PACIFIC OVERTURES – East West Players – Los Angeles, CA – Now – December 8th

This remarkable production of Stephen Sondheim’s challenging musical is not-to-be-missed. IF you can get a ticket. I have heard that the run is entirely sold out. THIS JUST IN: East West Players has added one more week! Get your tickets immediately and/or check the website to get tickets that may suddenly become available.

Set in 1853, Pacific Overtures looks at the arrival of Commodore Matthew C. Perry and how his being there leads to the opening of very isolationist Japan.

Jon Jon Briones, Gedde Watanabe (who was in the original production in 1976), Scott Keiji Takeda, Brian Kim McCormick, Adam Kaokept lead an outstanding cast. Tim Dang directs,

Having seen the Roundabout revival in 2004, I can tell you this intimate production is vastly superior.

For tickets (fingers crossed) and more information, please go here. 

CELEBRATING 30 YEARS WITH MATIN CHALIFOUR – Los Angeles Philharmonic – Los Angeles, CA – November 19^th

Violinist and Principal Concertmaster of the orchestra will be featured and celebrated in a chamber music concert at Walt Disney Concert Hall.

On the program are works by Astor Piazzolla, Amanda Harberg and Beethoven. There is also the world premiere of Duo by Celka Ojakangas.

Joining Chalifour for this concert are Kaelan Decman (bass) Mak Grgić (guitar); Taylor Eiffert (clarinet); Dahae Kim (cello); Evan Kuhlmann (bassoon); Joanne Pearce Martin (piano); Amy Jo Rhine (horn); Jenni Seo (viola) and Ben Ullery (viola.)

Chalifour is retiring at the end of the 2024/2025 season. This should be a great send-off for a very talented musician.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

LIFE & TIMES OF MICHAEL K – The Wallis – Bevelry Hills, CA – November 21^st – November 24^th

If you fell in love with the puppet horses in War Horse or were enraptured with Little Amal, you’ll want to check out Life & Times of Michael K. It is based on the Booker Prize-winning novel by JM Coetzee and features the incredible work from the artists at Handspring Puppet Company and Cape Town’s Baxter Theater.

Lara Foot adapted the novel and directed the show which is centered on one man’s efforts to bring his mother back to her hometown in South African before she dies. Critics have stumbled over themselves trying to find new superlatives to describe the magic of this production.

I haven’t seen it yet, but have seen numerous excerpts from it and it is truly incredible. Please go HERE to read my interview with Foot.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

SCAT!…THE COMPLEX LIVES OF AL & DOT, DOT & ALZOLLAR – Mark Taper Forum – Los Angeles, CA – November 22^nd – November 24^th

Dance company Urban Bush Women celebrates its 40^th anniversary with this show inspired by director/creator/co-choreographer Jawole Willa Jo Zollar’s experiences growing up in Kansas City’s Black neighborhoods. Vincent Thomas is co-choreographer.

Urban Bush Women’s main focus is on the stories of Black women. The work goes backwards and forwards in time. The story has its roots in the Great Migration and is not fully autobiographical. Scat! had its world premiere in June at Bard SummerScape.

This 90-minute work is having its West Coast premiere and features live music composed by Craig Harris. The website describes it as a “dance-driven jazz club experience,” so music will be key here. Zollar told the New York Times this would be her final work for Urban Bush Women.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

Scat! will be performed at the Perelman Performing Arts Center in New York February 5th – February 8th.

Urban Bush Women will also be at the 92^nd Street Y in New York City for two performances showcasing the company’s 40-year history. For tickets and more information for those two events on December 6^th and 7^th, please go here.

BROADWAY OPENINGS: SWEPT AWAY – Longacre Theatre – New York, NY- November 19^th AND DEATH BECOMES HER  – Lunt-Fontanne Theatre – November 21^st

Two new musicals open this week starting with Swept Away, a musical written by The Avett Brothers and starring John Gallagher, Jr. (Spring Awakening), Stark Sands (Kinky Boots) and more. The show is directed by Michael Mayer and has a book by John Logan (Red).

This is a rarity for Broadway: a musical that is not based on a pre-existing work, but is wholly original.

The show is currently booked to run through May 25, 2025.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

The 1992 movie Death Becomes Her is the inspiration for this musical with Megan Hilty (9 To 5), Jennifer Simard (Company) and Christopher Sieber (Company) in the roles played on screen by Meryl Streep, Goldie Hawn and Bruce Willis.

Julia Mattison and Noel Carey wrote the  music and lyrics. The book is by Marco Pennette and the show is directed and choreographed by Christopher Gatteli. 

The show is also currently booked to run through May 25, 2025.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

That’s my list of the Best Bets: November 18th – November 24th. Have a great week!

Main Photo: Megan Hilty and Jennifer Simard in Death Becomes Her (Photo by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman)

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One change of note for New In Music, I am limiting the list to no more than the ten best releases of any given week. 

Here’s my top pick for New In Music: November 15^th:

TOP PICK: CONTEMPORARY CLASSICAL: LAND OF WINTER – DONNACHA DENNEHY – Nonesuch Records

The late actor John Hurt once told me that the best time to visit Ireland would be in May or late September. I hadn’t thought of his recommendation in quite some time until I heard this arresting new album from composer Dennehy.

Land of Winter is a 12-part composition with each part reflecting a month of the year. The composition begins in December and ends in November.  The first video is from July (the eighth section.) You can watch it HERE.

I wasn’t familiar with Dennehy’s music prior to hearing Land of Winter. I was, however, familiar with Alarm Will Sound and Alan Pierson who perform on this recording. They are masters of performing new music.

You don’t often hear of tone poems anymore, but Land of Winter is, to me, a contemporary tone poem. One that makes me want to book my trip to Ireland regardless of what month I go. I hope you’ll book time to hear this record!

Here is the rest of New in Music: November 15^th:

CLASSICAL MEETS JAZZ:  BEETHOVEN BLUES – JON BATISTE – Verve Records / Interscope

This is the first of two releases this week that has one feet in the classical realm and the other in jazz/blues. Pianist/composer Jon Batiste brings his unique musical expression to the works of Beethoven.

These are all solo piano variations on Beethoven’s music including such popular works as Für Elise (ask any piano student which composition that is), Ode to Joy (from the 9^th Symphony); Moonlight Sonata, the 5^th Symphony and my personal favorite of this collection, Waldstein Wobble which takes the Piano Sonata No. 21 as its inspiration.

It isn’t uncommon for musicians to re-imagine classical works. Amongst my favorites is the way pianist Marcus Roberts put a new spin on George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue on his Portrait in Blue album.

Batiste is a fine musician and a smart composer. This is a thoroughly enjoyable album that will be a safe space for people who are afraid of classical music. The hope is once they are engaged with Beethoven Blues they might listen to some of the originals. Which may be Batiste’s goal in the first place.

CONTEMPORARY CLASSICAL:  PLAYFAIR SONATAS – ETHAN IVERSON – Ulricht Audiovisual

This is second of two new releases that blurs the lines between classical music and jazz. Iverson, long known primarily as a jazz musician (and one of the most intelligent jazz musicians), composed works within the sonata form.

There’s a violin sonata , a marima sonata, a sonata for clarinet, one for trombone, another for alto saxophone and yet another for trumpet. Almost all are instruments strongly associated with jazz.

To further his playing around with genres, Iverson (who plays piano on this recording), called on classical musicians to join him: Miranda Cuckson on violin; Tim Leopold on trumpet; Mike Lormand on trombone; Carol McGonnell on clarinet; Makoto Nakura on marimba and Taimur Sullivan on saxophone.

The album cover makes you think this will be a playful album. And I suppose on some levels it is. But it’s also a solidly written, produced and performed addition to the contemporary classical music canon – one filled with plenty of references to legendary jazz musicians which you can hear throughout. And if you can’t, he’s written notes to explain each piece and its inspiration.

Playfair Sonatas is an album I will return to over and over again.

