Author Archives: Alan Rich

A Loss of Originality

Posted on July 17, 2002 by Alan Rich

The passing in recent weeks of Ralph Shapey (at 81) and Earle Brown (at 75) — strong-willed American composers, originals both, unalike in style but comparable in stature — inundated me in another wave of the nostalgia that is one … Continue reading →

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Dim Future, Bright Past

Posted on July 10, 2002 by Alan Rich

Clouds of gloom thicken around the classical-music landscape, and around classical recording most of all. The major labels have so cut back their activities in this area that the few important releases in recent months — Simon Rattle’s Gurrelieder on … Continue reading →

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Not With a Bang but a Whisper

Posted on July 3, 2002 by Alan Rich

Tchaikovsky here, Turandot there: The music season soared toward its final days at full volume, on grand, swooping wings. At the close, however, there was exquisite quietude. Sitting last weekend in the courtyard of that architectural wonder, the Rudolf Schindler … Continue reading →

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Sir Donald and His Ideal Listener

Posted on June 26, 2002 by Alan Rich

Sir Donald Francis Tovey changed my life — for the better, I like to think. I was 20, as hapless a premed as ever walked along ivied walls. Somebody in physics lab showed me a slim volume he‘d just acquired: … Continue reading →

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The Little Company that Can

Posted on June 19, 2002 by Alan Rich

IT HAPPENED AGAIN. TWO WEEKENDS AGO, while the Los Angeles Opera was showing off the buying power of million-dollar budgets in its oversize Music Center playground, a few miles to the south there was the Long Beach Opera, the little … Continue reading →

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LONG BEACH OPERA REVIEW

Posted on June 17, 2002 by Alan Rich

Aside from a couple of college-based productions of distant memory, Leos Janacek’s Jenufa has remained a history-book entry in the Los Angeles area, but little more. That, of course, makes it ideal fodder for the intrepid explorative force known as … Continue reading →

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LOS ANGELES OPERA REVIEW

Posted on June 14, 2002 by Alan Rich

Given the geographic proximity of the Los Angeles Music Center to the region’s other major cultural industry, you’d expect a close working relationship between the Los Angeles Opera and the surviving shards of the film industry. You’d be wrong, however; … Continue reading →

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Odd Couple Oddly Coupled

Posted on June 12, 2002 by Alan Rich

The on-again, off-again romance between the Los Angeles Opera and the other local industry — which sagged a while back as Hollywood’s Bruce Beresford turned Rigoletto into a lumpy hash — has now moved forward a couple of notches. William … Continue reading →

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Terminations and Renewals

Posted on June 5, 2002 by Alan Rich

The story of Terezin‘s music is well known: Hitler’s Nazis maintaining this one prison camp — Theresienstadt in German, Terezin in its native Czech — as a cultural showcase, composers and other artistic spirits encouraged to create and perform for … Continue reading →

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Schickele Mix

Posted on May 29, 2002 by Alan Rich

COMPOSER, PERFORMER, MEDIA HOST, writer and musicological avatar to the immortal P.D.Q. Bach: The marvel of Peter Schickele is not only the variety of his parts but also how well they all fit, the one to another. Composer/performers are a … Continue reading →

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