GAVIN CREEL: WALK ON THROUGH – MetLive Arts YouTube Channel 

When I spoke with Gavin Creel last year he was so excited about putting a production of his musical Walk On Through in New York. He performed excerpts from it while in Los Angeles on the Into the Woods tour, but this would be the first full production. He had high hopes for its future.

Unfortunately, his life was cut tragically short this fall. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, who commissioned Walk On Through, has posted an early version of the show performed in 2021. It’s available for all to see and is a great reminder of how bright a star Creel was.

You can find the video HERE.

Also, a memorial service is taking place on December 2^nd at 4 PM ET/1 PM PT. MCC Theater, where Walk On Through: Confessions of a Museum Novice, will livestream the service. You can watch it HERE.

2024 YEAR OF CZECH MUSIC – Carnegie Hall – New York, NY – December 2^nd – December 7^th

Any concert celebrating Czech music is certainly going to feature the work of Dvořák and this is no exception. There’s also music by Janáček, Smetana and more to be seen and heard.

The festival kicks off with a free concert at Bohemian National Hall featuring Young International Stars from the Czech Philharmonic Orchestral Academy, National Youth Orchestra of the US, Royal Academy of Music and the Czech Philharmonic. The program features two works by Dvořák plus music by Wynton Marsalis and Elgar.

Tuesday, December 3^rd has cellist Yo-Yo-Ma joining the Czech Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall for a performance of Dvořák’s Cello Concerto in B Minor. Selections from Smetana’s Má vlast are also on the bill. Semyon Bychkov conducts.

On Wednesday, December 4^th violinist Gil Shaham performs Dvořák’s Violin Concerto. Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 follows. This is also performed by the Czech Phil with Bychkov.

Thursday, December 5^th pianist Daniil Trifonov is the soloist for Dvořák’s Piano Concerto. That is followed by Janáček’s Glagolitic Mass. Bychkov heads the Czech Philahrmonic for this show.

There are additional concerts as part of this fascinating program. And no performances of Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9 are on the bill making this an opportunity to hear much more of his music than is usually performed.

For tickets and more information for any or all of these concerts, please go HERE.

SCHOENBERG AT 150 FESTIVAL – Los Angeles Philharmonic – Los Angeles, CA – December 3^rd – December 15^th

If you know Arnold Schoenberg’s music, it is probable that you know him for his twelve-tone compositions that required the use of each of the 12 notes of the scale equally rather than relying on just one or two notes to drive the composition.

His work was much more than that.

The breadth of his work will be on display in this festival that features an evening of his chamber music on December 3^rd.

Verklärte Nacht, Op. 4 for string sextet opens the concert. His String Quartet No. 1 closes the concert.

Ten members of the LA Phil will be performing this including Bing Wang on violin. For tickets and more information, please go HERE.

December 13^th and 15^th, Zubin Mehta will conduct the LA Phil performing Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder, a three-part oratorio for five soloists, narrator, orchestra and chorus. This is one of Schoenberg’s most impressive compositions and runs approximately 1 hour and 48 minutes.

The soloists are baritone Gabriel Manro, mezzo-soprano Violeta Urmana, soprano Christine Goerke and tenors Brandon Jovanovich and Gerhard Siegel. Dietrich Henschel is the narrator.

They will be joined by the Los Angeles Master Chorale.

For tickets and more information, please go HERE.

Note: Schoenberg at 150 Festival resumes in February

INGRID JENSEN QUARTET – SFJAZZ at Home – December 6^th and 7^th

This concert by trumpeter Ingrid Jensen originally took place at SFJAZZ on November 9^th of this year. Members of their SFJAZZ at Home subscription can watch the concert on Friday, December 6^th at 10:30 PM ET/10:30 PM PT and also on December 7^th at 2:00 PM ET/11:00 AM PT.

Membership can be purchased either annually for $75 or monthly for $7.50. This gives you access to their library of live recordings from the SFJAZZ archives.

Jensen may be best known as a member of Artemis. She’s also performed with the Maria Schenider Orchestra and Darcy James Orchestra (if you don’t know them, stop what you’re doing an find their music now) and more.

For more information and to explore membership to SFJAZZ at Home, please go HERE.

REBEL WITH A CAUSE: THE ARTISTRY AND ACTIVISM OF NINA SIMONE – 92^nd Street Y – New York, NY – December 7-December 9^th

For any fan of legendary singer/songwriter/activist Nina Simone, this is too good to miss. Amber Iman, who was nominated this year for her performance in the musical Lempicka, has teamed up with playwright Jocelyn Bioh (Jaja’s African Hair Braiding) for this show that is part of the 92^nd Street Y’s Lyrics & Lyricists series.

Michael O. Mitchell, associate conductor of MJ The Musical, is the music director here for a show that will feature such Simone classics as My Baby Just Cares For Me, Feeling Good and Mississippi Goddam. Reggie D. White directs.

For tickets and more information, please go HERE.

That’s it for this week’s Best Bets: December 2nd – December 8th. Have a great week and go so a concert or a show!

Main Photo: Conductor Semyon Bychkov (Photo ©PetraHajska/Courtesy Enticott Music Management)

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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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As part of Carnegie Hall’s Dancing on the Precipice series, Smith is the host/emcee for Tiergarten at the Great Hall under St. Mary’s Church in New York City. The show will be performed April 17th – 19th and is produced and directed by Andrew Ousley for his Death of Classical series of innovative concerts around New York.

Last month I spoke with Smith about Tiergarten, the topicality of the music he loves from almost a century ago and some of the artists who inspire him. What follows are excerpts from our conversation that have been edited for length and clarity. To watch the full interview with Smith, please go to our YouTube channel.

Q: What was it that Andrew told you about what Tiergarten would be and what intrigued you most about this concept for the show?

I spend my entire life, every waking moment of this little life, in a permanent audition for any random production of Cabaret that might crop up. When he approached me with Tiergarten, I was like, well, this is exactly what I do myself. Except someone else is putting the meat and potatoes behind it. It’s his crazy, fabulous ideas. I was sold within moments. It’s going to be so much fun.

What inspires you most about this era in music?

The parallels to today are just, like, absolutely bonkers. Things were absolutely chaotic in the day-to-day of folks during that period. But in that chaos, so much art flourished. It was really a time for the weirdos – as I like to call them. I have always felt that I’ve got a spiritual foot in that time. I began to research and started to put together my own shows. Friedrich Hollaender flooded into my awareness. Kurt Weill, of course. Rudolf Nelson. I was starting to really investigate the actual music of this time.

I keep coming back to Cabaret again and again. To me, [John] Kander and [Fred] Ebb do the most marvelous job of like of keeping a foot in the doorway to that time. What’s marvelous about the music of that time, specifically coming out of Germany, is that it was so influenced by American jazz. But as it crossed the Atlantic, it just distorted and then turned more expressive, disrupted and deformed. I just love it.

There was all kinds of great art coming out of that period. We’re in a pretty crappy time in history.

Do you see great art coming out of this time in history?

People who I look up to, my peers, are really getting out there and making amazing cabaret. People like Cole Escola has just set New York on fire with Oh Mary! Charles Busch’s new play, Ibsen’s Ghost is out. People like Joey Arias has not stopped. Justin Vivian Bond. These people are really just throwing out astonishing career best works. Taylor Mac. Le Gateau Chocolat and Mama Alto from Australia. Just like punk people doing these extraordinary, marvelous career best works in this mad time. Audiences are just really seeking connection with people who are really putting themselves out there. Because we are, as under the actual Nazi rule, I think people were being put very tightly into tiny little boxes, and if you stray out of them, well… And it’s very much what folks are trying to do now is putting us all into tiny little boxes so they can tidy us and organize us away. 

I had a conversation with playwright Gloria Calderón Kellett recently who said that one of the reasons she feels that we have started to do that is because we no longer share the same viewing habits. It’s not like there’s a Friends that everybody watches each week where, no matter who you are, you come together around the proverbial water cooler. You have this shared thing that you can talk about and listen to what other people have to say. The loss of that is really detrimental to how we all get along as a society. It sounds like that may be a reason why we seek out some of these shows you’re talking about and some of these performers

I do think escapism is paramount. But there’s really no main street for having the same or even a really similar experience. I think there is something missing from at least how things used to be in the 90s and 2000s where everyone was watching The Sopranos on a Sunday evening and then having their little freak out like, oh my God, Adriana’s dead or whatever.

Cabaret is clearly a big influence for you, but how did that lead into explorations of people like Marlene Dietrich and Friedrich Hollaender?

Both of them are very much hand in hand. I received a Judy Garland compilation CD when I was five from one of my gay uncles. Dietrich and Friedrich Hollander, they came in around 15. My father gave me a Dietrich biography and I was like, who is this commanding woman? I have had a lifelong obsession with powerful, charismatic women of a certain age. Then starting to get a feel of her from recordings. Also the unlikeliness of her voice is just so glued to me. 

Falling in Love Again is, of course, Friedrich Hollaender. Then you’ve got the remarkable songs in A Foreign Affair where he actually is accompanying her doing [the song] Black Market, which is, to me, just mind blowing. 

Are there challenges for you in not being the whole show, as opposed to being the master of ceremonies and sprinkling in your magic throughout whatever this extravaganza Tiergarten will be?

You cannot underestimate the power of a good cameo. What I’m doing in Tiergarten is going to be vastly beyond the cameo. It’s to be able to pop in and out and just sprinkle a little pixie dust here and there. It’s a real gift to be on stage the whole time. I thoroughly enjoy it. With Andrew we’ve managed to hook in a couple of friends of mine into the proceedings. One person is Pearls Daily who is one of my most favorite burlesque performers. An absolute legend. So intelligent, so magical. I couldn’t underline the word magical more when I talk about Pearls. We’ve got her doing something so silly. For me, Tiergarten is a really, really good, big, fabulous opportunity to celebrate others.

Many women from Ute Lemper to Meow Meow and more are doing Berlin cabaret songs, but there aren’t a lot of men who are singing Berlin cabaret songs. What kind of challenges and opportunities does that give you to put a different spin, a different voice, to songs that are closely associated with women?

I guess right now there’s not a ton of us kicking around the Weimar stuff. It’s never really been a problem because I gravitate towards songs written for women or intended for women anyway. It’s so natural for me to sing about man as a woman on stage. I just really don’t feel a specific gender presence. When Tracy Stark, my accompanist, my chief conspirator for the stage, when she’s at the keys I just melt into this anthemic sort of otherness that just sort of exists. And maybe otherness is really the word for it.

The website for this particular event says the program traces a path backwards in time, exploring historic moments of societal madness. Is there any particular societal madness going on today that either most intrigues you or most scares you, that you think is an important part of what this show is going to explore?

Every time we encounter a historic period we’re like, oh, this was the disastrous mindset of this period. It is exactly the same way. No matter where we are, no matter where we find ourselves, we’re like, oh, that’s familiar.

Kind of the overarching theme of the show is here it comes again. It’s very much Shirley Bassey and the Propellerheads: It’s all just a little bit of history repeating. For me, it’s like the witch hunts, the Inquisition. We’re in a very blame-y time looking for these firebrands or trying to ignite the, for lack of a better word, packets beneath us.

You mentioned what you believe audiences are wanting right now. What do you need out of performance to make Kim David Smith happy?

I only ever want to enter through the crowd. I like to be near people. I just need to be in amongst the people I contact. Really direct presence/engagement, I need that. The pandemic really made me go, wow, I need that.

I seems like Tiergarten will allow you that opportunity in spades.

Oh, for sure. My legs are going to be busy. 

To watch the full interview with Kim David Smith, please go HERE.

For tickets and more information for TIERGARTEN, please click on the link built into the name of the event in this sentence or on the date you are interested in exploring: April 17th, 18th and 19th.

Main Photo: Kim David Smith in “Mostly Marlene” (Courtesy of the Artist)

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2023 marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of Rachmaninoff. Certainly orchestras around the world will be celebrating his sesquicentennial in a variety of ways. Wang set the bar very high indeed for those who follow.

The program opened with Piano Concerto No. 2 in C Minor. This is perhaps the composer’s best known of his four concerti. The second movement served as the melodic line for the 1975 hit All By Myself from Eric Carmen. The third movement gave us the popular song Full Moon and Empty Arms which Frank Sinatra recorded in 1945.

Wang knows this concerto well. She recorded it with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra for her 2011 album Rachmaninov (there are two common spellings for his name.) The same album featured the penultimate piece she performed, Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini.

The moment this concert began you could feel the anticipation in the audience and the excitement of what we all hoped this marathon would bring. Then there was the unexpected drama.

Just as Wang had embarked on the third movement, with the briefest of pauses after concluding the second, a gentleman in the audience had a heart attack. At least I believe it was a heart attack due to the medical updates Nézet-Séguin sprinkled through the performance. The concert came to a stop for roughly twenty minutes. I wondered how that might impact Wang and her plans for pacing herself.

