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Los Angeles Times
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Fascism and a clown suit: L.A. Opera's gripping new ‘Rigoletto'
Though mean-spirited, the jester Rigoletto — Verdi's hapless, vengeful hunchback — wins our hearts as the outsider whom a heartless world so often abuses. 'Rigoletto' remains an opera reminding us where to direct our sympathies when authoritarianism remains the alternative. That is not as straightforward as it sounds. Los Angeles Opera has struggled with one insufficient 'Rigoletto' production after another, imported or homegrown. Singers and conductors have been counted on to save the show, and sometimes they have. Last time around, the most interesting contribution was, however scrappy, conductor Matthew Aucoin's idea-rich interpretation. This time, at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion on Saturday night, L.A. Opera unveiled a violent, politically disquieting production in which a tortured jester faces mob rule. If an out-of-control clown gives you the creeps, check out the crowd in cartoon masks meant to disguise evil. Tomer Zvulun, who heads Atlanta Opera, where this production got its start, begins his director's note in the program book with a quote from Alfred Hitchcock: 'There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it.' Baritone Quinn Kelsey's gripping 'Rigoletto,' as good as it gets these days, is all bang. The men of the L.A. Opera chorus are terror personified. This is the third time L.A. Opera has turned to cinema for help with 'Rigoletto,' on the surface a spellbinding drama. L.A. Opera in its advertisements likens it to film noir. For the company's first go with the opera in 1993, it approached Peter Medak, who unfortunately bowed out to make the thriller 'Romeo Is Bleeding.' Seven years later, L.A. Opera went Hollywood. Film director Bruce Beresford updated the ducal court of Mantua to present-day Beverly Hills and Venice Beach. But neither cast nor company were up to making it work. Zvulun, who turns to fascist Italy in the years before World War II, counts as his inspirations the films by Federico Fellini and Luis Buñuel. That doesn't do much either. Resources once more fall short. The turntable set, which evokes little of anything, was created for Wolf Trap Opera in Washington, D.C. The chorus' cruelty is fitting, but masks are by now a commonplace movie trope for evil. The Duke, a philanderer, has far less interest in mob rule than in chasing skirts. The party scenes with leggy dancers, meant to be decadent, are inoffensive. But there is violence. Knives are convincing. Zvulun introduces mayhem and murder. Two ghosts make appearances for goosebumps. The lighting (Robert Wierzel) is full-bore noir. The set is mostly dark with characters starkly spotlighted giving the impression of a black-and-white film. A storm scene, one of Verdi's great innovations, is so strongly revealed that it has no need for the added strobe effects. The lighting, in fact, is key. It highlights both the strength of the cast and some of the weaknesses of the production. Kelsey, who has spent a good deal of his career impressively singing the title role around the world, is here weighed down by his costume. Somehow among the elegantly dressed in fascist Italy society, there is this guy in a bright red clown outsider status as a hunchback is instead a costume that presumably serves as scarlet letter or Star of David. Still, the old-fashioned nature of this 'Rigoletto,' along with an excellent cast, saves it. So does James Conlon's conducting, which supplies humanity to Kelsey's fuming anger. It takes a lot to love Rigoletto, who keeps his daughter, Gilda, locked up, although she, of course, sneaks out and falls for the count. Kelsey may lack the warmth of some of the great Rigolettos of the past, but there may not have been any more powerful. The visceral energy of the anger of this guy in a clown suit is the stuff of nightmares. Rigoletto orchestrates his own downfall and Kelsey's horror at the end feels like the unleashing of a new breed of violence. Lisette Oropesa is back as Gilda. In the previous L.A. Opera production she began blandly only to be awakened by the raw meaning of love, singing very prettily all the while. She does so again, the blandness this time all the more superficial and ensuing depth equally greater, the prettiness richer and mattering more. She romanticizes her lover, the Duke disguised as a student, looking in her mirror while applying makeup, as though 'Caro Nome' were 'I Feel Pretty.' But her duets with Rigoletto are pregnant with emotion, and she is stunningly angelic in the end. As the Duke, René Barbera, a light and agreeably lyric tenor, goes his own way. He is overpowered by the chorus, oblivious to all but pleasure. There are many strong voices, notably Peixin Chen, the regal bass who plays the assassin Sparafucile, and Sarah Saturnino, a seductive mezzo-soprano who is his sister, Maddelena, who lures the Duke. This 'Rigoletto' closes Conlon's penultimate season as L.A. Opera music director. Seemingly born to conduct Verdi, Conlon can whip up as much dramatic excitement as anyone might need. But he has in recent years taken a more expansive approach to Verdi. His restraint and reserved pacing classes up some of the cheaper tricks of the production and, more important, gives perspective to it most powerful ones. Listening to the elegant orchestra, the clown suit didn't seem so bad. After 32 years of failed attempts, L.A. Opera has finally moved the 'Rigoletto' needle in the right direction.
