Out West Arts: Performance at the end of the world

I saw a crappy play last night and decided rather than depress myself by writing about it, I’d rather finish up something positive. And that would be the Out West Arts top ten theater productions of 2011. I published the OWA picks for the year's top music events a few weeks ago, but the theater year went right up until the last minute, and the show I saw on New Year’s Eve made it onto the list, so it was worth the wait. As in previous years the theater list includes both straight plays, musicals, dance and comedy events. And while I recognize the division between the music list and the theater list is arbitrary, the intent was not to separate the two as much as provide space for theater performances that would always come in second after an opera or classical music performance in my own heart. So to give them their due, here are the things that most impressed me on stage in 2011.

1. Jerusalem by Jez Butterworth. Broadway, New York. By far the most ambitious, provocative and enjoyable play from last year was only that much more important given an unforgettable performance from the best stage actor working today, Mark Rylance. Funny and poignant this state of the nation play (that being England) managed to avoid any self-importance despite its dabbling in magical realism. A landmark play.

2. Let Me Down Easy written and performed by Anna Deavere Smith at The Broad Stage, Santa Monica, CA. The technique was quintessential Smith: a solo show where she recreates monologues from various real life interviews with persons famous and not. The subject was human frailty and the American healthcare system and its dysfunction. But the show was much more about the way we do and don't face death. Easily the most touching thing I saw all year.

3. One Man, Two Guvnors by Richard Bean. National Theater. London, UK. The oldest of Commedia dell’Arte gags and storylines are repackaged in England’s swinging sixties. Throw in the brilliant physical comedy of James Corden and a superb cast and you have hours of uninhibited laughter.

4. The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures by Tony Kushner. Public Theater, New York. Yes these neurotic characters can ramble on and on for quite a long time. But there were few moments this year that were as engaging as anything in Kushner’s expansive drama about a family and a country on the brink.

5. The Method Gun by Rude Mechs. Kirk Douglas Theater, Culver City, CA. This surreal and beautiful comedy about an imagined theater troupe spending years rehearsing a drastically abbreviated version of A Streetcar Named Desire without their guru and founder was surprising as much for its off kilter approach as for its warm heart. It was also the highlight of the first installment of the RADAR L.A. theater festival which will hopefully become a permanent feature in the city.

6. Uncle Vanya by Anton Checkhov. Sydney Theater Company, Kennedy Center, Washington, DC. A big star, like Cate Blanchett in a high profile role is one things. A whole company of performances just as great is rarer and these Australians’ only U.S. appearance was radioactive.

7. Circle Mirror Transformation by Annie Baker. South Coast Repertory, Costa Mesa, CA. Another theatrical comedy, Baker’s tale of the private pains and joys of students in a community center acting class unfolded with subtlety and a deft ease under the direction of Sam Gold.

8. The Tempest: Without a Body by Lemi Ponifasio. REDCAT. Los Angeles, CA. This avant-garde dance piece from Maori activist and choreographer Lemi Ponifasio grabbed audiences by the throat with its metallic noise soundtrack and ethereal visions that could turn menacing unexpectedly. REDCAT’s presentation of the work in L.A.’s historic downtown Million Dollar Theater was a brilliant and smart addition to these images that continue to lurk in the back of my mind.

9. The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare. Either the Public Theater production in New York or the Theater for a New Audience on tour at The Broad Stage. Santa Monica, CA. This tricky Shakespeare play got two magnificent big scale productions and two great and very different Shylocks in Al Pacino and F. Murray Abraham. Daniel Sullivan’s fresh and clear-eyed staging in New York deservedly made Lily Rabe into a much bigger star and Darko Tresnjak‘s contemporary Wall Street setting galvanized TNA’s urgent production.

10. Other Desert Cities by Jon Robin Baitz. Broadway, New York. An incredible cast fronted by the likes of Rachel Griffiths and Stockard Channing made this family drama and comedy especially enjoyable. The reassessment of the recent American past and how that history played out in individual lives made this an especially welcome new play.

Honorable Mention: The Druid Theater’s production of McDonagh’s The Cripple of Inishmaan at the Kirk Douglas Theater; Sondheim’s Follies on Broadway starring Bernadette Peters; Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia transferred from London to New York with Billy Crudup; Juan and John Robert Guenvuer Smith’s latest solo work on history and tolerance in Los Angeles at the Kirk Douglas Theater; Bill Rauch’s sharp, witty new Measure for Measure at The Oregon Shakespeare Festival; The SITI Company’s modern outdoor version of Euripides’ The Trojan Women at The Getty Villa; Kristoffer Diaz' The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity in its West Coast premiere at The Geffen Playhouse; Shakespeare’s Globe Theater’s revival of The Comedy of Errors at The Broad Stage; American Ballet Theater’s production of Shostakovich’s The Bright Stream on tour with Dance at the Music Center; and Faustin Leykula’s more more more ... future at REDCAT.

Labels: Best Of

In 2011, I once again spent more hours sitting in the dark looking at other people on a stage than I care to admit. But as always, there are moments that take a nothing evening and suddenly make it all seem worthwhile. So, as is the annual Out West Arts tradition, here’s the list of the 10 best things I saw on a stage this year that involved music. (The 2011 theater list won’t appear until January given that I have a number of new shows I’ll be seeing right up to the end of the month so stay tuned.)

