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Opera Review: MOBY-DICK (Chicago Opera Theater at the Harris Theater)
THE WHALE WINS There’s only one more performance — on Sunday at 3 at the Harris Theatre — of Chicago Opera Theater’s awesomely ambitious Moby-Dick, a nearly-three-hour 2010 epic with music by Jake Heggie and a libretto by Gene Scheer. As much an exercise in mounting hubris and ironclad obsession as was Captain Ahab’s pursuit…
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Music Preview: VíKINGUR ÒLAFSSON (Solo Piano at Disney Hall)
AS GOOD AS GOULD While my heart sank to hear that Murray Perahia had to pull out of his recital at Disney Hall this Sunday, April 21, 2019, nothing prepared me for the fantastic news that pianist Víkingur í“lafsson will replace him with a program of mostly Bach with some Glass (Perahia will return as…
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Music Review: MIRGA LEADS TCHAIKOVSKY & DEBUSSY (LA Phil)
MIRGA DESERVES THE HEADLINE, BUT PATRICIA STEALS THE SHOW Here’s how it starts: Violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja — born in Moldova, trained in Vienna — saunters onstage at Disney Hall as if she’s headed to the beach; she wears a comfy lived-in black outfit that says “flea market” more than “concert hall”; then, she slips off…
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Music Preview: MONTEREY JAZZ FESTIVAL ON TOUR (Disney Hall)
GET YOUR JAZZ ON Hooray and hallelujah! Long before her third Grammy win, I have always been a fan of jazz vocalist and song interpreter extraordinaire Cécile McLorin Salvant. But seeing her live three times now has not only cemented my opinion that this is the most exciting thing in all music ’” not just…
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Concert Preview: OSCAR, WITH LOVE (Disney Hall)
OSCAR, WITH LOVE AND BEAUTY AND RESPECT AND: It’s a simple idea that could easily have caused higgledy-piggledy results. In fact, many tribute albums involving various artists contain tracks that are jarringly inconsistent and smack of commercialism. Not so with Oscar, with Love. Kelly Peterson, the widow of Oscar Peterson (1925-2007), personally produced this extraordinary…
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Opera Review: ARIODANTE (Lyric Opera of Chicago)
HANDEL WITH CARE It’s hard to believe that, following its Covent Garden debut in 1735, this glorious opera seria endured 191 years of neglect. It returned to the boards in 1926, even more so in the 1970s, selling its stuff with dazzling vocal pyrotechnics, courtly dances, and a hard-driving tale of innocence traduced and true love vindicated….
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Opera Review: LA TRAVIATA (Lyric Chicago)
MISSING A FEW NOTES It’s quite a treat to have two Verdi operas in one season, especially two of the composer’s best. Yet neither of these similarly named operas gets a new production. Whereas Il Trovatore had first been performed during the 2014/15 season, so La Traviata was performed in 2013/14. I did not see…
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Review: THE SCARLET IBIS (Chicago Opera Theater)
A SMALL STORY SOARS IN THIS NEW OPERA Right now the Studebaker Theater houses a wonder. A chamber opera with a heart of gold, The Scarlet Ibis, with a supple score by Stefan Weisman and lyrical libretto by David Cote, is based on a 1960 short story by the late James Hurst. In only 95 minutes…
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Music Review: PHILIP GLASS SYMPHONY NO. 12 (World Premiere with the LA Phil)
SHATTERED GLASS The Lodger symphony, Philip Glass’s brand new Symphony No. 12, is a work that the composer had discussed with David Bowie prior to the glam-rock king’s death (the two were friends and mutual admirers for many decades). Glass wanted to turn the 1979 album Lodger, a collaboration with Brian Eno and producer Tony…
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Opera Review: ELEKTRA (Lyric Opera of Chicago)
AN ELEKTRA WITHOUT ELEKTRICITY The first show I ever reviewed in Chicago was The Hypocrites’ All Our Tragic at the Den Theatre, a marathon twelve-hour distillation of every surviving Greek tragedy. It was an extraordinary experience. I’ve also seen a one-night performance of the complete Oresteia of Aeschylus and read both Sophocles’ and Euripedes’ versions…
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CD Review: ASCENT (Matthew Lipman, viola, Henry Kramer, piano, on Çedille Records)
