Gwendolyn Brown as Voodoo priestess Marie Laveau in "Crescent City" / Photo by Asher Kelman

Let’s get this out of the way right up front: Crescent City is a difficult piece, and it’s not for everyone. It’s not being uncharitable to say it’s not even for most. That said, if you fancy yourself a connoisseur of the avant-garde, then this one’s for you! There is a snootful of ideas percolating in composer Anne LeBaron’s new “hyperopera,” and it is worthwhile to make it out to Atwater Crossing if you are interested in what is happening at the bleeding edge of modern theatrical performance art.

When theater of this conceptual density arrives in SoCal, you can safely bet it has something to do with CalArts and this is triply true with Crescent City. LeBaron is a professor of music and theater at the college; librettist Doug Kearney teaches poetry there; and producer Laura Kay Swanson is an alumna. The one non-CalArts figure that figures prominently in this piece is the director, Yuval Sharon, recently moved to LA after four years running New York City’s VOX, a showcase for new American opera. He was also assistant director to Achim Freyer for LA Opera’s recent Ring Cycle, which, for anyone who saw that, will give a clue about his modernist sensibilities. The company he has created with Swanson — The Industry — is devoted to new and experimental opera-like productions.

According to the composer (who coined the term), a hyperopera is a deliberately collaborative work that eschews the idea of one artist largely controlling its creation. Hyperopera loosely follows the conventions of traditional opera — an amalgam of singing, acting and stagecraft — but expects each contributor to create a work that can stand by itself as “art.” In Crescent City we have, of course, the music. In addition, there is the poetry of the libretto, the physical and vocal expression of the actor/singers, the conceptual framework of the director and the six major art installations (created by Mason Cooley, Brianna Gorton, Katie Grinnan, Alice Könitz, Jeff Kopp and Olga Koumoundouros) that comprise the set. The result is a multi-layered opera that sometimes overwhelms with its thick mix of messages.

Here’s the basic setup: In a 25,000-square-foot warehouse, six large art installations are spread out. They represent a graveyard, a hospital, a swamp, a junk heap, a shack and a dive bar. These are available to be viewed as stand-alone artworks during the day. For performances, audiences are positioned on the perimeters of the space with some scattered around the dive bar on floor cushions as well. Along the back walls, there are no chairs and audience members are encouraged to move about to seek other perspectives. Three large screens carry the supertitles of the libretto and also show the main action via a series of stationary cameras plus two mobile cameras carried by silent characters. Sometimes, the images present what is happening onstage, other times they depict films recorded prior with cast members; in this way we are getting another artwork — semi-improvisational video — along with all the rest.

The story line is somewhat abstruse, but involves a mythical city — presumably New Orleans — after a great natural disaster — presumably Hurricane Katrina. The bad floodwaters have resurrected Voodoo priestess Marie Laveau (played by contralto Gwendolyn Brown), who emerges from her tomb to help save the city. The ancient Voodoo spirits have also been loosed upon the ruined landscape, and together, like Diogenes, they seek amid the roaming hustlers, drug dealers and debauchés an honest man to see if the city is worth redeeming. They ultimately find him (The Good Man is played by bass/baritone Cedric Berry), but he too turns out to be morally compromised, and the future of the city remains unclear.

The narrative aspect of Crescent City appears to have less emphasis than the process of “making theater,” so no need for concern if you feel like you are not getting it. It demands a lot of attention to successfully sort out all the threads that are presented; you find your eyes darting from the monitors, to the right, to the left, trying to take in everything that is happening. More compelling than the sluggish story line is the close physical presence of the singer/performers. You can really feel the power of their voices as they pass within a few feet of you. This is an experience you will never get at a traditional, big-production opera.