CONTEMPORARY CLASSICAL: NGWENYAMA: FLOW – TAKÁCS QUARTET – Hyperion Records

In the opening 30 seconds of Flow, I was questioning whether or not I would be able to go with the flow of Nokuthula Ngwenyama’s music. But go with it I did and I couldn’t be happier.

This is an incredible composition performed brilliantly by Takács Quartet. This is a short recording. It’s just under 22 minutes. But I strongly recommend listening to it with no distractions. Just put on the music and let it wash all over you. I guarantee you’ll be surprised by how compelling and beautiful it is.

You can watch Takács Quartet perform the third movement from Flow HERE.

JAZZ:  CHASING SHADOWS – ZACC HARRIS – Shifting Paradigm Records

Guitarist Harris is one of the most revered jazz musicians in Minnesota. But the rest of the world caught up with him upon the release of his album, Small Wonders. 

This tight album of eight original tracks finds Harris joined by Chris Bates on bass; Pete James Johnson on drums; Bryan Nichols on piano and Brandon Wozniak on tenor saxophone.

The absolute stand-out tracks for me on this album are Worlds Apart which truly showcases all four musicians and the last track, This Day, a beautiful ballad.

JAZZ:  CITY LIGHTS: THE OSCAR PETERSON QUARTET – LIVE IN MUNICH, 1994 – OSCAR PETERSON QUARTET – Mack Avenue Records

Who doesn’t like a comeback story? This album is documentation of pianist/composer Oscar Peterson’s comeback after a stroke the previous year which left him unable to use his left hand.

Like any hero of a comeback story, his persistence and countless hours of physical therapy allowed Peterson to return to live performance. This 78-minute recording was his second concert after his recovery.

The album opens with There Will Never Be Another Year in a performance that is lively  – to say the least. No sign of weakness here. Amongst the remaining 8 tracks are five original Peterson compositions.

Peterson is joined by Martin Drew on drums; Lorne Lofsky on guitar and Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen on bass (who composed Samba Petite which appears on the album as a solo for him.)

I love the theme to Rocky, but I’ll take Peterson’s redemption as much more inspiring.

MODERN OPERA:  THE ROMANCE OF THE ROSE – KATE SOPER – New Focus Recordings

Composer Soper sums up her opera best when she said that it “is a good receptable for the messy complexity of the human condition in general.” This is a work that grabs you by the throat with all the trials and tribulations that being alive offers.

Joining Soper, who sings the role of “Shame,” are Ty Bouque, Phillip Bullock, Ariadne Greif, Anna Schubert, Devony Smith and Lucas Steele. The Wet Ink Ensemble (of which Soper is a member) also performs.

Certainly, this is not going to be a recording for those who aren’t willing to go there. Soper asks that audiences go there from the outset of most of her works. This first video, Meet Shame, is no exception.

But those who do will understand why Soper is one of the most daring composers working today and why she receives accolades and commissions on a regular basis. 

MUSICAL ADJACENT:  AMERICAN RAILROAD – SILKROAD ENSEMBLE with RHIANNON GIDDENS – Nonesuch Records               

This isn’t a musical. But it is a song cycle performed as a sung-through work by the Silkroad Ensemble. One that tells a specific story about the building of railroads in America and the people who did that work – people history doesn’t remember.

It’s a deeply powerful work that, I believe, is more successful than many a musical. You can watch them perform Mahk Jchi HERE.

Contributing to American Railroad are newly commissioned songs by Suzanne Kite, Wu Man and Cécile McLorin Salvant. The rest of the recording came from various members of Silkroad Ensemble and Giddens.

Hearing this recording makes me regret not having seen the show when I had the chance. Simply put, this is not just great music, it’s important work.

That’s all for New In Music This Week: November 15^th.

Enjoy your weekend!

Enjoy the music!

Main Photo: Album art for Ethan Iverson’s Playfair Sonatas (Courtesy Ulrich’s AudioVisual)

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The first two times the Ian Judge production of Charles Gounod’s Romeo and Juliet were performed by LA Opera, Kitty McNamee was the choreographer. It was her first time choreographing an opera. This year, the third time around for this production, McNamee is sitting in the director’s chair and serving as choreographer.

McNamee had her own dance company in Los Angeles: Hysterica which launched in the late 1990s. She’s choreographed many other opera (for LA Opera and other companies worldwide).

McNamee has also worked with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Hollywood Bowl, Pasadena Playhouse and more.

Hopping into the director’s chair was both exciting and daunting for McNamee. Though she knew the production well, there were things she wanted to do to freshen it up. A serious re-working of the production wasn’t an option. She found the areas where she felt she could bring something new to this tragic story of star-crossed lovers.

McNamee discusses her journey on this production, the power of love stories where couples don’t end up together and whether she can see herself in her work in Romeo and Juliet. What follows are excerpts from our conversation that have been edited for length and clarity. To see the full interview with McNamee, please go to our YouTube channel.

Q: Composer Charles Gounod is quoted as having said, “My opinion changes rapidly. One minute I can think it is very good and the next time I look at it, I see all the flaws and weaknesses therein.” How much does does that perspective reflect your experience as a choreographer and perhaps as an opera director now?

I think that resonates so profoundly with me. I mean, I could have written that myself particularly when there is an audience watching with you. You just feel so exposed because any little problem or shift in the flow, you take such responsibility for. It’s interesting because I can look at the archivals to give notes and I’m removed and it’s not people with me. I’m so much more comfortable. And you think, wow, this is really gorgeous production. I can see the strength and the beauty of it. But watching with an audience is really terrifying.

Is it more terrifying now that you’ve taken on the title of director?

Yes, because this is the first opera I’ve ever directed. Actually, Romeo and Juliet was the first opera that I’d ever choreographed. So the first time I was quite nervous. The second time, less so. But this feels right and feels like a great fit for me. But my palms were sweaty. 

There are certain restrictions on how much you can change an existing production. This one was originally directed by Ian Judge. You told San Francisco Classical Voice that you don’t have that much freedom except to “freshen it up.” How would you define freshening it up as this production looks compared to the two previous productions? 

That’s a great question. The set is as it is. I can’t change the set. I could adjust slightly, maybe the timing of transitions, but the set functions in a very specific way. I inherited that. Also, the score calls for when people enter the story, calls for who comes in and what happens. So that’s all fixed. But the nuancing of performances and making some choices. For instance, having Mercutio stay on stage after he dies. The Romeo and Mercutio, Duke [Kim] and Justin [Austin] are also friends, have worked together and they have a very dynamic chemistry. So I decided to keep him onstage.

I think my biggest impact is in the performance of of the singers and how I can perhaps add my my sense of drama, my physical interpretation of storytelling and utilize that to give their performances a little bit more freedom.

If you had the freedom to not do a 100% overhaul of this production, but say if you had the freedom to change 50% of it or more freedom than what you had, are there things that stand out to you as things that you would like to see different? 

I would like to somehow simplify the transitions. There’s quite a few. Towards the end it’s very challenging. So that would be my number one thing. I think the set is glorious. Maybe in the past we had more bodies on stage to help deal with things or the budget is not quite maybe what it was before. And I have to say a shout out to L.A. Opera, by the way, for continuing to make work and continuing to bring this extremely high level of talent to L.A. audiences.

This is your third collaboration, as we discussed, with L.A. Opera on Gounod’s Romeo and Juliet. How have you seen your work grow in the 19 years since you first were involved with this production? 

I think the number one thing is that I trust my instincts more. I think that I’ve learned to trust my instincts. Within the noise of directing there are so many people asking you so many questions, which is very different from just choreographing. My assistant director, Erik Friedman, was incredibly helpful. He handled a lot of the task-oriented, schedule-oriented [work]. But also in the room he said, “You know, it’s your voice, it’s your vision that counts, Kitty. In this situation you’re the director.“

You’ve stated previously that you wanted this production to be experienced through Juliet’s eyes so there’s more agency of her story and her fate. How do you, as a director, make that something an audience is going to inherently feel or just think about?

