Tonight the Metropolitan Opera will perform Puccini’s Tosca for the 1,000 time. Currently starring in the production – and those who will be on stage for this landmark performance – will be Aleksandra Kurzak as “Tosca,” George Gagnidze as “Scarpia” and Michael Fabiano as the doomed “Cavaradossi.”

Tonight mark’s Fabiano’s last performance in this production. Two weeks later on November 19th he appears in the same part for the first four performances of Tosca at Los Angeles Opera (opposite Angel Blue and Ryan McKinny.)

He and Blue will be performing at The Richard Tucker Foundation Gala in New York City on November 13th.

When this highly sought-after tenor isn’t appearing on stage he’s often flying airplanes. Fabiano is actively involved in ArtSmart, the non-profit organization he co-founded with the mission of providing music lessons from professional musicians to students in under-served communities. ArtSmart is holding an auction from November 29th through December 15th which is accessible online.

With two Toscas, a divorce and his passion for arts education, this was good time to talk to the fiercely-intelligent Fabiano about music, his goals for ArtSmart and most of all, healing. What follows are excerpts from our conversation that have been edited for length and clarity.

In 2016 you told Opera News, “I sing because it’s catharsis and I sing because I know that culture is necessary to keep society round.” So rather than focus on exclusively on opera, I’d like to talk about music as a tool for healing. Given everything the world has gone through in the last two-and-a-half plus years, on what level do you think music was part of how society has made it through so far and what role do you think it will play moving forward post-pandemic?

I think that there was at least somewhat of a new awareness of the inherent value in music as a whole and about classical music because people were still inside, they were quarantined. Imagine if music ceased to exist for one day in our lives and in a complete way. No jingles, no news shows, no Spotify, no Apple Music, no nothing. How would individuals feel and what would their response be? My view is that people wouldn’t know what to do with themselves and that’s exactly when they realized the value of music. Suddenly people only had music and drama because that’s all they were locked to.

Music is the most carnal form of communication. When we educate people in a very simple way that music is essential, that it is fundamental to life, that it is aspirational, and that it’s inspirational, we have a really much greater chance at moving the paradigm quickly for culture at large. The reason why I do ArtSmart is because I know that when people are touched by music their propensity to change themselves and change others grows. 

When a production of Carmen in which you were appearing in Belgium got canceled, you wrote a public letter. In it you said, “The risk of people not having access to music in their lives is enough to impair mental health and personal discipline.” What challenges did you face when everything was shut down and you were unable to perform?

When a person is not inspired the ability to do other things diminishes. If I’m an opera singer and I live for inspiration through music and suddenly that spigot is turned off, that side of the brain that normally would go into running ArtSmart, co-running a technology company called Resonance, even flying airplanes, my inspiration to do those affairs diminishes.

The reason so many people in the pandemic had difficulty re-upping and getting right back into the swing of work was because they lacked inspiration for so many months. It was difficult for people to just do it on their own in the confines of their own homes.

The double difficulty with that is there are lots of arts institutions around the world that were not doing enough to help artists. So there was this dejected sense from artists that the institutions that employed them were not holding their own obligation. The lack of will to do everything else in daily life, that’s the result when we lose inspiration. It’s not only emotional, it’s scientific. 

It’s been 12 years since you first performed at the Met. What does being part of their 1,000th performance of Tosca mean to you personally? 

I know, first of all, the responsibility that comes before me as a tenor and the great talents that have sung at the Metropolitan Opera. I know how important this title is and how many different tenors have sung Cavaradossi at the Metropolitan Opera and what personal responsibility not only do I have to the public, but I actually have to the other people that have done justice to this opera. I think I have a idealized ideological responsibility to the other artists, show them that I respect them, their work and their contribution to the field that we so deeply love. As a person I’ve actually sung a lot for Metropolitan Opera. I feel an immense amount of gratitude to be able to step on the stage. And I know that it’s my burden to deliver that.

Is it a burden or is it a responsibility?

I don’t think burden has a negative connotation. Just like what the word consequence doesn’t have to be negative. An added burden is an obligation, a moral responsibility. A burden also means heavy. So it’s a big burden. It’s it’s a meaty burden. I have a moral responsibility to do a good job. 

Tosca seems like such catnip for opera lovers. Do you think there’s something about this story that transcends just the music that becomes something that people can attach their own lives to?

The great thing about Tosca is that it’s in real time. Meaning that when the opera begins everything happens to three people in the span of a very limited amount of time. There are no other operas that have that kind of time. It’s extremely applicable today because think about it, our world moves incredibly fast. We get news in the matter of seconds. We find out about that OPEC’s cut output of oil today and there were 10,000 articles written about it in a matter of seconds. That didn’t happen 100 years ago.

Tosca, in comparison to Puccini’s other works, is literally in real time. Angelo escapes. I go to try to hide him. I get arrested in a matter of minutes because, of course, the spies are out there. I’m taken. I’m questioned. I’m tortured and in another two hours or so, I die.

Let’s apply it to real life. This happens today in the Middle East, where people are hunted down for not wearing headscarves the right way in Iran and thrown off buildings. Fascism in oppressive governments throughout the Middle East do this now and run after people and torture them. That’s the scene in this story. 

The weird thing about about technology is we learn probably more than we need to know about certain things in the world and not enough about the things we do need to learn about. I say that as a way of mentioning the documentary short film about you, Crescendo, which I think is really beautiful. It concludes with your marriage which did not work out. What role did music play in your healing through that process? 

Music has always been integral in my life in all ways. I very rarely have time during the day when music is not either in my head or in my ears in some way. In the period of my divorce and as I was moving into becoming separated and alone again, I oddly started finding Bruckner and Wagner which came to me because I found both composers to have a lot of light and hope inside of music that we don’t always regard as hopeful. I have a new outlook on a lot of that music that I never paid as much attention to. 

The result of divorce was learning and paying attention to something else; looking for light in a different way, in a new pathway.

Providing light is something you’re able to do with ArtSmart. What is the biggest accomplishment ArtSmart has made so far? 

We’ve dispersed over $2 million in money to working artists. One of the missions of ArtSmart, in addition to serving under-resourced youth, is that we want to compensate working artists as much as possible for their hard work. We partner with working artists to give them an extra bandwidth of income and opportunity. ArtSmart is not a full time job for any teaching artist. I would call a really great side hustle.

I’m proud of that because I remember when I was young, I had debt. I can empathize with artists that are looking for work and need an opportunity. That’s what we do. The joy of the organization is that we’ve been able to disburse so much money to working artists and at the same time changed the course of a lot of kid’s lives.

During the Reagan administration it became verboten to put money into arts programs. Ever since then this country, more than any that I can think of, has de-emphasized arts education in public schools. What do you think has been the biggest cost of that decision?

I’m going to say things that are controversial. You prepared? I don’t think I’m going to say things that are out of line. They’re just not going to be necessarily orthodox.