Every opera is distinguished by its music, and Crescent City is no exception. LeBaron has cooked up a complex, exotic, polyrhythmic gumbo of sound played by a live orchestra of 16, including Timur and his Dime Museum. Included are clarinet, piano, banjo, accordion, chromelodion, percussion and shakuhachi, as well as tuba, trombone and trumpet to help keep us rooted in a distinctly New Orleans vibe. As the movements play out, you can hear bits of atonal jazz, zydeco, electronica, waltz, twelve-tone and barrelhouse, and I’m sure much more that I could not even guess. A little something for everyone. Synthesizers create a chaotic accompaniment of buzzes, screeches and clashing, discordant non-Western temperaments. It’s Preservation Hall on acid. Adding to the sense of dislocation, the notes the singers intone often do not follow the pitch of the music in any traditional fashion; the musical intervals are alien and unexpected. This chaotic, cockeyed, cacophonous music is a good aural representation of what is happening in Crescent City, but don’t expect to leave the theater humming anything.

There is an unrelenting darkness and pessimism that pervades the production. Humor, if it is to be found at all, is just grim irony. The city is nearly deserted except for revelers and lowlifes. Water — normally life-giving — becomes a malevolent force, the cause of drowning, capsizing and ruination of families. Occasional snatches of other works surface — the dance of death from Bergman’s Seventh Seal and the bierkeller scene from Cabaret come to mind — highlighting the allusive “meta” nature of the production.

While Crescent City is a serious piece and it is obvious a lot of work and thought has gone into it, both the direction and the music can feel somewhat academic and theoretical at times. Some things seem to be done just for the sake of seeming clever: Behold, Mongolian time signatures combined with Indonesian gamelan scales. Move around, audience, and change your perspective so you can see… the other side of an object you have already seen. Here is Brecht, there is Pirandello. None of the theatrical devices are exactly new, but they are certainly stacked high. In the end, there seems to be a lot of sound and fury, signifying… what, exactly? Any meaning derived is strictly up to the individual.

Even if all these disparate parts don’t hang together as well as they might, the artists at work here are to be applauded for creating one possible way forward from the ossified, if enjoyable, canon of traditional opera. Some of the images are indelible, and it is a production you will not soon forget. And that is saying something in today’s opera repertoire.

—David Maurer, Culture Spot LA

The Industry presents its inaugural production, Crescent City, through May 27 at Atwater Crossing, 3245 Casitas Ave., LA 90039. Show times are Thursdays through Sundays at 8 p.m. For more information, visit http://theindustryla.org. For tickets, visit http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/222549.

Malek Hanna, AnnaLisa Erickson, Mookie Johnson and Andrea Arvanigian in "Songs for a New World" / Photo by Michael Lamont

DOMA Theatre Company presents a mixed bag of vocal talents backed by a bang-up band in Tony Award-winning composer Jason Robert Brown’s “Songs for a New World,” an hour-and-45-minute theatrical cabaret of his songs strung together without dialogue at the MET Theatre.

Standout of the four-member cast, Andrea Arvanigian has the vocal chops, the smooth dance moves and a riveting stage presence at her command — all quite evident in her first solo of the evening, “I’m Not Afraid of Anything.” Velvet-coated-powerhouse-voiced Malek Hanna really shined in his featured solo “She Cries.” AnnaLisa Erickson performed all the comic songs reminiscent of Bette Midler, but in need of the pathos and comic timing. Mookie Johnson’s voice strained on many of his songs; I wish their keys had been lowered to better fit his vocal register.

Props to scenic designer Brandy Jacobs for her elaborate, lush double-leveled nightclub set; quite good enough for one of the bigger theater houses in Los Angeles, let alone for a small non-equity venue.

Kudos to sound designer Joseph Montiel for the production’s clear sound system, the best I’ve heard in a small house, allowing the audience to hear the vocals accompanied by, instead of overpowered by, the very efficient band of five, crisply led by conductor Chris Raymond. No kudos for the rain sound effect introducing each act; it sounded more like static from an old record player needle than rain.

Marco Gomez directed his cast sans any layers of subtlety.  All sung their songs with the same full-on intensity. Particularly lacking in direction was Hanna’s soaring solo “King of the World,” in which two women distractingly pawed at his chest while he sang.  If this was supposed to be illustrating passion or seduction, this was an epic fail.

