Author Archives: Alan Rich

IN THE ASTOUNDING LEGACY OF HANDEL operas that now, at long last, assumes its rightful place on world stages, Rodelinda stands apart. It deals not with gods, magicians and philandering Roman generals but with humans subject to human-size emotions. Its … Continue reading →

THANKS TO MR. TURNER’S GOOD OFFICES, Deception dropped into my satellite dish a few weeks ago, reminding me once again of the current glum treatment visited by moviemakers upon the noble art I so valiantly struggle to serve. You can … Continue reading →

FELIX MENDELSSOHN HAS FARED poorly on local hillsides this summer. At the Hollywood Bowl, in the Cahuenga Pass, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg was her usual bratty self, turning the Violin Concerto into personal showoff. At the Getty Center, high above Sepulveda Pass, … Continue reading →

YOU WILL FIND MORE USEFUL TRUTHS about music in the dozen or so comic operas of the Sirs W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan than in all 20 volumes of Grove’s Dictionary. The irresistible beauty of their tunes and counterpoints compound … Continue reading →

CLASSICAL SNOBS, WHOSE COMPANY I seldom cherish, tend to look down upon the Friday/Saturday concerts at the Hollywood Bowl as some form of lowlife entertainment to be swept under the nearest rug. What can you expect, they sneer, from a … Continue reading →

Photo by Greg GormanOPENING NIGHT OF THE CLASSICAL-music series at the Hollywood Bowl — not to be confused with the “Beatles Music Spectacular Opening Night Gala” of two weeks before, or the “Fourth of July Fireworks Spectacular” that filled three … Continue reading →

THE TIMING WAS PERFECT: “EPISODE I” of the Bay Area’s own George Lucas’ Star Wars packing the movie palaces worldwide; Richard Wagner’s Ring of the Nibelung as the San Francisco Opera’s hot-ticket item for most of last month at the … Continue reading →

AS THE HEAVY-SPENDING LOS ANGELES Opera veers ever more sadly toward innocuous irrelevance, the threadbare neighbor down the road looks better all the time. Not that every venture by the Long Beach Opera — the area’s senior company, after all, … Continue reading →

In 1979, I laughed out loud at a job offer from Los Angeles. I was at the time music critic at New York magazine, a job that offered both comfort and prominence in the only city in America worth the … Continue reading →

THIS BEING THE SEASON OF SMOG IN the Los Angeles basin, the haze of uncertainty that descended upon the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion this past week seemed apt. Willem Wijnbergen, executive vice president and managing director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, … Continue reading →