1. Gerald Barry’s The Importance of Being Earnest with the Los Angeles Philharmonic conducted by Thomas Adès. 4/11. It’s a crime Barry isn’t a bigger name in music and opera and his setting of Earnest is exhibit A. A riotously funny musical version of Wilde’s play even in this concert version outshone everything else with its smashing plates and a bass singing Aunt Augusta. This opera should be on every opera company’s to do list and was easily the most fun I had at any show all year.

2. Wagnerian diamonds in the rough - James Levine conducting Die Walküre at The Metropolitan Opera on May 14th, 2011 and Nina Stemme’s Brünnhilde at San Francisco Opera 6/11. Even in not-so-great Wagner productions this year there were some causes for celebration. Despite Robert Lepage’s underwhelming production of the Ring at The Metropolitan Opera, this single performance of Die Walküre, which was projected as part of the company’s Live in HD series around the world, was just about as thrilling as opera gets. On the closing day of the Met’s season, music director James Levine led a ferocious performance raging against everything awful in the world. The odds were against him from a set that delayed the start of the show by nearly half an hour to his own health problems, which had led to many cancellations earlier, and then later on, in the year. In what increasingly looks like it may have been Levine’s last appearance in the Met pit, the beautifully conducted and sung performance was thrilling for all the high-wire, risk-taking, do-or-die human fragility that makes opera as exciting an art form as it is. Francesca Zambello’s Ring production in San Francisco only faired moderately better with less sensational musical qualities, with one very big exception: Nina Stemme. In California, she proved herself to be the world’s reigning Brünnhilde in her first complete cycles. Watch out Munich.

3. John Adams’ The Death of Klinghoffer at Opera Theater Saint Louis. 6/11. The best overall single opera performance I saw this year was Adams’ still controversial work about terrorism and humanism, which returned to the U.S. after an unusually lengthy hiatus. OTSL put together a production that caught all of the opera’s beauty including a phenomenal choral performance. There are few things more exciting than hearing music this beautiful come to life. It was a stirring and heart wrenching evening.

4. Esa-Pekka Salonen conducting the Los Angeles Philharmonic in Shostakovich’s Prologue to Orango and Symphony No. 4. 12/11. The best single orchestral performance I heard this year was a return appearance of Salonen to the orchestra he made famous with music that was funny, painful, tortured and insanely difficult in a way that communicates with the audience and holds together on an aesthetic level. Salonen has few rivals with this kind of program and his mastery that weekend made me ache over what has been lost in L.A. in his absence.

5. David Lang’s The Difficulty of Crossing a Field at Long Beach Opera. 6/11. This single act from Lang with musical accompaniment from a string quartet was both emotionally stirring and intellectually challenging. A meditation on memory and the weights of history, Crossing a Field got the kind of bold, fascinating treatment one has come to expect from Andreas Mitisek and his Long Beach company who create so much out of such limited resources that it should put most American opera houses to shame.

6. Sofia Gubaidulina’s Offertorium performed by the CalArts Music ensemble and wild Up with soloist Mark Menzies at REDCAT. 5/11. Gubaidulina made a rare personal appearance in Southern California this May in conjunction with performances of several of her works including Glorious Percussion with the L.A. Philharmonic. The most impressive of those was her large scale violin concerto that got an unimaginably loving and enthusiastic performance from CalArts students and faculty. Joining them was conductor Christopher Rountree, the leading force behind L.A.’s biggest, boldest collaboration of young musicians, wild Up that had a banner year playing just about everything they or you, could think of. Watch their space for more.

7. David Lang’s the little match girl passion at Jacaranda Music. 1/11 and with the Los Angeles Master Chorale. 11/11. Lang had quite a year in Southern California and his multi-prize winning treatment of The Little Match Girl got a stunning four-voice chamber performance under the auspices of the Westside’s new(er) music leader, Jacaranda Music. Months later, one of the soloists from that performance, Grant Gershon, led his regular ensemble, the Los Angeles Master Chorale in a version for full chorus. The two performances were strikingly different and emotionally devastating in completely different ways, a testament to Lang's writing as well as the talents of the various performers.

8. Rossini’s Il Turco in Italia at Los Angeles Opera. 2/11. LA Opera had a banner spring season including this masterful comedy with a superb cast including Nino Machaidze, Paolo Gavanelli, and Thomas Allen among others in a modern whimsical production from Christof Loy in one of his show’s first outings in the U.S. Once again LAO proved that taste is one of its biggest strengths in bringing a show that takes what is arguably a light entertainment and turns it into undoubtedly something far greater. You’d be just as well off on this item if you chose to substitute it for LA Opera’s production of Britten’s The Turn of the Screw from 3/11, which was equally as good in a Jonathan Kent production with Patricia Racette.

9. San Francisco Symphony’s performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 under Michael Tilson Thomas. 10/11. MTT and his orchestra proved that hard work and perseverance can pay off with a world-class performance of Mahler’s Third. Profound and perfectly proportioned, it was Mahler to be envied and aspired to by those of us in Southern California.

