Music

A HARBISON OF THINGS TO COME Well, lightning can strike twice in the same piece. Three years ago, the glittering Santa Barbara-based chamber music ensemble Camerata Pacifica premiered its commissioned String Trio by John Harbison. That, and the stunning Harmonia Mundi CD recording, cemented this awesome work as a major addition to the already limited…

AN EXTRA PERFORMANCE AND A SIMULCAST: SHE JUST KEEPS ON GIVING This isn’t the first time LA Opera has opened a season with Carmen, but it is the first time that ticket sales are so great that an extra performance has been added before performances began. The run remains as September 7 through October 1,…

WHERE DO YOU GET ORFF..? There are some entertainments that bear repeating:  Los Angeles Master Chorale has visited  Carl Orff’s pagan-fest,  Carmina Burana, under each of their music directors, but the splendid, massive, exultant and squeaky-clean  rendering four years ago under Grant Gershon  made me want to toss off my clothes and march triumphantly towards my smoke-filled sky of destiny,…

PINK MARTINI—I SAY “YES”! The last time I saw Pink Martini play the Hollywood Bowl, I was already wired after hearing them brilliantly execute an extended song list covering at least a dozen styles of music sung in eight different languages. But then this everlasting gobstopper of music turned the Hollywood Bowl into a festive…

DO NOT MISS  BEHZOD ABDURAIMOV AT THE HOLLYWOOD BOWL THIS WEEK Pianist Behzod Abduraimov is coming to the Hollywood Bowl this Tuesday August 15, 2017, so prepare yourself for one of the world’s greatest pianists. In fact, the in-demand, rightfully popular 26-year-old Uzbek pianist, who was born in Tashkent in 1990 just before the collapse of…

A GOOD THING GOING; GOING, GOING… Sondheim on Sondheim, which had a short run on Broadway in 2010, offers both songs and personal musings from one of Broadway’s greatest composer/lyricists. Roundabout Theater Company’s inside look is rich with the stories behind the songs, new arrangements for old favorites, a few medleys, and some obscure tunes….

SWINGIN’ AND ROCKIN’ THE BLUES AWAY AT THE BOWL Wait a minute. Hold on. If the Brian Setzer Orchestra’”which pumps joy into the blood of both rabid fans and newcomers thirsty for a good time’”is celebrating its 25th anniversary at the Hollywood Bowl next week (August 2, 2017 at 8), then that means Setzer has…

JAZZ SO HOT, IT MADE ME DIZZY The air was pure celebration at a crowded Hollywood Bowl Wednesday night as folks came from near and far to celebrate two of jazz’s greatest talents: Vocalist Ella Fitzgerald and trumpeter John Birks “Dizzy” Gillespie, both of whom would be celebrating their 100th birthday this year. For the…

SOOTHING, ROARING AND CHIRPING: FROM VIN SCULLY TO BEETHOVEN Of all the actors who have embodied the voice of Abraham Lincoln, the one that sticks out for me is Royal Dano, who Walt Disney personally selected as Lincoln’s voice in Disneyland’s  Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln attraction; not only did Dano resemble the 16th POTUS, but…

GIMME THAT NEW-TIME RELIGION I Rise  was more than a concert. As shaped by artistic  director and conductor Dr. Joseph P. Nadeau (below) it was a theatrical experience so provocative, so plaintive, so  poignant, so palpable, so powerful and so profound that it devastated me. And when that happens in the arts, I’m inspired. Sadly, there were only…

OOH-LA-LA Where am I? Is this a dream? Just when you thought cabaret in Los Angeles was on life support comes this bar of gold at the Hollywood Fringe.  Do not miss this extravaganza of refreshingly distinctive singers and dancers, the likes of which will not be around again soon. Inspired by the black-and-white photography of…

THIS FESTIVAL IS ALL ABOUT PLAY, BOY OK, you’ve heard about it for years. But now you’re ready to take the plunge (and you should be) to attend the world famous Playboy Jazz Festival at the Hollywood Bowl. These two marathon days, June 10 & 11, 2017, can seem a bit intimidating, so let me…

  MICHAEL FEINSTEIN! LIZA MINNELLI! STORM LARGE! JOEL GREY! BROADWAY! No one can argue that Michael Feinstein’”charismatic, appealing, boyish, excited, and eager to please’”has singlehandedly reinvigorated the American Songbook for the 21st century, but this beguiling raconteur is also a consummate showman who is so knowledgeable and adorable that you may just want to pinch his…

SHINE ON, ETERNAL LIGHT In just twenty years of existence, Morten Lauridsen’s gorgeous choral masterwork Lux Aeterna  has become one of the most performed works worldwide. Under direction of the late Paul Salamunovich, our own  Los Angeles Master Chorale presented  the world premiere of this five-movement requiem in 1997, and recorded  it the next year. Now, this iconic gem…

PHILLIPE JORDAN, LORD OF THE RING Little more than 200 years since the birth of Wagner, and the world still can’t get enough of the German composer. Love him or hate him, he is one of the most influential composers of the latter half of the nineteenth century. The musical innovator introduced many musical offerings,…

BURNHAM, BABY, BURNHAM When you first espy David Burnham on stage, his dazzling smile and chiseled looks belie the fact that he has a golden voice and boffo acting chops, both dramatic and comedic. When I first saw him in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, the long-haired golden-throated tenor with teeny-bopper idol charisma stole…