Los Angeles Times
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
To capture the outlandish subject of Schoenberg in Hollywood, it takes an opera
There is a small and intriguingly personal sub-genre of operas about composers. Something is always up when one composer deals with another composer's life and music. Subjects have included Carlo Gesualdo, the 16th century madrigalist who murdered his wife and her lover. César Franck and others got a kick out of Alessandro Stradella, the Baroque opera composer who attempted to embezzle the Roman Catholic Church. Rimsky-Korsakov turned to Mozart and Salieri. In the fall, Los Angeles Opera will premiere Sarah Kirkland Snider's 'Hildegard,' about the Medieval mystic Hildegard of Bingen. In the meantime, UCLA presented the West Coast premiere Sunday of Tod Machover's 'Schoenberg in Hollywood' at the Nimoy Theater, with performances through Thursday. Machover, who directs the Opera of the Future group at MIT's Media Lab, says he was drawn to the idea after he learned about the remarkable 1935 meeting of Schoenberg and MGM producer Irving Thalberg about scoring 'The Good Earth.' The uncompromising German inventor of the 12-tone system had just fled Nazi Germany, and the meeting became a battle of high art and entertainment. Schoenberg and the movies ultimately went in their independent directions, but the composer did become deeply integrated in L.A. culture, living across the street in Brentwood from Shirley Temple, teaching at USC and UCLA, playing tennis with George Gershwin (whom he adored), feuding with neighbor Thomas Mann (who opposed Schoenberg's innovations) and hanging out with the Marx Brothers and Charlie Chaplin. Machover's opera begins and ends with Thalberg as a framing devise. The 90-minute opera is basically a phantasmagoria of how Schoenberg got here. The superb libretto by Simon Robson (based on a scenario by Braham Murray) is a clever series of short flashbacks of Schoenberg's life, with film accompaniment. Some are realistic, some fanciful. The three characters are Schoenberg, Boy and Girl. Boy and Girl represent all the characters in Schoenberg's life with many a virtuosic costume change. We witness Schoenberg, who was born 150 years ago, starting out as a cellist and self-taught progressive composer in his native Vienna and Berlin. He flees the Nazis and, via Paris, Boston and New York, finally settles in Los Angeles in 1934, where he remains for the rest of his life. Moving scenes reveal his personal life and its connections with his music, but as he reaches the New World wacky ones begin to creep in. He becomes Groucho and SuperJew. The films, which are cued as though musical elements, run the gamut of cinematic styles and periods. They include historic documentary scenes, modern enactments, cartoons and graphics. Machover's score for 15 instruments is its own complex delirium. An impossible composer to pin down, Machover has written a traditional grand opera such as 'Resurrection,' based on Tolstoy's novel, and 'Brain Opera,' which is just that, using electrodes on your noggin. A trained cellist, he's comfortable with acoustic instruments but also can't wait to get his hands on whatever crazy invention the Media Lab's irrepressible tech visionaries come up with next. Musically and dramatically, 'Schoenberg in Hollywood' has Schoenbergian denseness along with new-world electronics. Machover is particularly effective in evoking both the trauma and the exhilaration in Schoenberg's spiritual progress as he reinvents himself after horrors of World War I, in which he fought, and again when confronted with new horrors of World War II. The commanding performance by the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music ensemble, conducted by Neal Stulberg, makes the high/low dichotomy irrelevant, leading us to a profound middle ground. Choreographer Karole Armitage, who bases the Nimoy production on the original one she created for Boston Lyric, operates, however, on extremes. Schoenberg comes across as either self-knowing prophet or goofball. Whimsy and wit become silly. Marx Brothers, Wild West and SuperJew stagings are saved only by the music. Omar Ebrahim's imposing and magnificently sung Schoenberg is well-suited for visionary gravitas, less so for slapstick. Anna Davidson and Jon Lee Keenan, as Girl and Boy, turn on a dime. They move with dancers' ease, allowing Armitage to create a sense of flow in the episodic opera. They can do silly, but also a lot more. Davidson was particularly gripping as Schoenberg's first wife, Mathilde. In some ways, Armitage seemed to be compensating for the small, bare Nimoy stage. Schoenberg no doubt attended movies in what is now the Nimoy, which was a movie theater until its recent renovation as a performing space for UCLA. It is an intimate space, which meant that Armitage had to do without decor, and which may have led her to overemphasize theatrics. Amplification added a complication. The sound stage was too loud for vocal subtleties and too flat for careful instrumental and electronic music balance. Still, Schoenberg would not be Schoenberg without obstacles to have triumphantly overcome. He changed music in Vienna and Berlin. He thrived in L.A. as composer, teacher and inspiration, fitting in as he needed to. He remained true to his (12-tone) school but also, when it pleased him, went rogue. Schoenberg even wrote a terrific MGM-style Hollywood Bowl fanfare that for no good reason never gets played. Could 'Schoenberg in Hollywood' be a wake-up call? Shockingly, Schoenberg remains starless on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Los Angeles Times
