The Philharmonic Society, the OC's oldest music organization, is kicking off the 10th annual Laguna Beach Music Festival this week. Placido Domingo returns to the stage in a production of Simon Boccanegra in the titular role. more ›

"Romeo et Juliette" is not one of the masterworks of the repertory, but, performed well, it does offer a compelling French interpretation of this most classic of all love stories. And with five impassioned duets between the pair of star-cross'd lovers, any performance of the opera rises or falls primarily on the qualities of the two lead singers. Both of them here are knockouts. more ›

We have a line-up of classical picks for the opera buffs (and fans of the Greeks and Shakespeare). more ›

LA Opera kicked off its new season at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion this weekend with a pair of classics. Saturday night delivered a visually odd but musically solid presentation of "Eugene Onegin," Tchaikovsky's take on the romantic tragedy by Pushkin. Sunday's matinee presented a fantastically entertaining performance of Mozart's "Così Fan Tutte," a sophisticated, slightly unsettling comedy of sexual manners. more ›

If you can't make it to the LA Opera for Britten's Turn of the Screw, Alisa Weilerstein is making her return to the Disney Hall (you might remember her from last year's performance of the Dvorak Cello Concerto) with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic in an all-Russian program. more ›

Benjamin Britten's potent adaptation of the classic Henry James ghost story Turn of the Screw is currently playing at the Los Angeles Opera. The production features a flawless cast, stunning set, disturbing plot, intriguing score, and a twelve year old casanova with an angelic voice. more ›

It's worth watching Dialogues of the Carmelites just for this. The LA Opera kicks off their next production, Rossini's Il Turco In Italia (society had an obsession for Turkish things way back when). If you missed their first performance yesterday, they have another next Sunday at 2 PM and four performances in March. For a recap on the story, click here (think love pentagon[?]). more ›

As we mentioned last week, you can still catch Lohengrin this Sunday. It's a little quiet this week thanks to Thanksgiving, but it looks like a good week for opera lovers. The LA Times just profiled opera star Bryn Terfel, and you can check him out tomorrow night in the other music center, at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. The program is heavy on Schumann (we're a nostalgic bunch). more ›

Salonen and Lindberg go way back. Although he is known for his use of live electronics during performances, Graffiti is exciting because it's his first work for choir and orchestra. If you're not familiar with Lindberg, he's a famous Finnish (makes sense) composer who also happens to be the composer-in-residence at the NY Phil, and curates CONTACT!, their equivalent of the Green Umbrella Series here. You can check it out on Friday at 8 PM, Saturday at 8 PM, and Sunday at 2 PM. more ›

For once, you can drive to Santa Clarita for a taste of San Francisco instead of driving through it. This Tuesday, the San Francisco Opera is playing on the big screen their current production of Madame Butterfly, at the Santa Clarita Performing Arts Center. Not only will you save on gas, you'll save on tickets as well. Good seats for the SFOpera run between 88 and 210 dollars, and the most expensive seats at the SCPAC are 10 dollars. Awesometown, indeed. (For the record: This is a screening of the current production going on in SF right now, similar to the Met broadcasts at AMC theatres.) more ›

We return to our regularly scheduled programming to announce the opening of Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra's 2010-2011 season, this Saturday and Sunday. One of the most well known violinists in the world, Leila Josefowicz, is to perform the Prokofiev Violin Concerto no. 1 with the orchestra, along with conductor... more ›

The LA Opera has embarked on its final push through the epic undertaking of Richard Wagner’s Ring cycle. All four of the operas that comprise the Ring cycle, share the same daring design by Achim Freyer (director, designer), Amanda Freyer (costumes) and Brian Gale (lighting)... more ›

The LA Opera is days away from beginning its final cycle of Richard Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen. The entire Ring cycle is comprised of four self-contained operas that run well over 16 hours including intermissions and curtain calls. With our current multitasking lifestyles and short attention spans, it’s amazing that that an event like this is something that attracts us and compels us. But it certainly does. more ›

