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Los Angeles Times
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Rufus Wainwright's U.S. premiere of ‘Dream Requiem,' L.A. Opera's ‘Ainadamar': a spirtual double bill
Osvaldo Golijov's beauteously strange 'Ainadamar' has reached Los Angeles. The opera, one of this century's most gratifying, portrays the 1936 political execution of the poet Federico Garcia Lorca during the Spanish Civil War through the final minutes of actress Margarita Xirgu's life. She dies as she is about to go onstage in the Lorca play 'Mariana Pineda,' about the heroine of an earlier Spanish revolution. Margarita's final minute on Earth lasts 90 flamenco-filled minutes in Golijov's one-act opera. Lorca's life — his spirit and loves and lust — is revealed in flashbacks, which L.A. Opera makes the most of in a flamboyant, dance-drenched production. But it is Margarita's pain we feel, her death we experience and her life we mourn. Lorca's death, then, becomes a borrowed experience. He is a spirit of history. Margarita's last act is to pass on that spirit to a young actress, Nuria, and in the process, to us. The saddest of operas, 'Ainadamar' is not a tragic opera, not an opera of open-and-shut endings, but one of open-ended endings. Life goes on. But what comes next? A movie-length production without intermission can feel about right for a modern audience. 'Ainadamar' satisfies on its own but nevertheless suggests there is something more to consider. The sheer force of Margarita's being asks to remain in our consciousness longer. She did remain a little longer. Following the Sunday matinee of 'Ainadamar' at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, the Los Angeles Master Chorale gave the U.S. premiere of Rufus Wainwright's new 'Dream Requiem,' which proved an ideal companion to 'Ainadamar.' Although Golijov is an introspective Argentine American composer who comes out of the classical music world, his works are infused with folk song and dance from Latin America, Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Wainwright is an introspective pop star with a noted folk song pedigree who also is an opera enthusiast and composer. At the pre-concert talk Sunday, Wainwright said hearing Verdi's Requiem as a 13-year-old changed his life. 'Ainadamar' and the 80-minute 'Dream Requiem' have poets at their core. Just as Lorca embodies Lorca, Wainwright threads recitations of Lord Byron's 1816 'Darkness,' throughout a score otherwise based on the traditional Latin requiem text. Each work is its own fountain of tears. Ainadamar is, in fact, the Arabic term for the Fountain of Tears, the site in Granada where Lorca was shot by a firing squad, presumably for political reasons as well as for being gay. In 'Dream Requiem,' we cry over the environment. Byron wrote 'Darkness' as a response to the 1815 Mt. Tambora volcano eruption in Indonesia, which clouded sunlight around the world for more than a year. The so-called 1816 'year without a summer' was also a time of revolt in Spain. Fifteen years later, the Spanish liberalist Mariana Pineda was executed. The three parts of 'Ainadamar' begin with the chorus singing a ballad to her. The magnificent performance of 'Dream Requiem' — conducted by Grant Gershon and featuring, along with the Master Chorale, the impressive Los Angeles Children's Chorus, an excellent large orchestra, the spectacular soprano Liv Redpath and a vehement Jane Fonda as the gripping narrator — proved a necessary complement to a more problematic performance of 'Ainadamar.' The opera has deep L.A. roots. A Los Angeles Philharmonic co-commission, the theatrically tentative first version of 'Ainadamar' survived on its instances of musical brilliance. Under the supervision of Peter Sellars, Golijov and librettist David Henry Hwang completely