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Nick McCall
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Music Review: ELEMENTS AND ENERGY (John Adams and the LA Phil New Music Group at Disney Hall)
Last season, the LA Phil premiered the first five of 16 etudes commissioned by Creative Chair John Adams, with the goal to have a piece for each instrument of the orchestra to show off as a soloist. On January 28, we got to hear three more premieres from the series. First was Quantum Ptarmigan, by…
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Concert Review: NOON TO MIDNIGHT (LA Phil at Disney Hall)
DOUG AITKIN’S LIGHTSCAPE, THE CENTERPIECE OF LA PHIL’S DAY-LONG NEW MUSIC PROGRAM, OPENS AS AN INSTALLATION AT THE MARCIANO ARTS FOUNDATION THIS WEEK Noon to Midnight, a daylong festival of new music, is my favorite LA Phil program of the year. What’s playing? No clue. Is the music good? Unlikely. Is the centerpiece performance going…
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Review: THE NUTCRACKER SUITE (American Contemporary Ballet at the Bank of America Plaza in Downtown L.A.)
THE NUTCRACKER SUITE IS SWEETER THAN THE NUTCRACKER American Contemporary Ballet’s advertising for their annual production of The Nutcracker Suite, now playing Downtown in Bank of America Plaza, is misleading. Their scant imagery suggests that it would be an austere and intellectual outing for adults ̶ theatrical vegetables, if you will. However, it turned out…
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Theater Review: PACIFIC OVERTURES (East West Players)
EAST WEST PLAYERS PULLS OUT ALL THE SHOGUNS FOR A RARELY SEEN SONDHEIM MUSICAL On Sunday, East West Players opened their new production of Pacific Overtures by Stephen Sondheim (music and lyrics) and John Weidman (book). From 1976, this is one of Sondheim’s more overlooked shows. If you’ve never seen this unusual musical, this will…
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Opera Review: SANCTA SUSANNA: A HORROR OPERA (Source/Filter Music Collective at Heritage Square Museum)
OH, SUSANNA!! For two performances only, October 24 & 25, 2024, two-year old Source/Filter Music Collective took a big step, producing its first fully-staged opera: Paul Hindemith (music) and August Stramm’s (libretto) scandalous 1921 Sancta Susanna. Timed for Halloween and staged inside the Lincoln Avenue Methodist Church at Heritage Square Museum, this production also marked…
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Dance & Music Review: INFERNO & BURLESQUE (American Contemporary Ballet at Television City)
ACB’S FANTASTIC JOURNEY INTO HELL-OWEEN In the same Television City soundstage that The Price is Right and The Carol Burnett Show was recorded, American Contemporary Ballet began its current season on Oct. 11 with a revival of its original works, Inferno and Burlesque. A third work, The Rite [of Spring], alternates with Inferno. Entering the…
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Theater Review: THE VERY BEST PEOPLE (IAMA Theatre Company at Atwater Village Theatre)
BLOOD AND RANCH DRESSING In December of 2020, the world was still in the grip of COVID-19’s unpredictable terror. Moderna and Pfizer had just released their vaccines, but supply was scarce and available only to a few high-risk groups. Physical distancing, masking, and sanitizing were all top of mind, as were, shall we say, “competing”…
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Theater Concert Review: DO YOU HEAR THE PEOPLE SING? (The Music of Les Misérables, Miss Saigon and More by Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg at the Hollywood Bowl)
YOU COULD HEAR THESE PEOPLE SING, ALL RIGHT First performed in Shanghai in 2013, the Hollywood Bowl hosted a new installment of The Music of Les Misérables, Miss Saigon, and More: Boublil and Schönberg’s Do You Hear the People Sing? on Sunday, July 28, 2024. This tribute to the team of lyricist Alain Boublil and…
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Music Review: PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION: THE PAINTINGS OF BOB PEAK (Walt Disney Concert Hall)
PICTURE THIS: ASTOUNDING NEW MUSIC On Friday, June 14, music producer Robert Townson fulfilled a 25-year dream, premiering in partnership with Abu Dhabi Festival a new symphony, Pictures at an Exhibition: The Paintings of Bob Peak, at Walt Disney Concert Hall with the Los Angeles Film Orchestra and conductor Leonard Slatkin. It was a sprawling evening…
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Opera Review: THE COMET/POPPEA (MOCA and The Industry at the Geffen Contemporary Museum at MOCA)
BOTH YOUR HEAD AND THE STAGE WILL BE SPINNING When The Industry’s new opera, The Comet / Poppea, a smash-up between Claudio Monteverdi and Giovanni Busenello’s 1643 L’incoronazione di Poppea and George Lewis and Douglas Kearney’s The Comet began, I developed a sinking feeling. Both operas are performed simultaneously, but I was seated on the side…
