The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts and Curatorial Assistance have extended 'Il Teatro alla Moda', their stunning exhibit of Italian fashion designers' contributions to opera costumes. 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 ›

Dale Trumbore, recent winner of the Sadye J. Moss Composition Prize and USC alum, is recording a new CD, Snow White Turns Sixty, focusing on 12 contemporary female poets' re-telling of classic fairy tales. 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 ›

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 ›

The Salastina Music Society makes their debut this week at the Zipper Hall, and aims to reach out to a modern audience. This non-profit organization hopes to encourage participation (like voting on what encore to perform) and will not enforce rules on when to applause (or not applaud). As an added bonus, they will offer free... more ›

After all the buildup, the promotion and the hype, the stakes for the LA Opera’s first performance of Richard Wagner’s complete Ring cycle were equally high to the stakes that characters face within the opera. Do or die. Succeed or fail. Win all or lose everything. more ›

The monthly Cause on the Rocks mixer returns to the Viceroy Santa Monica tonight from 7-10 pm. The cocktails with a cause will benefit St. Vincent Meals On Wheels, a program that prepares and delivers more than 2,600 nutritious meals daily to homebound elderly and other vulnerable clients around Los Angeles. This April's drink is the Cuba Libre and 100% of the proceeds will be donated directly to St. Vincent’s. RSVP online! more ›

Hear NoHo is a monthly music festival (first Thursday of every month) that showcases emerging music in small venues throughout North Hollywood. Check out the musical lineup that includes Scott Turek, Alysse Fischer, Laced Confection and Kill the Complex. Tonight’s performances will be held at the NoHo Arts Center, Art Institute of California-Hollywood and Cella Gallery. Music starts at 7 pm. Tickets $10. more ›

Tonight at 7:30 pm, The American Cinematheque Blows Up the Internet: A Night with Funny Or Die at the Egyptian Theatre. On the program are comedians Brett Gelman, Jordan Peele, Brandon Johnson, Charlie Sanders and a "really big comedian who likes to sit between two ferns and interview famous people." Plus, Astronaut Buzz Aldrin. more ›

The Egyptian Theater begins a retrospective of Stanley Kubrick films tonight. On the big screen at 7:30 pm is a 70mm print of 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). Watch this morality tale on technology as supercomputer HAL attempts to eliminate the bothersome human astronaut in space. The film will be introduced by Mike Kaplan, who who was VP and marketing point person for Kubrick's US company Polaris Productions for this film an A Clockwork Orange. more ›

The 6th Annual New Original Works Festival opens this week and runs for three weekends at REDCAT, the theater at the basement of Disney Hall downtown. Programming an assortment of dance, theater, and music events to share a single performance, the festival’s history has been adventurous and the LA Weekly calls it "one of the city's more eclectic and vital performance festivals." The mission of the festival isn’t to get traditional and conventional work onto the LA stage, but to offer an opportunity for local artists to experiment and take some risks, using all the finery of this state of the art facility. 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 ›

The Wooster Group returns to REDCAT tonight with La Didone, a daring production of Francesco Cavalli's 1641 Baroque opera mashed up with elements of Italian director Mario Bava's 1965 sci-fi cult film Terrore nello spazio (Planet of the Vampires). This West Coast premiere of La Didone runs through June Tonight’s performance begins at 8:30 pm, and tickets are $40-55, with student discounts available. more ›

Animation historian Jerry Beck presents “Juvenile Mindrot: Inappropriate and Disturbing Kids' Cartoons” at the Silent Movie Theatre tonight. These cartoons have been deemed too violent, too scary, too depressing and no longer for kids. Beck will bring in cartoons that aren’t shown on TV or on DVD right now. “Originally made for children, these roasters are no longer appropriate for small fry, whether it's because of the violence, cross dressing, smoking, sexism, or just straight-up bizarre ingredients contained within. If your childhood wasn't already perverted by hours upon hours of unhinged animation, this show will make it up to you.” Tickets are $13. more ›

FILM: The LA Freewaves Festival starts today and runs through Oct. 13. This fest “fuses media arts with Hollywood Boulevard, turning it into a massive, multi-faceted screening room showcasing 160 works in film, video and other visual media.” More than 40 physical venues and locations along seven blocks of Hollywood Boulevard will participate in “Hollywould” from the Knitting Factory to Kung Pao Kitty. more ›

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The closing program of the fifth annual New Original Works Festival (NOW) ended this weekend at REDCAT with a trio of works-in-progress. Composer Anne LeBaron with librettist Douglas Kearney, choreographer Rosanna Gamson and performance artist Kristina Wong presented excerpts from projects they’re currently working on in all their not-fully-edited, let’s try this, and I-wonder-if-this-belongs-here glory. more ›

Moving into the third and final weekend of REDCAT's New Original Works Festival, the program is at its most varied--music, dance and performance art. Included in this evening of innovative projects are alumni of previous REDCAT productions Anne LeBaron (with Douglas Kearney) and Rosanna Gamson/World Wide with one woman bundle of fury and fun Kristina Wong! more ›

Interesting interview with Menotti more ›

In 1989, then modern dance bad boy Mark Morris took a seventeenth century opera and turned it into a cause celebre in staging the work for his dance company, then in residence at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels. more ›

Photo by puck90 via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr. more ›

From doing Anne Frank in a parking garage to Greek mythology in a swimming pool, it's too bad that this site-specific Long Beach Opera production of Orpheus and Euridice by RIcky Ian Gordon is having such a short run (last night through tomorrow night) because this looks simply fantastic and Gordon's music has been praised by the New York Times and others (we concur, his music is hot). Tickets are still available for tonight's and tomorrow's performances taking place at the Belmont Plaza Olympic Pool. Hear and see a time lapse video of last night's performance below. more ›

7 pm // Santa Monica Bar and Grille // 3321 Pico Blvd., Los Angeles // $40 at the door. more ›

COMIC BOOK ART 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 ›

-- For £10 million and a private jet you’d do it too. They’re getting the band back together. [AOL Canada] -- $80 for the new Smashing Pumpkins record? Fantastic. [Shoutmouth] -- Rape me and a bag of chips. [Pitchfork] -- Leaking the leakers. Applications for 'snitch’ now being accepted. [Idolator] -- Choose your own Bob Dylan adventure. [Billboard] -- Woody “I don't want to move to a city where the only cultural advantage is... more ›

Remember the good old days, when Italian restaurants had opera-singing waiters? Mario and Larry Lalli grew up in the good old days, in one such restaurant. Mario and Larry’s family has been in the restaurant business for over 50 years. The two cousins have continued the tradition begun by their fathers, previously with a pizzeria in Palm Springs, and now with Café 322 in Sierra Madre. Larry tears it up in the kitchen while... more ›

- Why did The Departed beat Dreamgirls at the Oscars even though Dreamgirls threw a lot of money in hyping it to voters? - Reuters - Where will you be tomorrow at 11:30am when the Doors get their star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in front of the Virgin Megastore? Also, according to the Doors website, jazzy drummer John Densmore, who helped give the Doors part of their unique feel, won't be in... more ›