This interruption reminded me of a 1980 movie called The Competition with Richard Dreyfuss and Amy Irving. Near the end of the movie as Irving’s character is performing in, what else, a competition, a key on the piano turns out to be wildly out-of-tune. Upset by the circumstances she demands to change the concerto she was performing and get a different piano.

Yuja Wang appeared to have no issue at all. They resumed by re-starting the third movement. At that concerto’s conclusion the audience immediately leapt to their feet – something they would do repeatedly. But this ovation seemed distinctly different than those that followed. It was as if they were celebrating the tenacity of the musicians on stage and almost willing the gentleman to recover.

Piano Concerto No. 1 in F-sharp Minor was next after a scheduled 10-minute break. When Wang returned we learned that one main reason for the scheduled breaks in the performance was so she could change from one shimmering outfit to another. A longer intermission was scheduled after two pieces had been performed.

And the marathon continued…

Along with the Piano Concerto No. 1, Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 4 in G Minor, Op. 40 is another lesser-performed work. It’s also a concerto the composer revised twice – in 1928 and 1941. The 4th is how the second third of the concert began.

I should note that at no point did it seem like Yuja Wang was breaking even the slightest sweat. It’s as if the pressure of the marathon she chose to do was non-existent.

Leaving the monumental Piano Concerto No. 3 in D Minor as her final announced work, the Rhapsody was next. This is the sweepingly romantic music that found its way into the hearts of filmgoers who saw the 1980 film Somewhere in Time.

At the conclusion of the Rhapsody someone ran down the side of Carnegie Hall with a bouquet of white roses for Wang. Without hesitation she handed the roses to Concertmaster David Kim to show her appreciation for all that he and The Philadelphia Orchestra were doing.

The way this orchestra and Wang performed these works made each and every moment exciting. As we grew closer to the monster Rach 3 there was a palpable feeling building in the audience that we knew she would make it to the finish line in breathtaking form. We also knew we were experiencing a truly once-in-a-lifetime event. Since nothing like this has ever been done before, it is a first-time ever event.

What became clear as the afternoon turned into the evening was that you could definitely hear similar passages in each of the works. There was also an unmistakeable style to the way Rachmaninoff structured each composition.

It was time for the final intermission and the conversations around Carnegie Hall were often about what Yuja Wang might wear for her finale.

We took our seats for the last time for the mammoth undertaking that is the 3rd piano concert. You might recall Piano Concerto No. 3 as being at the center of the 1996 film Shine which landed Geoffrey Rush an Academy Award. It is intensely complicated and challenges even the finest pianists. It certainly must have challenged her, particularly after having performed four major works earlier in the concert. But if it did, she never made that noticeable to us.

What she did make clear was a sense of absolute elation when the marathon was over. Her embrace of Nézet-Séguin was long and felt like all remaining energy she had was finally free to leave her body. Each audience member found their own reserves of energy to give everyone on that stage a sustained ovation that dwarfed all that had come before.

But wait, there’s more. Yuja Wang being Yuja Wang, she performed a beautiful encore. But it wasn’t Rachmaninoff. It was Gluck’s Dance of the Blessed Spirits from his opera Orfeo ed Euridice.

I don’t know what Yuja Wang did after leaving the stage for the last time. But I know what I and many others did. Our blessed spirits were dancing our way out onto the streets of Manhattan.

All photos: Yuja Wang, Yannick Nézet-Séguin and The Philadelphia Orchestra at Carnegie Hall on January 28th, 2023 (Photos by Chris Lee/Courtesy Carnegie Hall)

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December Songs is a song cycle inspired by great works by Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann and others. Since Yeston is best known as a Broadway composer and lyricist (Nine, Grand Hotel), the work wasn’t going to be a fully classical composition, nor was it going to be musical theater. Andrea Marcovicci gave the world premiere performance in 1991.

Clark sings the song cycle in a new PS Classics recording featuring a large orchestra led by Sperling and orchestrations by Larry Hochman. In listening to December Songs it is hard to believe it wasn’t written specifically for the Tony Award-winning Clark (The Light in the Piazza).

Recently I spoke via Zoom with two-time Tony Award winner Yeston about December Songs, its inspiration, Clark and more. What follows are excerpts from our conversation that have been edited for length and clarity. If you want to see the full interview, please go to our YouTube channel.

I want to start by asking you about something you told the New York Times in 2003 in an interview with Robin Pogrebin. You said, “I’m a man of infinite patience. I write things and sometimes they don’t see the light for years and years and years.” Accepting that point of view in 2003, it is 19 years later and December Songs is newly recorded with beautiful Larry Hochman orchestrations and you have Victoria Clark singing. Has your patience paid off as it relates to December Songs? 

Absolutely. Absolutely. And by the way, with 37 in the band. There are orchestras and then pit orchestras are one thing. 37 great professional New York musicians and some of them were almost on the verge of tears because they sounded so wonderful. The tears were we don’t get to do this much anymore because there’s electronic machines that create violins and things like that. You just don’t have that experience very much anymore. It was quite, quite thrilling. 

I was commissioned to write the December Songs by Carnegie Hall. They commissioned a whole bunch of people: a new symphony, a string quartet, a piano concerto and a cello concerto and I guess they decided to go slumming. They wanted a group of cabaret songs that had Andrea Marcovicci, which was wonderful. They commissioned me to write a series of what they thought were going to be cabaret songs or whatever I wanted to, which I thought was rather wonderful because this was a commission that I felt in some ways was supposed to honor and reference what Carnegie Hall had done for 100 years.

I thought I could do nothing better than to write a song cycle in the tradition of the great masters like Franz Schubert. I thought, if there’s anything I’ve ever learned to do, it’s try to learn from the great ones. So when I began to write December Songs I resolved that I would tell my story as inspired as I can by them. Another way of saying that is steal from the best. 

I’m going to write it for Andrea, a modern woman. Instead of wandering the snows of the Vienna woods [as in Schubert’s Winterreise] she’ll be wandering the snows of Central Park. And instead of losing her mind and descending and devolving into quasi-insanity, she’ll get over the guy. That was my guide. That was my task.

I wouldn’t care if it wasn’t even performed in my lifetime. I wrote it because I was so inspired and so on fire. I just feel so lucky that we did it. It’s been recorded about eight or nine times in English, once in French, once in Polish and once in German. And, of course, this wonderful performance by Victoria Clark, which I think is just for the ages. She’s extraordinary. 

It sounds like it was written for her. I can’t imagine anyone else – and I love Andrea Marcovicci. It is such a perfect blend of artist and material. 

Vicki and I have, of course, the most wonderful relationship. I was actually the director of undergraduate studies in music at Yale after I had gotten my Ph.D. and joined the faculty. For quite a number of years I was in charge of the music majors. I taught the introductory course in harmony counterpoint. Vicki and I go back to when she was in that class. What’s crazy about that is that three years of each other who else was in that class? Tommy Krasker who founded PS Classics. Ted Sperling, who was the conductor, was also in that class. So it’s like a reunion of me and Tommy and Vicki.

Victoria Clark is a perfect example of the intersection of classical music, popular music, and particularly musical theater, because she’s a genius actress. Vicki is the sort of person who can say “I am longing to be loved” as an actress and get infinite meaning every single time she says that phrase differently or sings that phrase differently. She is an exquisite dramatist. I know that from having had the pleasure of writing some of the funniest material in the world. In her performance of Mrs. Bean in Titanic, she’s just hilarious. At the same time she makes us cry because she’s in the middle class and her husband is just a businessman. All she wants to do is interact and rub elbows with the rich people and go to the big dances. She breaks your heart out of her yearning and longing to do it.

I don’t know if you subscribe to the adage that write what you know, but if write what you know is something that you believe, is there a part of you and your own experience that has informed what December Songs became? 

It was very helpful to know what Schubert had done and what Schumann had done and what Brahms has done. To see that and know I don’t want to do that. But I want to be in that family. I want this music to know that it comes from a tradition. One of the great things about tradition is that you have to move it forward. I knew that I would be doing that just by doing something new from my point of view. Also to be able to stretch every muscle I have, whether it’s got to sound more like a musical theater song sometimes or whether it’s going to be a theme in variations sometimes or even have a jazz influence. I didn’t care about that. What I cared about was to make the music right for this moment in the story and it will all work out. 

Every time I listen to it I feel like this isn’t just something that was written in 1991. This is something that could have been written today and that maybe there’s a greater emotional response to it because of what the last handful of years have been like. How does it resonate with you today?

I feel the same way about it. I don’t even feel like it sounds like it was written yesterday. I think it sounds like it was written tomorrow.

Regret is regret. Heartache is heartache. But at the same time, hope is hope and recovery is recovery. I don’t know who it was who said nothing moves me more than unrequited yearning. That hooks into my heart always, because it’s so characteristic of all of us. Sometimes we deeply yearn for something that we had and don’t have or that we can’t have. But there’s something about that sense of yearning. 

I feel like I’m on my own cutting edge of the future because the song cycle can bring everything to the table that a musical can. Whatever Broadway’s going through in terms of how much it costs and what you have to do and how you market it and all that stuff, there’s something about the world of pure composition in the form of a song cycle that attracts me and and gives me an opportunity just to do my work.

The luxury I had in December Songs was a blessed year to really think about it and to approach it, not merely as a dramatist, but as a composer and also as a composer who has been schooled by musicology about how did Beethoven do this? How does Schumann do this? So you learn from your betters and take great inspiration.

There’s an old music theory book from the 18th century. It takes the form of a great maestro who’s teaching a young composer. In one place in the book, the composer says, “Maestro, is borrowing permitted in music?” And Maestro says, “Yes. As long as you pay back with interest.” I think that’s my M.O. I borrow and learn where I can and try to pay back with interest by bringing something to it that wasn’t there before. I feel so strongly that my whole process of writing December Songs has been that. I think that’s why it feels kind of rich.

I want to conclude by asking you about who you are today and what you see for the future by paraphrasing one of the lyrics from the last song on December Songs. Maury, is it amazing to still be here and a relief for you as we near 2023? 

Unquestionably. We all live and we all go through relationships, broken relationships, new relationships, illnesses, recoveries from illnesses, disappointments in a career. Miracles happen to you in a career. Yes. It’s amazing to still be here. It really is.

I just feel like the 13-year-old who discovered that I could make up stuff. That part is perennially filled with wonder of it all. It never ceases to amaze me. I very rarely have a feeling of relief in having done something. What I feel is an inspiration. This whole experience with Vicki and December Songs with Larry and Ted and Tommy, it has just catapulted me with more inspiration to just launch into something else. So, yeah, I feel like Vicki feels at the end of it and I’m looking forward to the rest of my life and my career. 

To watch the full interview with Maury Yeston, please go here.

Main photo: Maury Yeston (Photo by Mark Seliger/Courtesy PS Classics)

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In addition to our top pick, Ballet Hispánico, which we announced yesterday, we have a few plays, some jazz, classical, Broadway music and opera for you.

Here are this Memorial Day Weekend’s Best Bets: May 28th – May 31st:

*TOP PICK*: DANCE – Ballet Hispánico 50th Celebration – May 28th – June 10th

Latin dance company Ballet Hispánico celebrates their Diamond Anniversary with the streaming presentation of three new works by Lauren Anderson, Ana “Rokafella” Garcia and Belén Maya and classic works from their repertoire by Graciela Daniele, Nacho Duato, the late Geoffrey Holder, Ann Reinking, Pedro Ruiz and Gustavo Ramirez Sansano.

The show willl feature several special guests.

Amongst them will be Tony Award-winner Lin-Manuel Miranda (Hamilton) and Academy Award nominee Rosie Perez (Fearless).

The show debuts at 6:30 PM ET/3:30 PM PT on May 28th and will remain available for two weeks. There’s no charge to watch this wonderful celebration.

PLAY: The LATRELL Show – IAMA Theatre Company – Now – June 20th

Brandon Kyle Goodman stars in and wrote this play about a talk show host, Latrell Jackson, whose perhaps best known for saying whatever he wants on any subject. He’s quick with the jokes and even quicker to share his opinions.

As a gay Black man, he’s been around the block a few times. As he embarks on filming a very special episode, Latrell is forced to reveal there’s more to his public persona than easy laughs and quick criticism.

Stefanie Black and Devere Rogers co-directed The LATRELL Show. This is definitely a show for those not afraid of frank talk, explicit language and the presentation of ideas that don’t remotely fall into the world of political correctness. In other words, recommended for mature audiences.

Tickets range from $15 to $100 depending on your ability to pay.

PLAY: Georgie: My Adventures With George Rose – TheaterMania – Now – July 18th

You don’t need to know who George Rose was to enjoy this one-man show. But it doesn’t hurt to have a few facts about this very likable and charismatic performer.

Rose was nominated for five Tony Awards: Best Featured Actor in a Musical for Coco; Best Featured Actor in a Play for My Fat Friend and Best Actor in a Musical for The Pirates of Penzance.