Our Juliet is very powerful as a person. Amina is very powerful. She is insightful and not afraid to voice her opinion. When I encountered her, and she came in very late, I had to remind myself I wanted her opinion. I wanted her point of view. Duke is elegant, princely, wonderful and gentle. Like the epitome of a romantic lead. And I knew that trusting my gut was going to bring this fire, this sort of pressure to the role. So I just tried to listen to her and actually truly let her have agency, which I think comes through in the production.

The way it came through to me is and I am assuming this is part of the construction of the opera, is how quickly Juliet says yes to marrying Romeo. I just feel like only somebody who has that agency can say yes that quickly.

And is willing to risk everything for it. Particularly, for me, in the poison potion aria when she makes that decision. She’s willing to risk everything to not only fulfill her love for Romeo, but also not be given away. Not have her body given away. Not have her soul given away by her parents to someone. She had already committed to Romeo at that point.

Is it important for the audience to understand this?

Maybe I just assumed that they would. Sometimes I just make those assumptions. I just assume people would make that leap. She’s a heroine. In my mind it should have gone smoothly. This should’ve been a romantic comedy, but the parents had to get in there and society had to get in there. One thing that I really appreciated about Amina was that she’s able to pull off the lighter youthful tone in the beginning of the opera and she has the resonance and the depth of character to make the later moments plausible.

Why do you think we, as an audience, respond so strongly to stories where the couple does not end up together? Why is great love doomed to separation or death? 

It’s weird when you put it that way. It makes me want to cry. It does. And I’m not a crier. But there’s such hope for me in young people believing in love and believing in a peaceful existence. It’s so incredibly hopeful. I think that all of us wish that this never-ending hatred, this never-ending war… And people don’t know why it started, but it continues. How the young people today would love for peace and for love to rule. It’s manageable to see this tragedy in an opera. It’s done. We can walk away. It’s cathartic, but it begins with the hope and they start with the purity of love. So maybe it’s a way for humanity to sort of manage reality. 

Or get a sense of how fragile that purity of love really is. 

I thought about my first love. Other people’s first loves. How you just had every hope in the world that it would be this beautiful thing forever. Then reality smacks you in the face. The differences creep in and reality creeps in the day to day. Maybe this is just a way to hold on to that hope.

With Romeo and Juliet now open, does that fuel a desire to direct more operas? Was this so gratifying that you can’t wait for the next one?

Yes. Even though it was terrifying, I felt very much that I was in the right place. It felt so comfortable. I love music. I’ve always been obsessed with music. I’ve always been obsessed with storytelling. Usually it’s telling the story through movement and music with no text. Even though I’ve worked with opera singers as choreographer, it was different because I was working with them directly with their interpretation of these roles over time. You know, I loved it.

You’ve mentioned in previous interviews wanting to work with composers Missy Mazzoli and Ellen Reid, two women who I think are amazing composers and they’re also disruptors of what the form is. If you look at a couple of male directors, Yuval Sharon, James Darrah, they’re also disruptors. How important is it for you to either be a disruptor or to work with disruptors as you continue your work in opera?

It’s fascinating because my company was called Hysterica and we were in L.A. for ten solid years. But we were very much disruptors in the dance world. And all of the people that came out of my company are very much disruptors like Ryan Heffington and Nina McNeely, both of whom just won Emmys for work in a medium that ten, 15 years ago, would not have hired any of us. It’s kind of ironic that I’m in this very classical world given where I started. I was like a punk rock dance company. I feel like all of these startups are bringing me to the place where maybe I can do what I did in the dance world in the opera world.

How important is it now for you to take a risk yourself?

It’s very important because, I’m not going to lie, when I got the job, I was like, don’t fail. That’s all I kept thinking during the entire rehearsal [process]. Don’t fail. You hate to fail. I think my entire life has been open to risk. I have failed in the past and you suffer. But the joy of taking the risk is larger for me than if I didn’t take the risk and I turn the opportunity down. That is more of a failure for me. 

Martha Graham is quoted as saying, “Nothing is more revealing than movement.” What does your movement on stage, whether in Romeo and Juliet or anywhere else that people have seen your work, reveal about you?

First of all, I love Martha Graham. Some of my dancers from Hysterica days came to opening night. They said we can see your touch in this super-heightened format. They’re still human and you can feel the humanity in the way they’re moving. I think that’s really what drives me – human reaction.

And do you see yourself on the stage? Not just your work, but do you see aspects of yourself on that stage?

If I look back at my contemporary dance work, I’m like, my God. Looking back at it now, my whole psychology is on parade, right? I mean, I’m a romantic. I think that’s on display. My personal dream for that pure love is on display and my investment in that.

To watch the full interview with Kitty McNamee, please go here.

LA Opera’s production of Romeo and Juliet continues at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles through November 23rd. For tickets and more information, please go here.

Main Photo: Kitty McNamee (Photo by Nate Lusk/Courtesy KittyMcNamee.com)

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Here are this week’s BEST BETS: November 11th – November 17th:

A WONDERFUL WORLD: THE LOUIS ARMSTRONG MUSICAL – Studio 54 – New York, NY – Opening Night November 11^th – May 4^th

James Monroe Iglehart, who won a Tony Award for his performance as the Genie in Aladdin The Musical, takes on the role of legendary musician/singer/actor Louis Armstrong. He’s also the co-director (along with Christopher Renshaw and Christina Sajous) of this musical.

Armstrong’s life and career is certainly worthy of a musical.

He was a truly groundbreaking artist on so many levels. I hope this musical does him justice.

Aurin Squire wrote the book. Branford Marsalis and Daryl Waters did the arrangements and orchestrations of the music.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

CALIDORE STRING QUARTET: KORNGOLD’S COMPLETE STRING QUARTETS  – Zipper Hall/Colburn School – Los Angeles, CA – November 12^th Livestream Available                

Composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold is perhaps best known for some of Hollywood’s greatest film scores. This includes The Adventures of Robin Hood, The Sea Hawk, Kings Row and Captain Blood.

But like many an early immigrant film composer, classical music was also part of his writing.

At this concert audiences will get a chance to hear all three of the string quartets composed by Korngold.

Calidore String Quartet began its life at the Colburn School 14 years ago. They are: Jeremy Berry on viola; Estelle Choi on cello; Ryan Meehan on violin and Jeffrey Myers on violin.

For more information and in-person tickets, please go here. For livestream tickets, please go here.

GEORGE CABLES QUARTET “80^th BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION” – Smoke Jazz Club – New York, NY – November 13^th – November 17^th Livestream Available

Pianist George Cables, who was Art Pepper’s favorite pianist, performed with Dexter Gordon, Joe Henderson, Sonny Rollins, Sarah Vaughn and so many more, celebrates his 80^th birthday with 12 sets at Smoke Jazz Club.

Joining Cables are Essiet Essiet on bass, Craig Handy on tenor saxophone and Jerome Jennings on drums.

Cables remains an active artist and has two new singles released recently: Echo of a Scream and You’d Be So Nice to Come Home To. For those who don’t know Cables, I strongly suggest you check out these shows and his recordings.

Both the 7 PM EST and 9 PM EST sets on Friday, November 15^th, will be available for livestreaming. They will remain accessible for 48 hours after the performance.

For more information and in-person tickets, please go here. For livestream tickets for the 7 PM set, please go here. For livestream tickets for the 9 PM set, please go here.

TAMMY FAYE – Palace Theatre – New York, NY – Opening Night November 14^th – March 30^th

If you’re like me, you wonder who wants to see a musical about Tammy Faye Bakker. You then wonder who would write a musical about her.

Then you read a little further down and realize Elton John and Jakes Shears (Scissor Sisters) have written this new musical which prompted Matt Wolf, writing in the New York Times after the show debuted in London to rave, “Praise the lord for Tammy Faye…the show has a heart as big as the title character’s bouffant hairdo.” If anyone can put an entertaining spin on the late evangelist, it would be Elton and Shears.

