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CD Review: OUR CHRISTMAS WISH (The Ten Tenors)
CHESTNUTS EXPLODING ON A TENOR FIRE I’ve always liked the tenor voice; from Pavorotti to The Three Tenors and everything in between I’ve been fortunate enough to have a wealth of choices. But then I was exposed to ten young Australian guys at a live concert over ten years ago, something changed because here was…
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Los Angeles Music Preview: CHRISTMAS CHORAL CONCERTS (Los Angeles Master Chorale at Disney Hall)
OUR MASTER CHORALE’S CHRISTMAS CHORAL CONCERTS AND CAROLS With the indefatigable Energizer Bunny of conducting, Grant Gershon, at the helm, Los Angeles Master Chorale (LAMC) can easily be labeled one of the best choirs on earth, and you have a chance to see four separate holiday programs at Walt Disney Concert Hall. Naturally, you can…
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Los Angeles Concert Preview: A MICHAEL FEINSTEIN HOLIDAY CELEBRATION (Valley Performing Arts Center in Northridge)
IT’S BEGINNING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE FEINSTEIN Charismatic, appealing, boyish, excited, and eager to please, Michael Feinstein will bring his off-the-cuff, friendly, intimate style to the gorgeous Valley Performing Arts Center on Friday, December 8, 2017. For this one night only, the man who has single-handedly reinvigorated the American Songbook for the 21st century, will celebrate the…
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Tour Music Review: IN MY MIND: MONK AT TOWN HALL 1959 (Jason Moran and The Big Bandwagon)
A CONCERT THAT WILL STAY IN MY MIND There are certain experiences involving the arts that stay with you forever. A seamless meld of spiritual and artistic experience, Jason Moran’s tribute piece to Theolonius Monk’s legendary 1959 concert at Town Hall achieved something I rarely witness in the arts: As with a séance, Moran’s octet—rivaling…
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San Diego Opera Review: AS ONE (San Diego Opera)
CLASSIC SOUND; MODERN THEME Composer Laura Kaminsky and co-librettists Kimberly Reed and Mark Campbell’s 80-minute chamber opera, As One, is a tribute to the fact that art must keep growing with the times. We expect modern themes explored in painting, music, dance, and more, but encountering today’s issues in opera causes a little more head-cocking….
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Chicago Opera Review: THE CONSUL (Chicago Opera Theater at the Studebaker Theater)
TO THIS WE’VE COME (AGAIN) Playing Chicago t0o briefly at the Studebaker Theatre, historically important and artistically wondrous, this co-production between Chicago and Long Beach Opera is a timely revival that taps into a constant injustice. Menotti’s inaugural offering from 1950, The Consul remains a stirring “cri de coeur.” Despite a sometimes densely imagistic libretto, it’s music…
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Los Angeles Music Preview: LOVE’S PASSIONS AND POTIONS (The Verdi Chorus in Santa Monica)
THE VERDI CHORUS IS A BEST BET The Verdi Chorus will present its Fall 2017 concert Love’s Passions and Potions for two performances only at the First United Methodist Church in Santa Monica on November 18 and 19, led by Founding Artistic Director Anne Marie Ketchum. As the only choral group in Southern California that…
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Chicago Music Review: REGRESAR/REVISIT: A DíA DE LOS MUERTOS CELEBRATION (Chicago Sinfonietta)
DEATH DANCES TO LIFE’S BEATS It took us from Mozart to Mexico. Now, alas, it’s over for another year—Chicago Sinfonietta’s much anticipated, annual A Día de los Muertos Celebration. Concluding at Chicago’s Orchestra Hall in Symphony Center, Regresar/Revisit was an unwasted opportunity to perpetuate the “Happy Halloween” of the Day of the Dead, which is celebrated on…
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Music Preview: BRUCKNER’S EIGHTH WITH CARL ST. CLAIR (Pacific Symphony at Segerstrom Concert Hall)
AN EXPERIENCE NOT TO BE MISSED On a website which attempts to list every Anton Bruckner orchestral recording offered to the public (abruckner.com), the discography collector and annotator John F. Berky states that the Austrian composer “expanded the concept of the symphonic form in ways that have never been witnessed before or since. When listening to a…
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Los Angeles Theater and Music Review: A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM (Mendelssohn music and Shakespeare scenes with the LA Phil)
COME FOR MENDELSSOHN, STAY FOR Mí„LKKI There are three things to consider regarding LA Phil’s huge production of Felix Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which has music interlaced with scenes from one of Shakespeare’s most produced plays: the orchestra; the production; and the venue. Since this is, after all, the LA Phil, I’m happy to report…
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CD Review: NEW WORLDS (Bill Murray, Jan Vogler and Friends on Decca Gold)