10. Beautiful Baroque singing everywhere you turned, from Philippe Jaroussky (10/11), Andreas Scholl (10/11), Lucy Crowe (5/11), Iestyn Davies (11/11), and Vivica Genaux (10/11). Everywhere I went this year, it was was consistently vocalists who specialize in Baroque music that impressed me most for some reason, often jaw-droppingly so. The U.S. debut of the year either has to go to Lucy Crowe who dominated Handel’s Hercules at Lyric Opera of Chicago, or it could just as easily be Iestyn Davies who gave a fantastic performance in Rodelinda at The Metropolitan Opera. The world’s leading countertenor, Andreas Scholl was in that same Rodelinda but his appearance with The English Concert in works of Purcell in Los Angeles was no less awe-inspiring. And within just days of this appearance, Philippe Jaroussky sang alongside Apollo’s Fire Orchestra with glorious tone at UCLA while Vivica Genaux was heard with the Philharmonia Baroque orchestra giving the best performance of “Agitata Da Due Venti” I’ll ever likely hear.

Honorable Mention: There were a number of other shows that could just have easily made the top ten this year including Lyric Opera of Chicago’s production of Boris Godunov, the return of Philip Glass’ Satyagraha to The Metropolitan Opera complete with protestors, Berg’s Wozzeck in either Santa Fe or New York, "Monodramas" at New York City Opera, Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande with Simon Rattle at The Metropolitan Opera, Mitsuko Uchida playing Schumann at Carnegie Hall, Gabriel Kahane’s Orinoco Sketches, which premiered on the L.A. Phil stage in the spring, wild Up playing punk rock and Barlow at Beyond Baroque, Thomas Adès conducting Stravinsky’s Les Noces with the L.A. Phil, Santa Fe Opera’s production of Vivaldi’s Griselda from the mind of Peter Sellars, and the glorious magnetic voice of Jonas Kaufmann be it in recital or as Siegmund.

Labels: Best Of

Scott Shepherd in Gatz Photo: Paula Court

If there was any theme to the best less-musically-oriented theatrical performances this year, it was that more is more. Many of the year’s highlights proved that scope and stamina can prove to be the deciding factor between success and failure on stage, and that numerous soft spots can often be outshone by a larger, greater project. But whether short or long, here’s a look back at my favorites in theater from 2010.

1) Gatz from Elevator Repair Service at The Public Theater, New York (10/10) A daylong marathon word-for-word reading of The Great Gatsby doesn’t sound like a great theater event, but a good book turned out to be the best thing I saw on stage all year. The ERS managed to make this transposition of Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby from New England in the 20s to a modern day shabby office a sublime live experience. At the heart of this show is a magnificent performance from Scott Shepherd that provides both an everyman link to the narrative about the darker side of the American dream. So simple and yet so profound.

Members of Wunderbaum recreate the work of Paul McCarthy in Looking for Paul Photo: REDCAT/Wunderbaum

2) Looking for Paul from Wunderbaum at REDCAT (11/10) The return visit from this experimental Dutch theater collective was easily the funniest and most audacious thing I saw all year. In a broadly tongue-in-cheek exploration of issues related to public art and performance, the troupe took on the work of Los Angeles art legend Paul McCarthy both as a source of conflict and wellspring of inspiration. The recreation of McCarty’s take on Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? that closed the evening was disgusting (in a good way) and unforgettable.

Zachary Quinto and Billy Porter Photo: Joan Marcus/Signature Theater 2010

3) Angles in America by Tony Kushner at The Signature Theater in New York (10/10) While it may not have lived up to everyone’s biggest expectations of a high-profile Broadway transfer, this intimate, stripped down revival proved undoubtedly that Kushner’s play is as important now as ever. And that there is a public very eager to experience all seven hours of it. A wonderful revival by any measure.

Judith Ivey and Patch Darragh Photo: Craig Schwartz/CTG 2010

4) The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams at The Mark Taper Forum (9/10) This imported revival from New York included one of the best individual performances of the year from Judith Ivey who took a role known for its lack of histrionics and inviting the audience to identify directly with her, warts and all. The beautiful lighting, at times with nothing more than candles, created theatrical magic in the darkest and shabbiest of settings.

5) How Can You Stay in the House All Day and Not Go Anywhere? from Ralph Lemon/Cross Performance at REDCAT (10/10) Lemon and his troupe brought their cutting edge movement of freedom to Los Angeles in a multi-layered evening that covered loss, love and Tarkovsky’s Solaris. Undoubtedly the most thoughtful, complex, and amazing dance performance of the year.

Olga Wehrly and Tadhg Murphy in Penelope Photo: Robert Day

6) Penelope by Enda Walsh from the Druid Theater Company, St. Ann's Warehouse, New York (11/10) Homer's Odyssey gets the Walsh treatment with his characters' surreal gift of gab in this spectacular new play receiving its U.S. Premiere. Walsh loves to go for the biggest of issues, and this meditation on why we pursue love at all was hugely successful in a very good looking production.

7) American Night by Culture Clash at Oregon Shakespeare Festival (8/10) Los Angeles’ own comedy and theater collective traveled up to Oregon for the debut of a new work that kicked off the Festival’s “American Revolutions” initiative with the first in a series of play commissions on topics pertinent to American History. The show was one of many signs this year of the significant stamp that artistic director Bill Rauch is making on the festival. This hysterical and unabashedly political view of American history set a high standard for what’s to follow. It should be noted, as well, that OSF presented a superb version of Lynn Nottage’s Ruined this season.