Cute choreography by Angela Todaro was handled with various degrees of proficiency — Arvanigian and Hanna coming out the best.

—Gil Kaan, Culture Spot LA

Performances continue through June 3 at the MET Theatre, 1089 N. Oxford Ave., LA 90029. Show times are Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 3 p.m.  For tickets, visit www.domatheatre.com or call (323) 465-0693.

The Festival, which coincides with the 25^th anniversary of Southwest Chamber, will feature 25 works, including 14 Los Angeles or West Coast premieres, three U.S. premieres and four world premieres. Southwest Chamber has commissioned four of the works to be presented.

In the inaugural concert, Artistic Director Jeff Von der Schmidt brought together an impressive group of five prominent composers from Korea, Mexico, Vietnam and San Francisco, all of whom have established credentials as leading artists of new music.

Korean composer Hyo-shin Na discussed the philosophy behind her music in a pre-concert interview with Martin Perlich.  She described a psychology where the individual instruments have different characters that do not abandon their basic nature in the interests of harmony, or even beauty.  That description sounds austere, but the composition certainly did possess a transcendent beauty that was not unlike the inspiring natural phenomena she depicted.

Na’s Ocean/Shore 2, written in 2003, continued her work with literal impressions of the coast of California, and this performance was an LA premiere.  The piece was commissioned by the Zellerbach Foundation to celebrate the 100th year of Korean-American immigration.  True to Na’s philosophy, Shalini Vijayan (violin), Jan Karlin (viola) and Peter Jacobsen (cello) were distinct in their individual musical characters, but collectively formed an airy interleaved figure that loosely coalesced and evolved as the piece progressed.  Jim Foscia’s sustained pianissimo clarinet tones blended beautifully with the strings and their sliding pitches, then his delicate tremolos introduced a unique energy, as did his extended, ascending scale-wise gestures.  Jacobsen’s cello was animated and added a nuanced feeling with his variations in attacks and timbres.  Von der Schmidt interrupted his conducting to deliver a moving recitation. His timing was effective, and his delivery was emotional.

Gabriela Ortiz, born in Mexico City, is an emerging international composer whose music is a unique synthesis of the traditional and the avant-garde.  This performance of Rio de las Mariposas, written for two harps and steel drum in 1995, was a U.S. premiere.  Lynn Vartan was masterful with the percussion.  The blend of harps was compelling. The initial texture was Impressionist, largely due to the harps, although the melodic material was traditional Mexican.  Harpists Alison Bjorkedal and Allison Allport seamlessly flowed together with intricately intertwined figures that coursed under and around the melody that mostly was expressed by Vartan’s gently hammered steel drum.  The sound of the steel had a surprising kinship with the harps, I think emanating from the sharp attacks of the instruments.  Ortiz’s unique blend of European and Latin American elements was a delectable mix.

Berlin-based, Korean-born composer Unsuk Chin’s composition, Akrostichon Wortspiel (Acrostic Wordplay), was fascinating.  Soprano Elissa Johnston was fantastic as she sang this unusual text with its exuberant moodiness that draws its inspiration from seven emotionally evocative fairy-tale scenes in The Neverending Story by Michael Ende and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll.

Chin’s colorful orchestration included flute (doubling on alto and piccolo), oboe, clarinet and bass clarinet, mandolin, harp, piano, violin, viola, double bass and a large percussion section.  Tunings of some of the instruments in the ensemble were intentionally microtonal, and Johnston would alternate her singing pitch between these tunings depending upon which she perceived at any given moment.  The technique was quite effective, as she used her voice to select one tuning over the other, reminding me of ambiguous visual figures like the “Necker cube,” the familiar two-dimensional cube representation that can be seen in alternate orientations, but never simultaneously.

