. On the 10th, the Green Umbrella new music series of the orchestra continues with works from Cage, Stockhausen, and a world premiere work from Oscar Bettison. Baroque ensemble Concerto Köln will visit town with Bach and Vivaldi on the 24th. And the first weekend in May will welcome Magdalena Kozená and the music of Bruckner's Symphony No. 9 and Mahler's Rückert-Lieder under the guidance of Sir Simon Rattle.

There’s tons of other music around town new and old. The Monday Evening Concert program on the 23rd is particularly intriguing with music from Aldo Clementi and Helmut Lachenmann. The Cleveland Orchestra will come to Orange County as the guest of the Philharmonic Society to play Shostakovich and Saariaho under Franz Welser-Möst on the 17th. Cage’s music will also be the focus of Susan Svrcek’s recital for Piano Spheres on the 24th. And don’t forget about the world premiere chamber work from Bright Sheng which will be paired with works from Dohnányi when Camerata Pacifica makes the rounds from the 10th through the 15th in the Southland. British early choral music stars Stile Antico will appear at St. John’s Episcopal Cathedral for the Da Camera Society on the 18th and The Pacifica Quartet will visit Royce Hall with their take on Beethoven and Shostakovich on the 11th. And proving the L.A. Phil isn’t the only ensemble in town that can play the game, the Los Angeles Mater Chorale will cover music from a wide swath of North and South America in their program on the 29th. REDCAT will bring New Zealand’s Richard Nunns to town for two nights of music from the other side of the world on the 18th and 19th just after an evening of experimental machine music from KarmetiK Machine Orchestra entitled Samsara on the 12th and 13th. Meanwhile the Los Angeles Chorale will pay tribute to Morten Lauridsen on the 15th and in one of the few opera highlights on the local scene this month, the Pacific Symphony will welcome a great cast including Maija Kovalevska and David Lomeli for concert performances of Puccini’ La Bohème starting on the 19th. Of course no month in L.A. is complete without the newest of the new bubbling up from the local music scene. You should check out Isaac Schankler and Aron Kallay's People inside Electronics program on the 28th. And on the 14th and 15th the place to be is at The Lost Studio where Julia Adolphe will premiere her new chamber opera Sylvia for her devoted fans.

And I haven’t even gotten around to the theater picks for the month yet. Why not start with Mikhail Baryshnikov and Anna Sinyakina in In Paris, an adaptation of the Ivan Bunin short story, at The Broad Stage on the 11th. This is the same night that the Geffen will welcome the local premiere of David Lindsay-Abaire’s New York hit Good People with the always lovely Jane Kaczmarek. Over at REDCAT there is much to consider besides Wunderbaum including Dayna Hanson’s take on American History in Gloria’s Cause on the 5th, My Barbarian’s “Post-Living Ante-Action Theater” experience on the 14th and 15th. And although it's technically a film event, the collection of Bill Morrison’s films should be given your attention on the 23rd. For stylish visuals it'll be hard to ignore the Ballet du Grand Théatre de Genève which will come to Dance at The Music Center on the 13th with works from the very hot, very young Benjamin Millepied for three nights. Danai Gurira’s The Convert arrives at the Kirk Douglas Theater on the 17th directly from a well-received run a Chicago’s Goodman Theater. And in the city’s many magnificent smaller venues, how about a new production of Chekhov’s Ivanov directed by Bart DeLorenzo at the Odyssey Theater starting on the 14th. Down in Orange County, South Coast Repertory will offer up some of the highlights of their season with two world premiere plays, Steven Drukman's The Prince of Atlantis starting on the 6th and Cloudlands a new musical written by Adam Gwon and Octavio Solis on the 15th. And don’t forget the final production of A Noise Within’s spring season in Pasadena that starts on the 7th with Moliere’s The Bungler.

