Posts Tagged ‘Dorothy Chandler Pavilion’

Wagnerite or not, the Ring Festival is upon us.  Let me explain.  If you haven’t heard, LA Opera spent $32 million on producing the ultimate Ring Festival that not only presents Richard Wagner’s infamous Ring Cycle, but also features an array of events, lectures, and concerts offering tons of things to do for German-loving Angelenos.  Starting this evening alone, one can find a visual exhibit on Maria Callas at the Italian Cultural Institute in Westwood, a Ring Cycle discussion panel chatting on “From Nietzsche to Star Wars: The Wagnerian Power of The Ring,” and at Los Angeles Conservancy, see the German influence on Los Angeles’ mid-20th-century landscape.  Who knew Wagner made such an impact on so many aspects of our lives?

There’s one truth I’ve yet to unveil.  I’m not really a Wagner fan.  Yes, Wagnerites, Tristan und Isolde is undeniably gorgeous and the famous aria at the end, “Liebestod,” is truly glorious.  But his Ring Cycle, which features four full-length operas from Das Rheingold to Gotterdammerung, is simply not my cup of tea.  Putting personal preference aside, though, LA Operas tour de force Ring Festival is a triumph of peering into what makes such an infamous piece of classical music tick.  There will be, over the course of the next few months (now through June 2010), lectures detailing Wagner and his influences paired with art exhibits, free film screenings “for opera lovers,” and of course, full length masterful productions of Wagner’s Ring Cycle.  In full.

The Cycle itself is four operas, each longer than the last.  There’s Das Rheingold and Die Walkure, which LA Opera produced during their 2008/2009 season and Siegfried and Gotterdammerung which both go up this season in June, finishing out the Cycle.  All four productions were designed by the controversial and avant-garde set director Achim Freyer and will be performed under the very accomplished tutelage of conductor James Conlon.

The Ring Festival is a huge accomplishment for the arts in Los Angeles.  Not only will it bring arts lovers of all shapes and sizes to our fair city, but it also derives its allure from many of LAs various attractions from food trucks (like Let’s Be Frank hotdogs) to the Hammer Museum and from LACMA to Griffith Park Observatory.  There’s rarely a better reason to cross the city in a German-and-opera-filled fury as there is now.

The show on at the Geffen Playhouse, Nightmare Alley, is also connected to the Ring Festival.  Running now through May 23, the show is based on the 1946 Gresham novel about the dark, wild world of “carnies, cons, and clairvoyants.”

The full schedule is about as long as a novel, proving again that LA Opera has gone above and beyond with this Festival.  Ticket prices range from free to $10 to $2000 (for really good front orchestra seats at the opera itself, calm thyself).

Regardless of my personal relationship with Mr. Wagner, when I say enjoy the show, I really do mean it. Really. Enjoy… Just make sure you bring your flask.

The Ring Festival has begun! Click here for more information on the Festival and click here for information on the Cycle itself. Click here to see the LA Times’ complete guide to the Ring Festival.

I headed downtown, sniffling and sneezing the whole way, determined to revel in the magic of the Joffrey Ballet’s production of Cinderella at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.  With a pounding sinus headache and hot soup calling my name, I knew that if there was one reason to leave the house on Thursday evening, this performance was it.  A ballet dancer through most of my life, I had never seen Cinderella performed and more importantly, this was the Joffrey!

To say that the Joffrey’s performance is a delight would be a gross understatement.  The inexplicable energy that comes from an impenetrable technique and preparation was abound on opening night; you focused not on the choreography itself, instead you were invited to focus on the story the choreography was telling.

As Cinderella, Victoria Jaiani was convincingly transformed from poor maiden to princess – her first scene having been dressed by her fairy godmother was performed with a shopoholic level of excitement.  The new, white, sparkling tutu redefined her as a veritable, although expiring, princess in every sense of the word.  It seemed her posture even improved.  In a refreshingly aggressive move during the famous “glass slipper” scene when the prince approaches Cinderella’s stepsisters first, Victoria practically throws her partnering shoe at the Prince to prove herself – quite unlike the demure, embarrassed display of politesse in the book.