Simon Rattle conducts the Berlin Philharmonic in a performance of Strauss' Ein Heldenleben. It's harder than it looks. The LA Opera has announced it's 2010/11 season which is a little toned down this year (it's hard to top the Ring Cycle anyways) more ›

You've probably heard Beethoven's Ode to Joy, a proclamation for mankind united under God. Hear the Berlioz Requiem in this week's classical pick for another take on that theme. This week's classical pick highlights music that is rarely performed in LA, if at all. The LA Opera begins the 2009/2010 season with Donizetti's bel canto (an elegant Italian vocal style) opera, The Elixir of Love. more ›

Angeleno Opera enthusiasts have been anticipating the long-planned Ring Festival LA, which will span multiple venues between mid-April and late June of 2010 and boast numerous performances by different organizations, each "providing its own unique point of view on the influences of [composer Richard] Wagner's art and philosophy from the 19th century to the present day," explains the LA Opera. more ›

Watching the LA Opera’s production of La Traviata on its opening night, it was easy to see why this is one of the most-performed pieces of music in the classical repertoire. Its themes are writ large: sex, death, decadence, betrayal, and all-conquering love, set to a rapturous score, one that consistently rewards the most heroic of singers. While it may seem like LA’s been getting too much of a good thing lately (it’s been part of three of the last four seasons at the Chandler), it really is the kind of thing you can watch again and again, especially when the production’s this good. more ›

Beverly Sills was considered one of the premiere sopranos of her time, and you can see this youtube clip of her. She is singing "Sempre Libera", one of the most famous arias from this week's classical pick, La Traviata (Violetta from La Traviata was considered one of her signature roles). This clip is an excerpt from the Muppet Show, in which the muppets put on a show at the "Muppetipolitan Opera". You can hear excerpts from the operas of Wagner, Verdi, and Bizet. The most enjoyable moment is probably 1:30 into the clip, where Miss Piggy (Frank Oz) attempts to outsing Beverly Sills. more ›

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Efforts by mainstream media and Hollywood to use a Saint Bernard to replace Beethoven in our hearts and minds have failed, despite numerous attempts. As part of the Colburn Celebrity Series, Andras Schiff is halfway complete on his journey to perform all 32 Beethoven piano sonatas. 16 were performed last year in four concerts and he starts again this Wednesday for our classical pick of the week. This week includes some of Beethoven's greatest works, including the "Tempest" and the "Waldstein." These works are often performed, but rarely done well (recommended performances include Alfred Brendel, if you can overlook a mistake here and there). Andras Schiff is considered one of the consummate performers of Beethoven and Mozart. You will be hard pressed to find anyone with the same level of musicality and technical precision for these sonatas. Having attended several of his previous performances (and performances of just about every pianist the last few years), LAist has noticed that he gets some of the loudest and most enthusiastic responses from the crowd with his flawless performances. If you happen to be in New York, he has been performing the same cycle at Carnegie Hall. There are many tickets left for this show between 40 and 100 dollars. If you buy his CD (at the gift store there), he usually does a CD signing right after the show. more ›

Woody Allen (Vicky Cristy Barcelona, Manhattan, Annie Hall) and William Friedkin (the Exorcist, the French Connection) collaborate with the Los Angeles to bring you their vision of Giacomo Puccini's Il Trittico. Il Trittico is made up of three one-act operas, "Il Tabarro", "Suor Angelica", and "Gianni Schicchi". James Conlon conducts the orchestra and Tony-award winning Santo Loquasto will design the set. "Il Tabarro" is about a tragic love triangle, filled with dark and violent undertones. "Sour Angelica" is a story of redemption and contains some of Puccini's best known melodies. This opera was considered his favorite, and is actually the least performed of the three. The most popular is the third act, which is based off of Dante's "the Divine Comedy". This comedic opera involves the story of a family obsessed with the death of a family member, and how they try to extort some money since he has donated all of it to the nearby monastery. This includes the famous aria "O Mio Babbino Caro," which shows up all over the place, whether it's in a Mr. Bean movie, a Charlie Brown special, or a Grand Theft Auto III trailer. Although all three operas sound distinct in their own way, the themes of death and realism tie each of them together. This is Woody Allen's first foray into operatic directing, although he has been friends with Domingo for over 20 years, with talks of a "La Boheme" film. more ›