So where will I be when I’m missing bits of all the local scene on offer this month. In part I’ll be right under the X in Houston on the 21st where Joyce DiDonato will give her role debut as Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda in anticipation of her appearances in the role starting this coming New Year’s Eve at the Metropolitan Opera. Houston Grand Opera will also be putting up Verdi’s greatest opera, Don Carlos, under music director Patrick Summers starting on the 13th with Brandon Jovanovich, Christine Goerke, and the King Philippe II of Andrea Silvestrelli. But the end of the month will feature 10 whopping days in New York (you remember, the cultural capital of America right?) where I’ll get another look at Robert Lepage’s new production of Wagner’s Ring Cycle in all its flat screen emulating glory under Fabio Luisi with Eric Owens, Bryn Terfel, Katarina Dalayman, Jay Hunter Morris, Jonas Kaufmann, Eva-Maria Westbroek, and Stefan Margita. Given what I’ve seen in the house so for, it’s unlikely to become a highlight of this or any year, but what might is the revival of Janacek’s The Makropulos Case which opens at the Met on the 27th with Karita Mattila who took San Francisco by storm in the leading role in 2010. Also on the week’s operatic agenda will be Natalie Dessay on Decker’s red couch (hopefully) in La Traviata which opened on the 5th and Nathan Gunn who may bare some if not all as Britten’s Billy Budd on May 4th. Rounding out the New York jaunt will be TR Warszawa’s Festen as St. Ann’s Warehouse, the return of Elevator Repair Service’s jaw-dropping GATZ at the Public Theater, Death of a Salesman, and Judy Garland’s final months played out in End of the Rainbow. Oh, and Leif Ove Andsnes alongside Matthias Goerne (again) at Carnegie Hall on May 1 with Shostakovich and Mahler. What more can I tell you?

Labels: In the Wings

There are four events in the next two weeks that are worth mentioning, and even more worth seeing, that you may have overlooked. So put down those Billy Squire LPs you're spending so much time mooning over and don’t make that mistake again.

1) While there are some arts organizations in Los Angeles that would like you to believe that youth and community arts program was invented in South America over the last decade and was only recently imported to the U.S., the reality is most organizations have had just such operations for a very long time thank you very much. Case in point, the Los Angele Opera and music director James Conlon have made an annual trek across the street to Our Lady of the Angels Cathedral to present one of a number of rotating community-based musical productions on an appropriate theme for the setting. Past years have featured Britten’s Noye’s Floode and a version of the Jonah and the Whale story. This year, Conlon and his large orchestra and chorus made up of a variety of community players including over 400 children and the Hamilton High School Symphony Orchestra will remount The Festival Play of Daniel on Friday the 17th and again on the 18th downtown. The pastiche of Medieval music has been re-orchestrated, arranged, and directed by Eli Villanueva, the resident stage director of L.A. Opera’s Education and Community Outreach programs. The show is bigger and more ambitious than in its prior outing two years ago now that it too benefits from some of the high-end video equipment the company used for its 2010 Ring Cycle. The show is a great chance to hear a number of the company’s Domingo-Thornton Young Artists including bass Erik Anstine, tenor Ben Bliss, and tenor Alexey Sayapin among others. It’s also a great chance to see José Rafael Moneo’s beautiful Our Lady of the Angels Cathedral, a local architectural landmark that surprisingly too few Angelenos have seen first hand. Of course, since the 7000 or so free tickets were already distributed weeks ago, you may not be able to get in, but the company just released several tickets to both performances yesterday, so you may want to see if you still have a chance.

2) Jacaranda Music in Santa Monica will present their latest program on Saturday and Sunday at First Presbyterian Church on 2nd St in an evening of their own American mavericks. In addition to pieces by William Schuman and Leon Kirchner, the evening will also feature the second and third string quartets from Christopher Rouse. The latter of these was commissioned especially for the Calder Quartet who will be on hand to play it. I heard them do so last summer in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and it’s a considerable piece of chamber music you should not pass up the opportunity to hear by one of America’s premiere chamber groups.

3) And speaking of string quartets, the Takács Quartet is coming to Orange County and the Irvine Barclay Theater on Tuesday the 20th along with Garrick Ohlsson playing Beethoven and the Shostakovich Piano Quintet. Shostakovich’s chamber music is a unique world unto itself, and this is not a piece one comes across everyday. Best of all the Philharmonic Society of Orange County is offering tickets at a 10% discount for folks who purchase online or over the phone when they use the code TAKACS10. That’s a good deal on a show from some great musicians.

4) And last but far, far from least is the latest big stage review from L.A.’s next big comedy star and all around dynamo Ayana Hampton who’ll be bringing her latest Ayana Hampton Show creation, The Morning After Show to the Bootleg Theater in Hollywood for three nights on March 22-24. Miss Hampton’s freewheeling subversive comedy ups the ante on legends like Sandra Bernhard with the kind of bite that made her 2009 REDCAT performances unforgettable. And it’s only $15. It doesn’t get much better than that.