His two other nominations resulted in wins for the actor: Best Actor in a Musical for My Fair Lady (1976 revival) and for The Mystery of Edwin Drood.

Ed Dixon, who as a young actor was cast in a production of The Student Prince with Rose, became friends with the older actor. Dixon was gay, but had never experienced someone who was as vocal about being gay as was Rose.

This is the starting point for Dixon’s one-man show that was named Best Solo Performance by the Drama Desk Awards. Throughout the 90-minute show, Dixon tells stories, impersonates not just Rose, but his famous friends like Richard Burton and Katharine Hepburn and offers up some song and dance.

This clip above is not from this film, but from promotional materials from the Signature Theatre.

Tickets are $25.

PLAY: Alice in Wonderland – A Noise Within – May 27th – June 20th

Enough of the adult material, here’s a play for the whole family. Lewis Carroll’s 1865 novel Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was adapted by Eva Le Gallienne & Florida Friebus for the stage. The show first opened on Broadway for a very short-lived run in 1982 (18 previews and 21 performances.)

Stephanie Shroyer originally conceived and directed this production. Erika Soto plays the title character.

The rest of the cast plays multiple characters with Susan Angelo as the White Queen; Rafael Goldstein as the Mad Hatter; Julanne Chidi Hill as the Cheshire Cat and Justin Lawrence Barns as The Queen of Hearts.

This is an 85-minute film staged by Julia Rodriguez-Elliot. Josh Grondin wrote the original score.

Tickets are $25 – $40. Unlike other productions where you can stream at your leisure, there are set times each day to watch Alice in Wonderland.

CLASSICAL MUSIC: Resilience: Destiny Muhammad – San Francisco Symphony – Now Playing

Harpist/vocalist Destiny Muhammad has curated this episode of San Francisco Symphony’s Sound Box series. On her website she is described as representing a genre that ranges from Celtic to Coltrane. She’s well-known in the Bay Area which makes this collaboration with the SF Symphony an obvious fit.

The theme for her Sound Box is Resilience.

She came up with the theme after seeing all her professional engagements get cancelled due to the pandemic. As with most of us, it took both personal and professional resilience to navigate her way through it all.

Muhammad has put together a very impressive program for this filmed concert. The pieces being performed include Confessions to My Unborn Daughter by Ambrose Akinmusire; Tell Him Not to Talk Too Long by Mary Lou Williams; Serenade by William Grant Still and her own composition Hope on the Horizon.

What makes this program of particular note is that the harp is rarely a featured instrument. This won’t be like any other filmed concert you’ve seen recently.

Tickets are $15.

BROADWAY VOCALS: One Voice: The Songs We Share – PBS – May 28th (check local listings)

In this new PBS series, Luke Frazier leads the American Pops Orchestra in a celebration of the songs that have come from Broadway. Whether you know the songs because you saw the musicals themselves or heard them performed by popular singers and bands, you know the songs. By the way, did you know The Beatles recorded a song from The Music Man?

In this episode Tony Award winner Jessie Mueller is one of the performers. She originated the role of Carole King in Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. Also on this show are Amber Iman (Shuffle Along, or The Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All that Followed); tap dancer Luke Hawkins; RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 9 top 5 finisher Alexis Michelle and Sam Simahk (2018 revival of Carousel).

These artists will be performing songs from Carousel, Damn Yankees, Funny Girl, Hello Dolly!, La Cage Aux Folles, The Roar of the Greasepaint The Smell of the Crowd and The Wiz.

A second episode, which immediately follows on most stations, will featured sacred music and includes Michelle Williams from Destiny’s Child; American Idol’s Justin Guarini; soprano Maureen McKay and more.

DANCE: 21st Century Choreographers – Royal Ballet – May 28th – June 27th

Kyle Abraham, Crystal Pite and Christopher Wheeldon are the choreographers whose work is showcased in this program from The Royal Ballet in the United Kingdom.

Wheeldon’s Within the Golden Hour, created for the San Francisco Ballet is up first. Abraham’s duet, a precursor to a longer work that was commissioned by the Royal Ballet for their 2021-2022 season follows.

The program concludes with Pite’s Statement and Solo Echo. The latter piece set to the music of Johannes Brahms.

Tickets are £16, which is being billed out as $18.50 on The Royal Ballet website.

OPERA: Gallup (Na’nízhoozhí) – LA Opera – Debuts May 28th

Gallup, New Mexico, is called Na’nízhoozhí in the Navajo language. It’s also the location of this digital short from LA Opera. What stands out about this particular piece is that it features new music composed by Matthew Aucoin. He is the composer of the opera Eurydice which had its world premiere at LA Opera in February of 2020.

Singing in this piece are Anthony Roth Costanzo and Davóne Tines. (Two other terrific reasons to watch Gallup).

Two men from the Navajo Nation are also involved: director Blackhorse Lowe and Jake Skeets whose poetry was set to music by Aucoin.

This isn’t a perspective we commonly get to see in the performing arts. I, for one, can’t wait to see and hear this work.

JAZZ: Curtis Taylor Quartet – Jazz at LACMA – Debuts May 28th – 9:00 PM ET/6:00 PM PT

As restrictions start to get lifted, programming like Friday Jazz on the plaza at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art might return. Until that time, LACMA continues debuting filmed performances. This week’s features trumpeter Curtis Taylor.

Taylor, who originates from Ohio but calls Los Angeles home, is a bandleader and an in-demand musician. Amongst the artists with whom he has recorded and/or toured are Cyrus Chestnut, Billy Childs, Gregory Porter and Patrice Rushen. He’s also toured with the legendary James Carter as a member of his quintet.

His most recent album, Snapshot, was released in 2019.

This concert will also include an interview with Taylor. This concert will be available for viewing after its debut on LACMA’s YouTube Channel.

BROADWAY VOCALS: George Salazar – Seth Concert Series – May 30th – 3:00 PM ET/12:00 PM PT

The first show I saw George Salazar in was Here Lies Love at the Public Theater in New York. The other show I saw him in was Pasadena Playhouse’s Little Shop of Horrors in the fall of 2019. Between those two productions he made his Broadway debut in the 2011 revival of Godspell and starred in the musical Be More Chill.

I’m sure he’ll have plenty to talk about with Seth Rudetsky in this weekend’s Seth Concert Series. He’s also a good singer, which makes him a great guest.

I’m sure he’ll have plenty to talk about with Seth Rudetsky in this weekend’s Seth Concert Series. He’s also a good singer, which makes him a great guest.

If you can’t catch this show as it streams live on Sunday afternoon, there will be a rerun on Sunday at 8:00 PM ET/5:00 PM PT. Tickets for either showing are $25.

There are no significant performing arts events on Monday’s holiday. So that completes this week’s Best Bets: May 28th – May 31st. But you know there are always going to be a few reminders:

JAZZ: Saturday is your last chance to watch the worldwide International Jazz Day 2021 Concert with performances by Dee Dee Bridgewater, Gerald Clayton, Andra Day, Herbie Hancock, Stefon Harris, Dianne Reeves and more.

BROADWAY VOCALS: Monday is your last day to catch Sutton Foster’s Bring Me to Light concert with special guests Raúl Esparza, Joaquina Kalukango, Kelli O’Hara and Wren Rivera.

OPERA: Last weekend’s Met Stars Live in Concert performance by Isabel Leonard, Ailyn Pérez and Nadine Sierra is available on demand through June 4th.

VARIOUS: Monday is the final day to catch a multitude of performances that were part of the Voices of Hope Festival from Carnegie Hall. This includes performances by The Kronos Quartet, Ute Lemper, Jason Moran, Davóne Tines with Jennifer Koh and more.

PLAY: Christine Quintana’s Clean starts its week of streaming as part of South Coast Repertory’s Pacific Playwrights Festival.

OPERA: The operas available this week from the Metropolitan Opera are the 1996-1997 season production of Giordano’s Fedora on Friday; the 2010-2011 production of Strauss’s Capriccio on Saturday and Rossini’s Le Comte Ory from the same season on Saturday. Monday is the start of Aria Code: The Operas Behind the Podcast (the Met’s collaboration with WQXR) and will feature the 2019-2020 season production of Puccini’s Turandot.

That should keep you pretty well occupied this weekend. With this much to see, who has time for a barbecue?

Enjoy your weekend! Enjoy the performing arts!

Photo: Ballet Hispánico in Línea Recta (Photo by Paula Lobo/Courtesy Ballet Hispánico)

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With yesterday’s good news that those who are vaccinated can go around without masks with the exception of a few specified areas, it seems like only a matter of time before live events will come roaring back.

The question now is whether or not all the streaming events of the past 15 months will become a relic of the era or a regular part of our cultural experience. Only time will tell.

For now, there are still plenty of great programs available for viewing. Topping our list is MCC Theater’s Miscast 2021 Gala. There are two other gala events, a new musical reading, a vintage classical music concert, new music, a play reading and more.

Here are the Best Bets: May 14th – May 17th.

*TOP PICK* – Miscast 2021 – MCC Theater – May 16th – May 20th

Yesterday we posted a full preview of this event, but here’s what makes this show so entertaining: Broadway stars perform songs separately or with others they would never be cast to sing. For instance, Robert Fairchild sings this song from the musical Sweet Charity in a clip from last year’s “quarantine” edition of Miscast.

This year’s line-up includes Annaleigh Ashford (Sunday in the Park with George), Melissa Barrera (In the Heights), Gavin Creel (Hello, Dolly!), Robin de Jesús (The Boys in the Band), Renée Elise Goldsberry (Hamilton), Leslie Grace (In the Heights), Cheyenne Jackson (Finian’s Rainbow), Jai’Len Josey (SpongeBob SquarePants), LaChanze (Summer: The Donna Summer Musical), Idina Menzel (Wicked), Kelli O’Hara (Kiss Me, Kate), Billy Porter (Kinky Boots), Kelly Marie Tran (Raya and the Last Dragon), Aaron Tveit (Moulin Rouge) and Patrick Wilson (The Full Monty).

This is a free event, though donations are encouraged.

PLAY READING: Watch on the Rhine – Broadway’s Best Shows – Now – May 17th

Lillian Hellman’s Watch on the Rhine had its world premiere at the Martin Beck Theater on April 1, 1941. Her play tells the story of a German man, Mueller, married to an American woman, who is involved with anti-fascist causes in Europe. While visiting his wife’s relatives in Washington, D.C., another guest, also staying with the family, blackmails Mueller after discovering Mueller is planning to send money to aid underground operations in Germany.

For this reading as part of Spotlight on Plays, Ellen Burstyn, Alan Cox, Carla Gugino, Mary Beth Peil and Jeremy Shamos star in this reading directed by Sarna Lapine.

Tickets are $18 with the reading available for viewing through Monday at 6:00 PM ET/3:00 PM PT. Proceeds from the reading benefit The Actors Fund.

Trivia: Two years later a film version of Watch on the Rhine was released starring Bette Davis and Paul Lukas (reprising his role from Broadway). The film was nominated for four Academy Awards including Best Picture. Lukas won for Best Actor.

DANCE: Stephen Petronio Company – The Joyce Theater – Now – May 26th

There are five works being showcased in this new film by the Stephen Petronio Company, the New York-based dance company that was founded in 1984.

Two of the five pieces being performed are set to songs made famous by Elvis Presley: Are You Lonesome Tonight and Love Me Tender.

There are two versions of Are You Lonesome Tonight being performed. Love Me Tender was originally performed in 1993 in a collaboration with artist Cindy Sherman.

New Prayer For Now (Part 1) has its debut in this film. Petronio was inspired by Balm in Gilead and Bridge Over Troubled Water when creating New Prayer…. Monstah Black (who is also a dancer and choreographer in addition to being a musician) composed the music and performs with the Young People’s Chorus of New York City.

The program wraps up with a new version of Group Primary Accumulation by Trisha Brown and Pandemic Portraits, a film by Dancing Camera.

Tickets are $25.

CLASSICAL MUSIC: Berlin Philharmonic 1967 – Carnegie Hall – May 14 – May 21st

Herbert von Karajan leads the Berliner Philharmoniker in a performance of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with soloist Alexis Weissenberg.

This is amongst the most popular concerti in the world. But if Weissenberg’s name isn’t familiar to today’s audiences, this quote from his obituary by Maraglit Fox in the New York Times defines his reputation:

“Mr. Weissenberg possessed a technical prowess rivaled by few other pianists. The ice of his demeanor at the keyboard (he sat, leaned forward and got down to business, playing with scarcely a smile or grimace) was matched by the fire that came off the keys.” (Weissenberg passed away in 2012.)

There is no charge to watch this performance. This is the first of a new series Carnegie Hall Selects featuring performances by artists who played major roles in the 130-year history of the venue.