rewrote 'Ainadamar' for Santa Fe Opera in a sublimely moving production with gloriously grafitti-fied sets by L.A. artist Gronk. A musically promising but uncertain opera instantly turned into an essential classic for a new century. Long Beach Opera's tenuous local premiere of that version was followed by a powerful concert performance at the Ojai Music Festival with the Atlanta Symphony conducted by Robert Spano and starring Dawn Upshaw, the forces who made the work's celebrated recording. The L.A. Opera revival is a new production that has been making the rounds at Scottish Opera, Welsh National Opera, Detroit Opera and, last fall, New York's Metropolitan Opera. It's the work of Brazilian choreographer Deborah Colker, best known for creating the Cirque du Soleil touring show 'Ovo.' Colker treats 'Ainadamar' as another drama spectacle with dazzling imagery. The flamenco dancing, choreographed by Antonio Najarro, is exciting and the dancing terrific. Resplendent video projections by Tal Rosner appear on beaded curtains that surround a circular space in the middle of the stage where most of the action takes place. But all of this avoids the challenges of a magical realism where questions about the purpose of poetry, theater, political resistance, life and legacy are answerable only by dying. Golijov's score is also unanswerable, full of electronic effects, where the sound of gunshots beat out intricate dance rhythms. The three main characters are played by women: Margarita (Ana María Martínez), Nuria (Vanessa Becerra) and Lorca (Daniela Mack). All prove believable and their trio at the end is exquisite, even if with amplification and the dramatic limitations of the production they have limited presence. Alfredo Tejada makes a startling company debut as a ferociously frightening Ramón Ruiz Alonso, who arrests Lorca. The company's resident conductor, Lina González-Granados, thrives on forcefully emphasized dance rhythms. Less prominent were the opera's wondrous lyric moments or a sense of Golijov's inventive, multifaceted musical sources. Where the company makes up for that, though, is in its series of informative podcasts and program notes adding whatever context is lost in the staging. Like Golijov (and like Leonard Bernstein and Mahler), Wainwright is at heart a songwriter, and he had the advantage of Gershon conveying the luxuriant lyricism in 'Dream Requiem,' a work that at its heart also is operatic. He harks back to Verdi and the late 19th century but with his own unexpected turns of phrase. Like Golijov in 'Ainadamar,' Wainwright starts very quietly and slow-builds his musical architecture out of an array of materials and colors. He goes in for big effects, lots of percussion, huge climaxes and sweet melodies of which you can never, if so inclined, get enough. Wainwright bangs out the 'Dies Irae' (Day of Wrath) as almost all composers do in requiem masses, but he can be restrained where others tend to be loud and enthusiastic (Sanctus) and visa versa. He shows no mercy for the solo soprano part, but Redpath astounded as she scaled the heights. In the end, Wainwright has created a latter-day bardo, the spiritual journey that follows death. The interruptions from Byron's poem brought chills in Fonda's mesmerizing reading, as the text follows the breakdown of humanity in the aftermath of environmental catastrophe. She made it feel like a requiem warning for us all. Once is not enough for 'Dream Requiem.' A recording of the premiere in Paris last year has been released, but it doesn't hold a candle to the live performance by the Master Chorale in Disney. 'Dream Requiem' will be presented by several co-commissioners in Europe, as well as for the Royal Ballet in London. Who will dare to dream big and be the first to stage 'Dream Requiem' as a double bill with 'Ainadamar'?