Labels: In the Wings

OWA is back from the recent cold and snow on the East Coast to sunny everyday Los Angeles and looking forward to a busy March. What to do? Here’s my list for the picks of this month in performing arts around town and beyond. Interestingly the two events I’m most anticipating involve composer Timothy Andres who has been seen on local stages before and will be all over the place at the end of the month. He’s one of a number of young composers whose music will be featured in the latest program from wildUp, entitled “Craft” on the 23rd and the 24th. Director Christopher Rountree and his fellow young musicians have selected a program riffing on the contrast (or lack thereof) between East and West coast composers programming them side by side for these evenings at Beyond Baroque in Venice. Meanwhile, Anders will unveil a major new piano concerto commission entitled Old Keys for the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra as part of their Sound Investment commissioning project on the 24th and 25th. And just to cap off LACO’s big month on the 7th, music director Jeffrey Kahane and his players will celebrate his 15th anniversary with the group in a concert at Walt Disney Concert Hall.

Probably the other major musical event this month will be the inaugural Piatigorsky International Cello Festival that will welcome over two dozen cellists from around the world for two weeks worth of concerts, master classes, and other events in a large collaboration between LACO, the L.A. Philharmonic, and the Colburn and Thornton Music Schools. There’s a lot to choose from including performances from Mischa Maisky (17th), Alisa Weilerstein (18th), and Ralph Kirschbaum (15th) with the L.A. Philharmonic under Neeme Järvi (a different work and soloist is featured in each program.) There are also two group shows worth checking out including a performance of all six of Bach’s unaccompanied Cello Suites with 6 different soloists on the 11th and another program that closes the festival on Sunday the 18th at WDCH featuring music by Adès, Stravinsky, Bach, Rachmaninoff and others played by 9 different soloists. And speaking of internationally known cellists, REDCAT will welcome Frances-Marie Uitti for a program of late 20th century works in a rare L.A. appearance on the 23rd.

Of course if you want 20th century music there are other opportunities to consider. The Southwest Chamber Music collective will continue its John Cage 2012 festival with programs on the 3rd, 4th, 10th, 11th and 24th all around town covering a wide variety of the composers works in his centenary year. Monday Evening Concerts will offer avant-garde works on the border between jazz and everything else in a program including works by Peter Ablinger and Stefan Wolpe on the 26th. Also at REDCAT this month will be another adventurous evening from the California E.A.R. unit who'll collaborate on the works of Morton Subotnick on the 24th. Meanwhile, there's plenty to see in San Francisco where Michael Tilson Thomas will lead two weeks of American 20th century music as part of the wide ranging “American Maverics” festival which will repeat at Carnegie Hall later this season. Music by Harbison, Ives, Foss, John Cage and others will be performed by the likes of Jessey Norman, Joan La Barbara, and Meredith Monk who will collaborate on selections from Cage's Song Books on the 10th. The SFS has created a festival pass as well that can get you into the shows for relatively little and it breaks my heart that I’ll only get to see the shows on the 9th and 10th but there are many other worthwhile events including an appearance by the PARTCH ensemble on the 11th.

There’s other music of course. The L.A. Philharmonic will offer a program with Osmo Vänskä leading Sibelius 6th symphony on the weekend of the 23rd. Ute Lemper and the Vogler Quartet will grace UCLA’s Royce Hall on the 29th with more early 20th century cabaret music. And as we head into April the Los Angeles Master Chorale will perform Bach’s St. John’s Passion on the the 31st and April 1st at WDCH. The Philharmonic Society of Orange County will welcome three big guest ensembles including the St. Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra on the 13th, the Takács Quartet with Garrick Ohlsson on the 20th and Marin Alsop with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra on the 28th. And there will be two major opera openings in the region with San Diego Opera reviving Donizetti’s Don Pasquale starring Danielle de Niese and Charles Castronovo on the 10th and Long Beach Opera offering a puckish 20th century comedy double bill with Poulenc’s The Breasts of Tiresias and Martinu’s The Tears of a Knife on the 11th and 17th. (Castronovo will also give recitals in Orange County on the 30th and April 1st.)