Cloudia Swann and Tom McKay in Canopy of Stars from The Great Game: Afghanistan Photo: John Haynes

8) The Great Game: Afghanistan by various authors for the Tricycle Theater Company at Berkeley Repertory Theater (10/10) Another day long adventure that was equal parts teach-in, policy paper, and theatrical drama. This British import compiled of 12 brief one-acts by various authors reviewing the wide scope of Afghan history succeeded largely because of its perseverance and intensity, covering a topic in a huge amount of detail. It was unabashedly opinionated and certainly not what all audiences wanted to hear, but it was incredibly engrossing theater.

9) Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo by Rajiv Joseph at The Mark Taper Forum (4/10) The return of Joseph’s masterful tale of the Iraq war to Los Angeles the year after its local premiere proved that the play was in fact deserving of the Pulitzer Prize that it was passed over for this year. It will travel to Broadway in the Spring and will hopefully survive the requisite star casting of Robin Williams in the title role. Luckily, the rest of the original cast will stay intact, including the great Arian Moayed. So if you haven’t seen it yet, this should be one of your picks for 2011.

from Truth, Revised Histories, Wishful Thinking, and Flat Out Lies
Photo: Steven Gunther/John Jasperse Company 2010

10) Truth, Revised Histories, Wishful Thinking, and Flat Out Lies by John Jasperse Company at REDCAT (4/10) A vibrant, visually witty evening of dance from Jasperse and his troupe with more wry visual gags than most comedies can muster with pages of dialog. All that and sexy to boot. Another feather in REDCAT's cap this year.

Honorable Mentions: I'd be remiss not to mention The Wooster Group's important contributions to the theater scene here in L.A. this year with two visits at REDCAT. Elizabeth LeCompte and her troupe had two offerings this year, a revival of one of the group's oldest works, North Atlantic, and, in the Fall, the U.S. Premiere of their take on Tennessee Williams' Vieux Carré. Both shows were visually interesting and thoughtful. And while I found Vieux Carre´ surprisingly straight-forward compared to prior outings, the technologically savvy performances are always worth seeing.

Labels: Best Of

Linda Watson and Vitalij Kowaljow Photo: Monika Rittershaus/LAO

Oh it’s that time of year again. And, although my performance schedule for the last two weeks is in significant flux, I feel it’s time to make the call for this year’s top ten primarily music-related events. 2010’s denominator included 236 complete live performances of which 163 were either operas or musical concerts, be they “classic” or otherwise. (That’s 72 operas, and 91 concerts) Here’s what I thought was worth remembering this year:

1. Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen at L.A. Opera. 7/10 A monumental production from the mind of Achim Freyer that was so much more than an opera production. Not everything in the course of these many hours was perfect (Linda Watson and John Treleaven to name two), but Freyer managed to produce a work of art of his own that changed the way you thought about Wagner’s Ring. That is if you were willing to listen and think about something new. Like much great art, it was met with divisive opinions and sadly was not committed to video. But the company stuck its neck out in virtually every way for a huge artistic success. The only question now is how long we’ll have to wait for the show to return.

Karita Mattila and Gerd Grochowski Photo: Cory Weaver

2. Janáček’s The Makropulos Case at San Francisco Opera. 11/10 Operatic perfection - pure and simple. What’s more, Karita Mattila gave a definitive performance of Emilia Marty and further cemented her stature as an operatic legend with perhaps one of the most vocally and physically comprehensive performances you’ll ever see. Watch out New York, she’s on her way back with this achievement in tow.

Nina Stemme and Mark Delavan
Photo: Terrence McCarthy/SFO 2010

3. Nina Stemme’s Brünnhilde in Die Walküre at San Francisco Opera. 6/10 Talk about comprehensively great performances. Stemme made it clear that with Christine Brewer on the sidelines, no one currently singing this Mt. Everest of roles can even come close to her. Stemme manages so much beauty, ease, and outright lightness in this part that it actually sounded like the proverbial bel canto music Wagner thought he was writing. Sadly, New York, you’ll be missing out on this one for the foreseeable future. Get your San Francisco Opera Ring Cycle tickets now.

4. Georg Friedrich Haas’ String Quartet No. 3, subtitled In Iij. Noct performed by the JACK Quartet at Monday Evening Concerts. 4/10 The daring young men of the JACK Quartet let it all go for this hour long adventure played in total darkness. The MEC team spared no expense in creating an environment that was more than completely darkened, but one where it didn’t matter if your eyes were open or closed, it all looked the same. The audience, like the players were forced to listen in new ways and I was astonished to discover how dependent I am on visual cues even when listening to music.

Paulo Szot in The Nose
Photo: Ken Howard/Met Opera 2010

5. Shostakovich’s The Nose at The Metropolitan Opera in New York. 3/10 William Kentridge’s irreverent, marauding production of this neglected masterpiece proved a perfect environment for the talents of baritone Paulo Szot in the leading role. Another opera where the art of the stage craft rivaled the art of the opera itself.

6. Purcell’s The Fairy Queen at BAM in New York. 3/10 William Christie and Les Arts Florissants returned to New York with the hit of the 2009 Glyndebourne Festival in the spring. A visually stunning, often outright hysterical staging of a sometimes ungainly work, Christie was in his element with Baroque music that sounded as lovely as one imagines it did hundreds of years ago.