First of all, I don’t necessarily think government is the greatest arbiter of money for the arts. It’s not to say that they shouldn’t do a better job of how they disburse what resources they have now. But the reality is America is always going to have two parties – hopefully three or four someday. Money is always going to come and go, depending on the financial state of our country. The first thing that is always going to go when cuts happen, is money for culture. That’s just a harsh reality. We have to be a realist about it and not ideological.

So if we know that legislators, regardless of who the hell they are, are going to first cut the tap off for arts funding, we better damn well be self-sufficient as a country and be able to support ourselves. Which is why an organization like ArtSmart should be replicated in many cases.

I would rather create organizations that really can move the dial in schools. Do what El Sistema has done or ArtSmart and other organizations like Sing for Hope. But there is something else. I think there’s a very big difference between arts funding and arts education funding.

At ArtSmart we have spent three years surveying children, teachers and adults to understand the connection between their academic success and studies of musical arts. Does a child do better as a result of their music lesson? We have a lot of causal evidence that demonstrates that when a child or a young adult has a consistent music lesson with a private teacher that their ability to strategize and prioritize and goal-orient themselves improves dramatically for all of their other studies. That’s a case that we could make the Congress.

But it’s not STEM education that’s going to cure lives. It’s STEAM. Education includes arts and it might just be a choir class or an orchestra class. It might be once a week mentoring between an artistic individual and a student for 20 minutes. That’s it. 20 minutes might be enough. Once a week. If we can find that in an artistic vehicle we might be able to create a really large change in the lives of kids.

Leonard Bernstein said, “Music can name the unnamable and communicate the unknowable”. What do you most want to communicate with your music and what does music most passionately communicate to you? 

I want to be able to communicate that each person is sovereign. Each person not only is entitled to their own ideas and their opinions, but they’re unique. One thing that we’ve been told in the last 40 years in particular is how we all have to basically be the same. That we have to think the same things, do the same things, be the same thing.

If we use music as a model, composers like Shostakovich, Tchaikovsky, Scriabin, Verdi, we know that these people were sovereign. They had vanguard ideas. They were different. They went in their own direction.

I am not, as an artist, trying to be anyone else. I am Michael Fabiano. I am imperfect. I make mistakes. But I also am proud of the music that I make because it comes from a place of true hard study and deep care for the muse and also deep care for the desire of the public at the same time.

So music, if there’s one thing I want to convey, it should be sovereign and it should be independent and individual.

If we don’t put an emphasis on the individual when it comes to art making, we just end up with generic art. We wouldn’t have Picasso. We wouldn’t have Monet. We wouldn’t have Verdi. We wouldn’t have Shostakovich. If an artist wants a purple room to paint or a singer needs a green room for their dressing room right before they go on stage, you give them the green room because if that enhances their ability to deliver the music that’s delivered to the public, you do it. It’s obliged. Because if we don’t, we run the risk of not getting great experiences for history, for the public and for the public good.

Main Photo: Michael Fabiano (Photo by Jiyang Chen/Courtesy GM Art & Music)

The post Michael Fabiano Tackles Tosca & Arts Education appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

“I was having dinner with a friend of mine who is on the staff in Vienna the night before I got the call for this,” Jakubiak told me via Zoom last week. “He said, ‘Sara, what do you really want to sing if you could sing any role?’ And I said I want to sing Tatyana. I literally got the call the next day.”

Nicole Car was originally announced to sing the part opposite her husband, Etienne Dupuis. Travel restrictions related to the pandemic made that impossible. Jakubiak and baritone Lucas Meachem were tapped to assume the roles.

Jakubiak first sang the role of Tatyana at Oper Frankfurt. Her other roles have included Eva in Der Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Elsa in Lohengrin and Prima Donna in Ariadne auf Naxos. But it is with Tatyana at Frankfurt that we begin our conversation. What follows are excerpts from that interview that have been edited for length and clarity.

How has your relationship to Tatyana evolved since you first sang it with Oper Frankfurt?

I would say vocally I’ve evolved more in the last five years than anything. So there were new avenues to explore with her as far as expression goes in colors. The music team here and Alessandro [Taveli, the director] were really wonderful with me, with expressing this role in a language I don’t speak. You have to work very hard at your translation. It was very helpful to be in a place like Santa Fe because I think the piece, as Russian as it is, has all of these colors that you see around you here in the landscape and the set design.

For an opera called Eugene Onegin, Tatyana has a very prominent role. Why do you think Tchaikovsky made her such an integral part of this story? If he had been able to be more open about his homosexuality do you think this opera might have been very different?

Well she is out there all the time working! (She lets out a glorious laugh.) I know he fiddled with the idea of why did I call this Onegin when maybe I should have called it Tatyana. Thank God that Tchaikovsky was a composer and could express himself at least in this way. Thank God he had this outlet to write these characters the way he did to music that he wrote. Some of the things she says in the letter scene go to a deep part of the soul that you rarely access. I think that was sort of his sexuality. It’s certainly a window into what he was feeling inside.

You told Opera Wire that “an effective vaccine should get us back to the old normal, but with the new awareness about life.” What are the most striking aspects of your new awareness about life both on and off the stage?

My grandmother passed away at the age of 100 and she was born in 1919. She was really bookended by pandemics. The last conversation I had with her was on her birthday and I hadn’t seen her for six years. I made it to her party and saw her the next morning when I was going away. She said, “Where are you going to next?” I told her I was going to Norway. She just said, “You really have a great life.”

She didn’t really deal with pandemics, but several wars and she saw the massive changes of the 20th century with technology and everything. I keep playing this in my mind during these last sixteen months. I do believe that there is still beauty and there is beauty we don’t even know about yet from this pandemic. And it will continue to unfold. We’re going to see more beauty and it’s only just creeping out of the ground right now.

Lucas Meachem told me one of his biggest challenges is to stay honest at all times during a performance.

Me, too. This role does have its corners that are a little tricky. It’s a bit of a lower role and sometimes you have to work hard to support that. Sometimes when you are doing really difficult roles you do have to micromanage things. I have to say sometimes just in the moment is not always the smart way to go. You could blow your voice out sometimes if you are really in the moment.

You and Lucas will also be performing Tannhäuser this fall at Los Angeles Opera. How would you describe your chemistry and are you looking forward to moving on to another production with him?

I was actually a little nervous coming in because we’ve been in different types of productions and he’s got a huge career. So I hope I can survive at the table with him. But you really have to push that stuff aside and just be in the moment. That’s what I like about Lucas. He’s a very in the moment person and I believe him on stage. It’s a wonderful feeling.

Tchaikovsky said “Truly there would be reason to go made were it not for music.” Can you imagine your life without it?

No I couldn’t. I grew up with rock music. I saw my first opera when I was like 20. It was rural around me. But I used to go on my swing set every day as a kid and sing. I don’t know why. You don’t always have to know the reason why it is inside of you. You figure it out later. Maybe this is why I ended up doing this and it’s something I need. You don’t do it because it’s an easy thing. But it’s something I have to do.