Katie Brayben once again plays Tammy Faye. Christian Borle plays Jim Bakker and Michael Cerveris plays Jerry Falwell. Rupert Goold directs and the book is by James Graham.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

NOON TO MIDNIGHT: FIELD RECORDINGS – Walt Disney Concert Hall – Los Angeles, CA – November 16^th

The Los Angeles Philharmonic’s  annual festival of new music does live up to its name – it runs for 12 hours. Within those twelve hours is a full day of contemporary music performed by a wide range of artists.

Curated by Ellen Reid, this year’s festival will include performances of music by Doug Aitken (sold out), Raven Chacon, Ted Hearne, Annea Lockwood, Marc Lowenstein, Missy Mazzoli, Andrew McIntosh, Angélica Negron, Andrew Norman, Tomeka Reid, Gabriella Smith and dozens more. There will also be a tribute to composer Sarah Gibson who passed away in July.

All events take place in and around the Walt Disney Concert Hall.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

That’s all for Best Bets: November 11th – November 17th. Enjoy your week and go out and see a concert or a show!

Main Photo: George Cables (Photo ©Roberto Cifarelli/Courtesy George Cables)

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THE LAST SHIP: 10^th ANNIVERSARY REUNION CONCERT – 54 Below – New York, NY – November 4^th

Rock star/composer Sting is joined by members of the original cast of his musical The Last Ship for two reunion concerts at 54 Below. Tickets for both events sold out long ago. But you can live stream the event at 7 PM ET/4PM PT and catch all the action.

Amongst the cast members joining Sting are Michael Esper, Jamie Jackson, Sally Ann Triplett and Rachel Tucker.

A portion of the proceeds from the concerts and the livestream will benefit Project ALS. Aaron Lazar, who originated the role of Arthur Millburn, announced he was diagnosed with ALS aka Lou Gehrig’s disease earlier this year. These concerts are a celebration of him as well as the musical itself.

For livestream tickets and more information, please go here.

WAITING FOR GODOT  – Geffen Playhouse – Westwood, CA – November 6th – December 15^th

Samuel Beckett’s classic play is once again on stage in Los Angeles. This production, produced in association with Gare St Lazare Ireland, finds Rainn Wilson and Aasif Mandvi starring as Vladimir and Estragon – two men waiting endlessly for the arrival of Godot.

Joining them are Conor Lovett as Pozzo and Adam Stein as Lucky.

The role of Boy will be performed by Lincoln Bonilla and Jack McSherry (they will alternate performances). Judy Hegarty Lovett directs.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

ROUVALI LEADS JULIA WOLFE, STRAUSS & SIBELIUS  – New York Philharmonic – New York, NY – November 7-November 12^th

Life’s journey has inspired many a composer. This concert focuses on three different works that explore explorations of life at various ages.

The program opens with Julia Wolfe’s Fountain of Youth. By its name you know what part of life this represents.

Richard Strauss’ Four Last Songs, a powerful work, makes it clear what stage of life Strauss explored with this work. Soprano Miah Persson will sing this incredibly moving work.

The concert closes with Sibelius’ celebration of his own 50^th birthday in his Fifth Symphony.

Santtu-Matias Rouvali conducts these four concerts.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

MUTI & THE CSO – Chicago Symphony Orchestra – Chicago, IL – November 8^th – November 9^th

Works by Chabrier, Donizetti, Falla and Verdi are on this program. But what makes these two concerts compelling is the world premiere of the Megalopolis Suite by Osvaldo Golijov. This is a suite of music from his wonderful score for the Francis Ford Coppola film Megalopolis.

Audiences didn’t exactly flock to see this movie, but they missed out. I personally loved the film and have played the score multiple times since seeing the film.

Golijov is a terrific composer and this CSO Commission will certainly showcase that to all who attend these concerts. This is a score that deserves attention and will hopefully find some love during awards season.

Riccardo Muti conducts.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

ISAIAH COLLIER & THE CHOSEN FEW – Soka Performing Arts Center – Aliso Viejo, CA – November 9th

Saxophonist/composer Collier is an artist who deftly joins jazz traditions with a unique blend of other styles including soul, gospel and funk. This concert will be focused on his latest release The Almighty – a 63-minute album that explores the role of spirituality in his life and by extension our own. It’s a terrific album that should be even more alive when performed live.

The chosen few joining Collier for this concert are Richard Gibbs III on piano, Jermain Paul on bass and Damien Reid on drums.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

This concludes our Best Bets: November 4th – November 10th. For readers in the United States, don’t forget to vote on Tuesday.

Enjoy your week!

Main Photo: Rachel Tucker and Aaron Lazar in The Last Ship on Broadway (Photo by Joan Marcus)

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Here are my Best Bets: October 28th – November 3rd:

JOAN – South Coast Repertory – Costa Mesa, CA – Now – November 24^th

Playwright Daniel Goldstein’s play, having its world premiere at SCR, is about Joan Rivers. The play looks at both the professional and personal life of the woman who made outrageous jokes and suffered enormous tragedies.

Tessa Auberjonois, who has appeared in nearly a dozen other productions at South Coast Rep, takes on the dual roles of Joan and Mrs. Molinsky. Andrew Borba plays multiple roles including Dr. Molinsky, Edgar Rosenberg and Johnny Carson. Elinor Gunn plays Melissa (her daughter) and Young Joan. Zachary Prince plays at least five roles including Jimmy, Blake, Harold and Chet.

David Ivers directs. Opening night is November 1^st. The show is recommended for audiences age 16 and older.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE – Frogtown area of Los Angeles – October 28^th – October 30^th/Venice, CA – November 1^st – November 3^rd

Tennessee Williams’ classic play has been performed more times around the world than one could possibly calculate. So there must be something unique about this production to warrant inclusion in our best bets. And there is.

Four actors, without a set or props, perform the unabridged text of A Streetcar Named Desire in unique locations. These are fully realized performances, not a reading. By all accounts of previous performances on the East Coast, this is a production not-to-be-missed.

Williams’ poetic language will be front and center in this production. Might it lead to a new understanding of Streetcar? There’s only one way to find out. 

Co-creator Lucy Owen plays Blanche DuBois. Brad Koed is Stanley Kowalski. Mallory Portnoy is Stella DuBois. James Russell plays Harold Mitchell. Co-creator Nick Westrate directs.

For tickets and more information for the Frogtown dates, please go here. For the Venice dates, please go here.

STRIKE UP THE BAND – MasterVoices – Carnegie Hall – New York, NY –  October 29^th

George and Ira Gershwin’s 1927 musical had a rocky start. It played in Philadelphia but didn’t make it to Broadway until 1930 when the original book, by George S. Kaufman, was revised by Morrie Ryskind. Many songs appear in both versions, but there are differences.

MasterVoices Artistic Director Ted Sperling has collaborated with writer Laurence Maslon to create a new version which combines “the best of the 1927 and 1930 version for the show.”

Joining MasterVoices are Shereen Ahmed, Phillip Attmore, Victoria Clark, Lissa deGuzman, Claybourne Elder, Christopher Fitzgerald, Bryce Pinkham and David Pittu.

This is precisely the kind of one night only events in New York that makes any serious fan of musical theater and/or the Gershwins wished they lived there.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

DÍA DE LOS MUERTOS WITH DUDAMEL – Walt Disney Concert Hall – Los Angeles, CA –  November 1^st – November 3^rd

Latin American music is on the program for these three concerts celebrating Día de Muertos. 

Brazilian composer Villa-Lobos’ Chôros No. 10, “Rasga o Coração” opens the concert. That is followed by Yanga by Gabriela Ortiz – a work that was commissioned by the LA Phil and had its world premiere performance in 2019.

The second half of the program, and my personal favorite, is La noche de los Mayas by Silvestre Revueltas.