Johnston was delightful with her playful presentation of Chin’s text with its creative variations of distorted speech, sibilance and unorthodox sequences of phonemes and words.  Quickly after the opening, her powerful, crystal-clear high register was a magnificent presence that filled the hall and teased us with its promise.  The second movement was rhythmically punchy as she waxed nasal in timbre with piercing vocal glissandos.  In other segments, she was amazing in her vocal skill, projecting whispers, whistles and extended crescendos.  At one point, she sang a rapid text of individual letters and spellings that could have been a musical spelling bee.  The ending was dramatic with her soaring voice.  Johnston was totally captivating, and she made this work one of my favorites of the evening.  Bravo for a delightful performance!

San Francisco native Kurt Rohde described his Concertino for Solo Violin & Ensemble (LA premiere) as a sort of Baroque concerto grosso.  He is a veteran of Southwest Chamber programs, and his music presents as somewhat traditional, although still engaging and keenly organized.  Vijayan’s violin solo was of virtuosic proportions, and the rich tone of her instrument complemented Rohde’s accessible melodic lines, especially in the breathtakingly elegant double-stopped counterpoint of the Sotto movement.  The third movement roared as the ensemble pumped the motorific percussive presto to a stirring finale.  Rohde is a rising star in West Coast new music and has found a uniquely personal voice among his contemporaries.

Up-and-coming Vietnamese composer Vu Nhat Tân has developed an international reputation.  In the pre-concert discussion, he spoke of his memories of Vietnamese contemporary music before the American War.  His composition, Ký Úc (memories), was dramatic with its use of novel instrumental effects.  Percussion was arrayed on both sides of the stage, and pianist Genevieve Lee played the instrument from the inside as well as the outside.  There were glissandos, handclapping and tapping sounds. Tân used unique instrumental combinations, like triangle and timpani, or violin and bass clarinet.  Larry Kaplan was mesmerizing with the musicality of the fluted sounds he produced with his bended pitches, breathy flutters and alternate fingerings.  The ensemble created a parade of enthusiasm that ended with a flourish from the piano that implied a fleeting traditional melody that dissipated into an extended resonance to end the night.

Zipper Concert Hall at the Colburn School was a great venue.  With its adjustable acoustics, the sound was superb — not dry, not wet, just right; the back wall was damped and the ceiling drapes were not extended.  This venue is probably among the best in Los Angeles for small ensembles.

Bravo to Southwest Chamber on a fantastic opening of their LA International Music Festival, for focusing the ears of the world on Los Angeles as a vibrant center for new music.

~Theodore Bell/Culture Spot LA

The LA International New Music Festival continues in three more performances: Saturday, May 12 (Harrison, Tân, Na, Babbitt and Schoenberg); Monday, May 21 (LeBaron, Ortiz, Stravinsky, Carter, Babbitt, Catan, Lieberson and Tân); and Saturday, May 26 (Ortiz, duBois, Tiet and Tân). Funding for the Festival comes from the James Irvine Foundation, Schoenberg Family Charitable Fund, Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Cultural Affairs Department of the City of Los Angeles, Cultural Exchange International, Ralph M. Parsons Foundation, Asian Cultural Council, and El Fondo Nationale para la Cultura y las Artes (FONCA). Visit www.swmusic.org.

Los Angeles Ballet's Christopher McDaniels / Photo by Reed Hutchinson

Ballet dancer Christopher McDaniel was raised from birth by his single grandmother in East Harlem when his drug-dependent mother was deemed unfit.  His father was incarcerated during most of McDaniel’s childhood. Though the boy loved to dance, antisocial behavior, belligerence and violence characterized his early years. However, a school field trip to see the Dance Theatre of Harlem changed his life. This first experience with classical ballet moved him to make a deal with his school principal: if McDaniel could behave and pull his grades up, she would contact the dance company and arrange an audition. Within a year, McDaniel had a full scholarship to the Dance Theatre of Harlem School.

“Dance became my safe place, my secret place,” says McDaniel, “a place where I didn’t feel the need to prove how big and bad I was. I credit dance with saving my life.”

