David Grann, a journalist who writes nonfiction that reads like fiction, has written compelling books about a British explorer who disappeared in the Amazon looking for a lost ancient city and the Osage Indian murders that led to the creation of the FBI. In December 2004, he published an article in The New Yorker called [...]
After a 24-year absence from Los Angeles, Great Britain’s most prestigious ballet company, The Royal Ballet, returns to The Music Center for two back-to-back weekends this July at The Music Center’s Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. From July 5–7, The Royal Ballet performs its masterpiece, Mayerling, a three-act work depicting scandal and murder in the 19th-century Austro-Hungarian Empire. The [...]
Hot fun in the summertime begins in June as The Music Center presents Grand Park’s 2019 summer season of free outdoor activities and events offered throughout the 12-acre “park for everyone.” The free fun kicks off with returning favorites, including The Music Center’s popular Dance DTLA on Friday nights and local House music concerts during Grand Park Sunday [...]
LA Opera’s season-ending party was a blast. Director and Designer Marta Domingo’s production (also seen in 2006 and 2014) of Verdi’s “La Traviata” places the action of the 1853 opera in the roaring 1920s, an era of excess that perfectly fits the story of Violetta, “the woman led astray.”
In the beginning, a gorgeous 1920s Rolls [...]
Sigrid Gilmer’s “Mama Metal” is a surreal take on the “mama drama,” the two most famous of which, Eugene O’Neill’s “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” and Tennessee Williams’ “The Glass Menagerie,” figure in this new play. Gilmer’s Humanitas-developed meta-theatrical comedy received its world premiere at the Atwater Village Theatre in May and continues through June 23.
O’Neill [...]
Bravo (on a number of counts) to Numi Opera for their inaugural production of Alexander Zemlinsky’s “Der Zwerg” on May 30 and June 2.
First, Founder and Executive Director Gail Gordon has introduced to Los Angeles another arts organization devoted to opera.
Second, as Gordon noted in the program, Numi Opera has a special mission: “to rediscover [...]
Mount Wilson Observatory — the scientific marvel above Pasadena, atop Mount Wilson — is hosting a six-month series of Sunday Afternoon Concerts in the Dome on the first Sunday of each month through October. The concerts, thoughtfully curated by Artistic Director Cécilia Tsan, are presented inside the iconic vaulted dome of the 100-inch telescope.
The June 2 concert program [...]
LA Opera’s 1994 production of Manuel Penella’s “El Gato Montés” starred Plácido Domingo as the bullfighter. In the 2019 production, he’s the titular Wildcat, taking on the darker character in the love triangle. Who would have guessed 25 years had passed when Domingo walked out on stage this month? In the spotlight against a pitch-black [...]
The Santa Monica Symphony shines a spotlight on emerging talent in the final concert of its 74th season. The winner of the Symphony’s 2019 Piano Concerto Competition, Nicholas Méndez Del Valle, will be performing Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 2.
The program will open with Verdi’s compelling Overture to “La Forza del Destino” and close with Brahms’ [...]
Numi Opera and its inaugural production — Alexander Von Zemlinsky’s Der Zwerg based on a story by Oscar Wilde — is announced. Directed by Numi Opera Executive Director Gail R. Gordon with musical direction by Christopher Luthi, the rarely performed opera will have two performances on Thursday, May 30, at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, June 2, at [...]
