Maybe somewhere out on the Tartar Steppe, there is a lonesome goatherd who has not yet heard of Cirque du Soleil, but virtually everywhere else this producer of theatrical extravaganzas is rapidly becoming a fixture of 21st-century world culture. Iris is the latest offering from the Montreal-based troupe, and is the first to have a [...]
For its final offering of the 2010/11 season. LA Opera presents “The Turn of the Screw,” a work that is puzzling and problematic on a number of levels. Let’s start with the puzzling: the opera is based on an 1898 ghost-story novella by Henry James — a tale so ambiguous that critics cannot agree whether [...]
Another bubbly bel canto bon bon is playing at LA Opera right now in the form of Il Turco in Italia, a lesser-known Rossini opera that deserves wider renown. Those seeking fresh opera fare should note that this is the debut performance of this work by the company, although this production by German director Christof [...]
I once took a friend who had never seen an opera before to a performance of Lohengrin, which was presented in a fashionably minimalist way. With its epic length, long recitatives and not much to look at, the opera made a less than favorable impression on her. As far as I know, she has never [...]
LA Opera’s world premiere production of Il Postino offers up the latest iteration of a work that seems destined to become an enfant d’oré of the modern cultural lexicon. Based on the 1985 book Ardiente Paciencia by Chilean author Antonio Skármeta, it tells the story of Mario Ruoppolo, a lovelorn mailman on a small island, [...]
With the recent closing of LA Opera’s Götterdämmerung, the circus has packed up and left town. But like a classic rocker’s farewell tour, this motley crew will soon be back for an encore performance — despite the grumbles of ‘good riddance’ that lately have been ricocheting around town from more than a few opera fans. [...]
For some years now, the Da Camera Society has been presenting Chamber Music in Historic Sites, where pre-modern music is performed in distinctive venues from Pasadena to the Westside. On March 10, Angelenos were treated to Catalan violist extraordinaire Jordi Savall performing solo at the Doheny Mansion. If you can find any excuse to wander [...]
“Il Barbiere di Siviglia” is undoubtedly the most popular comic opera of all time. Gioachino Rossini’s 1816 Bel Canto-style opera buffa was the first Italian opera ever performed in America (in New York in 1825) and made its composer into a household name worldwide. When a production gets it right, as LA Opera’s version has, [...]
Scheming dwarves, obscene fertility goddesses, floating eyeballs and comic book heroes — what more could one ask for in an evening of light entertainment?
Just kidding about the light entertainment part. “Siegfried” is the third of four operas in Richard Wagner’s gargantuan Ring cycle, and LA Opera’s ambitious new staging takes viewers another step deeper into [...]
The beginning of another opera season is upon us, and LA Opera has just the thing to banish those end-of-summer, mid-recession blues — its 2009/10 season opener, “The Elixir of Love,” is a frothy funfest that is as refreshing as a lemon gelato on a hot summer day. One of the most crowd-pleasing of the [...]