For tickets to Eugene Onegin, please go here. There are performances on August 6th, 12th, 20th and 26th.

This is the last in a series of interviews with artists appearing this season at Santa Fe Opera.

Main photo: Lucas Meachem and Sara Jakubiak in Eugene Onegin. (Photo by Curtis Brown/Courtesy Santa Fe Opera)

The post Sara Jakubiak Conjures Her Second Tatyana in “Eugene Onegin” appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

“I was a young artist at San Francisco Opera at the time. They gave me the cover assignment six months in advance. I was assigned the role of Onegin. I knew it was one of the signature baritone roles in the repertoire,” Meachem recalls. “I was eating spaghetti and meatballs at a little Italian place about a block-and-a-half from the opera. They called me around 6:30 for a 7:30 curtain. They said, ‘What do you need?’ I need to fire the gun. I need to dance with Olga and I need John Churchwell, now head of music at San Francisco Opera, in my dressing room all night long.”

The rest, as they say, is history. Last week week I spoke with Meachem via Zoom to discuss another last-minute opportunity to sing what is now one of his signature roles at Santa Fe Opera. The previously announced Etienne Dupuis was unable to perform due to international travel restrictions (as was his wife, Nicole Car, who was set to sing Tatyana, creating an opportunity for soprano Sara Jakubiak.)

What follows are excerpts from our conversation that have been edited for length and clarity.

You’ve sung Onegin in other productions. When you embark on a new production, as you are here with director Alessandro Talevi, at what point do you know if the production is going to be a successful one?

I’ve done traditional and non-traditional productions. I’ve only done one non-traditional production. For ten days to two weeks it was like banging my head against the wall. Ultimately I came to love it. It came to be, up until this one, my favorite production of Onegin. I had to buy in. If a director can have an artist buy into their vision, that’s the most important thing. I have to believe it. Because if I believe it I can make the audience believe it. I believe this production. I totally buy it.

Since you first took on this role in the early 2000s, how has your relationship with it evolved?

The biggest thing that has evolved is my voice; my ability to handle the nuances of the role. What I mean is the arc of the character from beginning to end. That is something I didn’t grasp as a younger Onegin. Now that I’m older I’m able to see that this character needs to start feeling like he knows everything there is to know in the world, who has experienced everything and doesn’t expect that life is going to throw him any curveballs.

On your website you call this your second favorite role to sing. What will need to happen for it to bump The Barber of Seville from the number one spot?

I have so much respect for Figaro in The Barber of Seville because that character and that man have shown me the world as a young singer. I have now gotten to see so many places singing that signature role of mine. For Onegin to take over, I think it would have to show my son the world. Don’t get me wrong, it teeter-totters close to first very easily. It’s a beautiful role.

Santa Fe Opera’s marketing materials say that this production centers on the opera’s “nostalgic theme of what was, what was not and what could have been.” How do you think Tchaikovsky’s career and perhaps his take on this opera might have been different had he been able to be open about his homosexuality?

I think the relationship between Lensky and Onegin would be a lot more at the forefront of this piece and there might be more of a flirtatious loving vibe between them. There’s not much of that. I have to create that between him and me. I feel like he takes advantage of Lensky the whole time and the love he has for him only comes across in asides after we’ve gone too far to come back.

That description I mentioned also sounds like a way of looking at life in the time of COVID.

I think people can see in art a reflection of themselves and of the moment that we live in. Rather than art being just a plain snapshot of the moment, it is also a snapshot of the past and the future and would could have been. I think people will see in Onegin the difficulties we’ve been through in the last sixteen months.

You and Sara Jakubiak are not just appearing in Eugene Onegin at Santa Fe Opera, but will also be in a production of Wagner’s Tannhäuser at Los Angeles Opera in the fall. How would you describe the chemistry the two of you share when performing?

I think Alessandro said it best on the first day that Sara rehearsed. We were rehearsing a scene where she doesn’t sing. It was right after her big aria and she’s just acting and her face – even with a mask – she’s acting and Alessandro said to her, “You could be a silent film actress.” Her voice is beautiful and amazing, but she is an amazing actress. Everything is in her eyes. We have a lot of chemistry on stage and I think the audience really felt that on our opening night.

Tchaikovsky said “Music possesses much richer means of expression and it is more subtle medium for translating the 1000 shifting moments of the feelings of the soul.” Do you agree with that description?

I absolutely agree. I think when we talk about music we need to really speak about opera because it’s not the grandest of all art forms for no reason. You combine singing with the orchestra, with lighting, with sets and wigs and makeup, with all the many ingredients that it takes to make grand opera. It seems like an impossible endeavor just to start out with. All of a sudden you’re able to do it. That’s what keeps audience coming back to this centuries old art form. It speaks right to the heart.

The most important thing in art is that you are honest with your audience. This is probably the most difficult thing as an artist to achieve. Even in my career I still have moments where I say “don’t forget to be honest.” Those are the 1000 emotions that he’s speaking of – the honesty that speaks right to the heart of someone who is listening. The music that hits you in the heart is the music that is honest to you. That’s where people get their thousands of emotions from. It’s not just from music, but art itself. That’s what makes art so vital to a culture.

For tickets to Eugene Onegin please go here. There are performances on August 6th, 12th, 20th and 26th at Santa Fe Opera.

This is the fifth in a series of interviews with artists performing this season at Santa Fe Opera. The sixth interview will be with Sara Jakubiak on her role as Tatyana in Eugene Onegin.

Photo: Lucas Meachem and Sara Jakubiak in Eugene Onegin. (Photo by Curtis Brown/Courtesy Santa Fe Opera)

The post Lucas Meachem Speaking Honestly About Eugene Onegin appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

Also on tap are two great (and very different ballets); two great jazz concerts; a contemporary classical music festival; a celebration of playwrights and a reading of a rare comedy from the 17th century that seems as topical as ever.

Here are our Top Ten Best Bets: June 11th – June 14th

*TOP PICK* MUSICAL REVUE: Show of Titles – Broadway’s Best Shows – June 13th – 7:00 PM ET/4:00 PM PT

What exactly is a Show of Titles? Simply put, a show featuring title songs from some of Broadway’s biggest musicals. For instance, Oklahoma has a well-known title song. Dear Evan Hansen does not. The Light in the Piazza does. Gypsy does not.

The cast of Broadway stars performing in this show, directed by Lonny Price, includes Annaleigh Ashford, Stephanie J. Block, Kerry Butler, Len Cariou, Glenn Close, Gavin Creel, Darren Criss, Dame Edna, Santino Fontana, Kelsey Grammar, David Alan Grier, Jake Gyllenhaal, Joshua Henry, Isabelle Huppert, Norm Lewis, Patti LuPone, Rob McClure, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Melba Moore, Jessie Mueller, Eva Noblezada, Kelli O’Hara, Laura Osnes, Steven Pasquale, Michael Rupert, Ernie Sabella, Lea Salonga, Phillipa Soo, Will Swenson, Aaron Tveit, Leslie Uggams, Vanessa Williams and Patrick Wilson.

