Out West Arts: Performance at the end of the world

L.A. has always been home to refugees, culturally and otherwise, from just about everywhere else. And yet out-of-towners can sometimes unfairly dominate local stages. So before you spend one more second or one more dollar on a performance from some visiting artists, how about getting to know some of the great home grown music and performance in town in the next week or so. Here’s some things to consider. On Friday April 13, one of the other major axes of Los Angeles’ new music scene, the what’s next ensemble, will present two one act chamber operas at Royal-T in Culver City. The program includes Michael Gordon’s Van Gogh and Shaun Naidoo’s Nigerian Spam. Yes, Naidoo’s piece is what it sounds like, a setting of the variant faux hard-luck stories from Nigeria that clog email boxes daily around the world. The piece is scored for percussion and electronics and will be performed by Nick Terry of the Los Angeles Percussion Quartet. The show is only $10 and a great chance to hear what local artists are making right here.

If new art music isn’t your thing, how about some of the funniest and sharpest performance artists around. The unassailable Miss Ayana Hampton and her director/collaborator Clayton Farris have had their current production The Morning After Show extended at the Bootleg Theater through this weekend. I’ll be reporting on the show later, but if their prior outing in L.A. are any indication, this show, especially at $20 a person, is a great deal. It will show on the 12th through the 14th this weekend.

I’d encourage you to pick up tickets for the world premiere of Julie Adolphe’s new chamber opera, Sylvia at the Lost Studio on La Brea this Saturday and Sunday the 14th and 15th, but there’s no point in that the tickets have already been spoken for. This ambitious chamber sized piece recounts a story of therapy, childhood trauma and the children of Holocaust survivors.

And even though it technically falls in next weekend on April 28th, Isaac Schankler and Aron Kallay will present the latest program form People Inside Electronics at Beyond Baroque in Venice. The program entitled Misfits and Hooligans is a co-production with Catalysis Projects and was organized by Veronika Krausas. The evening includes a wide variety of pieces for the outliers of the instrument world from accordions to toy pianos including pieces form Schankler, Krausa, and others. Check out their site for more detail.

And if you don’t want to go out, you can always stay at home and download the new recording of Daniel Corral’s Zoophilic Follies. (As pictured above) Corral’s chamber opera about Daedalus and his relationship and work for King Minos was first seen in September 2011 as part of the REDCAT New Original Works Festival. The substantial support of musicians from Timur and the Dime Museum as well as the puppet theater collective Tandem contributed to this highly ambitious piece that has now been recorded with the original soloists including Timur Bekbosunov, Maesa Rae, Abby Travis, and Dorian Wood. The recording, which includes a full libretto with the download, highlights Corral’s sly and accessible score and the witty libretto of Sibyl O’Malley. The performance is enthusiastic with clear, well-balanced sound and even when the vocals flag, the charm of the piece remains intact. So support your local artists and get out there this weekend.

Labels: In the Wings