12-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
L.A. Opera's silly ‘Così fan Tutte' saved by the singing
Absurdly improbable, shockingly cynical, Mozart's 'Così fan Tutte' is populated by downright stupid and manipulative characters. It is also flooded with Mozartian beauty that offers the depth of thought and feeling of the first modern opera. Critic Edward Said spoke of the opera's elimination of memory from the past and from loyalties so that 'only the present is left standing.' James Conlon, the conductor of the production that opened at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion on Saturday night, proposes on the Los Angeles Opera podcast that 'Così' is not a spiritual Mozart opera but a relevant materialist one. The production by the late director Michael Cavanagh, which comes courtesy of San Francisco Opera, is indeed materialistic. Set at a posh East Coast country club in the late 1930s, the staging is not of the moment or even particularly of that moment. L.A.'s history with 'Così' includes two previous potent productions beginning with Nicholas Hytner's in 1988, a highlight of the company's third season. Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic mounted a stunningly complex production in Walt Disney Concert Hall in 2014. When it comes to materialism, nothing quite beats a 1990 production by Cal State Long Beach given in the Queen's Salon of the Queen Mary. Mozart and his librettist, Lorenzo Da Ponte, meant to make us squirm as they uncover our insecurities and the faults in our materialistic facades. Inanely virtuous sisters are engaged to a pair of unrelated, inanely cocky bros. Their infatuations are challenged by a cunning philosopher who persuades the bros to pretend they've been suddenly drafted and to return later in disguise to woo each other's fiancée. The philosopher Don Alfonso wins the bet because, as we are all supposed to know, così fan tutte, women are like that. But Don Alfonso's experiment ultimately illustrates the more radically disquieting truth to a misogynistic 18th century society for whom the opera was written: We are all like that. What makes 'Così' modern is that it underscores just how quickly and radically things can change in a flash. We think we're more enlightened than the Age of Enlightenment — yet look around you. Whom or what can you trust? The challenge of any production of 'Così' is to find the core depth in the vapid lovers, beyond the unbelievable naivete and disguises. For that, Mozart's music becomes the road map for unlocking feelings and for facing the nature of our being. This is not wisdom but an acceptance of human nature that can lead to a transcendence from materialism. The radicalism is that neither composer nor librettist reveals that this actually works. Do the lovers change partners or not? Have they what it takes for a lasting relationship? The jokey San Francisco production, as staged by Shawna Lucey for L.A. Opera following Cavanagh's death a year ago, takes an extreme path. The characters are so farcical in their outlandish country club get-ups that they hardly seem agents for a 'troubling study in power and agency' that the directors suggest in their program note. These are not the magnificent Hollywood of 1930s cinema but silly people doing silly things for laughs with exaggerated reactions more typical of the previous silent movie decade. The silly people, in this case, happen to be fine singers. Conlon supplies grace and, yes, a glowing spirituality, in the orchestra. The hapless loves do awaken some 2 1/2 hours into a 3 1/2-hour performance, becoming more serious, if not that much less superficial. The set (by Erhard Rom) has just enough elegance to it that when the opera begins after the overture, Fiordiligi and Dorabella both have a little trouble settling in musically. Once they do and once we get over their intentionally unflattering costumes (by Constance Hoffman), they are terrific. Mozart takes his time distinguishing the two, who musically mirror each other, but eventually soprano Erica Petrocelli finds a searing intensity as Fiordiligi, while the honeyed mezzo-soprano Rihab Chaieb displays a hint of welcome larceny as Dorabella. Both become as real as costumes and direction permit. Once tenor Anthony León's feisty Ferrando and baritone Justin Austin' s convivial Guglielmo get past spraying the stage with adrenaline, taking even longer than their fiancées for the essence of the hoax to get through their thick skulls, they too come around to a point. The men test the women, but it is they who are the ones to be less trusted. Don