For your viewing pleasure, I’ve assembled various production and behind the scenes pictures from Los Angeles Opera’s current version of Puccini’s Tosca. Photo credits include Robert Millard, Los Angeles Opera’s website and Facebook page, Lawrence K. Ho of the Los Angeles Times, and Brian Lauritzen. In addition, click HERE for sketches drawn by Mike Sheehan … Continue reading
Word comes from Paris that French composer Henri Dutilleux has died at the age of 97. Obituaries below from some diverse sources: Schott Music has a very detailed one HERE Tom Service in The Guardian writes a short obit HERE which links to a much longer article he wrote this past January about the composer’s … Continue reading
This past Friday night, the Los Angeles Philharmonic unveiled the latest foray into its three-year “Mozart/DaPonte Trilogy” project, the first ever performance (staged or otherwise) of The Marriage of Figaro in the orchestra’s history. It was glorious in every respect: visually striking, dramatically compelling, and musically excellent. Before a single note was played, one marveled at … Continue reading
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 can be found HERE. will be posted in the next day or so. In the meantime, please enjoy the … Continue reading
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 … Continue reading
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 … Continue reading
The 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 … Continue reading
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 … Continue reading
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, … Continue reading
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 … Continue reading
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 … Continue reading
A 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 … Continue reading
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 … Continue reading
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 … Continue reading
Interesting 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 … Continue reading
All is Yar 