On the theater front, Pasadena’s A Noise Within will offer two new productions. First up will be Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra starting on the 3rd which will be followed on the 17th with Tony Kushner’s adaptation of Corneille's The Illusion. REDCAT will present the world premiere of a new work from Martin Acosta called Timboctou starting on the 3rd. Dance at the Music Center will host visits from Evidence starting on the 9th and Ballet Preljocaj who will give three performances of their highly regarded production of Snow White the 23rd through the 25th. The Center Theater Group will have new shows in all of their houses including the Green Day musical American Idiot at the Ahmanson starting on the 13th, Beckett’s evergreen Waiting for Godot at the Mark Taper Forum on the 14th, and on the 9th at the Kirk Douglas Theater the excellent American Night, a comedy from L.A.'s own Culture Clash that received its premiere at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in 2010. And speaking of OSF, I’ll be reporting on some of their early productions for the year as the month closes including Mary Zimmerman’s staging of The White Snake but will share more on their great season a bit later on. Down in San Diego the Old Globe has productions of O'Neill's Anna Christie to consider on the 15th and a new musical version of A Room with a View from the 2nd. And don't forget South Coast Repertory's latest revival of Donald Margulies Sight Unseen which starts on the 11th. And won't you please go see Ms. Sandra Bernhard as she returns to the area at La Jolla Playhouse from March 14 - 17. Of course there's plenty more so stay tuned for further detail as the month goes along and always check out the calendar section for selected upcoming events.

Labels: In the Wings

February in L.A. is one of those months that reminds me why I love it here. The weather of course is one thing. Some fantastic programming announced by the L.A. Phil for next season is another. (More on that a little later.) But as usual, it’s particularly busy on the performance scene around town so here’s what I recommend you get to. There’s an awful lot of opera on the menu this month led first and foremost by L.A. Opera’s production of Simon Boccanegra which opens February 11th with the company’s general director Placido Domingo in the title role. James Conlon will conduct Verdi’s late masterpiece as he will the other offering LAO will kick off on the 25th, Britten’s Albert Herring. This very British comedy about politics and morality stars young tenor Alek Shrader and will also include two performances in the run from Christine Brewer on March 14th and 17th. Meanwhile San Diego Opera will present the West Coast premiere of Jake Heggie’s Moby Dick which won accolades for its star tenor, Ben Heppner as Captain Ahab, in the show’s world premiere in Dallas in 2010. Further our of town there’s a few other items to consider. The Metropolitan Opera will revive Mussogsky’s Khovanshchina on the 27th with a primarily Russian cast under the incoming Bavarian State Opera music director Kirill Petrenko. And in Chicago, the Lyric Opera will present a new production of Handel’s Rinaldo with David Daniels and the very exciting Iestyn Davies starting on the 29th. And if you’re in town you may also want to see the company’s thoughts on Jerome Kern's Show Boat which will open on the 12th complete with Nathan Gunn. And if you won't be close to New York, there are two Metropolitan Opera HD broadcasts to check out including Wagner's Götterdämmerung on the 11th and Verdi's Ernani starring Angela Meade on the 25th.

The L.A. Philharmonic is out of town for much of the month playing yet ore Mahler in Venezuela until they return to their home stage on the 23rd with Charles Dutoit with music of Debussy and Prokofiev, but there are plenty of other exciting music events around town. The Los Angele Master Chorale will present Bruckner’s Mass in E minor and Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms on the 14th in on of their most anticipated performances of the spring. And while not coming to L.A., the Chicago Symphony Orchestra will be on tour with Riccardo Muti in Orange County where they’ll play Franck and a new work from composer-in residence Mason Bates before moving on to San Diego. And contemporary music will be front and center about everywhere else from REDCAT where the CalArts players will do a two-day John Cage festival on the 15th and 16th in honor of the composers 100th birthday anniversary. Mx Justin Vivian Bond will bring an evening of cabaret to the same venue immediately after this on the 17th, 18th, and 19th. Monday Evening Concerts will continue its season at Zipper Hall downtown on the 27th with Norwegian ensemble asamisimasa and Reinbert de Leeuw will be joined by Louis Andriessen’s muse Crstina Zavalloni for an evening of the composers works at WDCH on the 28th including the U.S. premiere of Anaïs Nin. L.A.'s Formalist Quartet will perform the music of Johann Johannsson at the Masonci Lodge on Hollywood Forever on the 9th, but if you can’t make it, you can listen to them play some of the material streaming at KCRW where they played live on the 8th. Oh and you won’t want to miss out on the latest performance sponsored by People Inside Electronic’s Aron Kallay and Isaac Schankler present “Nothing is Real” a night of new piano works on Pico Blvd on the 11th.

