Category Archives: A Little Night Music

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 →

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 →

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 →

Art by Robert GrossmanAT 75, GIUSEPPE VERDI WAS CLIPPING rave reviews for his Otello and toying with an opera about Falstaff. At 75, Igor Stravinsky produced Agon, a major step forward in his compositional outlook. At 75 — as of … Continue reading →

BETWEEN OJAI’S VERDANT VALLEY AND the dour woodlands of Finland, some distance intervenes. For a time last weekend, however — the occasion of the 53rd Ojai Music Festival — you could have sworn that miles had shrunk to inches. The … Continue reading →

POOR, SWEET, PUT-UPON LUCIA OF LAMMERMOOR. BOTH the opera and its heroine have been far more sinned against than sinning, burdened with evils of the spirit and flesh. The debatable notion prevails here and there in opera-buffdom that underneath Donizetti’s … Continue reading →

IT WAS A MONTH FOR SYMPHONIES: Mozart in full glory, two unfamiliar Dvorák delectables, one often-roasted chestnut from the Shostakovich legacy and another more rare — and, of course, the Nine. Beethoven’s inscrutable legacy drew sell out crowds to Costa … Continue reading →

Photo by William WegmanLISTENING TO VERY OLD MUSIC DEMANDS a confrontation on shaky ground between the imaginations of the long-dead composer and the listener presumed alive. However pious the press releases may read on the subject of “authentic performance practice … Continue reading →