Jesse David Corti

ROMANTIC RENDEZVOUS Lionel Bringuier touches down at Disney Hall with the Los Angeles Philharmonic on Valentine’s Day weekend serving up a buffet of romantic music from Brahms, Berg, and Beethoven. Following his final year as Resident Conductor with the LA Phil, Bringuier returns with the exceptional Swedish soprano Camilla Tilling, whose voice carries the combination…

A PERFECT BALANCE OF BITE AND BEAUTY Krzystof Urbański’s star shines a bit brighter these days. Not yet 35, he has taken hold as the conductor of the Indianapolis Symphony, and on Jan. 25 he wowed with an LA Phil command performance. The power bursting forth from the philharmonic, along with Urbański’s exuberance and lively…

LIKING THIS LIKENESS Writer/producer/director Daniel Rover Singer’s A Perfect Likeness imagines a meeting between Charles Dickens and Charles Dodgson–better known by the alias, Lewis Carroll. Had Dickens taken up amateur photographer Mr. Dodgson’s request to meet him and have his portrait taken, this would be the scenario. The ninety-minute two-person drawing-room play is set somewhere…

SIRRAH, NO Cyrano de Bergerac is the story of a fearless, witty, charismatic romantic whose grotesque nose prevents him from pursuing Roxanne, the woman he loves. Roxanne is smitten by Christian, a handsome man whose only fault is not being equipped with Cyrano’s wit. When Cyrano decides to write missives to Roxanne as Christian, the…

ZAPPED ZAPPA Any live performance of 200 Motels is bound to bear a degree of disappointment since its mastermind, Frank Zappa, is not alive to conduct the evening’s program, shred on guitar, or entertain audiences with his fiery passion. Musically more challenging, and arguably more ambitious than the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper or the Who’s Tommy…

A LASTING IMPRESSION Fab Fin Esa-Pekka Salonen returned to the hall where he established the reputation of LA Phil, educated audiences to challenging new music, and garnered adulation for his graceful manner and acute interpretation of various works, classical and contemporary. The program this past weekend set the stage for Salonen to do as he…

BE ON YOUR GUARDSMAN Nationwide, nearly half the couples that get married today end up divorced. The aphorism about the difference between the way relationships are handled by this generation and the so-called greatest generation is “back then when something was broke, we tried to fix it, not buy a new one.” Since the 1911…

POSITIVELY PEERLESS PERICLES There’s a certain respect lost among most national leaders today, especially here in America, due to the excessive regard for individuals graduated from northeast institutions, and an improper recognition for those who serve in the military’” especially those who fight overseas. The last three Presidents of this country have avoided harm’s way…

AH, GOOD THEATER! Ah, Wilderness! is Pulitzer and Nobel Prize-winning O’Neill’s only comedy, and he describes it as, “a wistful recollection:the kind of childhood I wished I had growing up.” One can certainly see the parallels between what must’ve been a young O’Neill and the character of Richard Miller as Wilderness also provides a rose-colored…

TOO MUCH OF TOO LITTLE FOR TOO LONG An aged widow and an even more aged married man have a shared, passionate history with each other that ended after World War II. Now, nearly seventy years later, they find themselves with an opportunity to reunite, make up for lost time, and take one last shot…

A ZESTY SUMMER COCKTAIL In their seventeen years as a fourteen member full “little orchestra,” Pink Martini has established a reputation  for  clever, daring, sophisticated and  delightful music. The unusually overcast sky  at the Hollywood Bowl Sunday evening provided an excellent opportunity for LA Phil and Pink Martini to perk up the environment with some much needed color and…

AND NOW FOR A BRIEF INTERLUDE What’s hip these days? It’s the old tradition of taking idiosyncratic history or historical figures and putting the stories and details to music. Sufjan Stevens produced albums about the states Michigan and Illinois to wide acclaim in the indie circuit. Electronic duo Neon Neon released Stainless Style, based on…

BLAKE: IN DELICACY AND DISTRESS Hollywood Master Chorale concluded their Songs of Experience concert series Sunday night at the West Hollywood Library. Since the concert was inspired by Poet-painter William Blake’s “Songs of Innocence and Experience,” the library was an an apt location to showcase his intimate, poignant poems set to song. The composers enlisted…

A DIFFERENT KIND OF GAME Rufus Wainwright received a smattering of awards for his self-titled 1998 debut, loud fanfare for his follow-up album Poses, and his cover of Leonard Cohen’s classic “Hallelujah” for the Shrek Soundtrack in 2001, but has not found the same level of praise or success for his subsequent efforts. Mentions of…

BRAIN FRIED Retaining a cephalopod’s far-ranging spinelessness and wide-ranging tentacles, Alicia Adams and Justin Zsebe’s vanity work, A Fried Octopus, makes a squishy thud at The Bootleg. Instead of a clear narrative, what we have is an absinthe-soaked progression of discussions and monologues that veer from subjects like Toulouse Lautrec, divine femininity, and women in…