Camerata Pacifica will present their latest program starting on the 9th at Zipper Hall downtown as well with a program to include the music of John Harbison and Bright Sheng while Jacaranda Music will have an evening of Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Stravinsky, and Schnittke on the 18th in Santa Monica. The Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra will be joined by the USC Thornton Chamber Singers for one night only in Pasadena on the 25th where Jeffrey Kahane will lead Bach’s Magnificat. And there are a number of other solo and recital performances as well from Leif Ove Andsnes at WDCH on the 8th, Ryan Adams in the same hall for two sold out shows on the 17th and 18th, and Max Raabe and his Palast Orchester at UCLA’s Royce Hall on the 23rd. Oh and Fado singer Ana Moura will be at The Broad Stage on the 17th as well just to make your decision a bit more challenging.

Theater-wise, my pick for the month is Argentina’s Mariano Pensotti who will arrive at REDCAT with the very ambitious and large scale El pasado es un animal grotesco which will run from the 23rd through the 26th. In Pasadena the Theater @ Boston Court will start another season of all world premieres with The Treatment, a dance based narrative work. Orange County’s South Coast Repertory will continue its run of Molly Smith Metzler‘s Elemeno Pea trough the 26th. There' a number of other fine shows running well into the month to consider too including the excellent production of Our Town at The Broad Stage that will close on the 12th and Bruce Norris' Clybourne Park that is continuing at the Mark Taper Forum throught the 26th. Of course what you do from here is entirely up to you.

Labels: In the Wings

AARGH! There is too much to do in January. No I can’t believe it either. But worst of all, the intensity of the local performing arts schedule has led me to have to make some very tough scheduling decisions. Try as I might, there are three shows this month that I am dying to see but am going to have to miss because of a variety of other commitments. Don’t make the same mistakes I have! My advice is to buy tickets to these shows now.

First is the latest concert from L.A.’s classical music young fresh fellows (and fellowesses) Wild Up, who’ll give a program they’re calling “Ornithology” at the Armory Center for the Arts in Pasadena on Saturday the 14th at 8pm. The evening includes their typical eclectic mix of surprises such as Messiaen, Haydn, Ferneyhough, Charlie Barker, songs from Andrew Bird and works from their own Chris Kallmyer. The subject is birds, of course, and you shouldn’t miss this one. And while you're at it, stop by their kickstarter page and help support their upcoming vinyl release of music from Shostakovich and Rzewski.


Then there is the upcoming program from Musica Angelica under their musical director Martin Haselböck which will take place on the evening of Jan 28 and again on the afternoon of the 29th in two different locations. Musica Angelica has invited vocalists Daniel Taylor and Emma Kirkby to join the in an evening of Bach's version of Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater. This is some very beautiful music performed by L.A.’s own Baroque specialists, so I encourage you to do the right thing and go.

Finally, I’m somehow going to miss out on REDCAT’s first big show of the spring, Rinde Eckert’s And God Created Great Whales which will run from the 25th through the afternoon of the 29th downtown. Eckert’s much lauded piece about a tortured composer slowly losing his mind over the composition of an opera based on Moby-Dick comes in advance of Heggie’s real opera on the same book, which will open in San Diego next month though I suspect the two works are world’s apart. REDCAT’s missteps are very few and far between, so again don’t follow my lead, get down there.

Oh and one other quick note: Anna Deavere Smith's Let Me Down Easy, one of 2011's best shows in L.A., will be broadcast on KOCE tomorrow night at 9pm PST so watch or record it.