AN ACT OF ASCENSION For years, violas and violists have been the butt of some truly funny jokes: Q: How do you keep your violin from getting stolen? A: Put it in a viola case. Q: What’s the difference between a dead skunk and a crushed viola in the road? A. Skid marks before the…
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Music Preview: BRANFORD MARSALIS QUARTET & YUKO MABUCHI TRIO (Segerstrom Concert Hall)
JAZZIN’ HOT IN COSTA MESA With propulsive muscled arrangements, intense high-powered playing, and ceaseless creativity, saxophonist/composer Branford Marsalis is one of his best and brightest musicians that America has ever produced, and his proficiency in both jazz and classical is mind-boggling. He joins his hard-swinging yet sensitive quartet to heat up the winter for one…
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Music Review: ZUBIN MEHTA’S BRAHMS (LA Phil)
ZUBIN (MEH)TA Since classical concerts are scheduled up to two years in advance, there is no possible way to know if an artist will need to be replaced. This is why, in opera for example, singers don’t always seem best-suited for each other when one must cancel. But it’s also how I discovered some bedazzling…
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Dance & Music Preview: HUBBARD STREET DANCE CHICAGO & THIRD COAST PERCUSSION (The Wallis)
HUBBA-HUBBA-HUBBARD As one of the world’s most important contemporary dance companies, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago encompasses a vast array of techniques and forms, as well as an understanding of abstract artistry and the emotional nuances of movement. With an exuberant, athletic, and innovative repertoire, Hubbard Street presents performances that inspire, yes, but also challenge how…
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Los Angeles Music Preview: DECK THE HALL HOLIDAY CONCERTS, 2018 (Disney Hall)
EVERYTHING YOU NEED IN ONE DECKED-OUT HALL The Los Angeles Philharmonic’s  Deck the Hall  Holiday Concerts  at Disney Hall are just around the corner, and the variety this year is awesome. Be  enchanted by the ever-popular  Holiday Sing-Along (Dec. 22 at 11:30am and 2:30pm), hosted this year by Melissa Peterman, who wows us every year at the Sing-A-Long Sound of…
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CD Review: BERLIOZ’S ROMÉO ET JULIETTE (San Francisco Symphony, Michael Tilson Thomas)
HERE’S WHAT LOVE IS What’s in a name? That which we call a symphony by any other name would sound as sweet. In the way that Monteverdi rethought the madrigal, so too did Berlioz re-imagine symphonies. He altered any previous preconceptions of what a symphony can be with his Symphonie fantastique (my first classical album!)…
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Opera Review: CENDRILLON (CINDERELLA) (Lyric Opera of Chicago)
I TELL OF A HELL OF A CINDERELLA Never before performed at Lyric Opera, Jules Massenet’s Cendrillon cannot be more delightful, especially for those who love the lightness of French opera. Indeed, it is the only French opera programmed this season, and the second Massenet in three years. The score’s exuberance and playfulness is reminiscent…
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Music Review: MICHAEL TILSON THOMAS AND PATHÉTIQUE (Los Angeles Philharmonic)
NOTHING LIKE MICHAEL TILSON THOMAS EVER WAS Michael Tilson Thomas is a rock star. The Los Angeles native, who made his conducting debut here 50 years ago, proved last night at Disney Hall that he not only maintains a Bernstein-like vigor at the podium — bringing pulse-pounding magic and emotion to Tchaikovsky’s Pathétique —  he…
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CD Review: HYMN (Sarah Brightman)
TIME TO SAY GOODBYE She stands on the cover of her latest album, Hymn, like a diva who just came down from Sinai with the word of God, but instead of 10 Commandments, the British Broadway, West End, and ersatz-pop star Sarah Brightman is wearing a tight golden dress — not unlike Cecil B. deMille’s…
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Music Preview: CALLING ALL ANGELS (Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles Holiday Spectacular)
MAKE THE YULETIDE GAY Attending GMCLA’s Holiday Spectaculars is more like a pilgrimage for me, and is a no-brainer when choosing my wintertime concerts. The musical extravaganza this year, Holiday Spectacular: Calling All Angels, plays at Glendale’s gorgeous Alex Theatre for four performances Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 15 & 16, 2018. What better way is there…
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