Joining Gustavo Dudamel and the LA Philharmonic are the Tambuco Percussion Ensemble and the Los Angeles Master Chorale.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

LAND OF GOLD – PBS Great Performances – November 1^st (check local listings)

This is a behind-the-scenes documentary into the premiere of John Adams’ opera Girls of the Golden West which has a libretto by Peter Sellars. The premiere took place at San Francisco Opera in November 2017.

Appearing in this 90-minute documentary are Adams, Sellars and singers Paul Appleby, J’Nai Bridges and Julia Bullock.

The world premiere of any opera is a daunting task. This documentary allows viewers to get a sense of how demanding it is, particularly when you are putting a more honest spin on a part of history.

Check your local listings or go to PBS.org to watch Land of Gold.

That completes my Best Bets: October 28th – November 3rd. Enjoy your week!

Main Photo: Concept art for MasterVoices’ Strike Up the Band (Courtesy MasterVoices)

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Beginning tonight, the LA Phil is performing An Evening of Film & Music: From Mexico to Hollywood. The program, curated by John Williams and Gustavo Dudamel, features primarily Mexican composers in the first half. The lone exception is the Tribute to Mario Moreno (Cantiflas) composed by Maurice Ravel (Bolero as it was used in the film El Bolero de Raquel).

The Revueltas music includes music from two film scores that rank amongst his most popular compositions: La noche de los Mayos which is from a 1939 film of the same name and Music from Redes, a 1935 film co-directed by Fred Zinnemann and Emilio Gómez Muriel. Zinnemann is best known for such films as From Here to Eternity and High Noon.

When listening to the music of Revueltas you hear, in my opinion, the future and the past of Mexico. You can hear references to the earliest people there, but also a reaching forward to something new. In both the orchestration and the composition itself, Revueltas offers a soundscape that is wholly original and unlike anything being used for film at the time.

In 1999, the Los Angeles Philharmonic released a recording of Revueltas’ music. Esa-Pekka Salonen conducted. This is well-worth checking out as an introduction to Revueltas’ utterly compelling and fascinating music. Amongst the highlights are Sensemayá and Ventanas for Large Orchestra.

The second half features more familiar scores by George Gershwin (An American in Paris), Maurice Jarre (Dr. Zhivago), Leonard Roseman (East of Eden), Miklós Rózsa (Double Indemnity) and Max Steiner (Now Voyager, Casablanca).

If you find yourself at one of this weekend’s concerts and want to hear more of La noche de los Mayos, the entire composition will be performed by the LA Phil with Dudamel in Día de Los Muertos with Dudamel beginning on November 1st.

Also on the program is Villa-Lobos’ Chôros No. 10, “Rasga o Coração, a work for chorus and orchestra by the Brazilian composer. Immediately following that will be Gabriela Ortiz‘s Yanga which the LA Phil premiered in 2019.

Revueltas did not live a long life (he passed away at the age of 40). In addition to being a composer, he was an acclaimed violinist, he fought in Spain during the Spanish Civil War and he was a conductor. He composed over 40 significant works (much of which should still be recorded) ranging from piano solos, orchestral work, ballet scores and songs.

I hope this is the beginning of a greater exploration of Silvestre Revueltas and his music. There is so much here that is begging to be heard and there’s no better way to hear it than to hear it live.

I’ll be at each of these concerts and encourage you to do the same.

Photo: John Williams and Gustavo Dudamel (Courtesy Los Angeles Philharmonic)

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Since 1973, Lucie Arnaz has been, as they say, treading the boards. In those early days it was in Summer Stock (you kids can look that one up). But it wasn’t too long before she originated her first role in the musical They’re Playing Our Song. The 1979 Broadway hit had songs by Marvin Hamlisch and Carole Bayer Sager and a book by Neil Simon.

Later in her career she originated the part of Alexandra Spofford in the musical adaptation of The Witches of Eastwick.

Throughout her career Arnaz has performed such roles as Sally Bowles in Cabaret, Princess Winnifred in Once Upon a Mattress, Mabel Normand in Mack and Mabel and Berthe in Pippin. She’s had a vast career and it is precisely that career she is celebrating in her show I Got the Job! – Songs From My Musical Past which she will perform on October 22nd and 23rd at Catalina Jazz Club in Los Angeles and October 30th and November 1st at Feinstein’s at the Hotel Nikko in San Francisco. Between those dates she’s performing An Intimate Evening with Lucie Arnaz at the Purple Room in Palm Springs October 25th – 27th.

For those who don’t already know, Arnaz is the daughter of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. She grew up in and around showbiz royalty.

Recently I spoke with Arnaz about her stage career, the shows she’s doing and what the future might have in store for her – whether on a Broadway stage or elsewhere. What follows are excerpts from our conversation that have been edited for length and clarity. To see the full interview, please go to our YouTube channel.

Q: I want to ask you about something your mother is quoted as having said she said, “I’d rather regret the things I’ve done than regret the things I haven’t done.” As you as you were putting this show together, what role did time and perspective give you in reviewing the jobs you got and the jobs you didn’t? 

It’s a good question, actually. You look back on it now – several decades after you’ve done some of these shows – and the choices I make, even to pick the material from the show, sometimes I picked songs that my character didn’t even sing because another song means more to me now. Or there’s a better story that goes along with it or something. In this particular show, I’m not 100% sure that it affected what I choose to sing.

It’s my most authentic show to me because it really is how I started and how I got from point A to point B by playing all these different characters. So each and every song is a little scene. It’s a playlist from that show, even if I do it in a little bit different way.

I want to take you back to when you were 22 because you appeared in two productions of musicals that are actually on Broadway now. You were Princess Winifred in Once Upon a Mattress, which was in Dayton, Ohio, and you were Sally Bowles in Cabaret in Flint, Michigan. What resonates with you most about that time of your life being in those two shows? 

Just the most amazing opportunity to really learn your craft here in regional theaters or what they used to call summer stock in those days. And you had to put a show together with a week of rehearsal. So you better come knowing your stuff. And I had been trained, you know, on live three-camera, live audience television, which we did sort of the same way. We had a week to put a show together and know everything you’re going to do and then perform it in less than a week – four days.

I guess Mattress was my first, and I just loved it. I loved that you had to work as a team and get that show on in such a short period of time. It was just fantastic training, really. I love it. I made a family of friends that I still have to this day because you’re all in the trenches together to get that to happen.

What is easier to put together that quickly: the comedic role of Princess Winifred, in the course of a week or to put together a Sally Bowles in a week? 

I think it’s equally challenging because, for example, using Once Upon a Mattress. There’s so much physical stuff to do in that show: the climbing and all of the pratfall. She was a real interesting character to play and you had to be really good at it to make it look really bad. To make it look foolish. And so they don’t have a lot of time to do that. I worked really hard to make her believable. That’s all I ever really want to do is make these people believable. It could be a comedy. It could be a drama. To me, it’s kind of the same.

My mother, you mentioned her in the beginning, she always was believable. Their writers were so good that they wrote situations that were crazy predicaments. You would think, how on earth? But they were so brilliantly constructed that you believed what they were going to go do. And as long as that’s written that way, then you can just fly with it and think this actually could happen.

Last year I spoke to Gavin Creel, who was doing Into the Woods. He talked to me about his time in Chicago working on Bounce with Stephen Sondheim. Hal Prince was director. He talked about what the experience was like to be in the room and watching people struggle to do the best work that they could for a given show. You’ve been in that situation several times. They’re Playing Our Song was one of them, where you got to be in the room with Marvin Hamlisch, Carole Bayer Sager and Neil Simon. What was that experience for you?

That is such a gift. I can’t tell you. It’s only happened to me twice in my life where I could be in the middle of the making of a brand new musical. And it’s always a little different. When I did Witches of Eastwick in London with Cameron Mackintosh and all those gals and stuff. It was a slightly different experience, much bigger deal, all the flying. It was Cameron Mackintosh and bazillions of dollars and whatnot. [With They’re Playing Our Song] we were doing a two character musical in Los Angeles. We had three weeks of rehearsal, Witches had four months. To watch these geniuses, people like Marvin and Neil, figure out what works, what doesn’t, and why.

