Tony Frankel

THE DRAG QUEEN TO DRAG YOUR THOUGHTS AWAY FROM YOUR TROUBLES I first saw Coco Peru perform in a B movie sendup – a campy romp called Blood Orgy of the Carnival Queens!  But at New York’s Off-Off-Broadway Hamlet Theatre in 1994, the actress playing Kitty Valise, Student Nurse was simply Miss Coco. Later that week,…

A RARELY HEARD SYMPHONY TRUMPS AN OFT-HEARD RHAPSODY It never makes sense to me why Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 3 is still not in the popular orchestral repertoire. Yes, it is approximately 20 minutes shorter than his other Symphonies – No. 1 (1896) and No. 2 (1908) – containing three instead of four movements. It was…

A REQUIEM IN FLOWER The Los Angeles Master Chorale captures the shared human experience with a pairing of Brahms’ sublime Ein Deutsches Requiem and the West Coast premiere of The World in Flower, Peter Lieberson’s lyrical and moving message of tolerance written in memory of his wife and muse, famed mezzo-soprano Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, with…

EXOTICISM INCARNATE Renée Fleming and Susan Graham, two of the ecosphere’s leading superstars of opera, have crisscrossed the globe accumulating legions of fans. While they have on occasion appeared in the same opera together, rare is the opportunity to see these two songstresses sing for you in a salon-styled concert. Well, pop the cork on…

A SECRET NO MORE Have you ever been to a Chamber Concert in a grand venue such as Walt Disney Hall or Carnegie Hall but wished you could experience the program in the intimacy of a hostess’ living room? Many is the time after a concert that I have craved to mingle with the virtuosic…

THE JOY OF TEARS Having experienced 307 U.S. National Parks, I am keenly aware of the musical sounds of nature, such as the haunting accelerando of wind through pine needles, the drone of a bee, or the ever-changing sounds of water, as with bubbling staccato over stones, or a cascading scherzo down a ravine. Tan…

SANTASTIC! Sometimes in life, it’s the last Christmas present we open that makes up for all the lousy ones we unwrapped before. In what is truly the most dismal season of holiday-themed shows, I happened upon one on Christmas Eve which, unbeknownst to me, has been an annual event for 13 years. Santasia: A Holiday…

‘HANDEL’ED WELL, BUT NOT THE SECOND COMING Los Angeles Master Chorale returned to Walt Disney Concert Hall to conclude its holiday programming with the perennial holiday classical chestnut, Handel’s Messiah. The choir was impeccable under Music Director Grant Gershon’s athletic conducting, and the use of a chamber orchestra brought authenticity to the iconoclastic 1741 English-language…

LAMC BRINGS PEACE AND JOY TO DISNEY HALL Los Angeles Master Chorale’s (LAMC) Christmastime Baroque concert, Rejoice!, had as its headliner Bach’s Magnificat, but less-than-stellar soloists for this work – one which is better-suited for an intimate venue – made the piece more fascinating as a musical study than triumphant as a performance. Still, under…

LET’S BE FRANK The dictionary has two main definitions for the word “bash”: One is “a thoroughly enjoyable, lively party,” which is undoubtedly what the producers of Christmas My Way – A Sinatra Holiday Bash had in mind. However, the second definition of “bash” is far more apt for the misguided offering currently on at…

ALEXANDER THE GREAT…CHARMER, THAT IS When I first heard Cortés Alexander sing in 1992, he wasn’t alone. He was part of a group named The Tonics, and they performed a jazzy rendition of “Good Thing Going” for a PBS special, Sondheim: A Celebration at Carnegie Hall (which was accompanied by a then-unknown Jason Robert Brown…

STUCK IN THE DESERT Don’t the powers that be at Center Theatre Group/Mark Taper Forum understand that casting is roughly 80% of a play’s success? Don’t they understand that any play, including Shakespeare, will suffer if an ensemble is fragmented? And when a play like Jon Robin Baitz’ Other Desert Cities is improbable, melodramatic, and…

BOB’S HOLIDAY OFFICE FIASCO Bob’s Holiday Office Party, now in its 17th season, is basically a fifteen-minute Carol Burnett Show-type sketch stretched out to about 100 minutes. And unless a new director is brought on board, last night will remain my first and last experience at the party. For roughly the first 30 minutes, it…

LOS ANGELES CHAMBER ORCHESTRA BRIDGES JAZZ, FOLK AND ORCHESTRAL MUSIC It’s only the first week of December and, if you’re anything like me, you may find yourself already burning out on the plethora of holiday-themed entertainment. Well, here is your chance to sneak out of that holiday party or avoid yet another staging of A…