His focus and discipline earned positive feedback from the teachers at DTH. McDaniel found he had a talent for remembering choreography, strength and agility beyond that of most of the other young dancers, and a remarkably high jump. After additional training at Ballet Academy East, Boston Ballet and Jacob’s Pillow, McDaniel graduated from high school at age17 (the first of his family to do so) and signed his first professional contract – with the Dance Theatre of Harlem Ensemble.  He began performing immediately on the DTH 40^th Anniversary Tour.

“The tour mission was to bring dance to communities that may have never seen ballet before,” says McDaniel. “We were bringing a message of hope and inspiration to damaged youth in those communities, and I felt a personal responsibility to be on that stage. I wanted to inspire someone – one kid – the way I had been inspired. I felt I was representing something much larger than myself.”

Currently finishing a second season with Los Angeles Ballet, McDaniel has performed solo parts in both “The Nutcracker” and “Swan Lake” throughout LA County. He looks forward to working with disadvantaged youth around Southern California as a part of LAB’s Power of Performance! (POP!) program, which brings hundreds of underprivileged children to performances, free of charge, through a network of community partners.

“I know that there is someone out there, in one of those neighborhoods, needing a word of encouragement,” he says. “I received a mandate from my hero, the legendary Arthur Mitchell, at Dance Theatre of Harlem. I’m to live ‘in service to the art form’ – and, to me, that means a commitment to giving back, in any way I can!”

—Penny Orloff

Christopher McDaniel appears with Los Angeles Ballet in “NextWaveLA” – a program of four world premieres by Southern California choreographers Kitty McNamee, Stacey Tookey, Sonya Tayeh and Josie Walsh at Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center on May 12 at 7:30 p.m., at Glendale’s Alex Theatre on May 19 at 7:30 p.m., and at Santa Monica’s Broad Stage on May 26 at 2 and 7:30 p.m. and May 27 at 2 p.m. For tickets and information, visit www.losangelesballet.org.

Emily Kottler, Caitlin Jemison, A. Leslie Kies, Tim Herzog and Taylor D'Andrea in “Psycho Beach Party” at the Morgan-Wixson Theatre / Photo by Saul Saladow

A revival of Charles Busch’s 1987 camp classic “Psycho Beach Party” has been mounted at the Morgan-Wixson Theatre with mixed results.

Busch has a reputation for being a little off-center in his entertainment pieces.  He had previously taken upon himself to essay “Psycho’s” lead ingénue role of the virginal Chicklet to great acclaim. “Campy” would be a frequent description of Busch’s theater creations. This spoof of the 1960s beach blanket movies is about a teenage girl with multiple personalities breaking into an all-male surfing club.

At the Morgan-Wixson, Chicklet is played by a young, age-appropriate actress Taylor D’Andrea, who though definitely not overweight is undeniably not “a stick” in figure as described in the script. Most of the actors cast don’t look like buff, tan Malibu surfers from1962.

The beach set designed by Thomas A. Brown, though traditional, gets a clever assist from a movie-screen backdrop of filmed sunsets and ocean waves.  Sound effects signaling Chicklet’s multiple personality changes occur so inconsistently, they do nothing to enhance the transitions. Willam Wilday directs his attractive cast in a straightforward and realistic manner. These elements, as well as a rather long party dance sequence, add up to a very non-campy show, which can’t be what Busch originally intended.

The strongest element of this production, Tim Herzog has the right look (bronzed bodybuilder muscles), the right commanding stage presence and the right amount of camp acting chops for his role as Kanaka, the King Surfer of this beach.  Some of the better performances include: Heidi Appe as Chicklet’s controlling mother, Caitlin Jemison as the glamorous movie “actress” (not “star”) Bettina Barnes, Emily Kottler as Chicklet’s BFF Berdine, and Isaac Deakyne as Yo-Yo, the surfer dude with a preference for interior design and setting hair.