Alfonso and Despina are two superior 'Così' veterans. Rod Gilfry, once a spirited Guglielmo in the company's production more than 30 years ago and a stylishly devilish Don Aflonso in the L.A. Phil production, is here a creepy hotel manager with little sense of purpose. Ana Maria Martínez, an alluring no-nonsense Fiordiligi at 2006 Salzburg Festival, hangs on to some of that allure despite Despina's heavy-handed antics. The L.A. Opera 'Così' is dedicated to a beloved founding board member, Alice Coulombe, whose husband founded Trader Joe's. It might also be dedicated to Robert Fitzpatrick. Fitzpatrick, who died in September, inspired Coulombe and her cohorts to found Music Center Opera, which became L.A. Opera. As head of the 1984 Olympic Arts Festival, Fitzpatrick cruised L.A. in his BMW with 'Così' playing day and night, saying that if he were killed in a crash, that was the last music he wanted to hear. 'Così' blasted in the background while he was on an early portable phone making arrangements to bring London's Royal Opera to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, which directly led to the creation of a local company at last. 'Così' will forever be in the DNA of L.A. Opera. You may need a microscope to see it in this maladroit production, but you hear it wonderfully. In the elimination of memory, the ears are the last to go.
Los Angeles Times
10-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
On the fifth anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic, what have we learned?: L.A. Arts and Culture this week
Today is March 10. Five years ago (on March 12, 2020, to be exact) news hit that the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Los Angeles Opera and Center Theatre Group were canceling performances in response to COVID-19. I remember that day well. I was already working from home and I sat at a makeshift desk in my kitchen as a wave of press releases hit my inbox, each alerting me to another cancellation. The world was shutting down around me, but I had no idea what was coming. In the year that followed, I kept a daily journal of what it was like to raise my 4-year-old daughter in pandemic isolation. I recently came across this letter I wrote to her as Christmas approached. I am sharing it here as a reminder that although the pandemic narrative has calcified around all the things we did wrong, there was nothing incorrect about our instinct to protect others, including those we love. For the record: 8:01 a.m. March 10, 2025Friday's Essential Arts said the Broadway show 'Hell's Kitchen' won last year's Tony Award for best musical. 'The Outsiders,' based on S.E. Hinton's novel, was the winner. Dear Henri Boo, You tried to play Twister alone last week, and I hit a breaking point. It might have been the most soul-crushing moment of the pandemic — an image summing up all the loss, pain, heartache and anxiety of the year: You in your blue-and white unicorn pajamas struggling to put your right hand on yellow, while your left foot was on blue, and then having no idea how you would flick the spinner to decide your next move. You collapsed in tears onto the floor next to the Christmas tree, the cheap plastic game board wrinkling beneath your small, shaking body. The endeavor was doomed to failure from the moment you took the game out of the cabinet, and I should never have let you do it. But I did anyway — just trying to buy a bit more time for myself on the computer — typing away at a sad story, and doom scrolling the latest death toll and infection rates in the states where people I love live. Things are bad, Henri Boo. So bad. I can't explain it to you. But you feel it somehow, even though you don't understand what it means. The mood in the house. The sorrow. The quiet terror at a world that appears to be sifting to dust. There are more than 315,000 Americans dead at this point, and the hospitals in L.A. County have reached a nadir of 0% capacity. A colleague of mine at the L.A. Times just wrote a story about a woman who died in the ER after waiting 12 hours to be seen. Public health officials say 1 in 80 people in L.A. County is actively infected. There is a viral wildfire outside these walls. So we wait inside, wondering how much worse it will get before it gets better. We are lucky, though. The house is warm, and we had a Christmas tree delivered. A beautiful bushy tree that leans to the left under the weight of the old aluminum foil star that your father made for our first Christmas together. I would have taken you to see Santa, except Santas are sitting behind plexiglass this year, and like many COVID-era substitute experiences, this is not one I want for either one of us. So we will forgo the tradition. I am edgy and impatient. You need attention all the time. You are desperate for it. You are bone tired of playing alone. You want to play 'family' often. Cat family and bunny family are your favorites. You also like to play a game called 'Cheetah Cuddle,' in which we are cheetah sisters and we cuddle. 'Sister, sister,' you say with your sweet little lisp. 