AROUND TOWN/MUSIC: L.A. Philharmonic world premiere among choral highlights

By Robert D. Thomas

Music Critic

Pasadena Star-News/San Gabriel Valley Tribune/Whittier Daily
News

A shorter version of
this article was first published today in the above papers.

 

Three major choral programs are among the highlights as the
winter-spring indoor season fades to black.

 

The Los Angeles
Philharmonic
will present the world premiere of John Adams’ The Gospel According to the Other Mary
Thursday through next Sunday at Walt Disney Concert Hall. This performance is
an oratorio; Peter Sellars (who wrote the libretto) will direct a staged
version of the work next March in Los Angeles and then on tour in New York,
London, Lucerne and Paris.

 

Gustavo Dudamel will conduct the Philharmonic, Los Angeles
Master Chorale, six soloists including three narrators in this complex work, which is
a bookend to Adams’ nativity oratorio, El
Nio,
which had its premiere in December, 2000 in Paris and was later
performed in Los Angeles. The narrators are counter tenors Daniel Bubeck, Brian
Cummings and Nathan Medley (Bubeck and Cummings performed in the world premiere
of El Nino). Mezzo-soprano Kelley O’Connor
sings the role of Mary Magdalene.

 

The first half of The
Gospel According to the Other Mary
tells the Biblical stories of the family
of Mary, Martha and their brother Lazarus (including the raising of Lazarus
from the dead). The second half deals with Jesus’ arrest, crucifixion and
resurrection.

 

As they did with El
Nio,
Adams and librettist Sellars weave contemporary writings into the
Biblical stories for The Gospel According
to the Other Mary
, using material from American social activist Dorothy Day
and poet/essayist June Jordan, contemporary poet Louise Erdrich, Mexican poet
Rosario Castellanos, along with the 12th-century mystic and abbess
Hildegard of Bingen. Moreover, as was the case with El Nio, the orchestra plays a central role in the new work.

 

Reed Johnson has a profile of Adams in the Los Angeles Times
HERE. Video clips of Adams and Sellars discussing The Gospel According to the Other Mary are HERE and HERE.

Information:
323/850-2000; www.laphil.com

 

The Angeles Chorale
concludes its season on June 9 at 8 p.m. at First United Methodist Church,
Pasadena, with a program entitled “Stories of our Lives.”

 

The concert will feature the west coast premiere of Alzheimer Stories by Robert Cohen, using
a libretto by Herschel Garfein that incorporates words drawn from letters
written by Alzheimer’s patients, their families and their caregivers. “I found
it compelling and moving,” says Artistic Director John Sutton, who will conduct
the performance. “We often talk about Alzheimer’s over coffee and in our homes.
Why shouldn’t we be singing about it? It’s so beautiful, this setting, and it’s
so real.”

 

The program also includes Sing Me to Heaven by Daniel Gawthrop, a work Sutton explains is not
about dying but the importance of singing throughout our lives; and music by
Brahms, Paul Halley and Eric Whitacre.

 

A video clip with Sutton discussing the concert is
HERE.  Concert Information: 818/591-1735; www.angeleschorale.org

 

The Los Angeles
Master Chorale
finishes its 48th season on June 10 at Disney
Hall with a program of music by Polish composer Henryk Grecki and Brahms. The
concert includes Grecki’s Miserere, which
Music Grant Gershon programmed during his first season as LAMC music director
11 years ago. The concert will be recorded for a Decca CD release next fall.

 

Information:
213/972-7282; www.lamc.org

 

In other Master Chorale news, LAMC member Shawn Kircbner has
been appointed the ensemble’s Swan Family Composer in Residence, effective July
1. He’s just the second person to hold the position; Morten Lauridsen was Composer
in Residence from 1995-2001. The new position was funded by a gift from the
Swan family (Philip A. Swan was a former LAMC board member).

 

In his new role with the Chorale, Kirchner will compose a
new work in each year of his term; create new arrangements for Chorale
concerts; consult with Music Director Grant Gershon and Associate Conductor
Lesley Leighton regarding programming LAMC concerts; and partner with Gershon
and senior LAMC staff to create and implement an LAMC commissioning program.

 

The LAMC media release is HERE.

_______________________

 

(c) Copyright 2012, Robert D. Thomas. All rights reserved.
Portions may be quoted with attribution.

