Out West Arts: Performance at the end of the world

As the gray of a Southern California June settles in, the Spring performing arts season sighs its last sigh before our real summer months kick in. There’s still a lot to take in around town, but it's also one of the prime times to consider getting out of town. The prime example of this is right up the Pacific Coast Highway where this year’s Ojai Music Festival will kick off for four days of adventurous 20th Century and contemporary music on June 7th. This year’s music director is Leif Oven Andsnes and he’s put together a great program that includes the West Coast premiere of John Luther Adams’ Inuksuit which will open the festival on Thursday with its dozens of percussionists spread throughout Liibbey Park. (The video above will give you an idea of what the show was like indoors at the Park Avenue Armory in New York last year.) There’s so much else though, and you can read further about the program and the festival's many guest artists who’ll be visiting Ojai in my interview with Mr. Andsnes from last month.

Further up the road in the Bay Area, there are some other high priority out-of-town events for the month. San Francisco Opera will present Verdi’s Attila starring Ferruccio Furlanetto in the title role on June 12th. But perhaps the bigger temptation will be John Adams' Nixon in China which will receive its company premiere on the 8th with an excellent cast that includes Brian Mulligan as Nixon. And if you are in town the weekend I will be, you’ll likely want to see the San Francisco Symphony who’ll be performing Bartok’s Duke Bluebeard’s Castle for three nights starting the 21st with Michelle DeYoung and Alan Held under Michael Tilson Thomas. (P.S. If you missed Kander and Ebb’s excellent The Scottsboro Boys in San Diego, don’t make the same mistake when the show comes to A.C.T. in San Francisco starting June 21st after finishing its run down south this coming weekend.)

If you want opera closer to home, June’s big offering down south will be Long Beach Opera’s production of Michael Nyman’s The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat which will receive the first of two performances on the 16th. There’s other music in town to put on your calendar. The PARTCH ensemble will return to REDCAT on the 14th with Bitter Music, another evening of music from the quintessential American outsider composers, Harry Partch. Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Mater Chorale will honor another revered composer with a tribute to Henryk Górecki at Walt Disney Concert Hall on the 10th. Meanwhile in Orange County, the Philharmonic Society welcomes Simone Dinnerstein who'll play on all Bach program on the 18th. There’s dance too when the Bolshoi Ballet comes to the Music Center starting on the 7th for five nearly sold out performances of Swan Lake.

There’s theater big and small of course. Center Theater Group’s Mark Taper Forum will present the world premiere of a new musical from Michael John LaChiusa, Los Otros starting on the 3rd. The Porters of Hellsgate will mount Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor starting on the 15th. Further south, the Old Globe Theater will kick off its summer festival season with Shakespeare’s Richard III on the 3rd, As You Like It on the 10th, and just for contrast, Inherit the Wind on June 17th. This year’s festival and two of the three productions will again be headed up by director Adrian Noble. Also in San Diegp, the LaJolla Playhouse will present the West Coast Premiere of J.T. Roger’s Blood and Gifts starting on the 12th. And if you’re looking for something even more adventurous, there is the return of Robert Cucuzza's take on Miss Julie, Cattywampus on the 22nd and Theatre Movement Bazaar's Anton's Uncles on the 8th both part of the South Coast Repertory Studio series. You may also want to consider one of the dozens of theatrical events this month that will take place this month as part of the Hollywood Fringe Festival focusing on the breadth of experimental theater in Los Angeles. I'll be constrained from participating myself this year and there are far too many shows to mention, but you can peruse their website for details. And before the month is out, you’ll want to see Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine’s A Missionary Position at REDCAT starting the 28th which examines the particular conflicts of gay identity in certain parts of Africa.

As for me, I’ll be catching up on some out of town opera in two very different locales. I’ll be in St. Louis Missouri for Opera Theater St. Louis’ festival season to report on the American premiere of Unsuk Chin’s spectacular Alice in Wonderland which starts June 13 as well as to catch their revival of Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd with Rod Gilfry in the title role which continues through the 24th. After that it’s off to Europe for 10 days which will stretch into July where I’ll be sampling a variety of offerings including the Royal Opera House’s now Kaufmann-less premiere of Berlioz’ Les Troyens on July 1 to be followed by Billy Budd and the new opera from Blur’s Damon Albarn, Dr. Dee both at English National Opera. In Paris, Emmanuelle Haïm will return to the Garnier to conduct a new production of Rameau’s Hippolyte et Aricie while the Bastille will welcome Renée Fleming in one of her signature roles as Strauss’ Arabella. The time away will be capped off with a regisseur tour de force all brought to us by the Komische Opera Berlin who’ll give us a Stefan Herheim vision of Handel’s Xerxes, Calixto Bieito’s double barreled view of Der Freischütz, and Andreas Homoki's takes on both Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, and Janacek’s The Cunning Little Vixen. Hopefully there's something here for a sunny start to your own performing arts summer.

Labels: In the Wings