Mojca Erdmann and Johannes Martin Kränzle Photo: Ruth Walz

7. Wolfgang Rhim’s Dionysus and String Quartets at the Salzburg Festival. 8/10 Rhim got the attention he deserves at a festival not nearly large enough to contain the music of this most prolific of living composers. Even the small fractions I was able to see left me desiring much more, though. His world premiere opera based on Nietzsche and his writings in a productions from Jonathan Meese was a hallucinatory shot in the arm. This was the life of the mind and easily the year's best new opera. The Arditti Quartet's take on his middle period String Quartets, also performed at the festival, was equally remarkable.

8. Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings at the Wiltern Theater. 6/10 No one does it quite like Ms. Jones and the tightest band in America. The players returned to Los Angeles for an evening of their incomparable soul stylings that easily surpassed any other popular music I saw this year. (Though the xx on their first U.S. tour weren’t too shabby either.)


9. Louis Andriessen’s La Commedia with the ASKO/Schönberg Ensemble. 4/10 I know this is a bit of cheating considering this piece made the list in 2008 with the same soloists and conductor Reinbert De Leeuw. But this major recent operatic work, receiving its U.S. Premiere in a concert version without Hal Hartley’s companion video installation, was an event to remember. One of the great operas of the new century thus far. And if you don't believe me, just ask the folks who gave the Grawemeyer Award to Andriessen for this very piece this year.

10. Either Adams’ Nixon in China at Long Beach Opera 3/10 or Berg’s Lulu at the Metropolitan Opera. 5/10 You can choose between the two – I can’t. Long Beach Opera continued to thumb its nose at a bad economy with a big, good-looking production of a major 20th-century work on a shoe-sting budget managing to outclass 95% of everything put on stage by more comfortably funded organizations. Meanwhile, the Met used its formidable resources to dust off a relic of a production which was then lavished with musical qualities beyond compare, including the conducting of Fabio Luisi.

Most Overrated: I had a hard time with Anne Sofie von Otter nearly everywhere I saw her this year. Despite a reasonable Countess Geschwitz in that Met Opera Lulu, she was the weakest link in a number of concert performances including a French program from the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France with Myung-Whun Chung and then got drowned out by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Esa-Pekka Salonen as Judith in an otherwise superb version of Bartok’s Duke Bluebeard’s Castle. Here’s wishing her a better 2011.

Dudamel high point of the year: Leading Peter Lieberson’s Neruda Songs in 4/10 with Kelley O’Connor. Gustavo Dudamel continued to struggle in the first full calendar year in his tenure as music director with the L.A. Philharmonic. He and the orchestra were critically drubbed just about everywhere they went on a U.S. tour in the spring after an essentially free ride in the press here at home. Other writers have begun to question the effect of the allegedly small amounts of time he’s spent with the orchestra so far. The PR machine rolls on uninterrupted, however, with a plan for live concert broadcasts to theaters around the country next year and more DVDs than you can shake a stick at. Dudamel does have moments every now and then, though, and Lieberson’s Neruda Songs, which was featured as part of the “Americas and Americans” festival was one of those moments where you were tempted to think that there still might be some way he can make his tenure here something really worth hearing. His conducting during a concert performance of Bizet’s Carmen at the Hollywood Bowl this summer wasn’t half-bad either.

Honorable mentions: Riccardo Muti leading Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice and Claus Guth’s take on a start-studded Don Giovanni in Salzburg. The magnificent Lieder recital of Anja Harteros also in Salzburg. The Metropolitan Opera’s Der Rosenkavalier from way back in 1/10 and the Met Opera orchestra's two appearances at Carnegie Hall this year with Diana Damrau and later Pierre Boulez conducting Schoenberg’s Erwartung. Schreker’s Die Gezeichneten and Catan’s Il Postino, also helped to round out one of L.A. Opera's strongest years ever. San Francisco Opera’s production of Werther from 9/10. Messiaen’s Harawi presented by Piano Spheres with Vicki Ray and Elissa Johnston in 4/10. Oh, and the sound of bicycles swooshing by on Grand Avenue downtown in Mauricio Kagels’s Eine Brise in one of the many fun moments brought to us courtesy of Monday Evening Concerts.

Next up – the theater.

Labels: Best Of

When you’re talking about good parts, it’s hard to avoid the topic of Jonas Kaufmann. At least in the world of opera these days. One of opera’s hottest commodities has only made a handful of U. S. appearances as his star has been on the rise with only a few Don Josés and Cavaradossis at the Met Opera this year. In 2011, his stateside schedule includes Siegmund in that same house’s new Die Walküre in the spring as well as a recital tour that will bring him to the West Coast at Cal Performances in Berkeley and Los Angeles Opera. But in the meantime, the fantastic Mr. Kaufmann appears as a feast for both eyes and ears in not one, but two new 2010 DVDs. First is Massenet’s Werther from Paris under the baton of Michel Plasson, a production that produced rave reviews and minted countless more Kaufmann fans. (There's a sample of this below.)


What's more, everything Kaufmann puts his voice to seems to become his. In fact, his excellence in the above mentioned French and Italian roles makes it almost easy to overlook his superiority in roles in his native tongue. This year it was all about his currently best-in-the-world Lohengrin that he sang at Bayreuth this summer after many rave reviews the prior year in Munich. The Munich production with the fantastic Anja Harteros in a Richard Jones production conducted by Kent Nagano was perhaps the best DVD release of the year.