Labels: In the Wings

The holidays are over and the local performing arts scene will be back in full swing this January with too much to choose from. The event I’m most excited about is the return of Marino Formenti to Southern California on Jan 7th as a guest of the Philharmonic Society of Orange County where he’ll play workers by Benjamin and Gardner as well as Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations. His appearances are always surprising and this is the one show not to miss next month. A good second choice would be a local appearance by Steve Reich with red fish blue fish and the Bang on a Can All-Stars who will present an evening of his work including Music for 18 Musicians as guests of the L.A. Philharmonic’s “Green Umbrella” program on the 17th. And if you love Kaija Saariaho as much as I do, you’ll also want to consider this month’s performance from Jacaranda Music in Santa Monica on the 21st which will include Je sens un deuxieme coeur taken from her opera Adriana Mater.

There are other musical performances to consider of course. Monday Evening Concerts continues its season on Jan 9th with the music of Klaus Lang. And the superb Vivica Genaux who dazzled with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra in Berkeley last month will tour Los Angeles with Europa Galante singing Vivaldi arias on the 25th. Susan Graham will give a recital at the newly opened Valley Performing Arts Center with Malcom Martineau on the 18th. And the ever-popular Jean-Yves Thibaudet will return to perform with the L.A. Phil under Miguel Harth-Bedoya starting on Jan 6th. The Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra will be joined by Nigel Armstrong in a Mozart program on the 21st and 22nd while Camerata Pacifica will play Beethoven and Chausson in a number of locales starting on the 12th. You may also want to check out 1998 International Tchaikovsky Competition winner Denis Matsuev who’ll perform a concert at Royce Hall on Jan 24th including works of Schubert and Beethoven.

There are two opera offering to keep in mind this month. San Diego Opera will kick off its 2011 season with Strauss’ Salome starring Lise Lindstrom on the 28th. And closer to home, Long Beach Opera will likely surprise us with a production of Piazzolla’s Maria de Buenos Aires which will have the first of two performances on the 29th. And while not an opera, this would be a good time to check out Musica Angelica who will present two performances of Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater with Dame Emma Kirkby and Daniel Taylor on the 28th and 29th as well.

More you say? New theater productions abound everywhere. Center Theater Group will present Bruce Norris’ Pulitzer prize-winning Clybourne Park at the Taper starting on the 11th while bringing back Phylicia Rashad’s production of the related A Raisin in the Sun by Lorriane Hansberry at the Kirk Douglas Theater on the 19th. The Geffen Playhouse will have stars in its eyes starting on the 3rd with Kathleen Turner playing Molly Ivins in Red-Hot Patriot while the valley’s Porters of Hellgate troupe will bring Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida to that stage starting on the 13th. On the 6th, A Noise Within will be giving a two week run of Michael Frayn’s Noises Off in their own successful production, while South Coast Repertory will revive Suzan-Lori Parks landmark Topdog/Underdog starting the 8th. Not to be outdone, City Garage will present he West Coast Premiere of Neil LaBute’s Filthy Talk for Troubled Times starting on Jan 6th. Odyssey Theater in West L.A. will also offer up Joe Orton's What the Butler Saw on Jan 14th. But the hottest ticket in town this month may turn out to be David Cromer's highly regarded production of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town which will arrive at the Broad Stage on Jan 14th.

And among all of these going’s on, please do not forget about the good folks at CalArts’ REDCAT who will kick off an exciting spring season this month with Rinde Eckert's And God Created Great Whales on the 25th. This story about a composer struggling to complete an operatic adaptation of Moby-Dick may serve as an excellent precursor to San Diego Opera's presentation of Jake Heggie's completion of the very same thing next month.

Probably the most publicized event this month is the L.A. Philharmonic’s “Mahler Project” under the guidance of music director Gustavo Dudamel which starts Jan 13. What the "project" part is, I’m not sure other than no one wants to use a plain jane word like "cycle" anymore. Call it what you will, all of Mahler’s symphonies, and a few other works, will be presented over four weeks by either the L.A. Phil or the Simon Bolivar Orchestra of Venezuela who’ll visit here before returning with Dudamel and the L.A. Phil to Venezuela to repeat the concerts. Both orchestras will perform alongside for Mahler’s 8th Symphony which will take place at the Shrine Auditorium on Feb 4th which the will later reprise from Venezuela as the next installment in the company’s live broadcast to movie theater series. And in case this "extraordinary" series doesn't have enough spoon-feeding built into it already, it will also bring the likes of stormin’ Norman Lebrecht to town (the real one not the fake one) who will participate by telling us why Mahler is important. So if this is a matter that has been puzzling to you, you may want to check out some of these shows along the way. Who knows? Maybe Dudamel and the L.A. Philharmonic will finally succeed in giving the largely unknown and misunderstood composer a foothold in the world of contemporary orchestra performance.