There will also be special appearances by Debbie Allen, Broadway Inspirational Voices, Candice Bergen, Danny Burstein, Bryan Cranston, Tony Goldwyn, Adam Guettel, John Kander, Angela Lansbury, John Leguizamo, John Lithgow, Lindsay Mendez, Phylicia Rashad, Chita Rivera, Ben Stiller, Charles Strouse, Richard Thomas, Blair Underwood, BD Wong, and Florian Zeller.

The link to this event goes to Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles. There are two options for tickets: a $29 ticket allows purchasers to view Show of Titles on demand for 96 hours. (An appropriate number with the film adaptation of In the Heights opening this weekend. A show that not only has a title number, but also a song called 96,000).

A $39 ticket will include a ticket to stream Sarah Ruhl‘s Dear Elizabeth which begins on June 17th and reunites Kevin Kline with Meryl Streep (they appeared on screen together in Sophie’s Choice and Rikki and the Flash). That ticket also allows you to stream it for, you guessed it, 96 hours.

JAZZ: Coltrane: A Love Supreme – Jazz at Lincoln Center – Now – June 16th

Many many years ago I attended the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. One of the concerts I went to – not on the fairgrounds – was a performance by Wynton Marsalis and his band. They were the last of several performers and concluded their main set around midnight. As an encore he announced they would be performing A Love Supreme.

I’m well-acquainted with John Coltrane’s masterpiece and assumed he meant they would perform one of the tracks (they all include A Love Supreme as part of their title). I was wrong. They performed the entire album from start to finish. It was exhilarating and one of the best concerts I’ve ever attended.

Marsalis will once again perform A Love Supreme with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra as the final concert of their virtual season.

This performance will be feature big band arrangements with saxophonist Camille Thurman serving as guest soloist. Sherman Irby will lead the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.

Tickets are $20 and allow for streaming through June 16th. Tickets can be purchased here.

BALLET: Giselle of Loneliness – Ballez/The Joyce Theater – Now – June 23rd

Perfectly timed for Pride Month is this presentation of Giselle of Loneliness by Ballez. The decade-old dance company is comprised of queer, transgender, non-binary and gender non-confirming artists.

As you might imagine from the title, Giselle of Loneliness uses a key moment from that classic ballet as its inspiration.

The dancers in this work, choreographed and directed by Katy Pyle (founder of Ballez), are all auditioning to win the title role of Giselle. To do so, they have to come up with their own version of the insanely challenging mad scene from that ballet.

In what seems to be a bit of a nod to and a twist on A Chorus Line, the dancers have to come face-to-face in this work with their desire to perform within an industry that doesn’t welcome them. It begs the question, how much personal degradation and rejection of your identity will you undergo to continue to do what you love.

The dancers performing in Giselle of Loneliness are Charles Gowin, Meg Harper, Maxfield Haynes, Matthias Kodat, Deborah Lohse, MJ Markovitz, Janet Panetta, Ash Phan, Alexandra Waterbury, and Nat Wilson.

Tickets are $25 and allow for viewing through June 23rd at 11:59 PM ET/8:59 PT.

BALLET: Balanchine and Robbins – Royal Opera House – Debuts June 11th – 2:30 PM ET/11:30 AM PT

The Royal Ballet will live stream their June 11th performance of a trio of works under the title Balanchine and Robbins. Which means, of course, that the works were either choreographed by George Balanchine or Jerome Robbins.

The evening begins with a performance of Apollo by Balanchine set to the music of Igor Stravinsky.

Four dancers are featured in this work which had its world debut in 1928. In this performance the ballet will be danced by Matthew Ball, Claire Calvert, Melissa Hamilton and Fumi Kaneko.

Next up is another work by Balanchine entitled Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux. No need to tell you who wrote the music. This short work had its world premiere in 1960. For this performance the dancers are Vadim Muntagirov and Marianela Nuñez.

The performance concludes with Jerome Robbins’ Dances at a Gathering. This hour-long work, set to the piano music of Frederic Chopin, had its world premiere at New York City Ballet in 1969. Reece Clarke, Teo Dubreuil, Benjamin Ella, James Hay, Fumi Kaneko, Mayara Magri, Yasmine Naghdi, Anna Rose O’Sullivan and Romany Pajdak are the dancers.

Tickets are $18.50. The performance will remain available for streaming through July 11th.

JAZZ: Brian Blade and the Fellowship Band – SFJAZZ – June 11th – 8:00 PM ET/5:00 PM PT

This week’s Fridays at Five concert from SFJAZZ features a 2016 performance by Brian Blade and the Fellowship Band.

Drummer Blade formed this band in 1997 with pianist Jon Cowherd, bassist Chris Thomas, saxophonists Myron Walden and Melvin Butler, guitarist Jeff Parker and pedal steel guitarist Dave Easley.

All but Easley join him for this show that features a five-song set featuring two traditional songs arranged by Blade and three original compositions by Cowherd.

Those songs are Landmarks found on the album of the same name from 2014; Duality from their 2017 album Body and Shadow and Return of the Prodigal Song from their 2008 album Season of Changes.

There is an encore showing of this concert on Saturday, June 12th at 1:00 PM ET/10:00 AM PT. Tickets for either show require either a monthly digital membership ($5) or an annual membership ($50).

If you join to watch this Brian Blade concert you will also have access to a special matinee broadcast on Sunday featuring Marcus Shelby and His Orchestra in a tribute to Duke Ellington. That concert will stream at 2:00 PM ET/11:00 AM PT. You can find details about that show here.

CONTEMPORARY CLASSICAL MUSIC: Kronos Festival – June 11th – 10:00 PM ET/7:00 PM PT

The renowned Kronos Quartet launches a virtual festival this year on Friday with a 45-minute concert. Included in this program are several world premieres and one classic work closely associated with Kronos.

Works by Nicole Lizée (Are You From Here Or Just Visiting?), Soo Yeon Lyuh (Tattoo), Hawa Kassé Mady Diabaté (Wawani) and Mahsa Vahdat (Vaya, Vaya) are given their debut performances.

Stacy Garrop’s Glorious Mahalia; Clint Mansell’s Lux Aeterna; Jlin’s Little Black Book and Pete Seeger’s Where Have All the Flowers Gone? are also being performed.

There is no charge to watch this, or any, performance. There is also a kids concert on Sunday, June 13th at 2:00 PM ET/11:00 AM PT.

The festival will continue with performances on Wednesday, June 16th at 10:00 PM ET/7:00 PM PT and Friday, June 18th at 10:00 PM ET/7:00 PM PT. The evening concerts are 45 minutes and the kids concert is 30 minutes.

All performances will remain available for viewing online through August 31st.

