Author Archives: Alan Rich

The Difference

Posted on October 3, 2001 by Alan Rich

It didn‘t take too much gift of prophecy to recognize the fates that brought Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Los Angeles Philharmonic to a merger of their destinies. People still talk about his debut here (November 29, 1984) — a fair-haired … Continue reading →

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Answering Back

Posted on September 26, 2001 by Alan Rich

Large events demand large gestures. At the Hollywood Bowl, where Wynton Marsalis’ “joyous, affirmative” All Rise was already on the schedule, some oratory by Marsalis and Esa-Pekka Salonen refocused the work as a response to the horrible tragedies of two … Continue reading →

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REVISE

Posted on September 20, 2001 by Alan Rich

In the summer of 1979, in a madcap decision that I still don’t regret, I succumbed to the urge to go bicoastal. (The term, I think, had just been invented.) New York Magazine, whose music critic I had been from … Continue reading →

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BILLY BUDD REVIEW (aka This Budd’s for You)

Posted on September 19, 2001 by Alan Rich

“Billy Budd” was the appropriate finale for the Los Angeles Opera’s 14th season, a reminder that of all repertories sampled by departing founder and general director Peter Hemmings during his tenure, the operas of Benjamin Britten have consistently earned highest … Continue reading →

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LOS ANGELES OPERA OPENING

Posted on September 19, 2001 by Alan Rich

Nobody has ever suggested that running an opera company – let alone two companies the width of  a continent apart – might be for Plácido Domingo an easygoing diversion. Nobody need be all that startled, therefore, at the few dark … Continue reading →

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Off and Running, Maybe

Posted on September 19, 2001 by Alan Rich

Photo by Ken Howard Nobody said it would be easy. Barely into its season of reincarnation, the L.A. Opera has already found its path strewn with boulders. The New York tragedy contributed; the Lohengrin opening, on the Wednesday after the … Continue reading →

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LOHENGRIN REVIEW

Posted on September 16, 2001 by Alan Rich

If anyone ever advised Plácido Domingo that running an opera company might be an easy and well-oiled undertaking, last week’s events around his West Coast branch – also known as Los Angeles Opera – were surely enough to set him … Continue reading →

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Pick Dam

Posted on September 5, 2001 by Alan Rich

The Placido Domingo era at the Los Angeles Opera got off to a sensational start this week, and how! In press conference after press conference, the incoming artistic director/tenorissimo had promised that attention would be paid in areas where scant … Continue reading →

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The Annual Mozart Love Letter

Posted on September 5, 2001 by Alan Rich

Mozart’s music didn‘t merely fill the Hollywood Bowl last week; it fulfilled it. The vast space, in which the banalities of Rachmaninoff, etc., rattled around (to the delight of some) on other weeks this summer, seemed exactly the right size … Continue reading →

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Fiddler and the Goof

Posted on August 29, 2001 by Alan Rich

If you had asked me to dream up 100 truly atrocious ideas for a new piece of music, I still wouldn’t have come up with last week’s Hollywood Bowl catastrophe. Some things are beyond the realm of the conceivable, and … Continue reading →

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