Labels: Best Of

The mystique around Christine Brewer seemed to cement itself in the collective mind of classical music listeners this year. Even The New York Times’ Anthony Tommasini lamented this year how the most important Wagnerian soprano of her generation has made only rare appearances in Wagner’s great roles and has yet to sing a complete Brünnhilde anywhere. We on the West Coast have been spoiled in the number and frequency of her appearances among friends like Donald Runnicles and the folks at Santa Fe Opera. Her Isolde, which she performed with Esa-Pekka Salonen and the L.A. Philharmonic on two separate occasions in 2006 and 2007 remain all-time high water marks in my history listening to music. (She also sang the role in 2006 in San Francisco under Runnicles.) This year she gave a searing performance of Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder in June in L.A. and appeared in Britten’s Albert Herring in Santa Fe over the summer. But perhaps her biggest gift to us this year was her fantastic disc of Strauss scenes on Telarc with Donald Runnicles conducting the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Definitely among the year’s best. (The disc also features a cameo from Eric Owens, a bass-baritone who proved in the Metropolitan Opera's new Das Rheingold in September that he has an amazing career in Wagner ahead of him.) And if you need more evidence, below is a sample of Brewer from an appearance as The Dyer's Wife in Strauss's Die Frau ohne Schatten from the Lyric Opera of Chicago in 2007.

Labels: Best Of, Christine Brewer

Perhaps my favorite recording of the year, came from none other than the Los Angeles Philharmonic under former music director Esa-Pekka Salonen. It’s a live performance and world premiere recording of Arvo Pärt’s Symphony No.4 (on the ever impressive ECM label) commissioned by the L.A. Philharmonic and first performed here in early 2009. It’s a major work that is quiet, subtle, and meditative at turns. At the premiere, Pärt cast the work as a statement about freedom, dedicating it to Mikhail Khodorkovsky and using the occasion to point out the ways in which rights are abrogated in even the most supposedly civilized parts of the world. The symphony is both elegant and filled with the spiritual overtones Pärt’s work is best known for. And somehow, it even got a well-deserved Grammy nomination this year for Best Classical Contemporary Composition from an organization not known for its foresight and judgment in this corner of the music world. It should be a shoo-in for the prize, but even if it is not, you don’t need to be left out. There's a sample of the second movement from the Philharmonia Orchestra under EPS below.

Labels: Best Of, LA Philharmonic 10/11

As you may have noticed, I’ve been out of commission a lot over the last two weeks for reasons I am certain that you really do not want to hear about. The worst of these tribulations, however, has resulted in my eighty-sixing my New York sojourn this December, so I will not have the originally promised coverage of a number of items including the Met Opera’s revival of Pelléas et Mélisande under the guidance of Simon Rattle. So instead, over the next few weeks I’m going to highlight some of the best and worst of 2010 leading up to the Out West Arts top ten music and theater events of the year. To kick things off, I’d like to highlight two of the more notable DVD releases of this past year, both from Los Angeles Opera. The company has had a huge year artistically, although admittedly not without its controversies. One of the more notable fruits of their recent labors are a pair of DVD’s produced as part of music director James Conlon’s “Recovered Voices” series. Conlon has helmed several productions of operas from composers adversely affected by Germany’s Third Reic,h and two of these shows have made it to video for those of you who may have missed them.


First is a 2008 double bill featuring Viktor Ullmann’s brief comedy Der zerbrochene Krug and Alexander Zemlinsky’s far more substantial Der Zwerg. The latter features outstanding performances from Rodrick Dixon and Mary Dunleavy in a striking and quite affecting production inspired by Diego Velazquez’ Las Meninas. Conlon’s advocacy for Zemlinsky’s score is evident, and this is an excellent addition to the available recordings of the composer’s work. The other “Recovered Voices” project now out on DVD is a 2009 production of Walter Braunfels’ Die Vögel. Another operatic rarity, Braunfels’ fable proves to be musically substantial under Conlon’s attention, and the performance features a rising-star in Brandon Jovanovich. Like Der Zwerg, the production is directed by Darko Tresnjak, but this time around he is markedly less successful. Hampered by the steeply raked set for the concurrently running production of Achim Freyer’s vision of Wagner’s Ring cycle, Tresnjak creates a rather cloying, kitschy world for his mythological characters. Still, this is beautifully played and such a rarity is worth owning even if not in an ideal staging.

Labels: Best Of, LA Opera 10/11

Stephen Mangan and Amanda Root in The Norman Conquests
Photo: Joan Marcus 2009

Sometimes silence is golden. The following is the Out West Arts companion list of 2009’s top theater events from where I was sitting. It was a banner year for excellent plays and of the 87 theater events I saw, these were my favorites.

1. The Norman Conquests by Alan Ayckbourn. Circle in the Square Theater, New York. 4/09. That Ayckbourn’s three interlocking plays under the eye of Matthew Warchus can turn 70s British sex comedy into something profound about modern life is almost as stupefying as the quality of the ensemble cast that pulls this off. Riotously funny and unexpectedly moving.