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(Revised) OVERNIGHT REVIEW: Exsultate! Kiera Duffy with Gustavo Dudamel and Los Angeles Philharmonic

By Robert D. Thomas

Music Critic

Pasadena Star-News/San Gabriel Valley Tribune/Whittier Daily
News

______________________

 

Los Angeles
Philharmonic; Gustavo Dudamel, conductor

Mozart: Exsultate,
Jubilate, K. 165
(Kiera Duffy, soprano); Serenade in D Major, K. 320, Posthorn

Friday, May 25, 2012 Walt Disney Concert Hall

Next performances: Tomorrow at 2 p.m. (includes the Overture
to The Marriage of Figaro)

Information: www.laphil.com

______________________

 

“Casual Friday” concerts have always been a somewhat odd
creation: a truncated version of the week’s Los Angeles Philharmonic program
played without intermission, preceded by a talk from an orchestra member and
followed by a question-and-answer period or a chance to schmooze with orchestra
members amid drinks afterwards. The idea is to create a shorter program aimed
at those not used to attending an orchestral concert, although if you factor in
the post-concert conviviality, it’s usually not much shorter, and many of those
in attendance are concert veterans.

 

This week’s program, shoehorned between performances of the
orchestra’s presentation of Mozart’s Don
Giovanni
at Walt Disney Concert, is
already short; in fact, if they had started at 8:05 instead of 8:11, Gustavo
Dudamel and his reduced forces could have added the Overture to The Marriage of Figaro and still ended
at 9:30. They could play the entire program tomorrow without intermission and
call it “Casual Sunday.”

 

60414-Kiera Duffy.jpg

However, any concert with young American soprano Kiera Duffy
(pictured left) as the centerpiece is always a major event, IMHO, and last
night validated that opinion. Her vehicle was Mozart’s Exsultate, Jubilate, which Mozart wrote at the age of 17 during his
third visit to Milan. The three-movement work is best known for its jubilant
“Alleluia” final section, which, by the way, Duffy, Dudamel and the Phil took
at quite a brisk clip.  Duffy sang the piece with a gleaming
tone, sailed exquisitely through the runs and trills, and delivered sublime
musicality throughout the 17 minutes.

 

Dudamel (who conducted without a score, although Duffy used
one) and the orchestra supported their soloist sympathetically.

 

The other piece on the program was Mozart’s Posthorn Serenade, which Dudamel and the
orchestra had played two weeks ago on Thursday and Saturday. As was the case
then, the orchestra played wonderfully, with the winds (most notably David
Buck, flute, Marion Arthur Kuszyk, oboe, and Sarah Jackson, piccolo) and James Wilt on posthorn holding
the major share of the spotlight. Dudamel seemed more relaxed and animated in
his conducting.

_______________________

 

On Deck:

The Phil concludes its 2011-2012 indoor season next
weekend (Thursday through Sunday) with the world premiere of John Adams’
oratorio, The Gospel According to the
Other Mary.
This is a bookend to Adams’ nativity oratorio, El Nio, which had its premiere in
December 2000 in Paris and was later performed in Los Angeles.

 

Dudamel conducts the orchestra, Los Angeles Master Chorale,
six soloists and three narrators (counter tenors Daniel Bubeck, Brian Cummings
and Nathan Medley — Bubeck and Cummings performed in the world premiere of El Nino). Mezo-soprano Kelley O’Connor sings
the role of Mary Magdalene.

 

The first half of The
Gospel According to the Other Mary
tells the Biblical stories of the family
of Mary, Martha and their brother Lazarus (including the raising of Lazarus
from the dead). The second half deals with Jesus’ arrest, crucifixion and
resurrection.

 

As they did with 
El Nio,  Adams and librettist Peter Sellars weave
contemporary writings into the Biblical stories that are at the heart of  TGAOM,  using material from American social
activist Dorothy Day and poet/essayist June Jordan, contemporary poet Louise
Erdrich and Mexican poet Rosario Castellanos, along with the 12th-century
mystic and abbess Hildegard of Bingen. Moreover, as was the case with El Nio, the orchestra plays a central
role in the new work.

 

A fully staged version of this new oratorio will be
performed next March, first in Los Angeles and then in New York, London,
Lucerne and Paris.