Kudos to Morgan-Wixson for keeping in this production the scripted four-letter words and the guys kissing.

—Gil Kaan, Culture Spot LA

Performances continue through May 20 at the Morgan-Wixson Theatre, 2627 Pico Blvd., Santa Monica 90405. Show times are Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., and Sundays at 2 p.m. (midnight show on Saturday, May 12). For tickets, visit www.morgan-wixson.org, or call (310) 828-7519 for reservations.

Graham Skipper and Jesse Merlin in "Re-Animator: the Musical" at the Hayworth Theatre / Photo by Thomas Hargis

Based on the 1985 cult classic “H.P. Lovecraft’s Re-Animator,” “Re-Animator: the Musical,” currently at the Hayworth Theatre, takes enthusiastic audiences to a new high, or should I say a new low, as in the best of lowbrow.  Think Saturday afternoons in front of the old black-and-white television watching cheesy sci-fi flicks in which you can tell the attacking monster towering over the skyscrapers is really a 6-inch toy robot. If dodging spurting blood is a welcome challenge, this show’s perfect for you!

Director Stuart Gordon has the very talented cast singing, dancing and dying in multiple speeds of fast, faster and fastest — all to maximum effect.  The audience barely has time to breathe between laughs and screams and moans in this quick hour-and-a-half spectacle.

All these wonderful actors portray their insane characters with 150% craziness and conviction. (Well, only one character would be considered sane.) The cast is the original from the Steve Allen Theater, where the show enjoyed a long run.

The plot follows a uniquely brilliant medical student named Herbert West (played by the committed, manic Graham Skipper with a Charles Manson stare) who enrolls in med school to “steal” back his mentor’s medical discovery pilfered by its head professor Dr. Carl Hill.  You have to wonder: Is West brilliant? Is he insane? Is he brilliantly insane or insanely brilliant?

Jesse Merlin as Dr. Hill alternately creeps you out, then sings like a commanding operatic lead baritone. The med school is run by Dean Halsey performed by the master of a comic reaction, George Wendt from “Cheers.”

West rents the available basement of fellow med school student and sensitive hunk Dan Cain (Chris L. McKenna with stage presence to spare) who happens to be dating the dean’s beautiful daughter Meg Halsey (Rachel Avery is very effective in the sole role of sanity). One could marvel and appreciate the collective stunning vocal talents of West, McKenna, Merlin and Avery, if one weren’t so busy laughing and screaming — and dodging spurting blood.

All technical aspects in this production deserve shout outs for greatly adding to the enjoyment of this show: the multi-functioning one-door set piece designed by Laura Fine Hawkes, the music and clever lyrics by Mark Nutter, the perfectly timed sound effects interspersed between and during the melodic synthesizer stylings of David O, and the costumes reminiscent of the graveyard scene in “Night of the Living Dead” successfully executed by Joe Kucharski.

What you will most likely talk about after leaving the theater will be the very effectual special effects and makeup (from the brilliant minds of the original movie’s Tony Doublin, John Naulin and John Buechler, now joined by Greg McDougal and Tom Devlin).  These visual geniuses maximize the cheese factor with a lot of the aforementioned spurting fake blood, phony limbs, detaching eyeballs, decapitated heads, a cat puppet, scary hypodermics, and the amazing set of human innards that you have to see to believe.

Warning: DO NOT wear your designer clothes. DO put on the plastic ponchos the theater offers you. A lot of fake blood squirts into the audience!

This award-winning musical will be delighting and horrifying LA audiences for a limited run before performing in New York and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

—Gil Kaan, Culture Spot LA

Performances continue through July 8 at the Hayworth Theatre, 2511 Wilshire Blvd., LA 90057. Show times are Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays at 8 p.m. and Saturdays at 7 and 10:30 p.m. For tickets, visit www.Plays411.com/reanimator, or call (323) 960-4442 for reservations.