One of the more joyous characters of the ballet, and simultaneously one of the most scarily talented on the stage, was undoubtedly the Jester, played by an enormously flexible Derrick Agnoletti.  Prior to the roar of applause given to him by the audience, he moved us through each scene at the Prince’s ball with huge leaps and great comic timing.  Likewise, the two gentlemen (yes, men) playing Cinderella’s stepsisters are so entertaining and flailing, it convinces you that while their roles are significant, these dancers aren’t being used to their full potential as stepsisters.

To put it plainly, the style of ballet performed in Cinderella is a kind of anomaly, at least when it comes to ballet performed in Los Angeles of, say, the last 5 to 10 years.  It does not fall into either of the most widely performed styles of ballet: Russian and Balanchine.  (Yes, balletomanes, I am generalizing.)  Choreographed by Sir Frederick Ashton, who was born in Ecuador and whose Cinderella premiered with Sadler’s Wells Ballet at the Royal Opera House in London in 1948, the style and movement has much more fluidity than Russian choreography, but isn’t nearly as esoteric as a George Balanchine choreographed work.  It’s accessible, comedic, and yet no less impressive.

On for two more performances (well, three if you hurry), Cinderella is a gorgeous display of how well technique, set and costume design, and wit come together on stage for such a grabbing, beautiful, and entertaining performance.  Even the little girls sitting with their parents were on the edge of their seats at the end to see the prince and his princess walk off into the gold and glittering future.  As was I, actually, which was impressive considering my sickly condition pre-performance.  My evening had ended happily, after all.

Cinderella is on for three remaining performances: Today (Saturday) at 2pm and 7:30pm and tomorrow (Sunday) at 2pm at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.  For more information, please call (213) 972-0711 or click here.

Click here to watch a Joffrey Ballet produced video introducing their Cinderella.

This week marked an emergency situation for LA Opera – they needed a $14 million bailout from the city on Tuesday in order to even stay afloat through the middle of next year.  Stephen Rountree (CEO of both LA Opera and Music Center), as reported by the LA Times said the company is “$20 million in debt,” and since LA Opera is “by far the most important tenant at the Dorothy Chandler, its failure could set off a chain of events that takes down the Music Center.”  Disaster was narrowly averted when the city agreed to loan the money, which will be repaid in one lump sum in January 2013.  It’s not hard to imagine that this debt largely came from LA Opera’s somewhat controversial decision to stage an avante-garde and severely expensive production of Wagner’s Ring Cycle – both the individual productions during the last and current seasons as well as the full Ring Cycle Festival, set to include over 100 artists and institutions next summer.  They’ve spent $32 million staging the Ring Cycle.  County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said, rightly, that the LA Opera is a significantly important artistic organization for LA county continuing to say, “For all they have built up… this is almost no price for us to pay… we’ll save the opera.”  [LA Times]

Given how rare it is to hear of money being given to artists in non-emergency situations, you’ll be glad to hear that a new prize awarding $100,000 to artists under 35 has been announced by the Victor Pinchuk Foundation.  A Ukrainian billionaire and art collector, Victor Pinchuk will present his Future Generation Art Prize every two years to artists who can apply online and artists that have been nominated by professionals in the art world.  The international jury set to decide the winner is said to include Elton John, Miuccia Prada, and in some small way, the public.  Winners can’t have just made one great piece and then run off with the money, however – the New York Times reports that “$40,000 of the purse must go into the production of art.”  General Director of the Pinchuk Art Center Eckhard Schneider said, “We also wanted to make sure that an older generation of artists helps the younger.” [NY Times]

There’s something a little scary about experiencing the best of something.  First, there are expectations you’re worried won’t be met, then you realize that you’ll doubtfully be satiated by anything less from that moment on, and finally it’s scary to think of how much work went into anything being that great – some start to feel inadequate.

Time to face your fears.  Renee Fleming is making a one-night-only appearance at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion and to make this even more of a pulse-quickening event, she’ll be signing copies of her new CD Verismo after the performance.  Fleming is, in case you haven’t thrown her name around in an opera conversation before, one of the most widely acclaimed and loved sopranos of recent memory.  In terms of international status, think Maria Callas without the notorious temper and in terms of voice, well, she’s not like anyone.