 

Information (which
includes a link to Adams discussing the new piece): www.laphil..com

_______________________

 

(c) Copyright 2012, Robert D. Thomas. All rights reserved.
Portions may be quoted with attribution.

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(Revised) OVERNIGHT REVIEW: Los Angeles Philharmonic’s “Don Giovanni”: Wonderfully performed, wave of the future?

By Robert D. Thomas

Music Critic

Pasadena Star-News/San Gabriel Valley Tribune/Whittier Daily
News

______________________

 

Los Angeles
Philharmonic; Gustavo Dudamel, conductor

Mozart: Don Giovanni

Sunday, May 20, 2012 Walt Disney Concert Hall

Next performances: May 24 and 26

Information: www.laphil.com

 

60311-DG Photo.jpg

(L) Mariusz Kwiecien as Don Giovanni and Stefan Kocan as the
Commendatore in the opening scene of the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s production
of Mozart’s Don Giovanni at Walt
Disney Concert Hall, led by Gustavo Dudamel in collaboration with Frank Gehry,
Rodarte and Christopher Alden. Photo from L.A. Phil.

______________________

 

When the Los Angeles Philharmonic announced that this season
would include performances of Mozart’s, Don
Giovanni,
my first reaction was “Huh?” (and I don’t mean the PGA Tour
golfer).  When you consider that
Walt Disney Concert Hall was built as a symphonic orchestra space (no orchestra
pit, no proscenium, no curtain, no back stage for sets) that would seem to rule
the hall out from an opera point of view.

 

Of course, Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Phil did find an
ingenious way to present Wagner’s Tristan
und Isolde
several years ago using videos by Bill Viola and inventive ways
to move soloists around using aisles and balconies. Moreover, semi-staged or
opera-in-concert performances are always a possibility (earlier this spring the
Pacific Symphony used that format for performances of Puccini’s La Boheme). But fully staged opera?

 

One thing I’ve learned from yesterday afternoon’s
performance of Don Giovanni was to
never bet against the imagination of Gustavo Dudamel and the rest of the Phil’s
creative team, which in this case included Christopher Alden, Frank Gehry, Kate
and Laura Mulleavy of the design firm Rodarte and several others. They pulled
off the seemingly impossible feat with panache and ingenious skill.

 

The performance was highlighted (as is usually the case with
Mozart) by the music. In an article in last week’s Los Angeles Times (LINK),
Dudamel said that one reason for choosing to present Mozart operas (coming
seasons will included the other two Mozart-DaPonte operas, The Marriage of Figaro and Cosi
Fan Tutte)
was his belief that symphonic orchestras should play Mozart
regularly, “for purity of sound,” and perform opera occasionally
“to be nimble.”

 

This performance certainly validated Dudamel’s thinking. The
orchestra played with supple, buoyant brilliance throughout the entire three
hours (the generously sized ensemble included Caren Levine on harpsichord and
William Skeen on continuo cello). Moreover, we’re watching Dudamel grow up as
both a Mozartean and an opera maestro before our very eyes.  Conducting as usual without a score,
Dudamel’s pacing was a model of clarity and precision and the balances between
orchestra and the singers were exemplary.

 

The cast was uniformly strong, led by Mariusz Kwiecien, one
of the world’s premiere portrayers of the Don. His voice has amazing range in
this taxing role and he certainly looks the part of the rakish Don, as well. In
fact, the entire cast was lean, athletic and great looking — all necessary
prerequisites for Alden’s director concepts.

 

Carmela Remigio and Aga Mikolaj displayed lustrous voices as
Donna Anna and Donna Elvira, and Anna Prohaska wasn’t far behind in her portrayal
of Zerlina. Kevin Burdette sang powerfully as Leporello and Pavol Breslik’s
ringing tenor made for a magnetic Don Ottavio. Ryan Kuster was stylish as
Masetto and Stefan Kocan menacing as the Commendatore. The Los Angeles Master
Chorale had 24 singers on either side of the orchestra providing the chorus.

 

The surprise was Gehry’s  “installations” (Philspeak for “sets”) which featured
large clumps of what looked like wadded-up paper that also had the feeling of
the famed architect’s designs for Disney Hall the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in
Spain. The floors were covered in black or white panels.