The cast of Arcadia

2. Arcadia by Tom Stoppard. Duke of York's Theater, London. 6/09. A very, very close second for number 1. A modern masterpiece given a loving and detailed performance that catches the play's humor and intellectual rigor. This is English theater that is intellectual in the best sense of the word that doesn't need to be stood on its head to get it's point across. It doesn’t get much better than this.

Arian Moayed (below) and Hrach Titizian in Bengal Tiger
Photo: Craig Schwartz/CTG 2009

3. Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo by Rajiv Joseph. Kirk Douglas Theater, Los Angeles. 5/09. The first great American play about the Iraq war. Wildly ambitious with its blend of comedy and magical realism. The best news is that it will return to the larger Mark Taper Forum in spring 2010. Don't miss your next chance to see it.

4. The Walworth Farce and The New Electric Ballroom by Enda Walsh. The Druid Theater Company on tour at UCLA, Los Angeles. 11/09 and 12/09. Walsh takes a Pinteresque approach in these companion plays that take on everything from Irish culture to sexual politics. Fierce, provocative and swiftly psychological works that we were lucky enough to see close together here in L.A. thanks to David Sefton and UCLA Live.

The Big Art Group perform SOS
Photo: Dan Hansell/Big Art Group 2009

5. SOS from Caden Manson and The Big Art Group at REDCAT, Los Angeles. 4/09. Contemporary media culture taken on at Blitzkrieg speed. Funny and highly energetic in a way that demands not to be ignored.

A scene from Castellucci's Purgatorio

6. Purgatorio from Romeo Castellucci and Societas Ragaello Cedillo. UCLA, Los Angeles. 10/09. Alternately lyrical and difficult to watch, this offering from the UCLA Live International Theater Festival was so complex that it left the audience adrift in a sea of visual art and ideas that constantly morphed and changed. That's not a bad feeling.

7. Mary Stuart by Friedrich Schiller. Broadhurst Theater, New York. 5/09. Two amazing performances from Janet McTeer and Harriet Walter made this dark, and sparse Donmar Warehouse Production radiate heat.

Meg Stuart and Philipp Gehmacher in Maybe Forever

8. Maybe Forever by Meg Stuart and Philipp Gehmacher. REDCAT, Los Angeles. 9/09. This is cheating a bit in that it's a dance piece and it did involve some music in the form of songs performed by the composer Niko Hafkenscheid. It was the best dance piece I saw all year with its sublime movement often in near darkness. Expatriate choreographer Stewart returned with a beautiful piece on intimacy and loneliness with its own indie logic.

9. Monsters and Prodigies: The History of the Castrati by Jorge Kuri. Teatro de Ciertos Habitantes at REDCAT, Los Angeles, 1/09. The name says it all in this work that takes a DIY aesthetic to the subject at hand complete with live horses, satyrs, and opera singers.

Tristan Sturrock and Naomi Frederick in Brief Encounter

10. Brief Encounter from Noel Coward and the Kneehigh Theater Company. St. Ann’s Warehouse, New York, 12/09. So heartfelt and campy that you instantly fall in love. How can you deny a company that serves cucumber sandwiches after the show?

Honorable Mention: Eugene O'Neill's Desire Under the Elms with Brian Dennehy and George S Kaufman's Animal Crackers both at the Goodman Theater in Chicago. Geoffrey Rush in Ionesco's Exit the King on Boradway. Caryl Churchill's A Number and Adam Bock's The Receptionist both at the Odyssey Theater in L.A. The touring production of Tracy Letts's August: Osage County with Estelle Parsons at the Ahmanson Theater. T.E.O.R.E.M.A.T. from Pasolini by way of TR Warszawa at UCLA. And lest we forget, Culture Clash's hysterical take on Aristophanes' Peace at the Getty Villa.

Biggest Disappointment: The musical adaptation of The Addams Family in its tryout run in Chicago. A show so bad I didn't even have the heart to write about it at the time I saw it. It will take a miracle to make it watchable by the time it reaches New York. But who knows what surprises 2010 will hold?

Labels: Best Of, LA Theater Reviews

Esa-Pekka Salonen hugs Leila Josefowicz after the debut of his Violin Concerto in 4/09
Photo: mine 2009

Well now that 2009 is actually over, it’s time for the annual best of music list. I know it’s somewhat silly, but I’m a list kind of guy. There were 265 live performances I attended in 2009 to choose from. Here are the 10 best shows that involved music from among 70 operas, 93 programs of “classical” music, and 15 other musical concerts of more popular fare. Read ’em, but don’t weep.

1. Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. 4/09 In perhaps the greatest series of concerts Los Angeles has seen, Esa-Pekka Salonen, the departing L.A. Philharmonic music director, went out with a musical bang despite his often humble style. Between January and April, he led shows with an incredible number of world premieres each more outstanding than the last including Arvo Pärt’s Symphony No.4, Andriessen’s double piano concerto, The Hague Hacking, and best of all his own Violin Concerto presented in his penultimate performance with the orchestra and Leila Josefowicz. If I had to pick just one, it was the Josefowicz program I admired the most, which also featured Ligeti's Clocks and Clouds and Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 since no show quite encapsulated his tenure here as well as this one evening. The following week was a glorious finale, with a pairing of Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex and Symphony of Psalms in a semi-staged performance packed with all the redemption and salvation you could want for the world.