Saturday, December 12 at 7:30pm, lucky ticket holders will be treated to songs by Richard Strauss, Olivier Messiaen, Henri Dutileux’s Le temps l’horloge, which was written specifically for her, as well as selections from her latest CD.  It will be difficult to listen to anything less from December 13th on.

Luckily, Nathan Gunn is performing in LA Opera’s The Barber of Seville through December 19.  After that? We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.

Renee Fleming will perform on December 12, 2009 at 7:30pm at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.  For more information, please call (213) 972-8001 or click here.

Before you go, have a listen:

Opera lovers tend to fall in a number of different camps.  There are staunch Wagner lovers who sit for three hours just to get to “Leibestod,” the final aria from Tristan und Isolde.  There are those who swear by Puccini for life and who don’t speak Italian, but can say, “Yes, they call me Mimi, but my real name is Lucia” with a perfect accent. Everyone can agree, however, that love triangles, revenge plots, and small vials of poison will never go out of style – especially not at the opera.  We can also agree that opera singers all have this thrilling ability to steal you from your everyday and throw you into a world of daggers and betrothals.

Baroque composer extraordinaire George Handel’s Tamerlano is in good company. A three-act opera in Italian that follows the story of Bajazet, his daughter Asteria, the evil Emperor Tamerlano, love-struck Andronico, and the confused Irene; it’s more than just a love triangle.

LA Opera’s Tamerlano, which opens November 21, will feature General Director Placido Domingo in the role of Turkish Sultan Bajazet – the gallant father trying to prevent his daughter’s marriage to the malicious Tamerlano. Audiences will undoubtedly be listening for every note that leaves Placido’s famous lips – he has bridged the gap between famous opera singer and household name.  The title character will be played by countertenor Bejun Mehta who has performed at the Royal Opera House in London, the Opera National de Paris, and who marks his return to LA Opera with this role.  Asteria, played by Sarah Coburn, is a part that features some of opera’s most enticing, electric, and technically challenging singing.

While Bajazet sits in chains in Tamerlano’s court, the emperor devises a plan to marry Asteria – he asks Andronico (also in love with Asteria) to relay his message to Bajazet: give me your daughter’s hand in marriage in return for your freedom.  He sweetens the deal by promising his own fiancée, Irene, to Andronico for his trouble.  When Tamerlano reveals his scheme to Asteria, she is shocked and dismayed – mostly by Andronico’s seeming betrayal.  What follows is an operatic series of suicide notes, changes of mind and heart, and a healthy amount of poison.  Handel proves again that it’s not the Italian that can trip you up at the opera, it’s the story itself!

LA Opera’s Tamerlano runs November 21 through December 1.  We recommend getting your tickets early – Placido’s in this one, it will sell out!  Please call (213) 972-8001 or click here for more information.

Gaetano Donizetti’s The Elixir of Love makes light of the fact that sometimes love comes easier with a little liquid courage.  Known best for Lucia di Lamermoor, Donizetti was one of the most highly regarded bel canto opera composers.  Literally meaning “beautiful singing,” bel canto is a somewhat ambiguous term that refers to a style of singing developed in 18th century Italy.  Originally the term defined the coveted sound of a gorgeous vocalist singing a beautiful melody.  It then took on a more technical meaning that is widely accepted today, referring to those singers who are able to create smooth transitions and a balance of tone when shifting from one melody to the next.  With this in mind, LA Opera’s casting department deserves a gold star for their work in bringing together a collection of singers who, many making their LA Opera debut, would have made Donizetti proud.

An opera whose music and story are simple, witty, and beautiful, Elixir is a charming start to LA Opera’s 2009/2010 season.  Any operagoer intimidated by the Wagner-heavy season will find solace in this production – the sets and costumes are modest, but there is no lack of talent on stage.  Unlike those of Puccini and Verdi, none of Donizetti’s characters die for lack of love, nobody is exiled, and nobody drinks anything heavier than a bottle of wine, or should I say elixir. 

