Photos from opening night of “The Marriage of Figaro” at Walt Disney Concert Hall

May 18, 2013 Leave a comment

Figaro and Don Curzio (Act 2)

Last night, I had the good fortune to be able to attend the first performance of the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s fully staged production of The Marriage of Figaro.

It was, in a word, glorious.

My full review will be posted in the next day or so.  In the meantime, please enjoy the hi-res photo gallery below from opening night (credit: Craig T. Mathew & Greg Grudt/Mathew Imaging).

UPDATE:  Additional images added from the dress rehearsal (taken by Genaro Molina for the Los Angeles Times) and design images courtesy of the Atelier Jean Nouvel and Azzedine Alaïa.

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Live tweeting from tonight’s final dress rehearsal of LA Opera’s “Tosca”

May 16, 2013 Leave a comment

Tosca (LA Opera)

Los Angeles Opera’s final production of the year, Puccini’s Tosca, opens this Saturday.  Sondra Radvanovsky sings the title role, joined by Marco Berti as Cavaradossi and Lado Ataneli as uber-villain, Scarpia.  Plácido Domingo, LA Opera’s own resident impressario-cum-tenor-cum-baritone-cum-conductor, wields the baton for all performances but one.

The final dress rehearsal will be tonight, and once again, I’ll be commenting on the action live — 140 characters at a time.  Participating in the craziness for the first time will be violinist, blogger, and friend of All is Yar:  Fiona Bryan, AKA @banteringblonde.

I invite you to follow along with the collective banter at “#LAOTosca” or simply click HERE to be taken directly there.   It all starts around 7:15 Pacific Daylight  Time.  Hope that you’ll join us.

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Andris Nelsons new BSO Music Director; initial press release tantalizingly incomplete

May 16, 2013 1 Comment

Andris Nelsons (photo by Marco Borggreve)The big buzz this morning is the Boston Symphony’s long-awaited announcement as to who will fill their Music Director’s chair that has been vacant since James Levine officially stepped down in 2011 (though health problems kept Mr. Levine away from the podium long before that).

The choice:  Andris Nelsons, the 34-year old Latvian maestro who has been Music Director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra since 2008.

The BSO’s initial press release, along with reports based on it in the Boston Globe and The New York Times, contain the following salient facts:

  • Mr. Nelsons becomes Music Director Designate beginning in the 2013-2014 season, “making his first appearance in that official capacity October 17-19, leading Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll, Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 25 in C, with soloist Paul Lewis, and Brahms’s Symphony No. 3; he returns to the BSO podium on March 6, 2014 to lead a performance of Strauss’s Salome.”
  • Prior to that, he will conduct the BSO in Symphony Hall in late June of this year (program TBA), and will return to the orchestra over the summer to conduct the Verdi Requiem at Tanglewood
  • He will be the third youngest Music Director in the BSO’s history.  Only Georg Henschel (31 years old in 1881) and Arthur Nikisch (33 years old in 1889) were younger when they began their respective tenures.

All good info; however, there are some important bits missing from this release.  The first three that come to mind:

  • When will Mr. Nelsons’ official tenure as Music Director (not just Designate) begin?
  • How long is his initial contract for?
  • How many weeks of concerts will he conduct that first season?

This is non-trivial stuff.  I’m guessing/hoping more details will be released later today.  Thankfully, Mr. Nelsons’ own website answers one of the questions:

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Mahler 5 on a blade of grass. Really.

May 15, 2013 Leave a comment

Steve DumaineThe video gem below comes care of Steve Dumaine, Principal Tuba of the National Symphony. Here, he shows his range — not only giving his high-end chops a workout by playing a well-known piece outside of the standard tuba repertoire, but also doing it on a rather atypical instrument.

Random other thoughts:

  • I like this video so much that I was willing to set aside my usual disdain for videos filmed in portrait mode.  (Really people, every video screen you watch — TVs, laptops monitors, etc. — is set up in landscape, so please hold your phone that way when you make your next film epic.  Or if you can keep your cinematic opus to just 6 seconds, use Vine, since it uses that social-media-friendly square format).

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Boston’s Handel and Haydn Society brings one of their namesake’s oratorios out of obscurity

May 9, 2013 Leave a comment

Handel and Haydn Society

Quick, name a Handel oratorio besides Messiah. . . . Not that easy, is it?

They aren’t exactly common fare, and I’m willing to bet that few of you would have come up with Jephtha, especially if Harry Christophers and the good folks at the Handel and Haydn Society  (aka “H&H”) hadn’t decided to resurrect it and bring it with them on their first California tour since 1996.  The Bostonian performing arts organization had given its U.S. premiere way back in 1855, but haven’t taken it off the shelf since 1867.

Given H&H’s pedigree with this rarity, I made my way to Walt Disney Concert Hall to see what they’d do with it and whether this late Handel work deserved to be kept in the dark as much as it has been.  Despite an excellent effort by the whole crew under Mr. Christophers’ impressive leadership, I understand why Jephtha isn’t lighting up concert stages on a more regular basis.

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Burt Hara wins LA Phil Associate Principal Clarinet chair

May 3, 2013 4 Comments

Burt Hara (photo by Nate Ryan)The first time the Los Angeles Philharmonic held auditions to fill its Associate Principal Clarinet chair, no one was hired.  During the past week, they tried again, and this time it looks like they  made an offer — and it’s a doozy.  No official word from the orchestra, but according to numerous sources, Burt Hara, Southern California native and current Principal Clarinet of the Minnesota Orchestra (MO), will be taking the job.  (Ralph Skiano, Principal with the Richmond Symphony, was the runner-up)

This is a huge coup for the LA Phil.  Mr. Hara is one of the leading clarinetists anywhere.  In addition to having held his position in Minnesota since 1987, he spent the 1996-97 season as Principal with the Philadelphia Orchestra and played some noteworthy concerts with the New York Philharmonic in 2010.

Unfortunately, this also happens to be a huge loss for the MO.  Mr. Hara has been one of the undeniable stars of that orchestra.  Just last week, he was the featured soloist in the Mozart clarinet concerto during a special concert being given by the musicians of the orchestra (a self-organized gig in the ongoing wake of their misbegotten lockout by the MO’s management).   Larry Fuchsberg, writing for the Minneapolis Star Tribune, described his playing this way:  ”Hara, at once soloistic and self-effacing, made it look easy. His was marvelously centered playing, unembellished but by no means plain.”

That Mr. Hara would be willing to take what most would consider to be a step down (from Principal in one major orchestra to Associate Principal in another) points to just how big a cluster-f*** the situation with the MO has become.  According to the most recent offer from the MO’s management, principals in that orchestra would have to take a 50% slash in their salary — and there is no indication that the MO’s musicians will agree to such a drastic cut. As a member of the musician’s negotiating committee, Mr. Hara has had a front-row seat to all that nonsense.   This past October, he seemed resigned to the situation and foreshadowed his departure:

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Questions and Answers with Harry Christophers, Artistic Director of the Handel and Haydn Society

April 26, 2013 1 Comment

Harry Christophers (photo by Stu Rosner)The New York Philharmonic is frequently called the country’s oldest orchestra . . . but it isn’t the country’s oldest continuously operating performing arts organization.  The Handel and Haydn Society, Boston’s period instrument orchestra and chorus, was founded in 1815 — beating out the NY Phil by almost 30 years.  Just to put that into proper perspective:  James Madison, our nation’s fourth President, was still in office that year.

Since then, the “H&H” (as they are often called) has served up a number of important U.S. premieres, including Handel’s Messiah (1818), Haydn’s The Creation (1819), Verdi’s Requiem (1878), and Bach’s St. Matthew Passion (1879).

The H&H also happened to give the first American performance of Handel’s Jephtha way back in 1855.  Harry Christophers — H&H Artistic Director since 2009 — presents Jephtha in Boston twice next week, but not before taking the rarely performed Handel oratorio on the road to California. There will be performances this Saturday, April 27th, in Berkeley’s First Congregational Church, and on Tuesday, April 30th, at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles.  In addition, the H&H will also play a different Baroque program highlighted by Vivaldi’s Four Seasons in both Berkeley (April 26) and Campbell Hall in Santa Barbara (May 1).

In anticipation of their first Southern California appearances since a 1996 tour brought them to the Wiltern, UCLA, and Segerstrom Hall, Mr. Christophers kindly took a break from his busy rehearsal schedule and pre-tour preparations for a little informal Q&A via email with All is Yar:

—–

CK Dexter Haven:  Thoughts and prayers for everyone in Boston after last week’s tragedy.  How did it affect the H&H and you in particular?

Harry Christophers:  I think the events of the past week have been a shock to everyone. I was at home in England when the news flashed up and I couldn’t believe my eyes. Boston is not a place where you would expect such an outrage to happen. Our thoughts and prayers go out to all those who suffered from this nonsensical atrocity. I also feel very saddened for the young men who are thought to be responsible.

CKDH:   Will it change your approach to this tour?

HC:  Music is the greatest healer.

CKDH:  Given that you’re based in the UK, what attracted you to the H&H originally and led you to become its Artistic Director?

HC:  H&H is a very similar organisation in terms of artistic output to my own ensemble, The Sixteen. Whereas The Sixteen concentrates on music principally from the Renaissance and Baroque periods with occasional forays into contemporary music, H&H is devoted to baroque and classical and I suppose it was principally the thought of being able to spend more time on classical repertoire and in particular the amazing symphonies of Haydn that was one of the main draws. Also when I first conducted the orchestra in Austria back I think in 2006 I realised that this was a group of musicians that I could empathise with.

CKDH:  What makes the H&H special?

HC:  Incredible teamwork not only from the musicians but also the staff who work tirelessly with great vision and total commitment. Our various boards and patrons are also amazingly supportive, always helpful never intrusive. Everyone has the well being of the Society at heart. The work that goes on behind the scenes in education and just generally trying to bring this great music of our heritage to a wider audience is amazing. The Society never sits back on its laurels; it is always thinking of new things and constantly reinventing itself. Above all the Society is committed to artistic excellence and bringing the outstanding music of the baroque and classical to life in I hope a manner that is approachable for everyone.

CKDH:   Even though H&H gave the US premiere of Jephtha in 1855, these performances will be its first since 1867.  Why did it take so long and why now?

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An atypical pairing of good music

April 17, 2013 Leave a comment

LigetiNirvana-Nevermind
Saw links to the two videos below via Twitter earlier today, and I felt compelled to share both of them here.  If they seem like an unlikely match — well, what can I say, I have diverse tastes in music.

The first is Ligeti’s “Hungarian Rock (Chaconne),” originally written for harpsichord but arranged here for barrel organ(!)  by Pierre Charial.

The second is footage of the first-ever public performance of “Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana.  Today happens to mark the 22nd anniversary of this performance,  filmed at Seattle’s OK Hotel five months before the release of their seminal debut album, Nevermind.  To put that perspective, there are a year’s worth of people who can now legally drink alcohol in the USA who were born AFTER this video was made.  Yikes.

Props to Brandise Danesewich (Ligeti video) and Charles Noble (Nirvana video) for finding these gems and also having great taste in music.

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And here’s to you, Mr. Robertson: SoCal native returns to conduct the LA Phil

April 16, 2013 2 Comments

David RobertsonA little over a week ago, David Robertson returned to the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s podium for the first time in over five years, and for the life of me, I have a hard time understanding why it’s taken so long.

First and foremost, his broad repertoire featuring impeccable credentials in 20th and 21st Century music syncs up perfectly with the orchestra’s own sensibilities.  Second, he’s visited the San Francisco Symphony multiple times since then, and you’d figure that a subsequent jaunt down the coast wouldn’t have been very difficult.  Third, he happens to be a local boy and alum of Santa Monica High School.  Finally — and this is most important — the orchestra sounds great and plays well when he conducts.

Net net, I can’t think of another conductor who would be a better candidate for more regular, even annual, visits.  His prolonged absence was even more perplexing after hearing an excellent performance of  Britten’s Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes, the West Coast premiere of a new piano concerto by Steven Mackey, and Ravel’s orchestration of Pictures at an Exhibition by Mussorgsky.

Most telling to me was his rendition of the well-worn Mussorgsky/Ravel piece.  From his very first time conducting the LA Phil in 1999 to his most recent visit at the helm of the two-week “Concrete Frequency” festival, Mr. Robertson has loaded his programs with challenging, even obscure, works by the likes of Ives, Lutosławski, Crumb, Milhaud, Varèse, among others.  This was my first chance to catch him doing a bona-fide orchestral warhorse.  And he did not disappoint.

These were fully-saturated Pictures for an Instagram age, sunny in disposition and unabashedly splashy in approach throughout without ever being superficial.  Darker sections (e.g. “Bydlo,” “Catacombs,” or “Cum mortuis in lingua mortua”) weren’t very ominous in absolute terms but still felt dark in comparison to the other moments, the same way an overcast 67-degree day passes for bad weather in Los Angeles.  Mr. Robertson pushed tempos a bit while still  keeping it all in nice proportion — it wasn’t until the work’s climax, “The Hut on Hen’s Legs (Baba Yaga),” did he unexpectedly ratchet back the speed, an arresting move that heightened the drama through the finale of “The Great Gate of Kiev.”

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Ketevan Kemoklidze charming as LA Opera’s latest Cinderella

April 6, 2013 Leave a comment

Ketevan Kemoklidze as Cinderella (Cenerentola) for Los Angeles Opera (2013)Halfway through Los Angeles Opera’s current run of Rossini’s Cinderella (La Cenerentola), they introduced a new singer into the title role:  Ketevan Kemoklidze, a winner of Plácido Domingo’s “Operalia” competition, made her company debut as she took over for Kate Lindsey this past Wednesday night.

It’s never easy joining a cast in midstream, and still the Georgian mezzo-soprano acquitted herself quite well, thank you very much.

She brings a moderately-sized yet robust-sounding voice with a rather prominent but not distracting vibrato and a warm tone.   She started the evening a little tight sounding, perhaps due to nerves or not quite being warmed up enough.  As she progressed through Act One, however, her voice settled in nicely, gaining more depth and richness.  Her coloratura runs were impressive, laser-like in their accuracy with each note distinct no matter how fast she sang.

Her stagecraft was equally solid.  She was easily likable,  exuding charm as the innocent housekeeper and being appropriately stern as the mystery girl at the prince’s ball.  All of her interactions with her on-stage colleagues looked seamless.

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LA Chamber Orchestra struts its stuff with program of Mozart, Stravinsky, Bach, and Handel at Royce Hall

April 5, 2013 Leave a comment

The Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra often plays larger symphonic works — and does so quite well — but one of the joys and privileges of having a standing chamber group like them is the chance to hear pieces written for small to medium-sized ensembles that a full-sized orchestra would not take on.  Their most recent concerts were laden with concertante works by Mozart, Stravinsky, Bach, and Handel — the kind of concert for which they are very well-suited and play at an extremely high level.

On the Sunday performance I attended at UCLA’s Royce Hall, this was clearly evident from the get-go with the evening’s opening piece, Mozart’s Serenade No. 10, Gran Partita, a seven movement work for wind instruments and a single double bass.  Throughout the 40-minute traversal of various moods, textures, and rhythms that Mozart tosses out, I couldn’t help but smile at the way melodies seamlessly passed between oboes, clarinets, basset horns, bassoons, and horns.  Music Director Jeffrey Kahane ensured that the ensemble playing and blend was impressively tight and well-balanced, with Allan Vogel (Principal Oboe) and Joshua Ranz (Principal Clarinet) playing some particularly beautiful solo moments.

After intermission came more of the same with three shorter works, the first of which was Stravinsky’s Concerto in E-flat major, Dumbarton Oaks.   Commissioned in the 1930′s for the 30th wedding anniversary of Robert Woods Bliss and Mildred Barnes Bliss (i.e. the owners of the Dumbarton Oaks estate in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, DC), the chamber work has the distinction of not having a prominent solo instrument as you’d expect a “concerto” to have.  Instead, each instrument in the ensemble has a few moments of prominence, once again showing off LACO musicians’ skills as both individual artists and as a coherent single entity.  Mr. Kahane led a performance that was nicely angular while also maintaining the long line.  For me, the outstanding performance of this rarely heard gem was the biggest treat of the evening.

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Dudamel & LA Phil strike while the iron is hot, release “La mer” and “Firebird” on iTunes

March 26, 2013 Leave a comment

Dudamel - Debussy and StravinskyInteresting to find out about the latest iTunes release from the Los Angeles Philharmonic.  They just recorded and released these two works a few years ago under Esa-Pekka Salonen for the same label, so it’s a bit of a surprise that they’d put them out again so soon.

But then again, maybe not.

As I mentioned before, response to their recent performances of these works under Gustavo Dudamel have generally been well received while they have been on tour, and the orchestra will be performing both during their final stop in New York.  This enables fans to have a chance experience this interpretation as often as they’d like.

I’m curious as to which performance (or performances) were used in these recordings — as I mentioned previously, the second performance I attended was better than the first.  Regardless, it’ll be good to have this latest snapshot of the relationship between Dudamel and the LA Phil.

Additionally, it’s noteworthy that the orchestra will have three very different recordings released in fairly rapid succession:

  • Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Lutoslawski symphony cycle
  • Gustavo Dudamel’s Mahler 9th, the first of his CD releases with the orchestra
  • and now this.

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Carl St.Clair leads Pacific Symphony in persuasive Mahler 5th, quiet Bach

March 26, 2013 Leave a comment

Carl St.Clair (photo by Marco Borggreve)Last Friday, Carl St.Clair and the Pacific Symphony took on two seemingly disparate giants of the orchestral repertoire, Johann Sebastian Bach and Gustav Mahler.

The program notes mentioned Mahler’s interest in Bach’s counterpoint during the time he wrote his Fifth Symphony, spurring the creation of some contrapuntal elements of the score.  It made sense in concept, and while in practice Mr. St.Clair’s interpretation of Bach’s tidy little world seemed far removed from his bold take on Mahler’s expansive universe, the contrast worked well.

The Mahler 5th was particularly compelling.  The Pacific Symphony’s Music Director has a reputation as a heart-on-his-sleeve kind of conductor, and as such, one might have expected a wide-open interpretation full of space and raw emotion.  Not so this time.

This was a finely honed performance, propulsive and full of energy yet very much in control.  He chose rather healthy tempos throughout, but still gave the music room to breath and nothing ever felt rushed.  When the big moments came in all their grandeur, they seemed inevitable, never forced.

The orchestra responded well,  and while a rough edge appeared now and again, sounded quite good overall.  Principal Trumpet Barry Perkins was absolutely superb with his first movement solos as well as many other exposed moments.  Principal Horn Keith Popejoy overcame an opening note blip in his 3rd movement obbligato to offer some very respectable solo work himself.  As an ensemble, the brass gleamed bright throughout without ever becoming overbearing.

When the strings finally got their moment in the sun during the famous 4th movement Adagietto, they sounded gorgeous, playing with a warm, nicely balanced sheen.  Among all the solid work by the woodwinds, Principal Clarinet Ben Lulich stood out with his particularly rich tone.

 

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A delicious romp: there is everything to like about LA Opera’s “Cinderella”

March 25, 2013 5 Comments

Cinderella 1Los Angeles Opera’s latest production of Rossini’s Cinderella (La Cenerentola) which debuted this past Saturday has everything you’d want in a comic opera:  an excellent cast that can sing and act well, a clever production, and a great sense of humor.  The story might not be told exactly the way you know it — the evil step-mother is replaced by a bumbling step-father; a courtly nobleman steps in for the fairy godmother; a pair of sparkly bracelets substitute for too-scandalous-for-the-1800′s glass slippers — but that never gets in the way of making this version one to satisfy all comers, from opera newbies to hard-bitten veterans.

Kate Lindsey and two opera rats

Kate Lindsey (Cinderella) and two opera rats

It’s the kind of unabashed fun that doesn’t take itself too seriously, and belies the notion of “opera” as a stuffy institution.  In fact, the way movies like Bring It On payed homage to competitive cheerleading by shining a light on its ridiculous aspects or School of Rock amusingly explained tried-and-true 70′s rock formulas easy enough for 5th graders to head-bang with the best of them, this Cinderella often pokes fun at many traditional opera conventions — big hairdos, overstuffed costumes, grandiloquent gestures —  while simultaneously honoring those same conventions through smart, pinpoint execution of all the essential elements, especially the music.

Leading the way is mezzo-soprano Kate Lindsey in the title role.  Her voice has a smooth, creamy quality that is an absolute pleasure to listen to whether she is spinning long, lyrical lines or nailing the notoriously difficult coloratura Rossini asks of his lead.  She makes a very nice transition from down-trodden housekeeper to regal ballroom presence, injecting a little extra weight and darkness to her voice as she sings at the prince’s ball about her demands for respect (Aretha Franklin, eat your heart out).  Her take on the final aria, “Non più mesta . . . ,” was stunning, and you can’t help but marvel at how much power she still had left in her tank at the end of an entire night’s worth of singing.

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LA Phil tuning up the programs they are taking on tour (part 3 of 3): pondering how much better “The Other Mary” v2.0 actually is

March 23, 2013 5 Comments

The Los Angeles Philharmonic is in the midst of the continental European leg of its tour to London, Lucerne, Paris, and New York.  Reviews of concerts in London have been consistent in their high praise of the orchestra’s performance and sound in the fairly adventurous repertoire they have taken on the road.  On balance, they have generally been keen on Gustavo Dudamel’s interpretations of the 20th and 21st Century works he’s conducted, and while their comments often mirrored my own concerns about his choice in tempi in La mer and Firebird, you get the sense that his interpretations were more like what I heard during the second performance I attended — smoother and less tentative.

Then there is John Adams’s reworking of The Gospel According to the Other Mary.  The reviews gave generous kudos to the performers, but have been mixed about the merits of the composition and dramaturgy.

I find it interesting and completely understandable that opinions differ on opposite sides of the pond.  I saw the second L.A. performance of The Other Mary, and I happen to agree with the California critics I mention above in that this iteration of The Other Mary is better than last year’s:  Peter Sellars’s relatively restrained staging makes the drama more comprehensible; the musical textures are noticeably less thick, so the singers are no longer overwhelmed by the orchestra; and the performances of all involved were uniformly top-notch.

Of course, those critics in England had a purer experience since they didn’t have the benefit/burden of knowing what it was like previously.  Their reactions sound a lot like the same mixture of compliments and frustrations showered upon The Other Mary by many folks, myself included, when it premiered last year.

I wonder how much knowing how it used to be makes the newer version look better by comparison, like the 400 lb person who loses 150 pounds:  if you knew them back when, they look so much better today and you’re thrilled at what they were able to achieve.  If you never knew them before, you think, “Gee, that 250 lb person would look so much better if only they dropped some weight.”

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