 

The Phil took out all of the bench seats behind the
orchestra and Gehry divided the stage essentially in two. Instead of a pit, the
back half used a platform swathed was in black paper sculptures to hold Dudamel
and the orchestra. Because they were dressed in all black, they seemed to
disappear into the background during the first half. (Whether it was a change
in lighting or just that I had gotten used to it, the orchestra and Dudamel
appeared brighter after intermission.)

 

The front half of the stage used white paper sculptures
essentially as a unit set to frame the action, and rolling platforms and stairs
that director Alden moved about expertly to (sort of) simulate the scenes.
Supernumeraries almost never get a mention but part of the fun all day was to
watch Chris Bonomo, Eros Mendoza, Jeff Payton and Jee Teo shift the platforms,
moving almost in slow motion (think of the glacial movement from director
Robert Wilson that can either be fascinating or maddening to watch, depending
on your predilections toward that director’s staging).

 

The costumes by the Rodarte duo accentuated the black and
white motif; the only colors were a lilac dress for Zerlina and red strips to
the white of dress of Donna Anna in the second half. Wigs by Odile Gilbert added
to the costumes’ stylized look.

 

To solve the logistical problem of having the orchestra
behind the “stage,” five flat screen TVs trained on Dudamel were arrayed around
the hall so the singers could follow the conductor’s beat. There were also two
screens (in the front and back of the hall) for English translations of the
text.

 

Not everything worked perfectly — Alden’s tendency to
channel Wilson got tedious, my above comment notwithstanding — but most of the
concept was stimulating and thought provoking. The Disney Hall acoustics
allowed singers to be heard clearly, even from a side seat, and Alden took
advantage of that by having singers sing on their backs frequently for reasons
that weren’t always clear. He also had cast members climbing up and down stars
and platforms (including one sequence where Burdette as Leporello had to roll
from one platform to another.

 

All of this proved to be a stunning show, but can opera
become a regular part of the Phil’s repertoire?  Every arts impresario knows that Mozart sells big time, so
it’s no surprise that the combination of Mozart’s music with Gustavo Dudamel
conducting created sellouts for the four performances. However, this had to be
a big financial hit for the orchestra. With the bench seats removed, the Phil
had less than 8.000 seats for sale (vs. more than 12,000 seats for four
performances in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion) and the expenses had to equate
to what LA Opera will spend next fall when it mounts a version of Don Giovanni beginning Sept. 22.

 

Although the performance was a sellout, many people didn’t
return after the intermission (one report said the same thing happened Friday
night). The Marriage of Figaro is
about as long as Don Giovanni; will
that length cut into ticket sales for next year’s offering? And how many operas
are both big-ticket sellers that can also lend themselves to this minimalist
concept of staging? Will the design team next year be able to repeat the
success of this effort (or even improve on it)?

 

All of that is for the future. If you’re one of the
fortunate to have a ticket for the final two performances, come prepare for a
unique, stimulating experience and, since both are evening performances with 8
p.m. start times, figure that you won’t get out until close to midnight. It’s
time well spent.

_______________________

 

(c) Copyright 2012, Robert D. Thomas. All rights reserved.
Portions may be quoted with attribution.

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OVERNIGHT REVIEW: Los Angeles Opera closes season with satisfying “La Boheme”

By Robert D. Thomas

Music Critic

Pasadena Star-News/San Gabriel Valley Tribune/Whittier Daily
News

______________________

 

Los Angeles Opera’s
production of Puccini’s La Bohme

Saturday, May 12, 2012 Dorothy Chandler Pavilion

Next performances: May 20 and June 2 at 2 p.m.; May 23, 26
and 31 at 7:30 p.m.

Information: www.losangelesopera.com

 

60194-La Boheme.jpg

Left to right: Museop Kim (Schaunard), Artur Rucinski
(Marcello), Janai Brugger (Musetta), Stephen Costello (Rodolfo), Ailyn Perez
(Mimi) in the climactic scene of Puccini’s La
Bohme,
which opened last night at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in a
production by Los Angeles Opera.

______________________

 

Of the thousands of operas written since the genre began
half a millennia ago, only a double-handful can be counted on as sure-fire
audience pleasers (and box office winners for the company). Puccini’s
comedy-turned-tragedy La Bohme is
surely on that list, as last night’s performance by Los Angeles Opera at the
Dorothy Chandler Pavilion demonstrated anew.