Linda Watson as Brünnhilde and Vitalij Kowaljow as Wotan in Die Walküre
Photo: Monika Rittershaus/LAO 2009

2. Wagner’s Die Walküre at Los Angeles Opera. 4/09 L.A. Opera generated headlines all year with the first three installments of the Achim Freyer-directed Ring cycle, which will be presented in full this coming Spring. It’s a major undertaking that is paying off immensely in artistic terms. It’s a groundbreaking staging that is doing what few opera productions can – push audiences to question their preconceived notions of a work. Despite grousing of how it doesn't look exactly what less adventurous types might expect, no production could be more literal. There is incredible beauty in Freyer’s primitive, rough-hewn vision and the cycle’s completion bodes to be a major achievement.

Jonas Kaufmann and Anja Harteros in Lohengrin
Photo: Wilifred Hösl 2009

3. Wagner’s Lohengrin at Bayerische Staatsoper. 7/09 I admittedly had reservations about Richard Jones very dark and challenging production. But over time, I found I couldn’t get this evening out of my head. The performances were simply outstanding including Anja Harteros as Elsa and the arrival of a major new Lohengrin in the form of Jonas Kaufmann. Kent Nagano continues to be one of the most impressive conductors around, and this was an evening to savor.

Peter Mattei in From the House of the Dead
Photo: Ken Howard/Met Opera 2009

4. Janacek’s From the House of the Dead at The Metropolitan Opera. 11/09 The Met’s efforts to catch up with the most important artists of the 20th century continued with the house debuts of Patrice Chereau and Esa-Pekka Salonen in this well-received staging of Janacek’s final, bleak drama about prison life and redemption. Gorgeous in every sense, it was a major achievement and contained a wonderful performance from Peter Mattei.

5. Leonard Cohen in Los Angeles. 4/09 I hate it when people talk about song lyrics as poetry, but I must admit, there are few other ways to seriously talk about Cohen’s songs with their marvelous language and intricacy. Exhibit A in the unimportance of a beautiful voice in a masterful musical performance. Cohen's shows in Los Angeles were easy going and beautiful in their world-weary way and were unsurpassed this year.

Dawn Upshaw, Michael Scuhmacher, Salonen and the LA Philharmonic
Photo: mine 2008

6. Kaija Saariaho’s La Passion de Simone with Dawn Upshaw and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. 1/09. Another of the superior Esa-Pekka Salonen performances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic this year, these twice delayed performances of Saariaho's masterful reflection on the life of Simone Weil finally took place in January 2009. Saariaho’s brilliant music finally received the quality performance it really deserved. Upshaw brought her beautiful voice to bear on a complicated life during time of war. Saariaho enjoyed another major outing this year with the UK premiere of L’Amour de Loin at English National Opera where the work was given a new staging filled with acrobatics and flowing fabric.

7. Joyce DiDonato in Il Barbiere di Siviglia everywhere but particularly at the Royal Opera House in London. 7/09. DiDonato proved herself every inch a global superstar this year with a fantastic recording of Rossini arias and several performances of Rosina in London, New York and Los Angeles that were unsurpassed. Most amazingly, she completed a performance of the role in June at Convent Garden after breaking her leg in the first act. Even after this incredible night where she performed in what must have been remarkable pain, she returned to sing the rest of the performances of the run in a cast. Her Los Angeles performances were no less endearing and she even offered up the best John Adams anecdote of the year on her blog.

Maria Kanyova as Marie Antoinette
Photo: Ken Howard/OTSL 2009

8. John Corigliano’s The Ghosts of Versailles at Opera Theater St Louis. 6/09 The Metropolitan Opera may have abandoned its plans for a major revival of this work in late 2008, but St. Louis got the last laugh. The company went ahead with its smaller, revised version of the work for an evening of incredibly ambitious and thoughtful music, proving once again that bigger is not always better.

9. Bob Dylan at the Hollywood Palladium. 10/09 He’s got nothing to prove. But with a new recording in hand, he launched into a blisteringly tight set with a band that responded immediately to his every move. Perhaps the single performance I underestimated the most this year, and thus (to me) the biggest surprise.

from the Wooster Group's La Didone
Photo: The Wooster Group 2009

10. Cavalli’s La Didone from the Wooster Group in New York and Los Angeles. 4/09 Initially at St. Ann’s Warehouse and then REDCAT in L.A. this summer, The Wooster Group took their first foray into opera by fusing Cavalli’s Baroque opera with a 60s Italian sci fiction nugget and supertitles. Psychedelic and technologically daring, it kicked off an ongoing collaboration of several works from The Wooster Group and REDCAT in Los Angeles. If everything to come is half this good, it’s going to be a beautiful relationship.

Honorable Mention: Christine Brewer in Alceste in Santa Fe and in recital, Renée Fleming's recital in support of Verismo and her monumental turn in the Met's Der Rosenkavalier, Simon Rattle leading the Philadelphia Orchestra in Berlioz' La Damnation de Faust, Peter Gelb actually allowing the Met Opera to take some chances as above and in La Sonnambula and Les Contes d'Hoffmann, Karita Mattila in Katya Kabanova in Chicago, and Christoph Eschenbach's Bruckner with the L.A. Philharmonic.

Most Overrated: Need I even say it again? The train wreck that is Gustavo Dud-amel and the circus that has followed him into town heralding many of the worst concerts of the year.

Labels: Best Of