Being an opera lover in Los Angeles is a lot like being a Red Sox fan. As hard as they try we never make it to the World Series, let alone the playoffs. The Chandler family who owned the LA Times, and in particular Dorothy “Buffie” Chandler who raised the money to build the Music Center downtown, and put her name on its biggest theater there in a stunning display of humility, weren’t opera fans. They loved the LA Philharmonic and, of course, we had to have a suitable holy shrine for the Oscar ceremony because this is an industry town. The New York City Opera would visit in the summers from ‘66 to ‘82 but the Chandlers, and Buffie in particular, actually discouraged an opera company. We had to essentially wait for her to slip into senility before someone could start one. That finally happened in 1986 when Peter Hemmings and Placido Domingo started the LA Opera and things began to change. Very gradually. Read more »
“…LA Opera’s 2010/11 25th Anniversary Season will continue with Benjamin Britten’s suspenseful masterpiece The Turn of the Screw, opening at 7:30pm on Saturday, March 12, 2011 . . . . Irish mezzo-soprano Anne Murray makes her Company debut as the housekeeper Mrs. Grose, the governess’ only ally.” (Los Angeles Opera press release)
I guess we all should have seen this one coming.
Cher Public