 

Part of the success is due to Puccini’s compact score.
There’s barely two hours of music (the first act of Wagner’s Gtterdmerung is longer) but it’s
filled with melodious lines that tell a simple but heart-rending story using a
libretto written by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giocasa out of a story by Henry
Mrger.

 

However, not every company makes La Bohme work as well as LA Opera did last night. Much of the
success was due to a young, but wonderfully talented cast; in fact, it’s not at
all a stretch to imagine that in the coming decades those who make the trip to
downtown Los Angeles during the next three weeks will look back and say, “I
remember when we saw … ” Not only did they look the part of the young Bohemian
artists struggling to survive in Paris (not always a given for Bohme casts) but they sang strongly and
brought the various parts to life, as it were, expertly, as well.

 

This was the sixth time in its 26-year-history that LA Opera
has mounted this production, originally conceived by the late film director
Herbert Ross. It remains a realistic, picturesque framework that falls in the
“if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” mode. Gregory Fortner, a director as young as
his cast, brought several nice touches to his concept, and kept the action
moving along smartly. The atmospheric costumes were originally designed by
Peter J. Hall and augmented by Jeannique Prospere, and Daniel Ordowner supplied
sensitive, effective lighting.

 

Nonetheless, La Bohme
ultimately stands or falls on its cast and this one was uniformly
excellent, another example of LA Opera’s ability to cast well-matched, talented
ensembles that has been the case for all of its productions in at least the
past three seasons.

 

The headliners, Stephen Costello and Ailyn Prez, as the
poet Rodolfo and his consumption-wracked neighbor, Mim, are husband and wife
in real life but one would hope that their sensitive characterizations were due
more to their talent than their marital relationship. Each displayed rich,
gleaming voices that carried easily over the 69-member LA Opera Orchestra,
which was led with sensitivity by Patrick Summers, artistic and music director
of Houston Grand Opera and principal guest conductor of San Francisco Opera,
who like director Fortner was making his LAO debut.

 

The supporting characters of Marcello and Musetta often
steal the show in La Bohme productions
and that would have been the case last night had it not been for the excellence
of Costello and Prez. Artur Rucinski was a bright, playful Marcello and Janai
Brugger — one of three members of the Domingo-Thornton Young Artists program in
the cast — was a saucy Musetta who displayed a lustrous soprano voice that
showed why she was a winner of this year’s Metropolitan Opera Young Artists
Competition.

 

Other members of the ensemble were Robert Pomakov, Colline;
Museop Kim, Schaunard; and Philip Cokorinos doubling as Benoit and Alcindro.
Ben Bliss as Papignol led the way in the colorful second act II Caf Momus
scene, with members of the Los Angeles Opera Chorus and Los Angeles Children’s
Chorus joining in strong as the choral ensemble.  Peggy Hickey supplied the choreography.

 

Whether you’ve seen dozens of productions of La Bohme or you’ve never experienced
its emotional roller coaster, this is a production worth seeing, and a fine
conclusion to a first-rate season for Los Angeles Opera.

_______________________

 

Hemidemisemiquavers:

Including an intermission between acts II and III, the
entire evening ran 2:30 in length.

Mitchell Morris, a professor of music and musicology at
UCLA, delivered the preconcert lecture; his obvious love the La Bohme was infectious.

Another Domingo-Thornton member, Valentina Fleet, will
replace Brugger in the role of Musetta for the final three performances.

_______________________

 

(c) Copyright 2012, Robert D. Thomas. All rights reserved.
Portions may be quoted with attribution.

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(Revised) OVERNIGHT REVIEW: Dudamel and L.A. Phil play Mozart and a new concerto at Walt Disney Concert Hall

By Robert D. Thomas

Music Critic

Pasadena Star-News/San Gabriel Valley Tribune/Whittier Daily
News

______________________

 

Los Angeles
Philharmonic; Gustavo Dudamel, conductor

Mozart: Overture to Le
Nozze di Figaro;
Posthorn Serenade

Vasks: Concerto for Violin and String Orchestra (Distant Light)— Alina Pogostkina,
violin)

Thursday, May 10, 2012 Walt Disney Concert Hall

Next performances: Tomorrow at 8:00 p.m.

Information: www.laphil.com

May 25 at 8 p.m. (Casual Friday concert)

Mozart: Exsultate
Jubilate
(Kiera Duffy, soprano); Posthorn Serenade

Information: www.laphil.com

May 27 at 2 p.m.