BROADWAY VOCALS: Jose Llana: Broadway Stories & Songs with Ted Sperling – May 14th – 8:00 PM ET/5:00 PM PT

Broadway star Jose Llana is Ted Sperling‘s guest for Broadway Stories & Songs. Llana has been seen in The King and I, Rent, Street Corner Symphony, Flower Drum Song, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee and Wonderland on Broadway.

I first saw him in Flower Drum Song at the Mark Taper Forum. I also saw him in the incredible show Here Lies Love at the Public Theater.

He also performed Adam Guettel’s song cycle Saturn Returns (later renamed Myths and Hymns) which is where he and Sperling first worked together.

If you can’t see the show on Friday, there is an encore showing scheduled for May 15th at 2:00 PM ET/11:00 AM PT. Tickets for either showing are $25. You can watch the show a second time if you buy tickets for the Friday night showing.

JAZZ: Robert Glasper: Everything’s Beautiful – SFJAZZ – May 14th – 8:00 PM ET/5:00 PM PT

This 2018 concert found innovative musician/composer Robert Glasper putting his own spin on works by Miles Davis for his album Everything’s Beautiful. Glasper’s music was featured in Don Cheadle’s film Miles Ahead from 2015.

If you don’t know Glasper or his work, he’s one of the most interesting artists working in jazz today. He’s also collaborated with Erykah Badu, Herbie Hancock, Kendrick Lamar, Ledisi and Jill Scott.

Joining Glasper in this performance are vocalist Bilal; Michael Severson on guitars; Burniss Travis on bass and Justin Tyson on drums.

If you can’t watch Friday night’s showing that is part of SFJAZZ’s Fridays at Five series, there is an encore showing on Saturday, May 15th at 1:00 PM ET/10:00 AM PT. Tickets require either a one-month digital membership for $5 or a $50 annual digital membership.

MUSICAL: Breathe: A New Musical – May 14th – July 9th

Playwright Timothy Allen McDonald (Roald Dahl’s Willy Wonka) and novelist Jodi Picoult (The Book of Two Ways) have teamed up for this new musical suite that features interlocking stories of five different couples navigating their way through the Covid pandemic and its impact on their lives.

The songs were written by Doug Besterman (The Big One-Oh!), Zina Goldrich (Ever After), Marcy Heisler (Hollywood Romance), Kate Leonard (Ratatouille: The TiKTok Musical), Douglas Lyons (Peter, Darling), Daniel J. Mertzlufft (Ratatouille: The TikTok Musical), Rebecca Murillo (Credence & Cecilia), Ethan Pakchar (Five Points), Rob Rokicki (The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical) and Sharon Vaughn (My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys).

Appearing in this online musical are Tony Award winners Kelli O’Hara and Brian Stokes Mitchell along with Denée Benton (Hamilton), Rubén J. Carbajal (Hamilton), Max Clayton (Moulin Rouge), Josh Davis (Beautiful: The Carole King Musical), Colin Donnell (Anything Goes), Matt Doyle (the upcoming revival of Company), Patti Murin (Frozen), T. Oliver Reid (Hadestown), and Daniel Yearwood (Once on This Island).

Tickets are $25 to watch Breathe. If you want to join the official opening night on Friday, May 14th at 8:00 PM ET/5:00 PM PT, those tickets are $40 and includes an post-premiere cast party and a download of the music from the show.

CONTEMPORARY SONG CYCLE: Dorothea – CAP UCLA – Debuts May 15th – 10:00 PM ET/7:00 PM PT

Ted Hearne, one of our most fascinating and interesting composes, has created a song cycle inspired by the poetry of Dorothea Lasky.

Lasky is an acclaimed poet who told the LA Review of Books, “I do believe it’s better not to be safe in your poems.” As a composer, Hearne also doesn’t play it safe.

They both are utterly compelling. This combination should double down on that and prove to be very exciting to watch.

Hearne was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for his 2018 composition Sound From the Bench. Both Los Angeles Opera and San Francisco Opera performed his opera The Source about Chelsea Manning.

Hearne will be singing vocals in this performance. Joining him are Eliza Bagg on vocals and synths; Ashley Bathgate on cello; Nathan Koci on piano/keyboards; Diana Wade on viola; Ron Wiltrout on drums and Ayanna Woods on bass.   

There is no charge to watch Dorothea. Donations to CAP UCLA are encouraged.

CLASSICAL MUSIC: Nadia Sirota, Gabriel Cabezas and Rob Moose – The Phillips Collections – Debuts May 16th – 4:00 PM ET/1:00 PM PT

Johann Sebastian Bach’s Trio Sonata No. 6 in G Major, BWV 530 serves as the foundation for this performance by violist Nadia Sirota, cellist Gabriel Cabezas and violinist Rob Moose.

The concert will begin and end with a movement from the sonata with a third movement at the halfway point.

Interspersed amongst the concert are works by three of today’s most interesting contemporary composers: Marcos Batler, Missy Mazzoli and Nico Muhly.

Sirota is also the music producer for Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra’s Close Quarters series.

There is no charge to watch this performance, however registration is required. The program will remain available for viewing through May 22nd.

PLAY READING: Sejanus, His Fall – Red Bull Theater – Debuts May 17th – 7:30 PM ET/4:30 PM PT

New York’s Red Bull Theater will present a new adaptation of Ben Johnson’s 17th-century play Sejanus, His Fall on Monday night. The adaptation is by Nathan Winkelstein, who also directs.

The play depicts a power struggle between Tiberius, the Emperor of Rome and Sejanus, his right-hand man. Sejanus covets being the emperor. Tiberius has no desire to make that a possibility. Factions line up behind each man and the power struggle begins with all of our own contemporary issues surrounding politics and power at play.

Participating in the reading are: Shirine Babb (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child), Grantham Coleman (The Great Society), Keith David (Seven Guitars), Manoel Felciano (To Kill a Mockingbird), Denis O’Hare (Assassins), Matthew Rauch (Junk), Liv Rooth (To Kill a Mockingbird), Laila Robins (Heartbreak House), Stephen Spinella (Angels in America), Emily Swallow (High Fidelity), Raphael Nash Thompson (The Red Letter Plays), Tamara Tunie (Radio Golf) and James Udom (The Rolling Stone).

Tickets are pay what you can with proceeds going to Red Bull Theater.

CONCERT/GALA: Stand Up, Stand Strong – Covenant House – May 17th – 8:00 PM ET/5:00 PM PT

Sara Bareilles, Stephanie J. Block, Jon Bon Jovi, Zach Braff, Terron Brooks, Rachel Brosnahan, Stephen Colbert, Charlie Day, Darius De Haas, Ariana DeBose, Mary Elizabeth Ellis, Morgan Freeman, Jon Hamm, Adrianna Hicks, James Monroe Iglehart, Capathia Jenkins, Jewel, Jeremy Jordan, Amanda Kloots, Ames McNamara, Laurie Metcalf, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Abby Mueller, Alex Newell, Desus Nice and The Kid Mero, Kelli O’Hara, Laura Osnes, Dolly Parton, Jo Ellen Pellman, Ben Platt, Jason Ralph, Ryan Reynolds, Chita Rivera, Robin Roberts, Aliza Russell, Keala Settle, Tony Shalhoub, Meryl Streep, Ana Villafañe, Dionne Warwick, Marlon Wayans, Frank Wildhorn, Vanessa Williams, Daniel Yearwood and more will join co-hosts Audra McDonald and John Dickerson for this annual fundraiser for Covenant House.

The organization provides shelter for homeless youth living on the streets. They have helped more than one million youth since their inception more than 40 years ago.

This gala fundraiser will offer music, stories and more. There is no charge to watch the show, however donations are encouraged. For a list of the many ways you can watch Stand Up, Stand Strong, please go here.

VOCALS/STORIES: Jim Caruso’s Pajama Cast Party – May 17th – 8:00 PM ET/5:00 PM PT

Though Jim Caruso has multiple guests for this Monday’s 58th episode of Pajama Cast Party, I can sum up the reason to tune into this particular episode with two words: Marilyn Maye.

That’s the official list of Best Bets: May 14th – May 17th. Here are also a few reminders:

Lincoln Center Theater’s Tales from the Wings, which we previewed here, will remain available through Monday, May 17th. This is a must for theater fans.

The Los Angeles Philharmonic debuts Chamber Music: Piazzolla in their Filmed at the Ford series. You can find details here.

This weekend’s offering from the Metropolitan Opera include the documentary The Audition on Friday; Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia from the 2014-2015 season on Saturday and Donizetti’s Roberto Devereux from the 2015-2016 season on Sunday.

Sunday will also be the finals of the National Council Auditions at the Met at 3:00 PM ET/12:00 PM PT.

Monday begins Week 62 at the Met where the theme is Unhinged Mad Scenes. The first production being streamed is the 2006-2007 season production of Bellini’s I Puritani with Anna Netrebko.

There are just two weeks left to see Sutton Foster’s Bring Me to Light. You can find details in our preview here.

There you have a jam-packed list of Best Bets: May 14th – May 17th.

Enjoy your weekend and enjoy the shows!

Photo: Renée Elise Goldsberry (Photo by Justin Bettman/Courtesy MCC Theater)

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My top pick this week celebrates International Jazz Day. Another significant jazz event this weekend is a concert by Christian Sands. SFJAZZ offers a 2019 concert by Orquesta Akokán on Friday with a re-stream on Saturday.

If jazz isn’t your thing, we’ve got plenty of other options. There are several play readings, a very ambitious new film from the Colburn School in Los Angeles, a couple cabaret performances and a very unique fundraiser that realizes the first three letters in that word are FUN.

Here are my Best Bets: April 30th – May 3rd:

*TOP PICK* JAZZ: 2021 Global All-Star Concert for International Jazz Day – April 30th – 5:00 PM ET/2:00 PM PT

Yesterday we started revealing our Top Pick for the weekend in a sneak peek of the weekend’s Best Bets. So I won’t rehash everything from that column. You can read the full preview here.

Simply put, there aren’t many places where you’ll find performances by Dee Dee Bridgewater, Cyrus Chestnut, Gerald Clayton, Herbie Hancock, Stefon Harris, Angélique Kidjo, Dianne Reeves, Antonio Sánchez, Ben Williams and many more from around the world.

The concert is free and can be found on the event’s website, their YouTube channel, Facebook page and more. International Jazz Day’s concert will remain available for viewing for 30 days.

CLASSICAL/JAZZ/DANCE: The Way Forward – Colburn School – Now – May 13th

Few projects would offer the opportunity to see and hear music and performances by Kris Bowers, Johannes Brahms, Aaron Copland, Gabriel Fauré, George Frideric Handel, Thelonious Monk, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Christoph Waltz, Eric Whitacre and thousands of singers, dancers and musicians.

The pandemic-era project was filmed in Australia, Canada, England, Finland, Spain and at the Colburn School in Los Angeles.

This one-of-a-kind film and it will be available for free streaming. You do have to register on the Colburn School website. The Way Forward will only be available for two weeks.

For those in Los Angeles, there will be one in-person screening of the one-hour film. That screening will take place on Saturday, May 1st at 8:00 PM PT at Thayer Hall at Colburn. Capacity will be limited to 25%. Tickets for this screening are $25 and can be purchased here.

PLAY READING: The Baltimore Waltz – Spotlight on Plays on Broadway’s Best Shows – Now – May 3rd

When playwright Paula Vogel’s The Baltimore Waltz opened off-Broadway in 1992, it was immediately acclaimed as a unique way of addressing the AIDS crisis. The play went on to win three Obie Awards for Best New American Play, Best Director and Best Performance (Cherry Jones).

Vogel’s play depicts a real-life situation between a school teacher and her brother.

How the sister chooses to address that he is dying of a terminal disease is at the heart of The Baltimore Waltz. Vogel uses fantasy to take her characters on a journey that is both fanciful and heartbreaking in its inevitable return to reality.

For this reading the cast features Mary-Louise Parker, Eric McCormack and Brandon Burton. Lileana Blain-Cruz directs.

Tickets are $15 with proceeds going to The Actors Fund.

VIRTUAL MUSICAL: Working: A Musical – CATCO – Now – May 9th

When I was a much younger man I remember seeing Working on the PBS series American Playhouse. I was immediately taken in by this collage of interviews and songs. Based on Studs Terkel’s 1974 book  Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do, the musical features songs by Stephen Schwartz, Mary Rodgers, James Taylor and more.

The musical received six Tony Award nominations when it opened on Broadway in 1978. It’s run, however, was short. There were only 12 previews and 24 performances.

CATCO in Columbus, OH is presenting a streaming version of the updated 2012 version of the musical that includes contributions from Lin-Manuel Miranda.

This is a perfect musical for the virtual format. I will be interested to see how the show holds up and how Miranda’s revisions help the show.

Working streams only Thursday – Sunday through May 9th. Tickets are $20.

PLAY READING: The Line – Public Theater – Now – June 21st

Great timing for this encore presentation of the Public Theater’s Zoom reading of Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen’s The Line. Their play was constructed by doing interviews with frontline medical workers in New York at the outset of the pandemic.

