Out West Arts: Performance at the end of the world

Yes, I’m a bit behind. But it’s never too late to catch up on what’s going on around town performance wise this November. There’s a lot of new(er) music leading off this months picks starting with the highly anticipated full scale performance of David Lang’s the little match girl passion that will headline the Los Angeles Master Chorale’s concert on the 13th. A four-voice chamber version of the work wowed the audience at Jacaranda last January and the show is one of the top picks this month. And speaking of Jacaranda, Santa Monica's first name in new music will host the great Calder Quartet on the 19th and 20th with a program dedicated to the music of Henryk Gorecki. Also high on the agenda are two performances from the L.A. new music collective wildUp on the 18th and 19th in Venice which will feature the music of Clarence Barlow among others. Another combination of experimental works from living composers will be highlighted when Vicki Ray gives her annual Piano Spheres recital at the Zipper Concert Hall on the 15th including a piece of her own. And lest we forget, Esa-Pekka Salonen will return to L.A. for two weeks of programming on the 25th. The first weekend will feature Beethoven and a world premiere from Anders Hillborg, Sirens. The following week will be the much anticipated premiere of the recently discovered Shostakovich operatic fragment Orango, which will arrived semi-staged on December 1. Katia and Marielle Labèque will also join the L.A. Philharmonic for a world premiere of a new double piano concerto from Richard Dubugnon starting on the 11th.

There’s other music of course. The other big L.A. Philharmonic program this month will feature the music of Handel under the direction of Emmanuelle Haïm starting on the 17th. Perhaps as far from Handel as possible will be the Bob Mould tribute concert on the 21st at the Walt Disney Concert Hall and an appearance by Feist at the Wiltern on the 12th in support of her latest release. There’s opera as well, as Los Angeles Opera continues its run of Gounod’s Romeo et Juliette starring Nino Machaidze and Vittorio Grigolo. And though not exactly operatic, former Love and Rockets frontman David J will come to REDCAT starting on the 30th with Silver for Gold a music-theater piece on Edie Sedgwick. I’ll be out of town briefly for some operatic reports as well from Chicago where Furlanetto and Stefan Margita will step into Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov on the 20th and the up and coming soprano Amber Wagner will take on the title role in Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos starting on the 19th. The first of December will bring me back to New York where the Metropolitan Opera will be offering up Jonas Kaufmann in Gounod’s Faust and a return of Handel’s Rodelinda

On the theater side, Shakespeare’s Globe Theater will return to the Broad Stage starting on the 12th with a production of The Comedy of Errors while A Noise Within will continue the celebration around their new Pasadena home with a production of O’Neill’s Desire Under the Elms on the 19th, which will run concurrently with their new production of Twelth Night. Center Theater Group will host the premiere of the new competitive cheerleading musical, Bring It On while the Taper continues their run of the dark comedy Vigil with Olympia Dukakis. In Culver City, the Kirk Douglas Theater will bring Charlayne Woodard‘s The Night Watcher starting on the 17th. All this and you’re still going to have to find time to start that Christmas shopping so get started and we’ll see you around town.

Labels: In the Wings