Los Angeles Times
12-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Everything you need to know about ‘Carmina Burana,' Hollywood's go-to music for epic movie moments
This Sunday, the Los Angeles Master Chorale will fill the sails of Walt Disney Concert Hall with that stormy, earwormy cantata by Carl Orff: 'Carmina Burana.' The chorale will be joined by an orchestra and two children's choruses, and will also perform the world premiere of Reena Esmail's 'Jahaaṅ: Five Indian Folk Songs.' 'Carmina Burana' is a mainstay of the classical repertoire and one of the most widely recognizable concert works of the 20th century. But what exactly is it — and why do choirs keep returning to this 'circle of fortune'? Here is everything you need to know about 'Carmina Burana.' Where have I heard this before? Oh, maybe in millions of movie trailers during the last 40 years (an exaggeration but barely). The marriage of 'Carmina' and cinema arguably started in 1981 with the film 'Excalibur,' which indelibly used the opening movement 'O Fortuna' as King Arthur rides into battle with his knights. The medieval context was appropriate, but it also robustly demonstrated how damned epic and cinematic this old song was — and the entertainment world, which was beginning an arms race for epicness, started using 'O Fortuna' (the cantata's most famous movement, which bookends the hourlong work) in anything and everything as basically a shot of musical steroids. Oliver Stone needle-dropped it in 'The Doors,' in a scene where Jim Morrison drinks blood in a pagan ritual. (Ironically, the Doors' keyboard player, Ray Manzarek, did a bizarre rock cover of 'Carmina Burana' in 1983.) It was used in countless trailers in the '80s and '90s — from 'Glory' to 'Waterworld' to 'The Nutty Professor.' The latter was an example of how the overuse of this overwrought oratorio made it perfect fodder for parody, and the humor of juicing something comedic with its uber-seriousness. In that spirit, 'O Fortuna' was used in a huge variety of commercials — from Old Spice to Carlton Draught beer — not to mention multiple times in 'The Simpsons.' But many artists continued to take the piece seriously and deployed it to persuade us to take them super seriously. Michael Jackson used it in a montage of his international concerts and the hysteria they produced; rappers and hip-hop artists have sampled it — see: 'Hate Me Now' by Nas — and lots of sports teams have used it to hype up the home crowd. These days, you're most likely to hear 'O Fortuna' used ironically in a TikTok video. Who wrote it: when, where and why? Carl Orff composed 'Carmina Burana' in 1936, drawing upon a disparate collection of poetry and songs, mostly in Latin and mostly by anonymous writers. Dating as far back as the 11th century, these pieces had been discovered in a Bavarian monastery in 1803. The German composer, whose work often plumbed the ancient past, came across them in 1934. He was spellbound. 'Right when I opened it,' Orff reflected, 'on the very first page, I found the long-famous illustration of 'Fortune With the Wheel,' and under it the lines: 'O Fortuna velut Luna statu variabilis…' The picture and the words took hold of me. 'A stage work with choruses for singing and dancing, simply following the pictures and text, sprang to life immediately in my mind,' he said, and he feverishly produced a musical story in 25 chapters for massive choir, soloists and bombastic orchestras. Organized in three parts — 'Primo Vere' (Spring), 'In Taberna' (In the Tavern) and 'Cour d'Amours' (The Court of Love) — it is an alternately tempestuous, frolicking and romantic tour of life, musically recalling Bavarian folk music, drinking songs and love ballads, but all framed with the pounding war cries of 'O Fortuna.' How was it received when it premiered? It was a hit! The work was premiered by the Frankfurt Opera in June 1937, with costumed performers and sets. (It eventually morphed into a pure concert piece.) The reviews in Germany were good, and it was soon given hundreds of performances in Orff's homeland. It took two decades to reach America — premiering at Carnegie Hall in June 1954 — but it quickly seized hold in the classical scene here, very rapidly becoming the most performed, and most recorded, choral compositions of the century. Why was it controversial? Orff wrote the piece in Germany during the Nazi regime, and it was very popular with the Nazis — harmonizing uncomfortably well with their testosterone-fueled propaganda. Orff was never a member of the Nazi party himself, but it's unclear how cozy he was with the people who first embraced his cantata. Another reason is that, if you can translate Latin, some of the lyrics are quite bawdy and politically retrograde. (Example: 'My virginity makes me frisky / My simplicity holds me back.') So ... should I not bring my kids? To each their own, but musically speaking, 'Carmina Burana' is one of the more accessible and infectious concert works of the last century, and it has been a gateway drug for many generations into the larger ocean of classical music. Your kids may have even heard 'O Fortuna' somewhere already, and they'll probably tell you — happily — that it sounds like movie music. What has it influenced? Not only has 'O Fortuna' been used in tons of movies, but its influence is apparent in so many Hollywood film scores, which have routinely used beefy choirs and giant orchestras to approximate a similar feeling. Think of the devilish 'Ave Satani' in Jerry Goldsmith's 'The Omen' score or John Williams' 'Duel of the Fates' from 'The Phantom Menace.' Fun fact: When Stanley Kubrick was deciding on the musical approach for '2001: A Space Odyssey,' he gravitated toward 'Carmina Burana' so much that he actually rang Orff up and asked him to compose the film's score. Orff, then 71, turned him down.