As restrictions start to loosen around the country, this is a great reminder of the heroism that was required (and still is) to get us through this crisis.

The Line also reflects the personal toll their actions took on their lives. This should be a wake-up call that there is still work to be done by all of us.

Thankfully The Line is thoroughly engrossing. Assisting the storytelling is music by Aimee Mann and Jonathan Coulter (which was produced by Michael Penn).

If you’ve ever experienced The Exonerated by Blank and Jensen you know what powerful storytellers they are.

There is no charge to stream The Line, but registration is required.

PLAY READING: Home – The Refocus Project at Roundabout Theatre Company – April 30th – May 3rd

New York’s Roundabout Theatre Company debuts the first of five readings of little-known plays from the twentieth century by Black playwrights. The first to be streamed is Samm-Art Williams’ Home.

The Negro Ensemble Company first performed the work in 1979. It was critically-acclaimed and it transferred to Broadway in 1980 and earned two Tony Award nominations including Best Play.

The central character, Cephus, tells two women stories from his life. He loves the idea of just staying…home. But circumstances require he travel from his country home to the big city.

The play is a fable that dabbles in elements of realism – like war and racism. Though there are only three actors (Rob Demery, Brittany Inge and Tony nominee Joaquina Kalukango), Williams has his cast perform dozens of characters.

Tony Award-winner Kenny Leon directs.

Mel Gussow, writing for the New York Times, raved about Williams’ writing:

“The play itself is a freshet of good will, a celebration of the indomitability of man, a call to return to the earth. In all respects — writing, direction and performance — this is one of the happiest theatrical events of the, season.”

He went on to say, “More often, with his gift for local language, Mr. Williams seems closer to the spirit of Mark Twain. If Twain were black and from North Carolina, he might have written like Samm‐Art Williams.”

There is no charge to stream Home, but RSVP/registration is required.

CUBAN JAZZ: Orquesta Akokán – SFJAZZ – April 30th – 8:00 PM ET/5:00 PM PT

Orquesta Akokán began as a one-time-only recording band to become a touring and live celebration of mambo. So for those who do not want to go gentle into their weekends, this show is for you.

Their performance at SFJAZZ is from June 2019. This big band will have you shaking your groove thing and burning down the house.

Pianist and arranger Michael Ekroth, vocalist José “Pepito” Gómez are joined by members of legendary Cuban bands Irakere and Los Van Van and more as they take to the stage for this show.

Tickets are $5 which allows for a one-month digital membership. If you’re unable to see the show on Friday, there will be an encore streaming on Saturday, May 1st at 8:00 PM ET/5:00 PM PT. The show will then be available on demand from May 1st – June 30th.

JAZZ: The Christian Sands Trio – Just Jazz – April 30th – 9:00 PM ET/6:00 PM PT

LeRoy Downs, host of Just Jazz on KCRW in Los Angeles, is celebrating International Jazz Day with an intimate concert by pianist Christian Sands, drummer Jonathan Pinson and bassist Ben Williams. The concert will be streaming live from Mr. MusicHead Gallery in Los Angeles.

The trio will be joined by special guest trumpeter Theo Croker.

Sands is one of the most exciting young musicians on the jazz scene. This is a concert you won’t want to miss.

If you’d like more information on Downs and his take on jazz in 2021, check out my interview with him here.

Tickets are $20.

CABARET: Chester Gregory: Celebrating the Motown Era – The Wallis Sorting Room Sessions – April 30th – May 2nd

Chester Gregory has been seen on Broadway in the musicals Hairspray!, Tarzan, Cry-Baby, Sister Act and Motown: The Musical where he portrayed Berry Gordy.

That last credit no doubt awakened Gregory’s appreciation for all things that Gordoy accomplished.

He’ll be Celebrating the Motown Era in this weekend’s first of The Wallis Sorting Room Sessions.

The show becomes available at 10:00 PM ET/7:00 PM PT and will remain available through Sunday, May 2nd. Tickets are $20 and allow for 48 hours of streaming.

PLAY: The Importance of Being Earnest – L.A. Theatre Works – May 1st – May 31st

Residents of Los Angeles know that in addition to their fine radio play performances, LATW coordinates with HD Live to offer in person viewings of filmed productions from theater companies from around the world.

For the month of May they are making the 2011 Broadway revival of Oscar Wilde’s throughly delightful play available for streaming.

Certainly you know this very funny play about identity and marriage. And why a man would play a woman in it – as is done here.

This production was directed by and starred Brian Bedford as Lady Bracknell. Dana Ivey, Paxton Whitehead and Santino Fontana are also in this production which was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play.

Tickets are $15 and allow for viewing anytime within two weeks of purchase.

PLAY READING: We Have to Hurry – Broadway on Demand – May 1st – May 2nd

Elliot Gould and Kathleen Chalfant will perform this new play by Dorothy Lyman. We Have to Hurry is set in a retirement complex in Florida. Gil and Margaret cannot see each other because they and all the residents at the complex are forced to quarantine. They only communicate with each other from their respective balconies.

Gil has fallen in love with Margaret and realizes time is not on their side. Will they have a chance to get together and take a walk on the beach? Unsure of what the future holds for them, time is of the essence.

There are two ways to watch this show. The first is with a general ticket priced at $15. For $25 they have created a virtual stage door where ticket holders can submit questions in advance for Chalfant, Gould and Lyman. Those who purchase that ticket will get a separate Zoom link.

There is one performance on May 1st 8:00 PM ET/5:00 PM PT. A second performance takes place on May 2nd at 3:00 PM ET/12:00 PM PT. The link above in the title takes you to purchase tickets for the May 1st performance. For tickets to the May 2nd performance, please go here.

PLAY: Shoot Me When… – San Francisco Playhouse – May 1st – May 22nd

I love the premise of Ruben Grijalva’s play. As the two daughters of a woman suffering from dementia, what do you do when you want to honor your mother’s wishes for end of life plans, but she forgets what she agreed to because of her condition?

Susi Damilano directs cast members Blythe de Oliviera Foster, Dan Hiatt, Lorri Holt and Melissa Ortiz.

Tickets are $15 – $100 based on your ability to pay and contribute to the San Francisco Playhouse.

OPERA: Rameau’s Hippolyte et Aricie – Nationaltheater Mannheim on OperaVision – May 1st – July 31st

Conducted by Bernhard Force; starring Amelia Scicolone, Sophie Rennert, Marie-Belle Sandis, Estelle Kruger and Charles Sy. This Lorenzo Fioroni production was filmed on April 21st and 24th of this year.

Jean-Philippe Rameau’s opera had its world premiere in Paris in 1733. The libretto is by Simon-Joseph Pellegrin and is based on Jean Racine’s Phèdre.

Gods and humans are involved in this story of Hippolyte, son of Thésée, the King of Athens and Hippolyte (not Thésée’s wife, that’s Phèdre). Hippolyte falls in love with the wrong woman, Aricie, who is the daughter of his father’s enemy, Pallas. You just know this isn’t going to end well.

I’ve included this production because I do not believe it has previously been available in other productions so far. Frankly it also looks quite interesting!

CABARET: Julian Ovenden: Can’t Help Singing – May 2nd – May 9th

Fans of Bridgerton will want to check out Sir Henry Granville singing. Okay, well it won’t actually be Granville, but it will be actor Julian Ovenden who plays him on the smash series. (Of course if you’re more of a Downton Abbey fan he played Charles Blake. And if you like The Crown, he played Bobby Kennedy in one episode.)

This concert will find Ovenden singing songs by composers and artists he loves including George Gershwin, Michel Legrand and Tom Waits.

Tickets are £12 which at press time equals approximately $17.

CABARET: Andrea McArdle – Seth Concert Series – May 2nd – 3:00 PM ET/12:00 PM PT

Seth Rudetsky’s guest on this weekend’s Concert Series is the actress who originated the roles of Ashley in the US production of Andrew Lloyd-Webber’s Starlight Express and Margy Frake in the 1993 musical State Fair. She’s also appeared in Les Misérables and Beauty and the Beast.

Of course, she’s best known for introducing the song Tomorrow to us through her Tony-nominated performance as the title character in the musical Annie. Her nomination made her the youngest nominee for Lead Actress in a Musical. (She lost to co-star Dorothy Loudon.)

Tickets are $25 for either this live stream or the replay at 8:00 PM ET/5:00 PM PT.

CONTEMPORARY CLASSICAL MUSIC: Caroline Shaw and Attacca Quartet – The Phillips Collection – May 2nd – 4:00 PM ET/1:00 PM PT

Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Caroline Shaw teams up with the Attacca Quartet for this performance from The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C.

Their collaboration on the album Orange led to a Grammy Award nomination for Best Contemporary Classical Recording.

This concert will feature the world premiere of Imago by composer inti figgis-vizueta. The work was commissioned by The Phillips Collection.

A selection of Shaw’s own compositions (both songs and works for quartet) will also be performed.

There’s no charge for this concert, but you do have to register to be able to see it. The event will remain available for seven days.

CHAMBER MUSIC: Calidore Quartet – Shriver Hall Concert Series – May 2nd – May 9th

Violist Jeremy Berry, cellist Estelle Choi and violinists Ryan Meehan and Jeffrey Myers make up Calidore Quartet. They were founded in 2010 at the Colburn School in Los Angeles.

For this concert from Baltimore’s Shriver Hall, they will be performing the world premiere performance of Hannah Lash’s new quartet.

Also on the program is Franz Schubert’s String Quartet No. 15 in G Major and Antonin Dvořák’s String Quartet No. 12 in F Major, nicknamed the American Quartet.

Tickets are $15. There is a Q&A after the performance.

BROADWAY FUNDRAISER: Broadway Acts for Women – A Is For – May 2nd – 8:00 PM ET/5:00 PM PT

This fundraiser puts the fun front and center. This is the realization of a karaoke fantasy for all fans of Broadway.

Ticket holders get to bid on the songs the performers will sing. Martha Plimpton serves as the host.

Who are the performers in this year’s event?

Sara Bareilles, Elizabeth Banks, Annette Bening, Reed Birney, Ashley Nicole Black, Kathryn Brody, Danny Burstein, Ever Carradine, Ariana DeBose, Garret Dillahunt, Eden Espinosa, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Montego Glover, Kelli O’Hara, Josh Hamilton, Michelle Hurd, Jason Isaacs, Amy Landecker, Jenn Lyon, Lesli Margherita, Howard McGillin, Patton Oswalt, Mandy Patinkin, Harold Perrineau, Carrie Preston, Judy Reyes, Annabella Sciorra, Cecily Strong, Jessica Vosk, Steven Weber, Shannon Woodward, BD Wong and Karen Ziemba.

And if you’ve got deep pockets you can also bid on unique auction items that include a voice lesson with O’Hara, cooking class with Ferguson and a private zoom concert with Bareilles.

Broadway Acts for Women will be live streamed from 54 Below in New York. Tickets start at $75 and go up to $300 with different perks along the way.

A is For is a non-profit working to eliminate the stigma of abortion.

CLASSICAL MUSIC: Taiwan Philharmonic – Los Angeles County Museum of Art – May 2nd – 9:00 PM ET/6:00 PM PT

Works of four Taiwanese composers will be performed in this free streaming concert on Sunday. They are Tyson Hsiao, Yu-Shian Deng, Ching-Mei Lin and I-Uen Wang Hwang.

The concert will be performed by the Taiwan Philharmonic.

Within Taiwan they are as the National Symphony Orchestra. Music Director Shao-Chia Lü will lead the orchestra in this performance.

How often do you get to hear this music? There’s no charge to watch the concert, but you do need to RSVP on the website.

CABARET: Jim Caruso’s Pajama Cast Party – Cast Party Network – May 3rd – 8:00 PM ET/5:00 PM PT

This week’s Pajama Cast Party guest list features Anjali Bhimani (Bombay Dreams); James Gish (Beautiful: The Carole King Musical); Alyssa May Gold (the upcoming revival of How I Learned to Drive); singer/bandleader John Malino (with family) and cabaret singer Sue Matsuki.

There is no charge to watch this always delightful show.

However, should you be so inclined, Jim Caruso and Pajama Cast Party accepts donations and makes weekly donations to Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and The Actors Fund.

That’s the official list of Best Bets: April 30th – May 3rd, but there are a few reminders:

Covenant by York Walker concludes its run this weekend as part of South Coast Repertory’s Pacific Playwrights Festival. For details on the show and the full schedule of plays, please go here.

Two-time Tony Award-winner Sutton Foster’s Bring Me to Light continues from New York City Center. Amongst her guests are Raúl Esparza and Kelli O’Hara. For full details, please go here.

Carnegie Hall’s Voices of Hope Festival officially ends on Friday, April 30th, but many of the programs will be available for viewing through May 31st. Take a look at my recommendations to see if something might appeal to you.