'Your fur is so soft.' You stroke my back and cuddle into me. I tell you your fur is soft too, and that I like your spots. One day this will be over, Boo. I promise you that a lot. I tell you that things will be 'normal' again, even though I know we will be forever altered. The wounds inside me are raw and bleeding. They will scab over, and one day they will heal. But the scars on my soul will remain. Two vaccines have been approved, and more than 100,000 health care workers, including your cousin Alyssa, have been vaccinated. This is good news. People say it is the beginning of the end of the pandemic. But as many as 200,000 more people could die in America before the bulk of us get a shot. I tried to explain the vaccine to you the other day. I told you it was going to change our situation, that it was going to make things better. Daddy listened to me struggle with my words. 'How do you describe a vaccine to a 4-year-old?' he asked. I'm not sure I did it well, but I somehow did it. You listened closely. You seemed thoughtful, looking at me intently with your clear, blue eyes. You asked if you would get a lollipop after you got the shot. I said you would, but I knew you wouldn't. I love you my sweet girl, my darling daughter, my cheetah sister, Mama I'm arts and culture writer Jessica Gelt thinking about all the people we lost during the pandemic and hoping we have learned enough to not let such a thing happen again. Ashley Lee and I have your arts news rundown for the week. 'Here There Are Blueberries'Moisés Kaufman's documentary play centers on a set of photographs, sent to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2007, that captured the daily lives of Auschwitz concentration camp workers. 'When I first saw the Tectonic Theatre Project production at La Jolla Playhouse in 2022, I was unprepared for the quiet devastation of this contemplative drama,' wrote Times theater critic Charles McNulty earlier this year. 'A Pulitzer Prize finalist, the play examines the Holocaust from the vantage of the perpetrators, training an objective eye on those who carried out the unimaginable. It dares to look at how humanity could so profoundly betray itself. The result is documentary theater at its most harrowing — and essential.' Performances start Thursday and run through March 30. The Wallis, 9390 N. Santa Monica Blvd., Beverly Hills. L.A. Omnibus: Tren Al SurTo all my fellow Carolina A. Miranda fans: The beloved former Times columnist will be in conversation with L.A. Omnibus series curator Raquel Gutierrez, discussing all things art, culture and movement in L.A. At the event, both writers will also read from their respective works-in-progress memoirs; the evening also includes musical performances by Rubén Martínez, Júan Pérez and Marco Amador. 8 p.m., Thursday. UCLA Nimoy Theater, 1262 Westwood Blvd., Westwood. Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra'Theirs is not a sound but a sensitivity to sound and a standard,' wrote Times classical music critic Mark Swed of the Austrian ensemble when they were last in Southern California more than 10 years ago. 'It's a way of players blending with other players that may be integral to Viennese culture but that also transcends race, gender and nationality.' The orchestra, who had a sold-out event Sunday, is putting on a second concert, with Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducting Schubert's 'Tragic' symphony and Dvorák's 'From the New World' symphony. 8 p.m. Tuesday. Segerstrom Center for the Arts, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. — Ashley Lee TUESDAYGhosts of Segregation Photographer Richard Frishman chronicles the residue of segregation, slavery and institutional racism that remains visible in American architecture. 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesday-Wednesday, Friday-Saturday; 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Sunday, through March 29. Laband Art Gallery, Loyola Marymount University, 1 LMU Drive, Westchester. David Hammons A reprise of the artist's acclaimed installation work 'Concerto in Black and Blue' is shown for the first time in 20 years.11 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesdays-Sundays, through 1 June. Hauser & Wirth, 901 E. 3rd St., downtown L.A. Michael Kohn Gallery MKG marks its 40th anniversary with an exhibition featuring work by Keith Haring, Chiffon Thomas, Alicia Adamerovich, Martha Alf and others, plus the restoration of Bruce Conner's 1967 documentary short 'The White Rose.'1227 N. Highland Ave., 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday-Friday; 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday, through April 19. Holly Lowen The artist's solo exhibition, 'Entanglement,' explores the complexities of human and animal March 30. Visit by appointment. Hill House, Pasadena. (323) 389-5315. WEDNESDAYLizzo The classically trained flutist turned Grammy-winning hip-hop star plays a smaller-scale theater show.8 p.m. The Wiltern, 3790 Wilshire Blvd. THURSDAYAmerican Ballet Theatre Studio Company The troupe of rising stars performs works including 'Interplay' by Jerome Robbins, 'Tarantella' by George Balanchine and the Black Swan pas de deux from 'Swan Lake.'7:30 p.m. Lisa Smith Wengler Center for the Arts, Smothers Theatre, Pepperdine University, 24255 Pacific Coast Hwy., Malibu. Anora This year's Academy Award winner for best picture gets a four-day run in 35 mm at one of the theaters owned by Quentin Tarantino, who presented Sean Baker his directing Oscar last week. 7:30 p.m. Thursday; 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday; 6:30 p.m. March 16. New Beverly Cinema, 7165 Beverly Blvd. Branford Marsalis Quartet The Grammy-winning saxophonist and composer and his group tour ahead of the release of their Blue Note Records debut, 'Belonging,' an interpretation of Keith Jarrett's 1974 jazz album of the same name.7:30 p.m. Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts, 18000 Park Plaza Drive Midori The Japanese violinist and her longtime recital partner, Özgür Aydin, perform selections from Brahms, Poulenc and Ravel.8 p.m. Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. Schlitzie: Alive and Inside The true story of the misunderstood sideshow performer who appeared in the 1932 film 'Freaks' and found a family with other marginalized and disabled artists comes to life.8 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays; 7 p.m. Sundays; through March 30. Heritage Square Museum, 3800 Homer St. Step + Repeat An exhibition of 46 Southern California artists inspired by I the historical Pattern and Decoration movement of the mid-1970s.1-4 p.m. Sunday, for public reception. 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays; through May 18. Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, Barnsdall Park 4800 Hollywood Blvd., Tren Al Sur L.A. Times (and Essential Arts newsletter) alum Carolina Miranda and writer Raquel Gutierrez discuss art, culture and movement in Los Angeles, and read from their respective works-in-progress memoirs; with musical performance by Rubén Martínez, Júan Pérez and Marco Amador.8 p.m. UCLA Nimoy Theater, 1262 Westwood Blvd. With Christian nationalism on the rise in Washington D.C., Times art critic Christopher Knight explains the history behind a statue called 'The Puritan,' by the American Beaux-Arts sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens of a pious leader named Deacon Samuel Chapin. Chapin arrived in America in the 1600s and happens to be Knight's ancestor. In his column, Knight discusses how the Puritans' move to mix religion and politics failed spectacularly — and speculates that a similar fate might await the current administration if it continues its strident faith-based trajectory. The first Los Angeles museum survey of French Impressionist painter Gustave Caillebotte's work in nearly 30 years is on view at the J. Paul Getty Museum. Titled 'Gustave Caillebotte: Painting Men,' the exhibit uses more than 60 paintings and dozens of drawings and studies to examine the artists relationship with the male identity. Unlike many of his peers, including Manet, Degas, Morisot, Monet, Renoir, Cassatt — who put plenty of focus on female subjects — 'it's raining men' in Caillebotte's paintings, writes Knight in his review. Suzan Lori-Parks' play 'Topdog/Underdog' won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize, making Parks the first Black woman to receive the award for drama. The play also landed her on Broadway. Since then, 'Topdog/Underdog' has remained a beloved work with a panel of New York Times critics ranking it No. 1 on a 2018 list of 25 great works of American drama since Tony Kushner's 'Angels in America.' Unfortunately, a new revival directed by directed by Gregg T. Daniel at Pasadena Playhouse does not rise to the level of greatness achievable by the script, Times theater critic Charles McNulty writes in his review. Los Angeles Philharmonic announced the final season for its beloved music and artistic director Gustavo Dudamel, who, after 17 years will move on to helm the New York Philharmonic. Called 'Gracias Gustavo' the offerings including the second Wagner 'Ring' opera, 'Die Walküre,' with sets by friend and collaborator Frank Gehry. The Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle, composed of professional theater critics and journalists, announced its 2024 season award finalists. The best production category includes a list of favorites, including Center Theatre Group's 'A Strange Loop' at the Ahmanson Theatre; 'Fat Ham' at the Geffen Playhouse; 'Company' at the Hollywood Pantages Theatre; 'Crevasse,' a co-production of Victory Theatre Center and Son of Semele; 'Dido of Idaho' at Echo Theater Company; 'Funny Girl' at the Ahmanson and Segerstrom Hall; and 'Reefer Madness: The Musical' at The Whitley. The Marciano Art Foundation has extended Doug Aitken's 'Lightscape' installation through May. It was originally scheduled to close on March 15. Free weekly dance and music programming is also being expanded, including performances by Suzanne Ciani, Beck with La Lom , Carlos Niño, LA Dance Project, Konkrete and LA Master Chorale. — Jessica Gelt At the end of the day, says this dude under an umbrella (who also happens to be a producer), theater is a business.
