Blue Saturday
A grand concert from Angel Blue has Patrick Mack wondering, “where’s her crossover album?”
la opera
The Women are like that
A stylish and funny Così fan tutte at LA Opera is a pretty glam affair, according to Patrick Mack.
Mixte blessings
I was just moderately excited when LA Opera announced that French tenor Benjamin Bernheim would be coming to concertize at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, 90210.
My Verona
It surprises even me how some operas have eluded me in live performance even after lo, these many years. One of them is Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette.
Star of the shoji screen
My vision may have been slightly blurry at the end.
Turandot
James Conlon conducts a raved about performance from Los Angeles earlier this spring featuring Angela Meade, Russell Thomas, Guanqun Yu, and Morris Robinson
Highway 1, USA & The Dwarf
James Conlon conducts an eclectic double bill of William Grant Still and Alexander Zemlinsky featuring Nicole Heaston, Norman Garrett, Chaz’men Williams-Ali, Rodrick Dixon, Erica Petrocelli, Kristinn Sigmundsson, and Emily Magee recorded in Los Angeles last spring
The eras tour
She can’t put her foot on the gas the way she used to but there’s still plenty of fuel in that tank.
Dinosaur surviving the crunch
I have a confession and you may need to sit down for it: Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Evita was one of the gateway drugs to my eventual opera fandom.
Pulling some strings
When my press invite came for the Book of Mountains and Seas, the collaboration between Chinese born contemporary composer Huang Ruo, the vocal ensemble Ars Nova Copenhagen, and master puppeteer and production designer Basil Twist, I was in.
Champagne tastes
Oh, La traviata, how do I love thee? Let me count the recordings.
Small but mighty
One of the first things James Conlon did when he took over the reins as Music Director of LA Opera was create the “Recovered Voices” project, producing operas that had been suppressed by the Nazis.
Flores para los muertos
Despite this being the first full-length opera for Gabriela Lena Frank, there’s no lack of experience across the creative team which, along with favorable reviews for the production, contributed to high levels of anticipation.
You’re better off without me, mein Hair
I hate to say I nearly cringe at the thought of Gioachino Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia.
They’re projecting
I love it, truly, just not that much.
Fifty shades of Domingo
LA Opera opened their 30th season with a pairing of two of their most popular productions, both of which were initially staged by filmmakers not unfamiliar with the vagaries of our industry outpost here in Hollywoodland.
Win a Free Ticket to Opening Night at the Met!
Quinn Kelsey and Lise Davidsen star in the Met's new Macbeth. We're giving away one ticket, so screw your courage to the sticking place and enter now!
I’ll take the fall
The days are getting shorter, but you can keep the prattle going this fall’s Talk of the Town! You will, you can, you must join in the discussion about: Great mezzo soprano performances (October),
Gained in translation (November), Teleport me back to… (December).