Sound/Stage from the Los Angeles Philharmonic debuts a new episode on April 30th. The orchestra will perform Franz Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony with Gustavo Dudamel conducting.

This weekend’s offerings from the Metropolitan Opera are the 1980-1981 season production of Verdi’s La Traviata on Friday; the 2018-2019 season production of Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur on Saturday and the 2008-2009 season production of Puccini’s La Rondine on Sunday.

Next week’s theme at the Met is Happy Mother’s Day and will start with the 2015-2016 production of Strauss’ Elektra. Not my idea of a happy mother, but this production is staggering. Do not miss it!

Do you have enough options for your weekend? Hopefully you have more choices than you have time to watch everything on this week’s Best Bets: April 30th – May 3rd.

Enjoy your weekend!

Photo: Gerald Clayton, who is performing at the 2021 Global All-Star Concert for International Jazz Day (courtesy GeraldClayton.com)

The post Best Bets: April 30th – May 3rd appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

Indirectly celebrating this natal day are multiple options that fall under the category of a line from Hamlet, “The play’s the thing.” Beyond the Shakespeare options are five other plays.

If you want funky jazz, contemporary classical music, operas from Europe or modern dance, I’ve got that for you as well. They’re all so good, I can’t make one of them the top pick.

In As You Like It, these famous words are said, “All the world’s a stage and all the men and women merely players.” So in this spirit of this weekend’s Academy Awards, the nominees for great players in Best Bets: April 23rd – April 26th are:

THEATER: Neat – Manhattan Theatre Club – Now – April 25th

Charlayne Woodard’s one-person show Neat opened at New York City Center in a Manhattan Theatre Club production in 1997.

Lawrence Van Gelder, writing for the New York Times, said of Woodard’s play, “Ms. Woodard sings, she dances, but most of all she tells good stories, bringing them to life in ways that are poignant.”

Woodard revisits the work in this prevention as part of MTC’s Curtain Call series. The great thing is you can see this wonderful play and performance for free. All you have to do is register. But act quickly, the run ends on Sunday, April 25th.

DANCE: Digital Program 5 – San Francisco Ballet – Now – May 12th

Three archival performances make up this program from San Francisco Ballet. They include 7 for Eight from 2016 and Anima Animus and Snowblind from 2018.

Helgi Tomasson is the creator of 7 for Eight which is set to the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. David Dawson is the choreographer of Anima Animus which is set to music by Ezio Bosso. Cathy Marston is the choreographer of Snowblind which uses music by Amy Beach, Philip Feeney, Arthur Foote, and Arvo Pärt.

Tickets are $29 and allow for 72 hours of access to the program.

PLAY READING: Two Sisters and a Piano – New Normal Rep – Now – May 23rd ART IN AN EMAIL

Playwright Nilo Cruz is best-known for his Pulitzer Prize winning play Anna in the Tropics from 2002. Three years prior to that success he premiered Two Sisters and a Piano.

The play tells the story of two sisters under house arrest in Cuba in 1991. One sister is an author and the lieutenant keeping track of their case has fallen in love with her. The other is a pianist who finds her piano tuner falling head over heels for his client.

Cruz has directed a new reading of Two Sisters and a Piano with Jimmy Smits (Anna in the Tropics); Florencia Lozano (Rinse, Repeat), Gary Perez and Daphne Rubin-Vega (both of whom appeared in Two Sisters and a Piano at The Public Theater.)

In A.D. Amorosi‘s review of this reading for Variety, he says, “Cruz’s playful poetic language, even at its most harshly politicized, and his easy direction allow his actors a delicious freedom. Even when its characters are not free, enclosed in one cramped apartment with nothing but mangoes, rice and the occasional rum shot (and despite the virtual limitations of a laptop’s viewing screen), Two Sisters and a Piano is as open as a Havana landscape, with all of its flavors, scents and sensory overloads at full tilt.”

Tickets are $25 with $10 tickets available for students.

PLAY: The Royale – Private Reels: From the LCT Archives on Broadway on Demand – Now – May 16th

Real life boxer Jack Jackson (the first African-American world heavyweight champion) serves as the inspiration for the story of Jay “The Sport” Jackson in Marco Ramirez’s 2016 play The Royale. (He was also the inspiration for The Great White Hope).

The story is told in six rounds.

Rachel Chavkin, Tony Award-winner for Hadestown, directed this production. Starring are McKinley Belcher III (the 2020 revival of A Soldier’s Play), Khris Davis (Sweat), Montego Glover (Tony nominee for Memphis), John Lavelle (Catch-22) and Clarke Peters (Five Guys Named Moe).

As Ben Brantley said in his rave New York Times review, “…the great subject of The Royale, which has been given such original and graceful theatrical form, is the selfish single-mindedness required of champions, and the repercussions such a focus has when it’s exercised by a black man in a white man’s world.” 

There is no charge to watch The Royale, but you will have to register with Broadway on Demand.

THEATER: An Iliad – A Noise Within – Now – May 16th

Easily one of the most challenging and rewarding experiences I’ve had seeing a play was when I attended Denis O’Hare and Lisa Peterson’s An Iliad at the Broad Stage in Santa Monica. It’s a powerful work that is inspired by Homer’s Iliad.

This play, specifically called An Iliad because it isn’t the Iliad, calls for just one actor and a cellist and that actor has to be completely on top of his/her game.

A Noise Within is offering streaming performances of An Iliad with co-founder Geoff Elliott and actress Deborah Strang alternating performances. Joining them as both composer and cellist is Karen Hall. Julia Rodriguez-Elliott directs.

The link in the title will take you to the website so you can see which actor is performing in each performance. Tickets, which are $25 for an individual and $40 for a family, must be reserved a minimum of two hours before each performance.

To see what Denis O’Hare had to say about the show, check out my 2014 interview with him here.

OPERA: Jules Massenet’s Manon – Wiener Staatsoper – April 22nd – 1:00 PM EDT/10:00 AM

Conducted by Frédéric Chaslin; starring Nina Machaidze, Juan Diego Flórez and Adrian Eröd. This Andrei Serban production is from 2019.

Massenet’s opera was composed in 1883 and had its world premiere in January of 1884 in Paris. The libretto is by  Henri Meilhac and Philippe Gille.

They based the opera on the 1731 Abbé Prévost novel, L’histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut.

A young woman from a small town has an intense desire to lavish herself with all the riches and pleasures life has to offer her. But life doesn’t always work out the way we want. Sounds like a story that could be written today.

This is the first of Vienna State Opera’s productions I’ve included in our listings. Very much like the Metropolitan Opera, they offer a different production each day. There is no charge to watch the productions, but you do need to register on their website. Each production will be available for 24 hours.

MUSICAL: A Letter to Harvey Milk – Now – April 25th

The creators of this musical, Jerry James, Laura I. Kramer, Ellen M. Schwartz and Cheryl Stern were inspired by a short story of the same name by Lesléa Newman. A Letter to Harvey Milk opened off-Broadway in 2018 at the Acorn Theatre in New York.

The setting is San Francisco in the mid 1980s. Harry, a kosher butcher who has retired and is also a widower, is given an assignment to write a letter to someone who is dead. He chooses California politician Harvey Milk – the first openly gay politician elected in California who was later assassinated by Dan White in 1978. But why?

Members of the original cast has reunited for this streaming production. They include Adam Heller, Julia Knitel, Cheryl Stern who are joined by Michael Bartoli, Jeremy Greenbaum, Aury Krebs and Ravi Roth. Evan Pappas directs.

Tickets range from $10 – $50 with proceeds going to The Actors Fund and HIAS. All tickets purchased will allow viewing of the musical through Sunday, April 25th at 11:59 PM EDT/8:59 PDT.

SHAKESPEARE: Shakespeare Sonnet Slam – Gingold Theatrical Group – April 23rd – 6:00 PM EDT/3:00 PM PDT

Happy Birthday William Shakespeare. You don’t look a day over 450. The Gingold Theatrical Group is celebrating by holding a virtual open mic where Shakespeare’s sonnets or other material based on or inspired by the Sonnets will be performed. Everyone is invited to participate and you have three minutes to give it your all.

Joining in this celebration are Stephen Brown-Fried, Robert Cuccioli, Tyne Daly, George Dvorsky, Melissa Errico, Alison Fraser, Tom Hewitt, Daniel Jenkins, John-Andrew Morrison, Patrick Page, Maryann Plunkett, Tonya Pinkins, Laila Robins, Jay O. Sanders, Renee Taylor, Jon Patrick Walker and more.

You’ll have to come up with your own take on the Sonnets, but this is a free party! You can find the Shakespeare Sonnet Slam on Gingold Theatrical Group’s Facebook page.

CONTEMPORARY CLASSICAL MUSIC: Sonic Shift – Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra – Premieres April 23rd at 9:30 PM EDT/6:30 PM PDT

Composer Jessie Montgomery has curated this new episode of LA Chamber Orchestra’s Close Quarters series. On the program are works by composers Marcos Balter, Anna Meredith and Alyssa Weinberg. Each work explores the progression from acoustic music to electronic and electro-acoustic music with an emphasis on the wind section.

Will Kim provides the visuals that accompany the performance which is lead by Christopher Rountree of Wild Up! Nadia Sirota is the music producer.

This is the first of two Close Quarters episodes curated by Montgomery. I recently interviewed her about working with LACO. You can read that interview here.

There’s no charge to watch this performance. Donations are encouraged.

CHAMBER MUSIC: Neave Trio – Asheville Chamber Music Series – April 23rd – April 25th – Art in an EMAIL

Pianist Eri Nakamura, cellist Mikhail Veselov and violinist Anna Williams are the members in Neave Trio. Following on the heels of their 2019 album Her Voice, which featured female composers, their concert this weekend as part of the Asheville Chamber Music Series will also showcase female composers.

On the program is the Trio No. 1, Op. 33 by Louise Farrench; Rebecca Clarke’s Piano Trio and Cécile Chaminade’s Piano Trio No. 1, Op. 11.

Perhaps none of these composers is familiar to you. They aren’t to me. But Neave Trio’s passion for this lesser-known music makes this concert utterly compelling.

There are three performances: Friday, April 23rd at 7:30 PM EDT/4:30 PM PDT; Saturday at 7:30 PM EDT/4:30 PM PDT and Sunday at 3:00 PM EDT/12:00 PM PDT.

You can watch this concert for free, but donations are encouraged.

JAZZ: Sun Ra Arkestra – SFJAZZ – April 23rd – 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT

The name Herman Poole Blount probably doesn’t mean anything to you. But if told that was the birth name of Le Sony’r Ra who would later become known as Sun Ra, you might have a better idea who he was.

Experimental, free and avant-garde jazz was his specialty. It was always performed best by the Sun Ra Arkestra.

After Sun Ra’s death in 1993, alto saxophonist Marshall Allen starting leading the ensemble. As he does in this concert at SFJAZZ from 2017.

To get a sense of what might be in store for you in this Fridays at Five concert, here are some of the songs being performed: Space Loneliness, Saturn, Angels and Demons at Play and Space is the Place. It’s going to be trippy.

And you can take that trip for $5 (which offers one full month of digital membership or $60 (which includes a one year digital membership.)

There is an encore showing on April 24th at 1:00 PM EDT/10:00 AM PDT.

PLAY: Romeo and Juliet – Great Performances on PBS – April 23rd – Check Local Listings

You don’t expect just some stand-up sonnets for Shakespeare’s birthday, do you? Of course not. Let’s throw in some tragedy. As in the tragic love story of them all – Romeo and Juliet.

The National Theatre created this film which maneuvers its way from rehearsal into and around the Lyttleton Theatre. The cast are stuck in a theater that has shut down and act out the story of the Capulets and the Montagues.

Starring as the title characters are Josh O’Connor and Jessie Buckley. The cast also includes Fisayo Akinade, Ella Dacres, Deborah Findlay, Tamsin Greig, Ellis Howard, Lloyd Hutchinson, David Judge, Adrian Lester, Lucian Msamati, Alex Mugnaioni, Shubham Saraf and Colin Tierney. Simon Godwin is the director.

As with any show on PBS, I’d advise checking your local listings for exact airdate and time in your part of the country.

OPERA: Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte – Wiener Staatsoper – April 24th – 1:00 PM EDT/10:00 AM PDT

Conducted by Adam Fischer; starring Benjamin Bruns, Olga Bezsmertna, Íride Martínez, Markus Werba and Annika Gerhards. This Moshe Leiser and Patrice Caurier production is from 2015.

Mozart’s opera premiered in September 1791 in Vienna a mere two months before the composer died. It features a libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder.

Prince Tamino is asked by the Queen of the Night to free her daughter Pamina from Sarastro. Tamino, however, is impressed with Sarastro and the way his community lives in the world and wants to be a part of it. Both alone and together Tamino and Pamina endure multiple tests. If they succeed, what will happen to them? To the Queen of the Night?

