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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Upcoming concerts that will hopefully make it a musical December to remember

November 29, 2012 Leave a comment

Here are the Southern California musical events happening in the coming month which are grabbing my attention, and that should be grabbing yours too:

Jacaranda’s holiday-ish “Winter Dreams” Concert this Saturday
Yes, ’tis the season for Messiah and The Nutcracker, but if you’re looking for something a little different, the intrepid folks at Jacaranda offer up this mix of music — some holiday-themed, some not – from Bach, Britten, Mahler, Tchaikovsky, Ives, Glass and more, this coming Saturday.  Performers include Jonathan Dimmock (organist for the San Francisco Symphony), the Los Angeles Children’s Chorus, writer and raconteur Sandra Tsing Loh, and Cedric Berry (bass-baritone), among many others.

Esa-Pekka Salonen is back for two weeks in Southern California
He’s back, and there is much rejoicing. Most of you probably know about the three different programs over the course of seven concerts that E-PS will be conducting under the auspices of the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s “Lutosławski Centenary” celebration.  Some of you might even know that during the first three of these performances, Sony will be recording the First Symphony as part of a future release of all four Lutosławski symphonies (the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Symphonies have all been previously recorded for Sony by the E-PS and the LA Phil, and just for good measure, they also released a different recording of the 4th Symphony on DG Live).

What many of you probably don’t know is that in addition to his appearances at Walt Disney Concert Hall, Mr. Salonen will also be appearing at Hear Now Music Festival’s benefit concert on December 5th at the Briard House in Culver City.  

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Yuja Wang and James Conlon triumph with the LA Phil

November 9, 2011 2 Comments

Yuja Wang is the real deal.

If there was any doubt that might have crept in as to whether or not she was a “serious” pianist and/or musician based on a spate of recent cancellations and a critic’s unfortunate comments about her attire at the Hollywood Bowl, let them be put to rest after this past weekend’s concerts at Walt Disney Concert Hall.  On Sunday afternoon, she was spectacular in Prokofiev’s Third Piano Concerto, aided strongly by James Conlon and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

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LA Phil’s Peter Stumpf praised for Indiana recital

July 6, 2011 Leave a comment

Peter Stumpf, Principal Cello of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, gave his first recital in Indiana since being announced as a new full-time professor of music at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.  The review of the Jun 29th concert in the  Herald-Times (Bloomington, Indiana)  was unequivocally glowing, with Peter Jacobi calling Mr. Stumpf “a musician of outstanding talent and heart. . . .  There can be no doubt about Stumpf’s artistic stature following his program on Wednesday.”  Additional quotes regarding each of the specific pieces that the cellist, along with accompanist Chi-Yi Chen at the piano, performed:

  • Debussy — D Minor Sonata for Cello and Piano:  ”Technically tricky to handle, the piece, even during its lighter late moments, was meant to leave a melancholy impression . . . Stumpf had the music’s moods and measures.”
  • Britten — Suite No. 1 for Solo Cello, Opus 72:  ”. . . extraordinary, a brilliantly realized presentation.”
  • Brahms —  Sonata in F Major, Opus 99:  ”There’s passion in its music. There’s turbulence. There’s allure. Stumpf, with Chen a complementing partner, offered an interpretation gratifyingly finished and intense.”
  • Chopin — Introduction and Polonaise brillante:  ”The planned ending for the concert served like an encore, a selection meant to give listeners a final taste of the performer’s virtuosity and send them home happy. . . . as Stumpf and Chen played it, did just that.”
The full text of Mr. Jacobi’s review can be found at the Herald-Times website HERE (subscription required)
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