Mozart: Overture to Le
Nozze di Figaro; Exsultate Jubilate
(Kiera Duffy, soprano); Posthorn
Serenade;

Information: www.laphil.com

______________________

 

From the moment the 2011-2012 Los Angeles Philharmonic
season was announced last year, the month of May figured to be chaotic. Two
major works — a production of Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni and the world premiere of a major oratorio by John
Adams, The Gospel According to the Other
Mary —
were scheduled two weeks apart. Then the Phil tried to shoehorn in a
series of orchestral, Green Umbrella
and chamber music concerts around the opera and preceding the oratorio.

 

Things have been in flux since that original schedule was
posted. Sibelius’ Symphony No. 5, Grieg’s Peer
Gynt
Suite No. 1 and Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto were all jettisoned in
favor of (mostly) Mozart. Then, according to at least one published report,
Adams was very late delivering the full score of his new oratorio, so Gustavo
Dudamel has been busy cramming for that assignment while preparing Don Giovanni, which meant he bowed out
of Tuesday’s Green Umbrella concert.

 

Frankly, it wouldn’t have surprised me if we had arrived at
Disney Hall last night to find a new conductor for the program but, judging by
the care he poured into the accompaniment, perhaps Dudamel didn’t want to pass
on the L.A. Phil premiere of Latvian composer Peteris Vasks’ Concerto for Violin
and String Orchestra. Vasks wrote the piece for Gidon Kremer but, again judging
by a first hearing last night, 28-year-old Russian violinist Alina Pogostkina
has emphatically made this work her own.

 

The 31-minute concerto uses three virtuosic cadenzas as the
trunk of a tree off of which spring many short branches.  The concerto is subtitled “Distant
Light” and the light was almost imperceptible at the beginning as Pogostkina
and the orchestra traded off shimmering harmonic layers before she spun a rich,
gorgeous melody. 

 

I could have listened to Pogostkina play that sumptuous
melodic line all night, but the cadenzas allowed the soloist (winner of the
2005 Sibelius Competition and making her LAPO debut) to display her prodigious
virtuosity at its fullest. 
Meanwhile, the “branch” sections alternated shimmering measures with
moments of chaos and sardonic wit before the first-movement melody returned at
the end (albeit in a different key) as the concerto finally dissolved while the
light again became distant; as the late, great British comedienne Anna Russell
once exclaimed of Wagner’s Ring,, We’re exactly where we started [in this
case] 31 minutes ago!”

 

Pogostkina, Vasks (who came onstage), Dudamel and the
orchestra received generous, well-deserved ovations from the audience. The LAPO
strings were lustrous throughout the performance and Dudamel seemed to revel in
the challenges that Vasks asked of soloist, orchestra and conductor.

 

If the concerto shone a rich spotlight on the Phil’s
strings, Mozart’s “Posthorn” Serenade was the chance for the Phil’s wind
section to take center stage, literally as well as figuratively.  David Buck, flute; Marion Arthur
Kuszyk, oboe and their colleagues sparkled in their solo and ensemble
offerings, while James Wilt poured out sweet, melodious lines on the posthorn
(a valve-less, curled horn instrument). Dudamel led a propulsive reading of
this 40-minute work and the entire orchestra was in top form throughout.

 

In yet another programming switch, Dudamel swapped Mozart’s Adagio and Fugue for the
far-more-familiar Overture to Le Nozze di
Figaro,
which was bouncy without being boisterous. The concerts in two weeks
will exchange the Vasks concerto in favor of Mozart’s Exsultate Jubilate, with Kiera Duffy as the soloist; she’s also
listed as a soloist in the Adams oratorio.

 

Meanwhile, Don
Giovanni
opens next Friday, with additional performances May 20, 24 and 26.
Got all that straight?

_______________________

 

Hemidemisemiquavers:

Dudamel has rearranged the orchestra slightly for these
concerts. The violins were divided left and right with cellos and basses to the
left, inside of the first violins. Timpanist Joseph Pereira
was perched alone on the top riser but appeared to be slightly off center to
the right (ask not why).

_______________________

 

(c) Copyright 2012, Robert D. Thomas. All rights reserved.
Portions may be quoted with attribution.

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