MONOLOGUES: Whispers International – April 24th – 2:00 PM EDT/11:00 AM PDT

As you know, there was a massive blast in Lebanon on August 4th of last year. Almost 200 people were killed and over 6,000 people were injured.

Whispers International was created to raise money for the victims and to help in the rebuilding of the area around the blast site.

British playwrights Geraldine Breenna, Mike Elliston, Kim Hardy, Angela Harvey, John Jesper and Kate Webster have made their writing available to a company of Lebanese actors to perform.

Those actors are Nadine Labaki, Georges Khabbaz, Nada Abou Farhat, Talal El Jurdi, Bernadette Houdeib, Rita Hayek, Badih Abou Chacra, Dory Al-Samarany, Bshara Atallah, Sany Abdul Baki, Josyane Boulos, Agatha Ezzedine and Hagop Der Ghougassian 

Tickets are £13.52 which at press time equals approximately $18.75.

OPERA: Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel – Weiner Staatsoper – April 25th – 1:00 PM EDT/10:00 AM PDT

Conducted by Christian Thielemann; starring Ileana Tosca, Daniela Sindram, Adrian Eröd, Janina Baechle, Michaela Schuster, Annika Gerhards

The Grimm brother’s fairly tale about a brother and sister who are lured to a house with sweets and candies only to find a witch who wants to eat the duo is the basis for this opera that had its debut in 1893 in Weimar. Richard Strauss conducted the premiere. A second production the next year in Hamburg was conducted by Gustav Mahler. Adelheid Wette, Humpderdink’s sister, wrote the libretto.

Hansel and Gretel has the distinction of finding much of its popularity not just through opera houses, but on the radio. It was the first opera broadcast on the radio in Europe when a 1923 Covent Garden production was heard over the airwaves. Eight years later in 1931, it became the first ever opera broadcast in its entirety by the Metropolitan Opera.

The opera is commonly seen and heard during the Christmas season. An odd choice, but librettist Adelheid Wette did soften some of the harsher elements found in the original Grimm tales for her brother’s opera.

CABARET: Mandy Gonzalez – Seth Concert Series – April 25th – 3:00 PM EDT/12:00 PM PDT

With the upcoming film version of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s In the Heights, it’s a great time to check in on one of the musical’s original cast members: Mandy Gonzalez, who originated the role of Nina.

Gonazalez is an insanely talented singer and actress.

I saw her in In the Heights. She’s also appeared in Wicked, Lennon, Dance of the Vampires and as Angelica Schuyler in Hamilton.

I’ve also seen her perform her cabaret act and it is impossible to express the amount of pure joy that comes out of her when she’s singing. (And she does a killer version of Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen.)

She is Seth Rudetsky’s guest in his concert series this weekend.

Tickets are $25 and you can watch the live performance at 3:00 PM EDT or the replay of the concert at 8:00 PM EDT. Whichever you choose, you will certainly have a good time.

IN PERSON: DANCE: Uniting in Movement – American Ballet Theatre – Segerstrom Center for the Arts – April 25th – 1:30 PM PDT

You could be ambivalent about the Academy Awards and go see a rare live performance of ballet in Costa Mesa. ABT has been creating a program of three different works that were filmed this week. On Sunday, they are opening up Segerstrom Center for the Arts for a limited number of people to see the performance live.

The works are Let Me Sing Forever More by choreographer Jessica Lang and set to the recordings of Tony Bennett (clearly the title comes from Fly Me to the Moon); La Follia Variations by Lauren Lovette set to music of the same name by composer Francesco Geminiani and Indestructible Light by Darrell Grand Moultrie which is set to music by Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Neal Hefti and Billy Strayhorn.

Hefti, by the way, composed the theme for the television series Batman.

At press time the only available tickets were $80 each. There are Covid-protocols in place for this performance.

For those willing to wait, Uniting in Movement will be available for streaming through Segerstrom Center for the Arts from May 12th – May 26th for $25.

CHAMBER MUSIC: Argus Quartet: noise/Silence – Five Boroughs Music Festival and The Noguchi Museum – April 25th – 7:30 PM EDT/4:30 PM PDT (Art in an email)

Cellist Audrey Chen, violinists Clara Kim and Gioncarlo Latta and violist Maren Rothfritz make up the Argus Quartet. Though they perform music from across all eras of classical music, they seem to excel in contemporary works.

This concert was filmed at one of my favorite museums in New York, The Noguchi Museum. It is being presented by the Five Boroughs Music Festival. The Argus Quartet will perform works by composers John Cage (String Quartet in Four Parts); Dorothy Rudd More (Modes for String Quartet), Rolf Wallin (several selections from Curiosity Cabinet) and Paul Wiancko (Vox Petra).

The concert will be available for free streaming on the Five Boroughs Music Festival YouTube channel through December 31st.

OPERA: Bizet’s Carmen – Weiner Staatsoper – April 26th – 1:00 PM EDT/10:00 AM PDT

Conducted by Andrés Orozco-Estrada; starring Anita Rachvelishvili, Piotr Beczala, Erwin Schrott and Vera-Lotte Boecker. This Calixto Bieito production is from 2021.

Georges Bizet collaborated with librettists Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy on this immensely popular opera. It was based on Propser Mérimée’s novella of the same name. 

When Carmen was first performed in Paris in 1875 it was considered both shocking and scandalous. 

Set in Seville, Spain, Carmen is a gypsy who has caught everyone’s eye. A soldier, Don José, plays coy and gives her no attention. Her flirtation causes troubles for both when Don José’s girlfriend, Micaëla arrives. Tensions escalate between the two women and after a knight fight, José must arrest Carmen. When she seduces him it sets off a series of events that will not end well for the gypsy woman.

PLAY: Measure for Measure – Goodman Theatre – April 26th – May 9th

Here’s another opportunity to celebrate the bard. But this isn’t going to be your standard production of a Shakespearean play.

Director Robert Falls has transported this play from Vienna to New YOrk City circa the late 1970s (or as I like to describe it, before Disney moved into Broadway).

The story is still the same. Claudio is sentenced to death under an arcane law invoked by Angelo who has taken over for the Duke who has left rather than have to deal with morality issues in (originally Vienna). Claudio’s crime? Getting his girlfriend, Juliet, pregnant.

The Duke returns in disguise and becomes aware of the decisions Angelo has been making. Deception, bargains, bartering, love and death are all on the table in this fairly convoluted play.

Justin Hayford, in his review for the Chicago Reader, had mixed feelings about the production:

“It’s rare for one of Shakespeare’s plays to be ripped from its original setting, transplanted across centuries and continents—and still end up feeling vital, urgent, and utterly contemporary. At least for a while. If Falls and his stellar cast could maintain that vitality past intermission, they’d have a masterpiece on their hands.”

Nonetheless, I think the concept sounds interesting and worth checking out. What else are you going to do on a Monday night? (Of course, I have another option for you…)

Tickets are free, but require registration.

AUDIO PLAY: Brother, Brother – New York Theatre Workshop – Live Premiere April 26th – 7:00 PM EDT/4:00 PM PDT Art in an email

New York Theater Workshop is offering up a twist on audio plays. This will feature visuals, but not of the performers. Rather, artists Ibrahim Rayintakath​ and Liang-Hsin Huang have created imagery that will accompany Aleshea Harris’ play.

Brother, Brother tells the story of two brothers sharing a bicycle while making their way through Appalachia. They are actors headed to Tennessee. They start getting followed by a mysterious man in a maroon suit. At this moment the dreams they have for their future are confronted by the acts from their past.

Starring in this audio play are Amari Cheathom (terrific in August Wilson’s Jitney), André De Shields (Tony Award-winner for Hadestown), Gbenga Akinnagbe (To Kill a Mockingbird) and Owen Tabaka (Ratatouille: The Tik Tok Musical). Shayok Misha Chowdhury directs.

Tickets are $10. Brother, Brother will remain available for streaming through July 25th.

Those are my Best Bets: April 23rd – April 26th. But a few reminders (and a preview):

MasterVoices has debuted the 3rd part of Myths and Hymns, a series of short films set to Adam Guettel’s song cycle. For details about the series, go here. For my interview with MasterVoices Artistic Director Ted Sperling, go here.

Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Gala 2021 is available for streaming through Sunday. For details about the program and how to get tickets, go here.

Carnegie Hall’s Voices of Hope series continues with multiple new shows available for free viewing. For details go here.

The Metropolitan Opera streams Philip Glass’ Satyagraha on Friday (highly recommended); Beethoven’s Fidelio on Saturday and Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites on Sunday (also highly recommended). For details and previews go here.

Here’s a preview of next week at the Met where the theme is City of Light (all the operas take place in Paris). Monday’s opera is, what else, La Bohème by Puccini.

That truly is the full and complete list of Best Bets: April 23rd – April 26th. Enjoy your weekend!

Photo: William Shakespeare (By BatyrAshirbayev98/Courtesy Wikipedia Commons)

The post Best Bets: April 23rd – April 26th appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

This week’s selections run the gamut from spoken word to Ukranian music to Cuban jazz to Broadway royalty.

My top pick amongst this week’s Best Bets: April 16th – April 19th is part 3 of MasterVoices’ Myths and Hymns. Adam Guettel’s song cycle is one of my favorite compositions of his and the first two parts of MasterVoices’ series were extraordinary. Dove Cameron (who appeared in a small tour of the composer’s The Light in the Piazza) and Broadway star Cheyenne Jackson are amongst the guest joining MasterVoices for this section called Love.

Here are my Best Bets: April 16th – April 19th:

*TOP PICK* VOCALS: Myths and Hymns Part 3: LOVE – MasterVoices YouTube Channel – Available Now

I’ve already written about this series of four programs that combine performance, film and animation to present Adam Guettel’s Myths and Hymns.

Part three is called Love and features performances by Dianne Drayse Alonso, Nina Bernstein, John Brancy, Dove Cameron, Drew Gehling, Cheyenne Jackson, Shereen Pimentel and Lori Wilne.

The films in this episode are directed by Victoria Clark (Tony Award winner for her performance in Guettel’s The Light in the Piazza) and Ted Sperling (Tony Award winner for his orchestrations of the same musical; he’s also the Artistic Director of MasterVoices).

The first two parts of Myths and Hymns were terrific. I have no doubt this will be just as inspiring and moving as the other two. Thus it is my top pick this week.

SPOKEN WORD: Black Nourishment – Not a Moment, But a Movement – Center Theatre Group – Now – June 15th

From the stage of the Kirk Douglas Theatre spoken word artists Tru Sound, Yazmin Monet Watkins and Alyesha Wise will speak their truth about being Black in America. Performing in front of murals from their home towns are spoken word artists Chris Webb and Sierra Freeman in Cleveland; Royce Hall and Jali Ajani Nafula in Atlanta and from Oakland are Shawn William and Prentice Powell.

Music is provided by Sugi Dakks who is joined by Jarren Heidelberg on drums; Josh Howard on bass; Aaron Mastin on keys and Terall Whitehead on guitar. Expect hip-hop music with a jazz flavor.

Black Nourishment is directed by Tyrone Davis and Bruce A. Lemon Jr. There will be an introduction from Emmy Award-winner Ron Cephas Jones (This Is Us).

There is no charge to watch Black Nourishment through April 30th. After that it will cost $10 to view the show.

ROCK OPERA: Weightless – Women’s Project Theater – Now – May 30th

One story Ovid’s Metamorphoses serves as the inspiration for this rock opera by The Kilbanes (married couple Kate Kilbane and Dan Moses). That story is one of sisterhood, but also includes extremely violent acts.

The Kilbanes have created a rock opera that was first performed at Z Space in San Francisco in 2018.

When it was presented at the Under the Radar Festival in 2019, Laura Collins-Hughes, writing in the New York Times, called Weightless, “an accomplished work, and an entertaining one. The Kilbanes banish rape from the narrative in favor of pleasurable sex, and shape the story with female voices.

“Unlike so many pieces of music theater, Weightless has a well-crafted form, and its spoken dialogue melds beautifully with the propulsive score.”

The Kilbanes have made a film of their rock opera (directed by Tamilla Woodard) with fellow cast members Lila Blue, Kofy Brown, Dan Harris and Joshua Pollock.

Weightless will be available for streaming through May 30th. There is no charge, however donations are encouraged.

WORLD MUSIC: DakhaBrakha – CAP UCLA – Now – May 31st

For those who like their music from other parts of the world, this Ukranian ensemble gives you a taste of the traditional and the adventurous.

DakhaBrakha is a four-person ensemble featuring Nina Garenetska, Marko Halanevych, Iryna Kovalenko and Klena Tsybulska. They have been winning over audiences and critics for 17 years with their unique blend of old and new.

Or perhaps as their name is translated, the Give and Take.

This concert was filmed exclusively for CAP UCLA in Kyiv.

There is no charge to watch this concert, but donations are encouraged. CAP UCLA will continue to make DakhaBrakha’s concert available through May 31st.