Muscat Daily
03-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Muscat Daily
Here are the winners of Oscars 2025
Los Angeles, USA – The 97th Academy Awards were held this morning at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. Anora emerged as the biggest winner of the evening. Directed by Sean Baker, the film secured five Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Film Editing. Adrien Brody won Best Actor for his performance in The Brutalist , while Mikey Madison was awarded Best Actress for her role in Anora . Kieran Culkin took home Best Supporting Actor for his performance in A Real Pain , and Zoe Saldaña was named Best Supporting Actress for her role in Emilia Pérez , which also won Best Original Song. The award for Best Adapted Screenplay went to Conclave , while Flow was named Best Animated Feature. Meanwhile, I'm Still Here won the Oscar for Best International Feature. The ceremony, hosted by Conan O'Brien, paid tribute to the heroes and victims of the recent Los Angeles wildfires. The evening opened with a performance by Wicked 's Oscar-nominated stars, Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo. Additionally, Doja Cat, Lisa of Blackpink, and Raye performed a tribute to the music of the James Bond films, while the Los Angeles Master Chorale made a special appearance. India's only shortlisted entry, Anuja , which was nominated for Best Live Action Short Film, lost to I'm Not Robot . The film, backed by Priyanka Chopra and two-time Oscar-winner Guneet Monga, had raised hopes for an Indian win but ultimately fell short. The 97th Academy Awards showcased a broad range of cinematic talent, celebrating both emerging and established filmmakers.
CBS News
03-03-2025
- Entertainment
- CBS News
Who performed at the 2025 Oscars? Here's a look at the performances
The 2025 Academy Awards, the biggest night in Hollywood, celebrate the Oscar nominees for best movies and film performances of the past year — but for some fans, the music is a highlight. Traditionally, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has the best song nominees perform their songs, but in a rare move, this year it was announced that none of the five nominated songs would be performed at the show. Those potential performers would have included Elton John, Zoe Saldaña, Selena Gomez, H.E.R. and Diane Warren. Instead, the show's producers went in a different direction, saying that Sunday's show would be "celebrating the filmmaking community and some of its legends." Cynthia Erivo & Ariana Grande "Wicked" co-stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande opened the ceremony's broadcast with a moving medley from "The Wizard of Oz," "The Wiz" and their Oscar-nominated musical film. After a tribute to the city of Los Angeles, Grande kicked off the show with "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," from "The Wizard of Oz." Erivo followed by belting out "Home" from "The Wiz." They then joined forces for "Defying Gravity," the showstopper at the end of the first act of "Wicked." They were joined by the Los Angeles Master Chorale, who also performed in the In Memoriam segment. "Wicked" earned 10 nominations, including best actress and best supporting actress for Erivo and Grande. Erivo is a three-time Oscar nominee while Grande earned her first nomination for her role as Glinda. But they both ended up going home empty-handed. Tribute to James Bond franchise The Academy paid tribute to the iconic music of the "James Bond" franchise in honor of longtime producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson, who received Honorary Oscars at the past Governors Awards. Actress Margaret Qualley began the medley tribute by dancing to the iconic Bond theme before Blackpink's LISA sang Wings' "Live and Let Live," the theme from the 1973 film of the same name. Doja Cat then gave a glittery rendition of Shirley Bassey's "Diamonds Are Forever" from the 1971 film. RAYE completed the tribute with a cover of Adele's "Skyfall." Oscar winner Halle Berry, who starred as Jinx in 2002's "Die Another Day, introduced the tribute. Tribute to Quincy Jones Oscar nominee Queen Latifah took the stage for an energetic