PLAY/FUNDRAISER: Connections – Ojai Playwrights Conference – June 12th – 8:00 PM ET/5:00 PM PT

The works of playwrights Luis Alfaro, Jon Robin Baitz, Father Greg Boyle, Bill Cain, Culture Clash, Stephen Adly Guirgis, Danai Gurira, Samuel D. Hunter, David Henry Hwang, Julia Izumi, James Morrison (with his son Seamus), Jeanine Tesori and Charlayne Woodard will be performed in this 90-minute celebration from the Ojai Playwrights Conference.

Liza Powel O’Brien is also contributing a piece.

Performing their work will be a mix of the playwrights themselves and some well-known actors: Brian Cox, Culture Clash, Eileen Galindo, Danai Gurira, Francis Jue, James and Seamus Morrison, Tony Okunghowa, Rose Portillo, Samantha Quan, John C. Reilly, Israel López Reyes, Nikkole Salter, Samantha Sloyan, Jimmy Smits, Phillipa Soo, A. Zell Williams and Charlayne Woodard.

The theme of the show, as the title would suggest, is human connections moving forward in a post-pandemic world.

This is a one-time only event. There is a requested donation of $20 to watch Connections.

Looking forward the Ojai Playwrights Conference New Works Festival will take place August 5th – August 15th.

PLAY: 1 Hour Photo – East West Players – June 12th – 11:00 PM ET/8:00 PM PT

Tetsuro Shigematsu’s 1 Hour Photo had its world premiere in 2017 at Vancouver’s The Cultch. The ostensibly one-man play tells the story of Mas Yamomoto, a man who owned and operated multiple Japan Camera stores which promised processing of film in one hour. (Remember those? Remember film?)

His conversations with Mas, a much older man, covered a lot of territory of personal and racial history of the 20th century. What starts as a humorous catch-up to outdated 1970s technology riff turns into a very personal and emotional story.

To help tell the story Shigematsu incorporates models, miniatures and some very interesting effects.

Shigematsu has now created a 75-minute film version of 1 Hour Photo and East West Players in Los Angeles will offer five virtual screenings of the film beginning on Saturday, June 12th. (Additional shows are on Sunday, June 13th; Friday, June 18th; Saturday June 19th and Sunday June 20th – times vary). Tickets are $34.99.

BROADWAY VOCALS: Matthew Morrison – Seth Concert Series – June 13th – 3:00 PM ET/12:00 PM PT

I’ve seen Matthew Morrison in three Broadway musicals: Hairspray, The Light in the Piazza and South Pacific. Perhaps the only thing they have in common is that he appeared in all three.

For many people Morrison may be best known for his role as Mr. Schuester on Glee.

All four projects allowed him to showcase one thing he does very well: sing. As will this weekend’s Seth Concert Series with Seth Rudetsky.

Yes there will be some conversation sprinkled amongst the performances, but it will mostly be about the music.

If you are unable to see the live stream on Sunday at 3:00 PM ET, there is an encore showing at 8:00 PM ET/5:00 PM PT the same day. Tickets for either are $25.

PLAY READING: Volpone, or The Fox – Red Bull Theater – Debuts June 14th – 7:30 PM ET/4:30 PM PT

17th-century playwright Ben Johnson may not be the best-known writer today, nor are his works commonly performed, but time hasn’t dulled his quick wit and ability to skewer the foibles of human behavior.

Take for example Volpone, or the Fox. The title character loves nothing more than gold. And he will stop at nothing to get as much of it as he can. With the assistance of his servant Mosca, the men of Venice who should know better inevitable fall for his schemes and his charm. It seems as nothing can outwit Volpone.

André De Shields (who won the Tony Award for his performance in Hadestown) plays Volpone. He’s joined by Jordan Boatman, Sofia Cheyenne, Franchelle Stewart Dorn, Clifton Duncan, Amy Jo Jackson, Peter Francis James, Hamish Linklater, Roberta Maxwell, Sam Morales, Kristine Nielsen and Mary Testa for this reading.

Jesse Burger, the Founder and Artistic Director of Red Bull directs. He and Jeffrey Hatcher have made some tweaks to Johnson’s play. (The press release calls them “emendations & elaborations.”)

After the live performance on Monday, June 14th, the show will be available for streaming through June 18th at 7:00 PM ET/4:00 PM PT. There is a suggested donation of $25.

A small bit of trivia: Larry Gelbart, who co-wrote Tootsie and was instrumental in the long-running television show M*A*S*H, wrote an updated version of Volpone that went by the name Sly Fox. It had its Broadway debut in 1976 with George C. Scot in the title role.

That concludes our official Top Ten Best Bets: June 11th – June 14th. But a few reminders before we go:

The film version of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s In the Heights is now in theaters and streaming on HBO MAX.

Los Angeles Opera’s Signature Recital Series has now unveiled all five recitals for streaming with Russell Thomas, Susan Graham, Christine Goerke, Julia Bullock and J’Nai Bridges. They will remain available through July 1st. You can find details here.

The Los Angeles Philharmonic has added a newly-announced episode for the second season of Sound/Stage. Debuting on June 11th is a performance by the LA Phil with the Youth Orchestra Los Angeles and the band Weezer. They will be performing songs from their album OK Human. Rob Mathes leads the LA Phil and did the orchestrations.

This weekend’s offerings from the Metropolitan Opera are the 2012-2013 season production of Thomas Adés’ The Tempest on Friday; Verdi’s Falstaff from the 2013-2014 season on Saturday and the 2017-2018 season production of Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte on Sunday.

Monday the Met begins a week of operas to celebrate Father’s Day. The first production being streamed is Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra from the 1994-1995 season. We’ll have the full schedule and clips on Monday.

What inevitably follows another opening is another closing. Here ends this weekend’s Best Bets: June 11th – June 14th.

Update: This post has been updated to include newly announced participants in Connections

Photo: Jake Gyllenhaal in Sunday in the Park with George (Photo by Matthew Murphy/Courtesy IBDB.com)

The post Top Ten Best Bets: June 11th – June 14th appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

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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They include Jim Parsons in Harvey, jazz pianist Chano Domínguez (if you don’t know him, you should!), the pentulimate episode of Close Quarters from Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and For the Record Live’s Brat Pack.

Here is the full list of our Best Bets: May 21st – May 24th:

*TOP PICK* – A Tribute to John Williams – Boston Pops – Now – June 19th

We showcased this concert in yesterday’s preview of our Best Bets. Here is the the top line. Composer John Williams and his music are celebrated in this concert by his one-time home, The Boston Pops. Keith Lockhart will be on the podium for this program of Williams’ film scores ranging from the well-known (Star Wars) to lesser-known tracks.

A special part of this program is the inclusion of interviews with Williams about many of these scores and his memories of creating them with filmmakers such as George Lucas and Steven Spielberg.