One of the things I learned from [Marvin], which just changed the way I look at myself forever because we were rehearsing a number – one of the ballads – and I’m trying to find my way around the song. How am I going to sing it? Where am I going to breathe? And he stopped and he said, okay, okay, wait, stop. I think I want to lower the key here for you in this song. I was so devastated. I was so embarrassed. Many people heard him say that. I went, Marvin, I’m so sorry. I know I can hit these notes. I kind of go at it easy in the beginning. And then he goes, “Stop. Would you stop already? You think I’m married to these notes?” And I looked at him like, What are you talking about? He said, “Lu, I hired you for the sound, the quality of your voice. Every instrument is different.” I was a singer. A composer like Marvin Hamlisch wanted to write a song for me. It changed my life.

Then to watch Neil watch us try to stage a scene. He’s Neil Simon. He’s the most prolific comedy writer. He’s chewing on his glasses and he doesn’t look happy. I got really nervous as I thought, what if I get fired? What if he decides these kids are not the right kids for this? He got up and he left. I panicked and we finished the day. We still didn’t stage the thing properly. The next day he came in and handed us all new pages and said, “When anything is that hard to stage, it’s always the writing.” He just went home and rewrote it and he didn’t even rewrite it that much. Boom, it staged itself. I just loved that that he didn’t sit there and blame somebody else.

Let me ask you about something you posted on Facebook on October 9th. You said “It’s stressful times. Let Ron Abel [her music director] and I take your pain away for 85 minutes.” How does doing this show take away your pain and does that relief last longer than 85 minutes for you? 

This show is a feel good explosion of emotions all over the board. I focus a lot to do it. And I go into this other wonderful world, this memory world, and play a whole slew of characters that I have had the opportunity to do. I think for people who are, let’s just say a little anxious right now, it’s healthy because I truly believe in sort of a woo woo metaphysical way of looking at life. That we need to visualize what we want the new Earth to be like, the new planet to be like, the new politics, if you will. How are we going to care for one another? How are we going to learn to be kind again? When I watch too much of my favorite shows like MSNBC or CNN or whatever, or read too much of the New York Times, it can be very stressful and it’s not helping me visualize the alternatives. So these days I’m looking for Lucie Arnaz shows. I’m looking for places to go where people are going to take me out of this week.

I think people have to work hard right now to keep their batteries charged and don’t give up. Don’t lose hope. We’ll get through this together. There may be some turbulence along the way. It could be severe turbulence. Buckle up. But when we get to the other side, the dust is going to settle and it’s going to be a different, better scenario for everybody. That’s my feeling.

I’m going to ask you to go back in the time machine one more time, and that’s to September 17th, 1967. You appeared, uncredited, as the girl in the golf cart on the second episode of The Mothers in Law. What would you tell that teenage girl about what her life and her career would be?

That’s a good question. Really? If I could go back to me at that age, I would just tell her to just settle the hell down. I look back and I go, honey, I didn’t know who I was. I had this way of talking. It was just bizarre. I just had no idea what I was good at. I had no idea where I was going. My brother was already in a rock group and was a rock and roll star at 11. My mother had this great television series. My father was a producer, ran a studio. [He] had this band, he made all this gorgeous music. What is it that I do? I hadn’t found the theater yet. I would just say, Honey, know that you are enough. You will find your bliss. Find the thing that belongs to you and stick with it. That’s what I eventually did. But if I could get to her just a tiny bit sooner, I think I would have been a lot happier.

You do realize you’re describing what most teenagers go through which is not knowing what they want to do when they’re teenagers. Plus you were surrounded by a very different family dynamic.

I kind of knew I would be in the business. I just wasn’t sure how to do it. I always loved performing: a little theater, my backyard. I picked my high school because it had a theater arts department that was great. I kind of knew I was going to get there somehow. I guess if we could go to our teenage self, we’d say, settle down, you’re going to be fine. You’re good, just as you are, honey. Don’t try to be everybody else. You have to find your own voice, your own way of performing a song.

And indeed you have. That’s what you’ll be celebrating in these shows.

Indeed I will.

To watch the full interview with Lucie Arnaz, please go here.

All photos of Lucie Arnaz courtesy Catalina Jazz Club.

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“I sort of made my name playing an alcoholic, broken down chanteuse. So it seemed inevitable that I would get an award for that someday.” That was the beginning of my conversation with Mx. Justin Vivian Bond when talking recently about Bond being named the first recipient of the Judy Icon Award at this year’s Night of A Thousand Judys at Joe’s Pub in New York on June 3rd.

This is the 12th year of the event that celebrates the legendary Garland while also raising money for the Ali Forney Center, an organization that provides housing and services to homeless LGBTQ+ in New York City.

Bond, who uses v as the preferred pronoun, is a transgender singer, actor, cabaret artist whose shows (including Rare Bird which premiered at Joe’s Pub in New York in early May and will be performed May 30th – June 1st at Feinsteins At the Nikko in San Francisco; Bond will debut Night Shade at Joe’s Pub June 20th – June 30th) range from the brilliant to the absurd in equal measure. V is also one half of Kiki & Herb with Kenny Mellman.

In 2021, Bond collaborated with countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo on a show called Only an Octave Apart. The critically-acclaimed show was recorded and the album was released in January of 2022

Last week I spoke with Bond about Garland’s influence, whether having a legacy is important to v and the role of dreams in one’s life. What follows are excerpts from our conversation that have been edited for length and clarity. To see the full interview with Bond, please go to our YouTube channel.

You are the first recipient of the Judy Icon Award at Night of a Thousand Judys. How did that feel when you found out?

I’m very honored. Justin Sayre is somebody who I’ve respected for a long time. The work that he has done in the queer community, his performances and what he has to say with his work has always been very important and inspiring. So, to be honored by him and the group of people that he works with on the show is very flattering, obviously. You know, to get a Judy award, that’s pretty fancy. 

I read an interview that Anthony Roth Costanzo gave to the New York Times in September 2021 when you were doing Only an Octave Apart. He talked about the process of working with you and said, “I’m always looking for structure. And Viv is always like, ‘Don’t box me in because it’s not going to be as good.'” That sounded like something Judy Garland would say. How much of an influence has Judy Garland been on you both as a as a professional and as a person? 

When I was a kid, as everybody who grew up the generation I did, every year The Wizard of Oz played on TV. And every year I was terrified by the flying monkeys and the Wicked Witch and I identified with Dorothy Gale. Growing up in a small town as a queer person, you know that somewhere over the rainbow, bluebirds fly, why can’t I? That was the question I asked myself when I was very young.

Of course, when you’re young and you see these sort of tragic stories play out, they’re very dramatic. But now that I’m 61 and knowing that I’m a decade-and-a-half older than she was when she passed away, it gives you a different perspective. But she has given me, I don’t know, fodder and intellectual inspiration, I guess, for my entire life.

Has the role she’s played as an influence in your own life evolved as you’ve gotten older and as you’ve come to understand that she was much more than just the character of Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz? 

Yes. There’s no way that I think you could really understand fully what she experienced if you haven’t been in show business. I also feel like being a minority in show business, a marginalized sort of person, what people try to get away with because they feel like you are more powerless than they are, can be galling. But fortunately I have somehow managed to avoid that for the most part. I do that not by being in the mainstream, but by basically forging my own path. So I think maybe I learned that from her as a cautionary tale, as well as just the brilliance of her talent and hard work. 

In a 1967 interview that Judy Garland gave Barbara Walters on the Today Show she said, “I’ve gotten to the age where I rebelled, and I’m going to hit and hit back.” With all the political rhetoric that we’re facing right now, from all walks of life, about trans, non-binary people, what’s the best way to to rebel against that vitriol that accompanies these comments and actually inspires even greater vitriol?