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Opera Review: IPSA DIXIT (Long Beach Opera and Martha Graham Dance Company)
WHISTLING DIXIT Last week, Long Beach Opera concluded the west coast premiere of its new production of Kate Soper’s 2016 lecture with musical notes, Ipsa Dixit, self-described in the program as “an artistic revelation,” “profound,” “bold,” and “mesmerizing.” Smart critics lavished praise on previous productions of it. It got nominated for a Pulitzer. Therefore, it…
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Opera Review: MAGDALENE (Beth Morrison Project at REDCAT)
MEHDALENE On Tuesday, REDCAT hosted the west coast premiere of Beth Morrison Projects’ 2020 one-woman opera, Magdalene. A collective all-female endeavor, it has Morrison as creative producer, Danielle Birrittella and Zoe Aja Moore as “creators,” Marie Howe as poet, and 14 different composers. If that sounds messy, then gird your loins. Magdalene is yet another…
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Music / Film Review: PHOTOPLAY MUSIC: NEW WORKS FOR THE SILENT FILM ERA (HOCKET, Sarah Gibson and Thomas Kotcheff at The Nimoy)
NEW MUSIC FOR SILENT FILMS COULD HAVE BEEN ABOUT BOTH MUSIC AND FILM On May 21, UCLA’s Center for the Art of Performance (CAP UCLA) hosted Piano Spheres and the piano duo HOCKET as they premiered three new scores for a trio of unannounced French silent films at The Nimoy. Sarah Gibson, one half of…
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Music Review: DUDAMEL CONDUCTS HARRY POTTER (John Williams Spotlight, LA Phil)
COMPARED TO FANTASIA, NOT SO FANTASTIQUE Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic concluded its orchestral season and its Spotlight on John Williams series on May 19 with a family-oriented program: Dudamel Conducts Harry Potter. Williams’ music is always an exciting proposition, but the program, the first half of which was dominated by another composer,…
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Theater Review: THE LAST FIVE YEARS (The Sierra Madre Playhouse)
THE LAST FIVE YEARS AT SIERRA MADRE CAN BE SEEN IN DIFFERENT COMBINATIONS Last weekend, Sierra Madre Playhouse opened what seems like a bewildering number of performance configurations of their new revival production of Jason Robert Brown’s 2001 musical The Last Five Years. The two-hander is double cast and also offers two types of accompaniments:…
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Concert Review: ANNA LAPWOOD (Organ Recital at Disney Hall)
LAPPING UP LAPWOOD British organist Anna Lapwood brought gold sparkles to her LA Phil debut at Walt Disney Concert Hall, the final stop of her 2024 US tour (her international tour continues). She could hardly contain her excitement, calling the hall’s organ “so much more than I ever hoped it could be!” Lapwood, the 28-year-old…
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Music Review: BERNSTEIN AND WOOTEN (LA Phil; Thomas Wilkins, conductor; Victor Wooten, bass)
WOO-HOO, WOOTEN The idea behind this past weekend’s program at the Los Angeles Philharmonic was the influence of jazz on the orchestra, featuring three pieces that cover a span of nearly 125 years. For these two performances, the Phil brought in Thomas Wilkins, Principal Conductor of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, to conduct. First up was…
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Theater Review: SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET (A Noise Within in Pasadena)
ATTEND THIS TALE: IT’S MURDER When A Noise Within, one of LA’s best companies, which specializes in classical theater, announced its current season, what most excited me by far was their decision to do Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street by composer/lyricist Stephen Sondheim and book writer Hugh Wheeler. Being able to see…
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Opera Review: ISOLA (Long Beach Opera)
MUST ALL NEW OPERAS HAVE TO BE PSEUDO-INTELLECTUAL AND JOYLESS? I was in no shape to see Isola, by composer Alyssa Weinberg and poet J. Mae Barizo, presented by Long Beach Opera in its world-premiere run. My apartment had been burglarized the night before and I just wanted to stay home and lick my wounds….
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Music Review: SCHUBERT & BEETHOVEN (Jukka-Pekka Saraste with the Los Angeles Philharmonic)
GOOD MORNING, L.A! As part of its popular Friday Middays series in a program that plays until Sunday, the Los Angeles Philharmonic brought over Finnish conductor Jukka-Pekka Saraste, the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra Artistic Director, for two favorites: Schubert’s 6th and Beethoven’s 7th. Franz Schubert began writing his Symphony No. 6 in C Major, D. 589…
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