A 7-day pass is required to watch A Tribute to John Williams. Those passes are $9

PLAY: Harvey – Roundabout Theatre Company on Broadway on Demand – Now – June 13th

Mary Chase’s play about a man’s friendship with an invisible rabbit (who gives the play its name) first opened on Broadway in 1944 with Frank Fay in the role of Elwood P. Dowd. (Trivia note for theater buffs: Antoinette Perry, the woman for whom the Tony Award is named, was the director.)

A 1970 revival of the play starred James Stewart who starred as Elwood in the 1950 film classic.

It would be 42 years before Harvey would find its way back to Broadway. Jim Parsons (The Big Bang Theory) starred as Elwood with Jessica Hecht and Charles Kimbrough co-starring. This Roundabout Theatre Company production from 2012 is streaming for free on Broadway on Demand.

Charles Isherwood, in his New York Times review, hailed Parsons’ performance:

“The breakout star of the popular sitcom “The Big Bang Theory,” the soft-spoken Mr. Parsons makes an ideal Elwood, the drinker and dreamer who passes his days in the company of Harvey, doing little more than sitting around saloons making friendly conversation with whoever happens by. Mr. Parsons possesses in abundance the crucial ability to project an ageless innocence without any visible effort: no small achievement for an actor in these knowing times.

You will need to register to stream the play. After you do so you’ll receive streaming instructions.

BALLET: Swan Lake – San Francisco Ballet – Now – June 9th

When San Francisco Ballet debuted Helgi Tomasson’s new Swan Lake ballet, it was a runaway hit. Interest in this production was so intense that they sold out nearly every performance.

In the ballet, Odette is a princess turned into a swan by a sorcerer. Prince Siegfried falls in love with Odette. At night she turns back into her human form and it was upon seeing this transformation that the romance begins. Other spells and deception awaits the leads in Swan Lake. While love triumphs, it isn’t necessarily the happiest of endings, but it is certainly romantic.

Tchaikovsky’s music is still present, but it is Tomasson’s vision that was different after he updated the choreography by Lev Ivanov and Marius Petipa.

The cast for this streaming performance features Yuan Yuan Tan in the dual roles of Odette and Odile. Tiit Helimets dances the role of Prince Siegfried. Alexander Reneff-Olson dances the role of Von Rothbart and the Pas de Trois is performed by Dores André, Taras Domitro and Sasha De Sola. Martin West conducts.

Tickets are $29 which allows for 72 hours of access to Swan Lake.

PLAY READING: The Sisters Rosensweig – Spotlight on Plays on Broadway’s Best Shows – Now – May 24th

Jason Alexander, John Behlmann, Lisa Edelstein, Kathryn Hahn, Kathryn Newton, Tracee Chimo Pallero, Chris Perfetti and James Urbaniak star in a reading of Wendy Wasserstein’s play. The reading is directed by Anna D. Shapiro (Tony Award-winner for her direction of August: Osage County).

The Sisters Rosensweig opened at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre in 1993. This was her first Broadway play since wining the Tony Award and the Pulitzer Prize for The Heidi Chronicles.

The play depicts a reunion of three sisters who haven’t seen each other in years. Through the course of the play they come to understand that the bond of being sisters is more important than any of the reasons they’ve stayed apart.

Mel Gussow, in his review for the New York Times said of the play:

“Ms. Wasserstein’s generous group portrait is not only a comedy but also a play of character and shared reflection as the author confronts the question of why the sisters behave as they do. The immediate answer is that they are Rosensweigs and are only doing what is expected of them. The play offers sharp truths about what can divide relatives and what can draw them together.”

Wasserstein passed away in 2006 at the age of 55 due to complications of lymphoma.

Tickets are $18 which allows for repeated viewings through May 24th at 6:00 PM ET/3:00 PM PT. Proceeds benefit The Actors Funds, TDF Wendy Wasserstein Project and Steppenwolf Theatre Company.

JAZZ: Chano Domínguez – SFJAZZ – May 21st – 8:00 PM ET/5:00 PM PT

Spanish born pianist Chano Domínguez has long put postbop, flamenco and fusion influences together to create a wholly original approach to jazz music. In this concert from 2018, Domínguez celebrates the work of Miles Davis.

Joined by bassist Alexis Cuadrado, drummer Henry Cole, flamenco singer Blas Córdoba and dancer Daniel Navarro, Domínguez will offer his take on such classic Davis tracks such as So What, All Blues and Freddie the Freeloader from Davis’ 1959 classic album Kind of Blue.

The concert is streaming right around dinner time on the East Coast (8:00 PM) and happy hour on the West Coast (5:00 PM). As a wine pairing for this concert I suggest a crisp Albariño for those who prefer white wine and a dry Rioja for those who prefer red.

If you can’t make the Fridays at Five showing, there will be an encore presentation on Saturday, May 22nd at 1:00 PM ET/10:00 AM PT.

Tickets are $5 which includes a one month digital membership.

BROADWAY VOCALS: Elizabeth Stanley – Broadway Stories & Songs with Ted Sperling – May 21st – 8:00 PM ET/5:00 PM PT

I first saw Elizabeth Stanley in the 2006 revival of Stephen Sondheim and George Furth’s Company. Since then she’s appeared on Broadway in Cry-Baby, Million Dollar Quartet, the 2014 revival of On the Town and she was starring in Jagged Little Pill when the pandemic hit. That show, for which she was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical, will re-open on October 21st.

Stanley is an amazing singer and one who performs songs in the truest sense of the word. She doesn’t just sing, she imbues them with whatever the song calls for: comedy, drama, pathos, etc..

She joins Ted Sperling for this weekend’s Broadway Stories & Songs with Ted Sperling. The show will first air at 8:00 PM ET/5:00 PM PT on Friday. It will also be rerun on Saturday at 2:00 PM ET/11:00 AM PT. The $25 ticket price allows you to view both showings.

CLASSICAL MUSIC: Shin, Reid + Britten – Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra – Debuts May 21st – 9:30 PM ET/6:30 PM PT

In this penultimate episode of LA Chamber Orchestra’s Close Quarters series, the music of Benjamin Britten and Pulitzer Prize winner Ellen Reid is performed along with the world premiere of Hyo by Peter S. Shin.

Shin was the recipient of the 2020/2021 Sound Investment Honor which finds donors investing in the creation of a new work and following its progress leading up to its premiere.

Les Illuminations by Britten is a 16-minute song cycle that had its world premiere in 1940. Joining LACO for this performance is soprano Nicole Cabell. She’s performed in opera houses around the world in Porgy and Bess, La Traviata, Don Giovanni and more.

Lumee’s Dream from Reid’s opera p r i s m is the last work on the program.

Dance is included in this episode with choreography by Rebecca Steinberg performed by Layne Paradis Willis and Joe Davis.

Visuals are by Jian Lee and the LACO is lead by Grant Gershon.

There is no charge to watch this show. If you haven’t look at the other 12 episodes in this ambitious and very satisfying series, I urge you to do so.

MUSICAL: Brat Pack – The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts – May 21st – May 23rd

Don’t you forget about films like The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink, Sixteen Candles, Weird Science, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and more. You won’t be able to if you stream Brat Pack this weekend.

For the Record Live created a cottage industry of shows dedicated to the soundtracks from various films centered around individual directors. Amongst the most popular was their show celebrating John Hughes. That show serves as the inspiration for Brat Pack which tells the story of the high school experiences of the archetypal Basket Case, Geek, Jock, Mister and Rebel. Does that sound like a club with whom you might like to have breakfast?

Brat Pack was filmed live on stage at The Wallis with James Byous, Emily Lopez, Parissa Koh, Patrick Ortiz, Doug Kreeger and Kenton Chen. As with any For the Record Live production, they are accompanied by a killer band.

Tickets are $20 which allows for viewing all weekend long. One note of caution: the show does contain adult subject matter and language.

OPERA: Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen – Glyndebourne – May 23rd – June 6th

Vladimir Jurowski conducts; starring Emma Bell; Lucy Crowe, Sergei Leiferkus and Mischa Shelomainaksi. This Melly Still production is from the 2011-2012 season.

Leoš Janáček’s opera had its world premiere in Prague in 1924. The Cunning Little Vixen has a libretto by the composer based on a serialized novel by Rudolf Těsnohlídek called Liška Bystrouška.

In The Cunning Little Vixen a foster, while taking a nap, is taken by a young vixen to be her pet. Once she gets older she pursues a more independent life. The vixen gets mistaken for a gypsy girl and her life becomes a whirlwind she never expected.

We’ve covered literally hundreds of opera productions here at Cultural Attaché. I can say with absolute certainty that this is the first time we’ve offered up a production of Cunning Little Viven. This is not a commonly performed opera.

Fiona Maddocks, in her review for The Guardian, said of this production:

“Melly Still’s staging, designed with folkloric charm by Tom Pye and atmospherically lit by Paule Constable, wins enough plus points to balance out the minuses. The action is often chaotic and unfocused. There is no allowance made for the speed at which the text moves. Lacking the requisite fluency in Czech – feeble, I know – one had to cling on to the surtitles at the risk of missing the action. The shooting of the Vixen passed almost without notice, though this may be the point: another ordinary day in the genocidal war of man and beast.”

There is no charge to watch Cunning Little Vixen which will be available for streaming through June 6th.

BROADWAY FUNDRAISER: Broadway Barks – May 23rd – 7:00 PM ET/4:00 PM PT

This annual event supports the adoption of shelter animals. Broadway Barks was started by good friends Mary Tyler Moore and Bernadette Peters in 1998. Every year they have had in-person events where Broadway stars and shelter pets combine to entertain and find homes for the four-legged friends.

This is the second virtual edition and they have an incredible line-up:

Sebastian Arcelus, Annaleigh Ashford, Alec Baldwin, Christine Baranski, Bill Berloni, Stephanie J. Block, Carol Burnett, David Burtka, Victoria Clark, Glenn Close, Lily Collins, Harry Connick Jr., Sheryl Crow, Jason Danieley, Ted Danson, Ariana DeBose, Daveed Diggs, Gloria Estefan, Harvey Fierstein, Calista Flockhart, Whoopi Goldberg, Josh Groban, Kathryn Grody, Emmylou Harris, Neil Patrick Harris, Megan Hilty, James Monroe Iglehart, Hugh Jackman, Christopher Jackson, Allison Janney, Nathan Lane, Bob Mackie, Audra McDonald, Charlie McDowell, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Bebe Neuwirth, Mandy Patinkin, David Hyde Pierce, Randy Rainbow, Kelly Ripa, Chita Rivera, Lea Salonga, Phillipa Soo, and Mary Steenburgen. 

Peters will serve as the host.

Broadway Barks will stream on Broadway.com and Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS’ Facebook and YouTube pages. 

Those are our Best Bets: May 21st – May 24th. As usual, a few reminders before we conclude:

Tales from the Wings: Celebrating Lincoln Center Theater with Patti LuPone, Audra McDonald and others remains available through Sunday, May 23rd only. Don’t miss it.

LA Opera’s Signature Series adds a recital by Julia Bullock on Friday to still available performances by Russell Thomas, Susan Graham and Christine Goerke.

Next week the fourth and final episode of Myths and Hymns from MasterVoices debuts. If you haven’t seen the first three episodes, take a look.

The Romero Quartet launches their 60th anniversary celebration with a streaming concert from Belly Up in Solano Beach on Sunday. For details and our interview with Pepe Romero, please go here.

The Metropolitan Opera productions streaming this weekend are the 2016-2017 season production of Verdi’s Nabucco on Friday; Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor from the 1982-1983 season (with Joan Sutherland) on Saturday and the 1995 production of Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades on Sunday. This will conclude the Unhinged Mad Scenes week.

Monday the Met begins Rare Gems week with a 2008-2009 season production of Massenet’s Thaïs. We’ll have the full line-up on Monday for you.

Lastly if you’ve read our interview with Isabel Leonard (and please do, she has a lot to say), you’ll remember that Saturday the Met streams Three Divas at 1:00 PM ET/10:00 AM PT featuring Leonard with Ailyn Pérez and Nadine Sierra.

That’s truly the end of our Best Bets: May 21st – May 24th.

I hope you have a great weekend. Enjoy the culture!

Photo: Keith Lockhart conducting the Boston Pops (Photo by Stu Rosner/Courtesy Boston Pops)

The post Best Bets: May 21st – May 24th appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

Our top pick, previewed yesterday, is a reading of Larry Kramer’s The Normal Heart on Saturday. We also have some great jazz music for you (both traditional vocals and a very contemporary performance), a London production of Chekhov that earned rave reviews, a tribute to two of Broadway’s best songwriters, chamber music and a contortionist. After all, it’s Mother’s Day weekend. Don’t all mothers just love contortionists?

Here are the Top 10 Best Bets: May 7th – May 10th

*TOP PICK* PLAY READING: The Normal Heart – ONE Archives Foundation – May 8th – 8:00 PM ET/5:00 PM PT

We previewed this event yesterday as out Top Pick, but here are the pertinent details:

Director Paris Barclay has assembled Sterling K. Brown, Laverne Cox, Jeremy Pope, Vincent Rodriguez III, Guillermo Díaz, Jake Borelli, Ryan O’Connell, Daniel Newman, Jay Hayden and Danielle Savre for a virtual reading of Larry Kramer’s play.

The reading will be introduced by Martin Sheen.

There will be just this one live performance of The Normal Heart. It will not be available for viewing afterwards. There will be a Q&A with the cast and Barclay following the reading. Tickets begin at $10 for students, $20 for general admission.

PLAY READING: Rachel – Roundabout Theatre Company’s Refocus Project – Now – May 7th

Angelina Weld Grimké’s 1916 play Rachel, is the second play in the Refocus Project from Roundabout Theatre Company. Their project puts emphasis on plays by Black playwrights from the 20th century that didn’t get enough attention or faded into footnotes of history in an effort to bring greater awareness to these works.