Soprano Ailyn Perez (Mimi) and tenor Stephen Costello (Rodolfo) in LA Opera's production of Puccini's "La Bohème" / Photo by Robert Millard for LA Opera

With La Bohème, Puccini sought to write an opera in the fashionable verismo style that took as its subject everyday life and attempted to treat it in a realistic manner. While his opera dates from the mid-1890s, his source material was a series of stories written in the 1840s by Henri Murger, which depicted real people and real places in Paris’ Left Bank — Bohemia, as it was known. The Paris of this era was one before the wide tree-lined boulevards, good sewage and paving. In LA Opera’s revival production, the detailed sets provide an image of 19th-century Bohemia that is “realistic” in its ramshackle appearance and utter impoverishment, but the opera’s internal logic can be a bit puzzling in other ways.

You might wonder what a bunch of Italians — speaking Italian — are doing in 1840s Paris. Or you may be confused by how the seemingly greatest love of all time has collapsed a matter of minutes later. No matter, merely details. It is refreshing, however, to see a cast of La Bohème that is youthful enough to be believable. Too often, we see geriatric 50-somethings trying to make us believe that they are the struggling young romantics that the opera depicts. Suspending disbelief can be a chore in these cases.

The uniformly young artists we see onstage here may have something to do with LA Opera’s recent penchant (necessity?) for eschewing big-name stars (excepting LA Opera’s own Plácido Domingo) in favor of lesser-known or emerging opera voices. At least three of the principal singers here have come out of the Domingo-Thornton Young Artists program. Of particular note is Janai Brugger, the 2012 winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, who is remarkably good as Musetta. Her voice is powerful and hall-filling, and I was particularly struck by her acting. Flirty one minute and petulant the next, she is just plain fun to watch. Please be aware, though, that she shares this role with another singer, the striking Valentina Fleer.

Something else unusual about the cast is the fact that the two main characters —Rodolfo and Mimi, played by Stephen Costello and Ailyn Perez — are husband and wife in real life. Their easy chemistry and solid vocal performances are another tick in the plus column for this production. I have to say, even though I shrink from clowns in general, I enjoyed watching the character of Parpignol, the toy vendor, who is presented as an orange-haired, face-painted scarecrow.

Director Gregory Fortner has made some nice tweaks to this production. Act II at the Cafe Momus is a wonderful riot of color, confetti, crowds and confusion that reaffirms just what it is about this opera that makes it one of the most popular of all time. Only a curmudgeon could be unmoved by all the charivari. Perhaps the strongest moment of all comes at the end of Act III where there is a masterful vocal and dramatic interplay between Rodolfo and Mimi, who are pledging eternal love, and Marcello and Musetta, who are concurrently breaking up. I also like the effect, used at least twice, of actors walking offstage as they complete their duets at the end of scenes, leaving us with a nicely modulated fade-out.

As always, Puccini’s music is charming and easy to like. Conductor Patrick Summers, in his LA Opera debut, understands the drama in the music and uses his percussionist to great effect with impressive use of the thunderous large (bass) tympani. Side note for music buffs: This is one of the few “classic” operas that you can hear on disc with its original conductor. It was a young Arturo Toscanini who was on stage in the 1896 debut in Turin, and his 1946 RCA Victor recording of this opera is still available.

By all means, get out to see La Bohème and bring your less-opera-savvy friends — they will very likely enjoy it too. In the meantime, I’ll be at the Cafe Momus, nursing an absinthe.

—David Maurer, Culture Spot LA

LA Opera’s La Bohème is at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion through June 2. Visit www.laopera.com.

The New York Philharmonic with Music Director Alan Gilbert debuted at Disney Hall on May 9, 2012. / Photo courtesy of LA Phil

Shocking as it may seem, although many of the world’s great orchestras have visited Walt Disney Concert Hall in the almost nine years since it officially opened, the New York Philharmonic hasn’t been one of them. That is, until May 9 when they came to town led by their fairly recently appointed music director, Alan Gilbert. (Gilbert and Gustavo Dudamel became directors of their respective orchestras at about the same time in 2009. The scuttle was that the NY Phil was also interested in Dudamel before LA Philharmonic Association President Deborah Borda scooped him up.) There was eager anticipation in the air not only about the NY Phil, but also about Gilbert. Conscious or not, on this evening Angelenos wanted to compare their young music director with ours (who sat in the audience for the first half of the concert).