When Nemorino, played by Giuseppe Filianoti, sings Donizetti’s famed aria “Una Furtiva Lagrima,” you figure that any man who can sing like that shouldn’t need any elixir to make a woman fall for him.  Making his LA Opera debut, Filianoti is known for his bel canto technique and has performed Elixir with various opera companies throughout the world.  Popular (and handsome) American vocalist Nathan Gunn plays the arrogant ladies’ man Sergeant Belcore, but is appropriately upstaged by his rival Nemorino both vocally and within the narrative. 

Equal only to Filianoti is his love interest, Adina, who is played by yet another vocalist performing with LA Opera for the first time: Nino Machaidze.  Hailing from Georgia (the country, not the state), she’s made quite an opera world splash with debuts traversing the globe.  In the past year alone, she’s debuted at the Teatro Regio in Parma, the Teatre Royale de la Monnaie in Brussels, and will perform as Fiorilla in Il Turco in Italia at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna.

One character, essential to the story’s twists and turns (manageable though they are), is il Dottore Dulcamara.  A sincerely funny and conniving Giorgio Caoduro, who also makes his first appearance with LA Opera, plays Dulcamara, a traveling doctor who acts more like a salesman than a PhD.  He provides Nemorino with an “elixir” that will make him irresistible to women and to one in particular, Nemorino’s one and only – Adina.

Claiming to the hard working peasants that his “elixir” will cure any ill from clearing wrinkles to spicing up your love life, Dulcamara sells off as many bottles of Bordeaux as he and his assistant can carry.  After the opera, I took a page from his book and enjoyed a glass – just in case he was right!

LA Opera’s The Elixir of Love is playing at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion through September 30, 2009.   For more information, please call (213) 972-8001 or click here.  

Knowing how something is going to end can be a blessing and a curse.  On one hand, you’re watching a horror film and the person next to you says “she doesn’t know he’s hiding in the closet!”  Well, thank you.  Neither did I.  On the other hand, let’s say you’re reading a book about Marie Antoinette.  We all know how that ended, so it becomes more about the state of the country, the monarchy, the language, and French culture at that time rather than wondering if her head gets chopped off.  And so it is with Romeo and Juliet, being performed now at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion by the American Ballet Theatre.

Everyone knows the tragic romance of Romeo and Juliet and every generation has had their favorite incarnation – first Franco Zeffirelli’s classic film, then Baz Luhrmann’s stylized take.  Throughout the years, however, ballet companies around the world have been staging the piece and captivating hopeless romantic audiences.  Gracing the stage at the Music Center until tomorrow afternoon, American Ballet Theatre’s production is a traditional one and stays very true to the story ingrained in all of us. 

Like in any performance, there is that one spectacular scene that you wait for – in operas, there’s that particular aria and in Romeo and Juliet, you perk up a bit during the balcony scene.  ABT’s balcony scene does not disappoint.  On the contrary, it is danced in a way that makes you wish falling in love always looked like that.  It’s only too bad that all of us can’t get our arabesques that high.  Saturday’s matinee featured Cory Stearns as a confident, smiling Romeo opposite a girlish, lithe Juliet played by Hee Seo.  Stearns’ confidence convincingly shifts in the second act to become a charming lovelorn and when they marry, you almost wonder if you should applaud and throw rice.  The company’s dancing is beautiful and while not necessarily seamless, it’s memorable.   The scene in which Tybalt slays Mercutio sees the demise of one of the performance’s most dynamic dancers, played by Jared Matthews (on Saturday afternoon) who had engaged the audience with quick, easy jumps and a witty interaction with the other dancers on stage. 

When the orchestra begins to play the familiar chords of Sergei Prokofiev’s score, you begin to watch nostalgically almost on cue.  It’s the joy of knowing what’s going to happen – you start to watch for the dancing and the details.  For me, however, I always hope that some renegade has changed the ending and they live happily ever after.  But that only happens in the movies – sorry to ruin the ending!

ABT’s Romeo and Juliet is on now at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion at the Music Center.  Their performances end Sunday, July 19.  For more information, please call (213) 972-7211 or click here.