performance of "Ease on Down the Road" from "The Wiz" in honor of and tribute to the late Quincy Jones, who died in November at the age of 91. In Memoriam segment The Los Angeles Master Chorale joined the Academy Orchestra for a performance of Mozart's "Requiem" for the In Memoriam segment. Morgan Freeman introduced the segment with a special tribute to actor Gene Hackman, who was found dead at his home last week at the age of 95. "I had the pleasure of working with Gene on two films, 'Unforgiven' and 'Under Suspicion,' and like everyone who ever shared a scene with him, I learned he was a generous performer and a man whose gifts elevated everyone's work," Freeman said. The In Memoriam segment also honored other film legends who who died in the past year, including Maggie Smith, Gena Rowlands, Dabney Coleman, Bob Newhart, Kris Kristofferson, Teri Garr, Donald Sutherland, Louis Gossett Jr., Shelley Duvall, David Lynch and James Earl Jones. Full list of 2025 Oscars performances
Yahoo
03-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Freeman praises Gene Hackman, Goldberg and Winfrey give love to Quincy Jones in Oscars tributes
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Oscars brought a somber elegy for Gene Hackman and a joyful tribute to Quincy Jones on Sunday night. In a late addition to the ceremony, Morgan Freeman praised the two-time Oscar winner and his two-time co-star Hackman, five days after the actor and his wife were found dead in their New Mexico. 'This week our community lost a giant, and I lost a dear friend, Gene Hackman,' a solemn Freeman said. 'He received two Oscars and more importantly he won the hearts of film lovers all over the world.' See for yourself — The Yodel is the go-to source for daily news, entertainment and feel-good stories. By signing up, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy. Freeman concluded, 'Gene always said, 'I don't think about legacy. I just hope people remember me as someone who tried to do good work.' So I think I speak for us all when I say Gene, you will be remembered for that and for so much more. Rest in peace, my friend.' Freeman and Hackman co-starred in 2000's 'Under Suspicion' and in the 1992 Clint Eastwood Western 'Unforgiven' — the movie that earned Hackman his second Oscar. He won his first for 1971's 'The French Connection.' The 95-year-old Hackman, his wife Betsy Arakawa and their dog were found dead at their home in Santa Fe on Wednesday. The cause remains under investigation. The tone was very different as Oprah Winfrey and Whoopi Goldberg introduced a musical tribute to Jones, who died Nov. 3 at age 91. 'When one hears the name Quincy Jones, one's first thought is musical genius,' Winfrey said. 'But the man, our beloved Q, had an equally profound impact on the world of film, as a composer and producer.' Goldberg added, 'When we talk about black excellence, we're talking about Quincy.' They then introduced Queen Latifah, who gave a spirited gospel-style rave-up of 'Ease on Down the Road,' a song from 'The Wiz,' whose soundtrack Jones, a seven-time Oscar nominee, produced. The performance included dozens of dancers and backing vocals from the Los Angeles Master Chorale. Jones got a de facto tribute at the beginning of the show when Cynthia Erivo belted out 'Home' from 'The Wiz' in her opening medley with 'Wicked' castmate Ariana Grande. Winfrey and Goldberg were castmates in 1985's 'The Color Purple.' Jones was a producer of the Steven Spielberg-directed film and co-wrote the score. 'He actually discovered me for 'The Color Purple,' which was my first film,' Winfrey said. Two weeks after his death, Jones was bestowed his second honorary Oscar at November's Governors Awards. The Hackman segment was followed by the annual 'in memoriam' montage of film figures who died since the last Academy Awards. It included director David Lynch and actors Maggie Smith, Teri Garr, Joan Plowright, Donald Sutherland, Louis Gossett Jr., Shelley Duvall and James Earl Jones. Most of them were highlighted with brief clips amid the musical montage. 'I am a professional actress!' Garr said in hers, a scene from 'Tootsie.' ___ For full coverage of this year's Oscars, visit:
