LA Opera announces 2013/2014 season

January 8, 2013 Leave a comment

Billy Budd at LA Opera (2000 production)
Los Angeles Opera announced their 2013/2014 season today.  As far as I’m concerned, the most noteworthy things:

  • Not a big increase in number of productions and performances versus the 2012/2013 season, but the mix is a bit more diverse — including three performances of Glass’s Einstein on the Beach.
  • Tenor Brandon Jovanovich returns to L.A. this fall as Don Jose in Carmen
  • Nino Machaidze appears twice (Carmen and Thaïs)
  • Plácido Domingo won’t be singing until late in the season (May-June 2014) when he takes on another baritone role, Athanaël in Thaïs; he’ll be seen at the beginning of the season conducting four performances of Carmen
  • Grant Gershon conducts the three remaining performances of Carmen
  • Music Director James Conlon will be conducting the vast majority of the performances throughout the season (thank goodness).
  • The only conductor appearing this season who does not hold some kind of title with the company will be Massenet specialist Patrick Fournillier in, appropriately enough, Massenet’s Thaïs
  • The company will celebrate the Britten centenary with a production of Billy Budd featuring Liam Bonner (last seen around here in Albert Herring in Spring of 2012) in the title role and will play a major role in “Britten 100/LA: A Centenary Celebration,” a county-wide celebration.
  • No Wagner opera this year.  The only opera to be sung in German will be The Magic Flute in the company’s well-known production by Sir Peter Hall and Gerald Scarfe.  The cast includes Janai Brugger (recently seen locally as Musetta in La Bohème) and, making her company debut, Erika Miklósa as Queen of the Night (click HERE to see a video of her singing the Queen of the Night’s big aria)
  • The company will make two visits to Orange County for one concert performance each of Falstaff and Thaïs
  • Mr. Conlon will conduct two performances of the world premiere of Alexander Prior’s Jonah and the Whale,  inspired by Britten’s Noye’s Fludde
  • Dmitri Hvorostovsky appears in recital and Audra McDonald performs a one-night concert

The short version of the schedule (all performances at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion unless otherwise noted):

  • Carmen (Bizet):  Seven performances, Sep. 21 ̵ Oct. 6, 2013
  • Einstein on the Beach (Glass):  Three performances, October 11, 12 and 13, 2013
  • Audra McDonald in Concert:  October 26, 2013
  • Falstaff (Verdi):  Six performances, Nov. 9 ̵ Dec. 1, 2013; ; additionally, there will be one concert performance in Segerstrom Concert Hall in Costa Mesa on Nov 26, 2013
  • Billy Budd (Britten):  Six performances, Feb. 22 – March 16, 2014
  • Lucia di Lammermoor (Donizetti):  Six performances, March 15 – April 6, 2014
  • Jonah and the Whale (Alexander Prior):  Two performances at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, March 21-22, 2014 (World Premiere)
  • Thaïs (Massenet):  Six performances, May 17 – June 7, 2014; additionally, there will be one concert performance in Segerstrom Concert Hall in Costa Mesa on May 22, 2014
  • Dmitri Hvorostovsky in Recital:  May 22, 2014

Complete details taken from the official Los Angeles Opera press release are below:

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The latest from LA Opera: an enjoyable “Madame Butterfly,” a spectacular Pinkerton

November 22, 2012 9 Comments

Eric Owens (Sharpless) and Brandon Jovanovich (Pinkerton)

Full disclosure:  Madame Butterfly is not one of my favorite operas.  I understand its popularity and appreciate its usual appeal to most of its fans (sweeping melodies, exotic locales, an easy-to-feel-sorry-for heroine, etc.), but no matter how many chances I give it, I’m never drawn into the music or the drama.

Count me in the minority.  The powers-that-be at Los Angeles Opera love themselves some Madame Butterfly.  Eighty-ish times they’ve staged this particular Puccini number, more than any other opera in the company’s relatively short history.  That’s because the local opera-watching public obviously loves it too:  its box office success is as predictable as lines for the latest iPhone, and the current run had very strong sales even before Saturday’s opening night performance.

And an enjoyable opening night it was.  Not great, not innovative, not enlightening, but enjoyable nonetheless.

Even if you’re predisposed to groan at the notion that the company would trot out this particular warhorse once again, the contributions of three of the men involved — tenor Brandon Jovanovich as US Navy Lt. Benjamin Franklin Pinkerton; bass-baritone Eric Owens as Sharpless, the American Consul; and conductor Grant Gershon — would still be worth your attention.

Mr. Jovanovich, in particular, was spectacular.  He has a show-stopping voice, with a smooth, rich, and pure tone that rings out effortlessly.  On top of that, he can act, too.  His Pinkerton comes across with casual naiveté, clueless instead of callous.  On the heels of his triumph in Lohengrin at San Francisco Opera just weeks before (read just one of the many glowing reviews HERE), I got the sense while experiencing him do his thing that this was a true star in the making.  Easily the best new tenor of I’ve heard in at least a decade, probably two.

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