Associated Press
12-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Associated Press
LA Opera drops Missy Mazzoli's `Lincoln in the Bardo,' which will premiere New York's Met
The Los Angeles Opera dropped a contemplated world premiere for the second straight season in a cost-cutting move, and Missy Mazzoli's 'Lincoln in the Bardo' will instead open at New York's Metropolitan Opera. Adapted from George Saunders' 2017 novel and with a libretto by Royce Vavrek, 'Lincoln' was to debut in Los Angeles in February 2026, Saunders said last October. But it was not included when the LA Opera announced its 2025-26 season on Tuesday, 'With rising expenses, it's harder for us to manage the manifestation of all of our potential dreams,' LA Opera president Christopher Koelsch said. 'It's a wonderful project and I think it will be very impactful when it gets to the Met. What Missy and Royce have done in adapting something that is essentially unadaptable is really miraculous, a very beautiful and very moving piece.' Saunders' novel, about the death of President Abraham Lincoln's son William Wallace Lincoln, takes place between life and rebirth. Mason Bates' 'The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay' was to have premiered in LA last October but was left off the schedule and instead given a test run with a student cast at Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music in November. It is planned to open the Met's 2025-26 season on Sept. 21. The Met announced it 2018 it had commissioned 'Lincoln' and by 2023 said the work would be seen first in LA. It will now debut in October 2026 at the Met. Koelsch, managing his company's return following the coronavirus pandemic, said he had never fully committed to 'Lincoln' and decided last fall LA couldn't afford it. Revenue was $46.8 million in 2023-24, up from $40.8 million in 2022-23 but down from $47.1 million in 2021-22. 'Expense and income ratios for the next season were coming more into focus,' he said. Met general manager Peter Gelb said an additional workshop of 'Lincoln' will be scheduled to make up for the loss of the LA dates. It will be the Met's 32nd world premiere. LA Opera's 2025 productions James Conlon will conduct three of LA's five main stage productions at Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in his final season as music director, ending a 20-year run. He leads Francesca Zambello's staging of Bernstein's 'West Side Story,' first seen at the Houston Grand Opera in 2018, to open the season on Sept. 20. Conlon then conducts a revival of Lee Blakeley's 2013 staging of Verdi's 'Falstaff' starting April 18, 2026, and Barrie Kosky's 2012 staging of Mozart's 'Die Zauberflöte' from Berlin's Komische Oper opening May 30. The season also includes revivals of Herbert Ross' 1993 staging of Puccini's 'La Bohème' and Philip Glass' 'Akhnaten' in a Phelim McDermott production first seen at the English National Opera in 2016. 'A victory lap for James,' Koelsch said. 'He has been music director for over half of the organization's history. The musical priorities of the company and its musical maturity and the sound of the orchestra and chorus are a creation of his expertise and imagination.' The five main-stage productions match 2024-25, down from six in the prior two seasons and a high of 10 in 2006-07. LA will present two world premieres at smaller venues: Sarah Kirkland Snider's 'Hildegard,' based the writings of Benedictine abbess Hildegard of Bingen, at The Wallis in Beverly Hills from Nov. 5-9, and Carla Lucero's 'The Tower of Babel,' a new community opera that Conlon will conduct at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels on May 8 and 9. Koelsch hopes to hire Conlon's successor ahead of the 2026-27 season.