PLAY: Sitting and Talking – Laguna Playhouse – April 16th – May 2nd

How do sixty-somethings (or anyone for that matter) navigate dating during a quarantine? That’s the question asked by Lia Romeo in her designed-for-Zoom play Sitting and Talking. Her play will have its Southern California premiere via the Laguna Playhouse starting this weekend.

Starring as the man and woman trying to find love are Dan Lauria (The Wonder Years) and Wendie Malick (Just Shoot Me). James Grossman directs.

Tickets are $20 per household. There will be a live talkback this Sunday, April 18th at 8:30 PM EDT/5:30 PM PDT with Lauria, Malick, Romeo, Grossman and producer Chris O’Connor.

OPERA: Zemlinskys Zimmer – the little OPERA theatre of ny – April 16th – 7:30 PM EDT/4:30 PM PDT

This will be a livestream performance from St. John’s in the Village of a work that combines scenes from Alexander Zemlinsky’s opera Eine Florentinische Tragödie with vocal and chamber music by the composer. They are being combined to tell the story of a love triangle with a married woman torn between her husband and a Prince. (It’s opera, of course there’s a love triangle! Of course a Prince is involved!)

Zemlinsky’s work was based on an Oscar Wilde play. His opera had its world premiere in 1917 in Stuttgart.

the little OPERA theatre of ny production will feature Katy Lindhart, Eric McKeever and Nicolas Simpson. Catherine Miller accompanies on piano and serves as Music Director. Laura Frautschi will appear as a guest violinist. Philip Schneidman directs.

Tickets begin at $5 and increased based on your ability to pay/make a donation.

JAZZ: Daymé Arocena – SFJAZZ – April 16th – 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT

Though not a household name in America, Daymé Arocena is very well-known in Cuba where she was born. Arocena began her professional career at the age of 14 working with the band Los Primos.

Her first album, New Era, was released in 2015. She followed with One Take (2016), Cubafonía (2017) and Sonocardiogram (2019).

This concert, part of SFJazz’s Fridays at Five series, comes from November 2019 when she was touring in support of Sonocardiogram. Raul Da Gama, in his review of the album for LatinJazzNet, said, “…what she does on Sonocardiogram is to raise the level of her music art to the heights achieved by men with a longer standing in this realm – even such men as the doyen of them all, Román Díaz, and the explosive Pedrito Martinez. Like them Miss Arocena’s ability to invoke (such goddesses as) Oyá, Ochún and Yemayá is not only palpable, but she delivers her invocations with enormous power, poise and stylistic grace.

There will be an encore presentation of this concert on Saturday, April 17th at 1:00 PM EDT/10:00 AM PDT. Tickets are $5 (which includes one month of digital membership) or $60 (which includes a full year of digital membership.) Digital membership allows for free streaming of the Fridays at Five concerts and discounted tickets to additional streaming events (one of which you can find below).

PLAY: An Evening with John Wilkes Booth – Whitefire Theatre – April 16th – 10:00 PM EDT/7:00 PM PDT

Given that Classic Stage Company is celebrating the musical Assassins, it seems only fair to offer another point of view. In this case, the point of view of Abraham Lincoln’s assassin, John Wilkes Booth.

The play was written by Lloyd J. Schwartz (a producer/director of The Brady Bunch) and Clinton Case.

Starring in An Evening with John Wilkes Booth is Stephen Spiegel.

Case’s extensive research forms the factual spine of this one-man show. We don’t often get to hear from those who pull the trigger, so this should be a fascinating companion piece to Tell the Story about Sondheim’s musical.

It features a performance by Spiegel that prompted a critic from The Free Press in Columbus, Ohio to state, “the actor does anything but phone his performance in. Indeed, Spiegel kills as America’s archetypal assassin.”

Tickets are $15.99 and allow for streaming on demand for 72 hours.

OPERA: Verdi’s Don Carlo – San Francisco Opera – April 17th – April 18th

Conducted by Nicola Luisotti; starring Michael Fabiano, Ana María Martínez, René Pape, Mariusz Kwiecień and Nadia Krasteva. This revival of Emilio Sagi’s 2003 production is from the 2015-2016 season.

Don Carlo had its world premiere in 1867 in Paris. Friedrich Schiller’s play Don Carlos, Infant von Spanien, served as the basis for the libretto by Joseph Méry and Camille du Locle. The opera was originally performed in French. Three months after its debut in Paris, Don Carlo was performed in Italian. First at Covent Garden in London and later in Bologna. It is most frequently performed in Italian.

Don Carlo of Spain and Elisabetta of Valois are betrothed to one another. They have never met. Don Carlo sneaks away to meet this unknown woman. They fall in love. However, their happiness is quickly ruined when Carlo’s father, Filippo, announces that he’s in love with her and she is to be his bride.

Even though she is now his stepmother, Don Carlo tries multiple times to woo Elisabetta away from his father. With the Spanish Inquisition ongoing, the affairs of all three and the appearance of a mysterious monk lead to murder plots, revenge, unrequited love, thievery and more being played out in Verdi’s longest opera.

James Ambroff-Tahan, writing in the San Francisco Examiner, said of this production, “It’s been 13 years since San Francisco Opera has staged Don Carlo, one of Verdi’s most mature operas. Yet the talented cast in this summer’s sumptuous revival of director Emilio Sagi’s production — boasting the vocal heft and staying power the four-and-a-half hour work requires — makes the dry spell well worth the wait.”

CONTEMPORARY CLASSICAL MUSIC: Bang on a Can Marathon – April 18th – 1:00 PM EDT/10:00 AM PDT

Bang on a Can (founded by Michael Gordon, David Lang and Julia Wolfe) began its traditions of marathon concerts celebrating new music in 1987. They return with another marathon this year and this one features all world premieres.

Here’s the line-up (using EDT):

1:00 PM: Anguish from Falling Sky by Michael Abels performed by Vicky Chow; witness… by Mantana Roberts; ad astra by Joan La Barbara performing by Iva Casian-Lakos (and noted to be for a cellist who sings) and Chaconne in A Minor by Anton Batagov.

2:00 PM: How Was Your Year by Rudresh Mahanthappa performed by Ken Thomson; House Calls by Timo Andres performed by David Byrd-Marrow; Meditation #1 by Leyla McCalla performed by Arlen Hlusko; Persuasion by John Hollenbeck performed by David Cossin

3:00 PM: STALLION by Carman Moore performed by Robert Black; new work written and performed by Kelly Moran; Song for Eric by Michael Friday performed by Jeff Anderle and new work by Jonathan Bailey Holland performed by Mark Stewart

4:00 PM: Six Riffs after Ovid for solo oboe by Michael Daughtery performed by Titus Underwood; new work written and performed by Andy Akiho and See You on the Other Side written and performed by Soo Yeon Lyuh

Tickets begin at $10 and increase based on your ability to pay.

CABARET: Stephanie J. Block and Sebastian Arcelus – Seth Concert Series – April 18th – 3:00 PM EDT/12:00 PM PDT

Married couple Stephanie J. Block and Sebastian Arcelus perform together in this weekend’s Seth Concert Series with Seth Rudetsky.

Block is the Tony Award winner for The Cher Show.

She also appeared in the 2016 revival of Falsettos, the 2012 revival of The Mystery of Edwin Drood and The Boy From Oz.

Arcelus appeared in Rent, Good Vibrations, Elf, A Time to Kill and co-wrote the book for Gettin’ the Band Back Together Again.

They both appeared in Wicked (she as Elphaba, he as Fiyero) where they met and fell in love.

There will be an encore showing at 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT on Sunday. Tickets for either showing are $25.

CHAMBER MUSIC: Telegraph Quartet – Crowden Music Center – April 18th – 7:00 PM EDT/4:00 PM PDT

Violinists Eric Chin and Joseph Maile, violist Pei-Ling Lin and cellist Jeremiah Shaw formed Telegraph Quartet in 2013. They have toured the world with their mix of traditional classical music repertoire and more contemporary works.

This will be the case for their performance from Crowden Music Center in Berkeley, California. Scheduled repertoire includes Britten’s Three Divertimenti (their recording of this work can be found on their 2018 recording Into the Light), Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 1 in F Major, Op. 18 No. 1 and Brahms’ String Quartet No. 2 in A minor, Op. 51 No. 2.

There is no charge to watch their performance, however donations are encouraged. The concert will remain available for streaming for one week.

JAZZ: Alone Together: Tuck & Patti – SFJAZZ – April 18th – 9:00 PM EDT/6:00 PM PDT

On Thursday, April 15th jazz duo Tuck & Patti gave a live performance for SFJAZZ. That performance will be available again on Sunday, April 18th.

Guitarist Tuck Andress and singer Patti Cathcart have been performing for over four decades and they’ve been married for 38 years and counting.

They have regularly received rave reviews for their live performances. The combination of his playing and her voice is one that makes the complicated seem simple and the simple seem to have more depth than you imagined.

In 2018 they went on tour with St. Vincent. Why? Tuck is her uncle. St. Vincent is also a fascinating artist. Why wouldn’t she take advantage of their talent? You should, too.

Tickets are $5 for members and $10 for non-members. Ticket buyers will have access to on-demand streaming through May 31st.

CABARET: Broadway Close Up: Kay Swift – Kaufman Music Center – April 19th – 7:00 PM EDT/4:00 PM PDT

Kay Swift is one of the most interesting women in the history of Broadway musicals. Her musical Fine and Dandy opened on Broadway in 1930 and ran for 255 performances. This is one of five musicals she wrote (she also wrote the lyrics for her fifth, Paris ’90) and was easily the most successful.

One song of hers, Can’t We Be Friends, has proven particularly popular and has been recorded dozens of times. It’s also a favorite of filmmakers who have included it in such movies as Bonnie and Clyde, The Heartbreak Kid and Torch Song Trilogy.

Some might think of her only from her relationship with composer George Gershwin. Obviously there was much more to Swift than just one affair (and it was an affair). After Gershwin’s death she was regularly asked to offer her advice and knowledge about his works.

Sean Hartley will host an episode of Broadway Close Up from Kaufman Music Center looking at Swift’s life and career.

Joining for performances are Nikki Renée Daniels (the upcoming revival of Company), Jeff Kready (A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder), Sally Wilfert (Assassins) and Klea Blackhurst (The Nutty Professor). Serving as music director is composer Georgia Stitt.

Tickets are $15. There will be a live Q&A with Hartley immediately following the show.

CABARET/CONVERSATION: Jim Caruso’s Pajama Cast Party – April 19th – 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT

Joining Jim Caruso for this Monday’s Pajama Cast Party are Sally Mayes and George Dvorsky (whose musical Pete ‘n’ Keely is being made into a film), Jackie Cox (from season 12 of RuPaul’s Drag Race), cabaret artist Meg Flather and singer/actor Jacob Daniel Cummings.

You have probably already assumed that the Keely in the title of the musical is Keely Smith who was married to and performed with Louis Prima. But alas, you’d be incorrect.

This is Keely Stevens and he is Pete Bartel. They were once headliners in Vegas and a staple of television talk shows. They are reuniting for a live television appearance and it’s the first time they’ve done so since a very public break-up.

The timing for Jackie Cox to appear is quite good indeed. Next week RuPaul’s Drag Race will name the season 13 winner. Who will it be? (If you don’t know who is in the running they are Gottmik, Kandy Muse, Rosé and Symone. I’m personally rooting for Symone.) Jackie Cox will be spilling all the T with JC!

Caruso knows the most minute details about all his guests. This will be another fabulous way to start your week!

Those are my Best Bets: April 16th – April 19th, but you know I always have a few reminders.

Be sure to check out my preview for Carnegie Hall’s Voices of Hope festival as there are numerous offerings available this weekend including performances by pianist Emanuele Arciuli, The Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Dutch National Opera, singer/songwriter Ute Lemper, Movement Art Is and Third Coast Percussion.

Los Angeles Opera’s Signature Recital Series has begun and the first offering is a performance by tenor Russell Thomas. Go here to read my preview of the series.

Classic Stage Company’s in-depth look at the Stephen Sondheim/John Weidman musical Assassins will remain available through Monday. For details go here to read my preview.

Los Angeles Philharmonic’s second season of Sound/Stage continues this week with a new episode focused on John Adams’ Grand Pianola Music. I’ve seen this work performed live, you’re in for a treat.

This weekend’s offerings from the Metropolitan Opera are their 2016-2017 season production of Dvořák’s Rusalka on Friday; Saturday they will stream their 1986-1987 production of Puccini’s Turandot for the first time and on Sunday they are streaming their 2013-2014 season production of Rossini’s La Cenerentola.

And in a preview of next week’s streaming productions, the Met will stream Wagner’s Lohengrin from the 1985-1986 season as part of their Moral Authority week.

That does it. That’s the complete list of Best Bets April 16th – April 19th.

Have a terrific weekend! Enjoy the performing arts!

Photo: Dove Cameron in Myths and Hymns Chapter 3: How Can I Lose You” (Courtesy MasterVoices)

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