My strategy, for the most part, has always been to put my body where it needs to be; whether it be on the street, whether it be at a protest, whether it be at a meeting or whether it be on the stage or sometimes on the screen. I feel like the most powerful thing that I can do as a trans person is live as full and rich and joyful a life as I can possibly live, in spite of all of that. I take a lot of comfort in knowing that the people who are coming after us are invariably much less happy and much less comfortable with who they are than we are. 

There’s that old axiom that success is the best revenge. But I think happiness is the best revenge.

I agree completely, and happiness is a skill that you develop and also something that you can’t be all the time. So if you aren’t happy at certain moments, you have to address them. I have a therapist who said, “Well, you are depressed, but you have a good reason for being depressed.” So work on getting through that, addressing it and dealing with it, and then hopefully it will pass. Sometimes it takes the medication, sometimes it takes therapy and sometimes it just takes time.

Kenny Mellman last year compared your level of fandom to Garland’s. “It’s as if Viv were a Judy Garland, but alive.” Of course, that sounds like a variation of your Whitney Houston joke. Your fans will know what I’m talking about, but what parallels do you see between your fan base and the fan base that Judy Garland has? 

They have, what was the line? Judy said they have good taste. I love my fan base and I’m proud of having a very intelligent, witty, and loyal fan base. I try to keep myself as fresh and invigorated for them as possible. It makes it easy because they’re so receptive to what I do and they’re willing to go with me where ever I may take them.

This year is the 55th anniversary of Judy Garland’s death. If 50 or 55 years after you’ve shuffled off this mortal coil somebody wants to prepare a Night of a Thousand Vivs, what would you like it to be? 

I couldn’t care less when I’m dead. I really don’t care. I don’t care if anybody ever remembers me after I’m dead or not. I don’t care about that, honestly. I just want to enjoy my life. That’s up to other people, too. I don’t have that kind of ego where I feel like, oh, I want to live on forever. I really don’t. I think that’s part of why I don’t make so many records, because I don’t really care. I’m not there when people listen to them. So I don’t get any pleasure out of them. You don’t make any money. 

I like singing live, and I guess that would be something also that I have in common with Judy Garland, because her live performances are so much more legendary, and the recordings of her live performances, than her studio records. There’s that chemistry that happens, the empathy and the relationship that you develop with the live audience, that you can’t really create. I think that’s also why working on Only an Octave Apart with Anthony in the studio might have been more powerful than doing solo records in the studio, because we were there together. We were performing for each other, and that, I think, ups the ante.

Even though there’s just a few weeks difference between when you debuted Rare Bird at Joe’s Pub and will now be doing it in San Francisco, does your relationship with the material change? Do you alter the show?

The material will not be the same because when I did the show here in New York, I did it with my full band. I’m coming to San Francisco with David Sytkowski, my pianist. He’s been with me at Feinstein several times now, but the only reason I ever wish I was more famous or more successful is so I could tour with my band because it’s so expensive. It’s impossible. But that doesn’t make the show any less interesting. I spent an entire career and it was just Kenny Mellman and I – pianist and singer on stage. I don’t feel like the audience is losing out on anything. But because of that, I have to work a little harder and come up with a different set list that has a lot of the same material, but some of the things just sounded better because you had background vocalists or just little things that technically wouldn’t work as well.

You’re going to Joe’s Pub for nine performances in late June which will be a completely different show.

Yes, that show is called Night Shade. It’s about how queer people exist at night and songs about nighttime and songs that you would listen to at night. I haven’t completely narrowed down the setlist yet, but I’ve been having a lot of fun picking it out.

When you said Night Shade, I thought, oh, it could be just the crap, the shade, we throw at each other. 

It could just be what we do with eggplant emojis.

You appeared in Desert In, which is a video series that Ellen Reid and James Darrah and christopher oscar peña did. I love how unconventional that series was. What stood out to you most about being part of of that? How much do you think projects like that and Only an Octave Apart, are going to inspire people to explore other ways of presenting music that may not be conventional, or may not even be music that they’re used to listening to?

That was an amazing experience and I felt so lucky to be able to do that during the pandemic. And I have to say, Ellen James and Brad Vernatter who’s the [General] Director at Boston Lyric Opera, found a way to pivot and keep all of these artists engaged and working throughout that pandemic. It was so great because each scene was written by a different composer. It was a huge amount of people and it was so much fun. James is a terrific director. It was a wonderful way of working that I would encourage more people to try because it really appealed to a lot of people.

I think the same thing with Anthony and I. You know cabaret is not one of the top genres in popular entertainment. But I’ve always tried to stay relevant because I just tell the truth. And the only truth I can really tell is my own truth. So working with Anthony and somehow contextualizing all of this opera music that he sings, which is so beautiful…But, you know, I went to his show Orfeo ed Euridice [at the Metropolitan Opera], which premiered last week. I turned to my friend after the show and I said, “The only problem with these operas and they’re all very old – the music’s beautiful, but the characters are all idiots.” You can’t believe how stupid these characters are. So I really love contemporary opera because contemporary opera, a lot of it appeals to a much broader audience because it’s hard to sort of take these things seriously if you’re there for a story because the stories are kind of simple.

During the pandemic James created videos for Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra that took classical music off of the concert stage and put it into our day-to-day lives and I feel like Desert In is part of that as well. That’s the way people are going to get seduced by the art form.

It was an interesting story that was kind of provocative. It had queer tales, it had heterosexual [tales], it had diversity and the writing was fantastic. Yeah, that’s what we need.

In André Breton’s Manifestos of Surrealism he wrote, “I have always been amazed at the way an ordinary observer lends so much more credence, and attaches so much more importance, to waking events than to those occurring in dreams.” You have spoken throughout your career about the role dreams play in your life and their significance. Is Breton right? How much does that perspective inspire you?

When I lived in San Francisco, I went to the Jung Institute and I did therapy there when I was in my 20s. When I moved to New York, I found an analyst who worked at the Jung Institute here. So dreams are very informative. Whether they’re waking dreams or just keys into what’s going on or your own anxieties, or how you relate to other people and how they appear when they’re in your dreams. So I think dreams are important. Also being in my 60s now and having had a lot of my dreams come true and finding out, you know, sometimes that’s a good thing and sometimes it’s not as exciting as you thought it would be. I think it’s important to never stop coming up with new ones.

It’s always important to realize, even when you have reached your dreams, that there are still more dreams.

Yes, absolutely. Because then if there aren’t, what’s the reason to be alive? My mother passed away last year and I told her the last day of her life how I was so fortunate to have her as a role model because she did not stop growing as a person. Becoming more open to new things and learning things and changing until the very last day of her life. And I hope that I can be that way as well.

Could you have dreamed that you would have this career, that you would be at this place in your life? 

Oh, yeah. And now I have to come up with new dreams. When I was in high school, I used to love The Merv Griffin Show because he had amazing people that were in New York that I had never heard of before. One of them was Alberta Hunter. She was this jazz singer who was successful in the 20s and 30s and into the 40s. But at a certain point, she stepped away from show business and became a nurse and she lied about her age. So when she was 70 or 72, they thought she was 65 and they forced her to retire from nursing. Then she was rediscovered and she put out a few albums and she had a residency at this club here called The Cookery every Monday night for years. And I thought, that’s how I want to end up.

I want to be an old lady who has a residency and a cabaret in New York and I can go sing my songs every week and never stop working. And that’s what I’m planning on. But I want more things to happen between now and then.

UPDATE: This story previously stated the the Joe’s Pub shows were sold out. They are not. Cultural Attaché regrets that error. There was a a link built into that paragraph where you can click co to purchase tickets and get more information.

To see the full interview with Justin Vivian Bond, please go here.