WORLDS APART This is easily one of the most jaw-dropping CDs to come my way in a while. Not just in some of its amazing selections, but in the disparity between tracks: most cuts are revelational (Bill Murray’s interpretation of Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is one of the greatest readings I have ever…
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Music Preview: MARIINSKY ORCHESTRA (North American tour with Valery Gergiev at Disney Hall)
THE TRIFECTA OF MARIINSKY, GERGIEV, AND MATSUEV AT DISNEY HALL Beginning tonight, October 29, Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Orchestra will undertake their greatest tour of the season, presenting sixteen concerts in cities in the USA and Canada though November 15. During the tour, the orchestra will be appearing alongside such stunning pianists of the present day as Behzod Abduraimov, Denis Matsuev, Daniil…
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CD Review: SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS THE NEW MUSICAL (Original Cast Recording)
A SPLISH SPLASH MISHMASH After a successful out-of-town tryout in Chicago, SpongeBob SquarePants The New Musical is opening on Broadway this November. To whet the public’s appetite í la the “Abominable Showman” David Merrick, a recording was completed and is now available on Masterworks Broadway—hence the descriptor “Original Cast” not “Broadway Cast,” even though the…
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Music Preview: ISRAEL PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA (North American tour with Zubin Mehta)
ISRAEL PHILHARMONIC; ZUBIN MEHTA; YEFIM BRONFMAN; AND A U.S. PREMIERE AT DISNEY HALL Beginning tonight in New York, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra is beginning its six-city North American tour. This highly anticipated but very short tour—they’re only on the road for two weeks through November 9—includes Toronto, San Francisco, West Palm Beach, Miami, and, happily,…
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Los Angeles Music Review: MIRGA CONDUCTS MAHLER (Los Angeles Philharmonic)
INACCESSIBLE? MIRGA MAKES US THINK AGAIN The three composers that make up LA Phil’s current program—which opened last night and plays through Saturday—are not what one would call “accessible,” meaning easy to listen to for some folks. Laypersons will often find themselves searching for lyrical, easy-to-digest melodies, or possibly an introduction of a theme or…
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Los Angeles Film and Music Preview: LA BELLE ET LA BíŠTE (LA Opera at Theatre at the Ace Hotel)
GREAT OPERA, GREAT CINEMA, GREAT PARTY! A familiar fairy tale takes on a broader and deeper subject’”the transformative power of love and art. Jean Cocteau’s stunningly beautiful 1946 cinematic masterpiece is recast with an enchanting new soundtrack by Philip Glass. Not only is it one of Glass’s most accessible works, it may well be the…
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Los Angeles Music Preview: BRAHMS SYMPHONIES No. 2 and 3 (Riccardo Muti and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at Disney Hall)
MUTI AND THE CSO BRING BRAHMS SYMPHONIES TO DISNEY HALL Endlessly frustrating his admirers, Johannes Brahms was well-known for his reluctance to begin symphonic works. Once he began—with the arrival of his First Symphony in 1876—the floodgates swung open. The First took about 15-21 years to finish (depending on which scholar you ask), but the…
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Los Angeles Opera Preview: THE PEARL FISHERS (LA Opera at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion)
DIVE INTO A GREAT OPERA Bizet’s most successful opera besides Carmen, The Pearl Fishers premiered as Les Pêcheurs de Perles at the Théâtre Lyrique in Paris (1863). London saw it at Covent Garden under the title of Leila (1887); and Italy, Pescatori di Perle (1899). The New York premiere was at the Metropolitan Opera House…
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Los Angeles Music Review: MOZART CLARINET CONCERTO & SELECTIONS FROM THE MAGIC FLUTE (Los Angeles Philharmonic)
THE HARD-HEARTED WILL TURN TO LOVE Few operas are more delightful than Mozart’s Magic Flute (Die Zauberflöte), which fuses fantasy and adventure with high ideals and memorable melodies. Emmanuel Shikaneder’s Singspiel libretto is suffused with masonic elements, emphasizing the triumph of reason, nature, and wisdom over the forces of darkness and superstition. But there are contradictions too,…
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Dance Tour Preview: MARIINSKY BALLET AND ORCHESTRA (All-Fokine program at Segerstrom Hall in Costa Mesa)
THE MIGHTY MARIINSKY AND FABULOUS FOKINE For more than two centuries, the Mariinsky Ballet, formerly known as the Kirov, has created classical dance at its best, a tradition that continues to this day. This incredible company is coming to Segerstrom Center for the Arts for one weekend only, October 12-15, 2017, where they’ll pay tribute to…
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