[contextly_auto_sidebar id="uXOtZCit5zazXO6t0Ht1wwihD894I3a9"] EVEN in an arts world familiar with groups going belly-up, this one surprised people: The San Diego Opera's board voted last week to call it a day, effective at the end of the current season. No pleading with donors or subscribers to pitch in, no Chapter 11 filing, just an abrupt, "Closed For Business" sign. Now the group's … [Read more...]
Disappearing Into "Invisible Cities"
THERE’s a phrase of John Cage’s I think about once in a while, despite having radically mixed feelings about the man and his work. “Theater exists all around us,” he once wrote, “and it is the purpose of formal theaterto remind us this is so.” This notion came alive for me the other night as I caught one of the last performances of Invisible Cities, the wild-ass, Calvino-inspired opera that … [Read more...]
The Roots of an Opera Singer
For my latest Influences column, I speak to left-of-the-dial opera soprano Juliana Snapper, who will be part of a festival of new work at REDCAT starting this Thursday.Snapper's work, some of which she's created with LA artist Ron Athey, is pretty out there. She was part of what's considered the world's first underwater opera, for instance.I found her down-to-earth and easy to talk to, and was … [Read more...]
LA’s New Opera Company
WHAT would it look like if Hurricane Katrina blew across an Italo Calvino fable? We might be able to find out when Crescent City, whose creators call it a "hyperopera," comes to Atwater Crossing later this week.Recently I visited the set, much of which was designed by local visual artists, and met with director Yuval Sharon and composer Anne LeBaron of CalArts. Here's my story.Sharon, who used to … [Read more...]
The Journey of a Soprano
THIS week my Influences column looks at opera soprano Ana Maria Martinez, who started out as a West Side Story loving kid in Puerto Rico and became a star who sings all over the world. (She's also won a Latin Grammy and been dubbed "the most beautiful voice in Latin America."HERE is my conversation with Martinez, who had a fortuitous early meeting with Placido Domingo, who would go on to become a … [Read more...]
The Roots of a Polymath: Lars Jan
FOUNDER of the Los Angeles avant-gartde performance group Early Morning Opera, Lars Jan is a polymath interested in a lot of things, especially our era in which screens of various kinds have infiltrated both public and private spaces.We spoke about the age of the screen, as well as some of his artistic models -- everyone from Gerhard Richter to Fellini -- for my Influences column. Here is that … [Read more...]
Long Beach Opera on the Edge
WHEN you do what I do, you hear a lot of arts advocates and administrators talk about "reaching out," finding "new audiences," "making connections," and so on, and it gets tiresome. In part that's because it seems so calculated, in part because it usually means watering down programming to make it safer and more familiar.LBO's next opera: Philip Glass's "Akhnaten"But Andreas Mitisek, the Austrian … [Read more...]