Main Photo: Justin Vivian Bond (Photo by Ruben Afanador/Courtesy Justin Vivian Bond)

The post CONGRATULATIONS: Mx. Justin Vivian Bond – 2024 MacArthur Fellow appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

Conductor Elim Chan has had remarkable success since being named the first woman to win the Donatella Flick Conducting competition ten years ago. This month Chan is realizing two big dreams: to open the classical music season at the Hollywood Bowl and to conduct the First Night of the Proms in London at Royal Albert Hall. Not too bad for a young girl who years ago was inspired by Mickey Mouse in Fantasia.

The July 9th concert at the Hollywood Bowl finds Chan conducting the same piece that led to her winning the Donatella Flick LSO Conducting Competition: Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade. The July 19th First Night of the Proms concert will open with Handel’s Music for the Royal Fireworks Overture and close with Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5.

Earlier this week I spoke with Chan about these two concerts and what they mean to her, her evolving relationship with Scheherazade and what new dreams she has as she moves forward with her career.

What follows are excerpts from our conversation that have been edited for length and clarity. To see the full interview with Chan, please go to our YouTube channel.

Q: Could the young girl who responded so passionately to the image of Mickey Mouse conducting in Fantasia have ever imagined these two big concerts for herself?

Absolutely not. Even though as a young girl I think I had quite a crazy imagination. Of course I have dreams. But this kind of dream, the Hollywood Bowl, it’s already very cool. And to think I’m going to start the classical season! Then the Proms is basically like a unicorn. To conduct the Proms on the first night – the biggest summer festival in the UK and famous one in the world? It’s more than a dream come true.

What was your first experience conducting the Proms, and how do you think this one will be different? 

The first time that I conducted the Proms was an amazing experience because the Royal Albert Hall, it’s a very different concert hall. You really feel that you’re in sort of like a stadium. You have the audience standing at your feet and you can literally touch them or they can touch you. The feeling of how the audience cheered for you and they really are so involved. That’s really quite something I never experienced anywhere else. That was such a huge honor. I felt like a rock star.

To know that this concert was like one of the first ones to be sold out; the tickets were gone the moment it went out there. I don’t know, I’m going to just stay open and let this just be a surprise.

We often hear about how conductors think about music. What do you think is unique about the way you hear music – whether you’re reading a score or when you’re conducting an orchestra? 

I think that’s a very interesting question. Conducting is so cool in the sense that I have this concept in my head, this story, a narrative or some sort of sound soundscape the moment I start opening a score. It starts. I can hear it. I can play it on the piano and then it builds this world that I’m hearing or envisioning.

When I’m on stage with the orchestra, I have to compare what I’m hearing with this vision in my head and then have to bring it closer. Sometimes, actually, what I’m hearing is nicer than what I thought. It’s like a constant synergy of both worlds. It’s, in a way, like a tango, right? Of course, I’m the conductor and I want to mold it in the end that we arrive at the vision that we’re all happy about.

I interviewed conductor Simone Young four years ago, and she told me that, “Everything comes from the written page. I spend hours and hours studying scores, but also studying manuscripts. References. I want to get as much info about the thought process and the work process.” Do you think there can be a definitive understanding of a composer’s thought process? Or will it always be open to interpretation?

I think the second. I also do the same. I want to really put myself back in the time, in the context. This is really, I feel, like investigative work. There’s like a crime scene. Something happened. Okay, what really happened? You can collect evidence. You can talk to people who think they saw the thing happened. But each perspective is different. Then collecting all these things and then I try to build an interpretation of what exactly happened because no one actually really knows. And I think this is so cool. That’s the beauty of it, that there’s really not one right way. We’re all interpreters in that sense.

At the Proms, you’re going to be conducting probably one of the top five best known compositions in the history of the world: Beethoven’s Fifth. With a work so familiar to audiences and so familiar to the musicians, how do you think your approach to it might be the only one that you, as an individual, could have imagined? 

Well, there’s only one Elim, right? In that sense. It will be my interpretation of it. One thing that came out from this whole crazy time, and we’re still in some crazy times, is that I really want to give this life experience to everyone who is there. That you need to be there to experience that because it only happens once.

Beethoven Five is so familiar. And the audience thinks they know, too. The world is so messed up with wars happening everywhere and we get to make music and to celebrate first night of the Proms. The beginning of Beethoven Five is like a moment to really express something that fuels it to become a Beethoven Five that is fresh and happening now.

How often do you surprise yourself in the middle of a concert?

A lot. I laugh actually when mistakes happen because that shocks everyone. I love those very raw like a minute or two and everyone is like, wait, what? Oh no. And everyone’s awareness is insane, right? I love these waking up moments.

That sounds like a jazz musician, not a classical musician. Because a jazz musician moves past the mistakes and who knows where it leads them? I bring that up because I was very surprised to see a list of the five most important works for you and Bill Evans is on your list. What inspires you most about Bill Evans and do you see a way in which the way Bill Evans created and performed music that inspires the way you create and perform music?

He’s such an immense pianist and musician and it’s not ever the same. This is something I really want to take into a Beethoven Five or a Clara Schumann or Handel, Bruckner. I’m going to just take this opportunity and just really bring in that spirit. I think we can learn so much from all the other genres.

Note: First Night of the Proms includes performances of Clara Schumann’s Piano Concerto by Isata Kanneh-Mason and Bruckner’s Psalm.

You’ll be leading the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl. Music director Gustavo Dudamel is set to leave soon. if the L.A. Philharmonic came to you and asked if you would like to be the next music director, what would be the first thing that you would think? 

That’s another unicorn. And then I’ll start doing a happy dance. I will probably be like, unbelievable. You know what? If that happens…thank you and let’s get to work. I want to be as ready as possible They are one of the most adventurous, curious, orchestras institutions in the world. They take chances, they take risks, and they can afford to do it. So yeah. Let’s see.

At the Hollywood Bowl you will be revisiting Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade. How was your relationship to this particular composition evolved in the ten years since your winning the Donatella Flick Conducting Competition?

The piece has a very special place in my heart. It’s the piece that jump started my career. Ten years ago I was the first woman to win the competition in London. And now ten years later, I’m still the only woman to have done that. And I’m like, hey girls, where are you guys?

Talking about the piece itself, it’s literally about a woman having to stand up for herself every night telling stories, and if she doesn’t tell a good story, she gets killed. I’ve done this piece again and again and I really feel very like I identify myself with her – Scheherazade. Each time I do the piece I get more brave. I’m more convinced that we really need to be strong. My interpretation is like a steady slow cook. It takes more flavor. Every time I go back to it, I still see something new and I want to try something new so I can tell the story in different ways. I really love the fact that this piece lends itself for that. 

Rimsky-Korsakov is quoted as having said, “I had no idea of the historical evolution of the civilized world’s music, and had not realized that all modern music owes everything to Bach.” Do you agree that all modern music, even today, owes everything to Bach? 

Wow, what a statement! I think a lot of it, yes. I always believe that we all need to actually understand what happened in the past, especially Bach as such a master. To really understand what the traditions [were] that came before. Then you can decide to keep it or break it. All the greats follow Bach. If you look back, Brahms, Beethoven, everyone basically comes from there.

We started the conversation by my asking you if you could have imagined opening the classical season at the Hollywood Bowl and then opening the BBC Proms in London. That seems like a dream come true. But everybody has to have new dreams as well. What dreams do you have beyond what this July is going to offer you?

My dream is to find an orchestra, a place where we can do some crazy things and grow together, fly together. Another dream of mine actually will come true is that I finally can do some opera. I came from voice choirs and so I love theater, I love drama. So what’s better than actually opera to have all these elements coming together? This is like in two years. There are crazy dreams to conduct the Berlin Philharmonic, the Vienna Philharmonic, all this stuff. Sometimes I put a dream and then things like the First Night of the Proms comes in. So in a way, I’m like, life – come on, surprise me.

To view the full interview with Elim Chan, please go here.

All Photos: Elim Chan (Photo ©Simon Pauly/Courtesy for artists)

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