In some TV news with local flavor, Santa Monica-based Ovation, "The Arts Network" (I thought this was Lifetime's tagline?), has announced a series of partnerships with cultural institutions across the country to produce and promote their content and collections. Local organizations include: the LA Opera, Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, and P.S. ARTS. Now if I could only get Ovation on local cable.... more ›

You probably relate David Hockney's name with his famous California photograph called "Pearblossom Highway #2." But one of the contemporary artist's early loves was opera and he's back, for the third time ever with Wagner's "Tristan and Isolde" with the LA Opera, a "great ode to sexual ecstasy," the production company writes in the tag line of the title. more ›

FASHION: Inside Project Runway hits Beverly Hills tonight. Get a behind-the-scenes glimpse at the production, the catfights and, oh yeah, the fashion. Heidi Klum will be there, and organizers promise a few surprise guests. (The main auditorium is sold out, but a few tickets remain for the overflow theatre.) 7 pm // The Paley Center for Media // 465 N. Beverly Drive, Beverly Hills // $7 for closed-circuit viewing room. OPERA:The LA Opera brings... more ›

There was an article in the LA Times some time ago about the Downtown arts and culture scene suffering Westside patronage due to rush hour traffic. Unless residents we're already Downtown, buying a ticket to a play, symphony concert or opera was not worth the frustration stuck in traffic. On Wednesday, the LA Opera announced their new weekday service to take ticket holders on a luxury motor coach from the Federal Building in Westwood to... more ›

Slim pickings to choose from this Thanksgiving week and that makes it hard to choose just one. Friday through Sunday, the LA Phil will be playing Brahms' "Double Concerto" and Dvorák's killer Symphony No. 9 "From the New World," while the LA Opera opens two shows that will play on alternating dates: Don Giovanni and La Boheme. Tonight at Sundays Live, the free concert at LACMA, is Franz Schubert's "Quintet in C Major, D. 956"... more ›

If the above photo does not look anything like a night of Mozart or Tchaikovsky, you're right. Enter 20th Century Classical music where some composers went into non-linear forms, chance and improvisation. Part of the Society for the Activation of Social Space through Art and Sound's (SASSAS) sound. series, "Noisy Night features eight players from heavy metal and harsh noise, two idioms with rich and similarly subversive histories. Improvisational ensembles will be created using... more ›

Grand Performances Downtown, Free, Outdoors, Take the Red Line Thursday - Musicology 102, Music Theory: Melody/Harmony with Alan Chapman Friday - Paulist Choristers of California and Sinfonia Orchestra Saturday - Alan Chapman and Karen Benjamin Celebrate the American Songbook www.GrandPerformances.org Hollywood Bowl Outdoors, Drink Wine, Fireworks Monday thru Wednesday - July 4th Fireworks Spectacular Saturday - The Decemberists with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Sunday - Mozart's Magic Flute www.HollywoodBowl.com LA Opera in Beverly HIlls Outdoors,... more ›

- Pinkberry is yogurt-ish enough. Rejoice! - eating LA - The boats at Echo Park Lake might be dunzo. Sigh. - blogging.la - The weather is perfect to start watching movies outside under the stars - Franklin Ave. - LA City Nerd stumped by a simple question? Impeach! - LA City Nerd - Saturday is Bootie LA's 2nd anniversary. Word! - Bootie LA - Paris Hilton has the penmanship of a 7th grader -... more ›