Labels: In the Wings

With only a handful of days left in 2011, it’s naturally a time to reflect and think about the coming year. And in 2012, there’s already a lot of very exciting things to consider and plan for on the preforming arts scene. So while I'm packing for London and before my January preview comes to light next week, I’ll leave you the following music, theater, and performance highlights for the year ahead. Let’s start with L.A.’s biggest classical music organization, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, which will continue its current season with a wide variety of works from late 20th-century composers including Louis Andriessen, John Adams, Steve Reich and others. Probably the most important shows coming up for the L.A. Phil will be the world premiere of a new oratorio from Adams entitled The Gospel According to the Other Mary, which will be seen in late May/early June under Gustavo Dudamel, just weeks after Adams himself leads a program with the West Coast premiere of Glass’s latest Symphony No. 9 in April. And as for older music, the most enticing programs of the spring will be a string of recitals from Matthias Goerne accompanied by the L.A. Phil under Christoph Eschenbach and with the conductor alone on piano in works of Schubert the week of April 16. And don’t forget the long-awaited return of Simon Rattle in early May when he’ll lead Bruckner with our local orchestra as well.

And speaking of Adams, the other major living composer with that name, John Luther Adams will have his Inuksuit receive its West Coast premiere along with many other pieces at the 66th Ojai Music Festival starting June 7th. This year’s artistic director is Leif Ove Andsnes and he’s scheduled to appear alongside fellow pianist Marc-André Hamelin and clarinetist Martin Fröst over this first-rate weekend. Back in town, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra will be celebrating music director Jeffrey Kahane’s 15th anniversary with the group by performing a new commission from Brooklyn-based composer Timothy Andres on March 24 and 25 as well as one from Gabriel Kahane on April 21. LACO, along with the L.A. Philharmonic and both the Colburn and Thornton music school will also host the first Piatigorsky International Cello Festival in Los Angeles beginning on March 9 for 9 days of concerts, master classes and recitals with over 20 of the world’s best known cellists including Alisa Weilerstein, Miklós Perényi, Steven Isserlis, and Mischa Maisky. These performances take place in multiple venues with a variety of different music so be sure to check the schedule. Oh and done forget L.A.'s rebelious Wild Up collective that will present "a compendium of hipster music" from both East and West coast young composers on March 23 and 24.

On the opera front, the biggest thing to talk about in Los Angeles prior to the announcement of the 2012/2013 season for Los Angeles Opera next month will likely be Placido Domingo’s performance in Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra starting February 11. Long Beach Opera, of course, has assembled another season of rarities from the likes of Poulenc, Martinu, Piazzola, and Osvaldo Golijov. Out of town the two most exciting things on the schedule are Karita Mattila taking another swing at Janacek’s The Makropulous Case at The Metropolitan Opera starting April 27 and Mariusz Kwiecien’s scheduled appearances in the title role of Szymanowski’s King Roger at Santa Fe Opera starting in July. (I’m also crossing my fingers that I may make it to London in late June for the Royal Opera House’s new production of Berlioz’ Les Troyens with Jonas Kaufmann, Eva-Maria Westbroek, and Anna Caterina Antonacci. Stay tuned.) There will be Ring cycles everywhere, of course, on this anniversary year including new stagings at both the Metropolitan Opera and in Munich to name just a few.

The theater offerings are no less interesting. Center Theater Group has planned major West Coast runs of the critically well-received recent New York productions of Sondheim’s Follies in May and Jon Robin Baitz’ Other Desert Cities before the end of 2012. But before all this, L.A.’s largest theater producer will bring concurrently running productions of Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun and Bruce Norris’ Clybourne Park to the Kirk Douglas and Mark Taper Forum stages respectively. The Broad Stage will bring Helen Hunt in Thornton Wilder's Our Town starting January 14. And then there's the exciting line-up at REDCAT which has too many interesting things to detail here but I would not skip the return of the Netherlands' Wunderbaum on April 28 and 29 with Songs at the End of the World. This just scratches the surface so stay tuned for the monthly performance previews and have a great New Year.

Labels: In the Wings