The program consisted of three works, including the Carnival Overture by Dvorák; the West Coast premiere of the Piano Concerto No. 2 by Finnish composer and NY Phil Composer in Residence Magnus Lindberg, with soloist and frequent Disney Hall guest Yefim Bronfman; and the Symphony No. 4 in F minor by Tchaikovsky.

The concert opened with the Carnival Overture, which has been performed twice in Disney Hall this season (The other time was by Neeme Järvi and the LA Phil). Gilbert’s interpretation was interesting in that he seemed to downplay the horns, trumpets, and trombones in favor of a stronger string presence in this otherwise brassy showpiece. In fact, at times I had to strain to hear the trumpets and trombones, especially in the last section where they are usually more present. Gilbert also played with the tempo, dramatically slowing it down in the Andantino con moto section, with very nice solo playing by the principal flutist Robert Langevin, principal English horn player Philip Myers, and Concertmaster Glenn Dicterow, and then speeding it up more than is marked in the score in the coda. Although there were moments of brilliance, the overall effect was less than what one would expect from such a rousing concert overture.

It is difficult to comment on a newly composed piece, especially a piano concerto which, as Lindberg himself has observed “is one of those genres that has such a load of history.” Indeed. One thinks immediately of the piano concertos of Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev and Shostakovich. Lindberg’s second concerto certainly matches many of those in its length, orchestration, and demands on the soloist, which are nothing short of Herculean. However, as a traditional listener, I looked, mostly in vain, for some melody or phrase to latch on to. There were certainly tonal motives that were repeated. And the concerto, while structurally modern, does contain recognizable tempos. After all is said and done, one probably has to listen to such a work several times before fully appreciating it, and that is unlikely to happen for most listeners.

What can be said, however, is that whether or not one understood or even liked the concerto, Bronfman’s performance was astounding. The power of Bronfman’s bear-like stature was transferred to his playing, especially in the frequent forte chords in the low registers. It was all the more impressive because Bronfman was sight-reading the piano part, having premiered it with the NY Phil only six days earlier.

Other than Bronfman’s playing, the highlight of the evening was the Tchaikovsky. This, I think, is what the audience expected and what they got: a sensitive but, at the same time, riveting performance of this warhorse symphony.

Tchaikovsky dedicated the symphony A mon meilleur ami (To my best friend), referring, of course, to his patron, Nadezhda von Meck, whom he never met. As Tchaikovsky noted, the symphony centers around the first movement, which he described as “the best movement” and the one which introduces “the seed of the whole symphony”: Fate.

Gilbert and his band gave the Disney Hall audience a rendition that would be difficult to match. He crafted the first movement expertly, masterfully contrasting the powerful fateful theme at the beginning with the more delicate sections, which he caressed with loving care, bringing the movement to a rousing conclusion. The other three, shorter movements were also gems each in their own right. Again, Gilbert took some liberties with the tempos, but it worked marvelously. And, unlike in the Dvorák, the brass were bold and loud just as Tchaikovsky intended.

After several curtain calls, Gilbert reappeared and launched into an encore version of the Corsair Overture by Berlioz, played livelier than usual, but intended to capitalize on the audience’s already-giddy mood.

The verdict based on this performance is that Gilbert has taken the oldest orchestra in the country, and one of the only orchestras with many first chairs with international name recognition, and made it sound young and vibrant.

If any of the concertgoers in the audience thought that New Yorkers got the short end of the stick by not landing Dudamel and settling for Gilbert, the performance last night demonstrated that both the LA Phil and the NY Phil hit the jackpot with their respective young conductors.

—Henry Schlinger, Culture Spot LA