Rachel tells the story of a Black woman who, upon learning some long-ago buried secrets about her family, has to rethink being a Black parent and bringing children into the world.

Miranda Haymon directs Sekai Abení, Alexander Bello, E. Faye Butler, Stephanie Everett, Paige Gilbert, Brandon Gill, Toney Goins, Abigail Jean-Baptiste and Zani Jones Mbayise.

The reading is free, but registration is required.

JAZZ: Joel Ross & Immanuel Wilkins – Village Vanguard – May 7th – May 9th

You’d be hard-pressed to find a more compelling pairing of jazz musicians than vibraphonist Joel Ross and alto saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins.

The two have been collaborating for quite some time. Wilkins is a member of Ross’ Good Vibes quintet.

Nate Chinen, in a report for NPR, described a 2018 concert in which Ross performed with drummer Makaya McCraven this way. “Ross took one solo that provoked the sort of raucous hollers you’d sooner expect in a basketball arena. Again, this was a vibraphone solo.“

Wilkins album, Omega, was declared the Best Jazz Album of 2020 by Giovanni Russonello of the New York Times.

I spoke to Wilkins last year about the album and his music. You can read that interview here. And if you’re a fan, Jason Moran, who produced the album, told me that this music was “just the tip of the iceberg.”

Tickets for this concert are $10.

PLAY: Uncle Vanya – PBS Great Performances – May 7th check local listings

Anton Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya is performed by a cast headed by Richard Armitrage and Toby Jones. Conor McPherson adapted the play for this production which played at the Harold Pinter Theatre in London and was directed by Ian Rickson.

Arifa Akbar, writing in her five-star review for The Guardian, said of the production:

“Ian Rickson’s exquisite production is full of energy despite the play’s prevailing ennui. It does not radically reinvent or revolutionise Chekov’s 19th-century story. It returns us to the great, mournful spirit of Chekhov’s tale about unrequited love, ageing and disappointment in middle-age, while giving it a sleeker, modern beat.

“McPherson’s script has a stripped, vivid simplicity which quickens the pace of the drama, and despite its contemporary language – Vanya swears and uses such terms as “wanging on” – it does not grate or take away from the melancholic poetry.”

CHAMBER MUSIC: Beyond the Horizon – LA Chamber Orchestra – Premieres May 7th – 9:30 PM ET/6:30 PM PT

This is the 12th episode in LACO’s Close Quarters series and definitely one of its most intriguing. Jessie Montgomery, the composer who curated the previous episode, curates this episode as well. She is joined by her fellow alums from Juilliard, mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard (who directs) and music producer Nadia Sirota.

The program features Alvin Singleton’s Be Natural (a pun any music major will understand); Mazz Swift’s The End of All That Is Holy, The Beginning of All That is Good and Montgomery’s Break Away.

The performance portion of Beyond the Horizon is conducted by Christopher Rountree of Wild Up! Visual artist Yee Eun Nam contributes to the film as does art director James Darrah.

There is no charge to watch Beyond the Horizon.

CHAMBER MUSIC: MusiKaravan: A Classical Road Trip with Delerium Musicum – The Wallis Sorting Room Sessions – May 7th – May 9th

Music by Johannes Brahms, Charlie Chaplin, Frederic Chopin, Vittorio Monti, Sergei Prokofiev, Giacomo Puccini and Dmitri Shostakovich will be performed by Delerium Musicum founding violinists Étienne Gara and YuEun Kim. They will be joined for two pieces by bassist Ryan Baird.

The full ensemble of musicians that make up Delerium Musicum will join for one of these pieces? Which one will it be? There is only one way to find out.

This concert is part of The Sorting Room Sessions at The Wallis.

Tickets are $20 and will allow for streaming for 48 hours

MOTHER’S DAY OFFERINGS: MOMentum Place and A Catalina Tribute to Mothers – May 8th

Will Geer’s Theatricum Botanicum is celebrating Mother’s Day with MOMentum Place, a show featuring aerial artists, circus performers, dancers and musicians. The line-up includes circus artist Elena Brocade; contortionist and acrobat Georgia Bryan, aerialist and stilt dancer Jena Carpenter of Dream World Cirque, ventriloquist Karl Herlinger, hand balancer Tyler Jacobson, stilt walker and acrobat Aaron Lyon, aerialist Kate Minwegen, cyr wheeler Sarah Moser and Cirque du Soleil alum Eric Newton, plus Dance Dimensions Kids and Focus Fish Kids. The show was curated by aerlist/dancer Lexi Pearl. Tickets are $35.

Catalina Jazz Club is holding A Catalina Tribute to Mothers at 9:00 PM ET/6:00 PM PT. Headlining the concert are singers Jack Jones, Freda Payne and Tierney Sutton. Vocalist Barbara Morrison is a special guest. Also performing are  Kristina Aglinz, Suren Arustamyan, Lynne Fiddmont, Andy Langham, Annie Reiner, Dayren Santamaria, Tyrone Mr. Superfantastic and more. Dave Damiani is the host. The show is free, however donations to help keep the doors open at Catalina Jazz Club are welcomed and encouraged.

JAZZ: Love in Exile – The Phillips Collection – May 9th – 4:00 PM ET/1:00 PM PT

There is no set program for this performance by pianist/composer Vijay Iyer, vocalist Arooj Aftab and bassist Shazad Ismaily. The website says Love in Exile performs as one continuous hour-long set.

Having long been a fan of Iyer, spending an hour wherever he and his fellow musicians wants to go sounds like pure heaven to me.

Iyer’s most recent album, Uneasy, was released in April on ECM Records and finds him performing with double bassist Linda May Han Oh and drummer Tyshawn Sorey. It’s a great album. You should definitely check it out.

There is no charge to watch this concert, but registration is required. Once Love in Exile debuts, you’ll have 7 days to watch the performance as often as you’d like.

DANCE: Past, Present, Future – ALL ARTS – May 9th – May 11th

ALL ARTS, part of New York’s PBS stations, is holding an three-night on-line dance festival beginning on Sunday.

If We Were a Love Song is first up at 8:00 PM ET on Sunday. Nina Simone’s music accompanies this work conceived by choreographer Kyle Abraham who is collaborating with filmmaker Dehanza Rogers.

Dancers (Slightly Out of Shape) airs on Monday at 8:00 PM ET. This is part documentary/part dance featuring choreographer Pam Tanowitz as she and her company resume rehearsals last year during the Covid crisis. It leads to excerpts from Every Moment Alters which is set to the music of Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Caroline Shaw.

One + One Make Three closes out the festival on Tuesday at 8:00 PM ET. This film showcases the work of Kinetic Light, an ensemble featuring disabled performers. This is also part documentary/part dance made by director Katherine Helen Fisher.

All three films will be accompanied by ASL and Open Captions for the hearing impaired.

BROADWAY: Broadway Close Up: Kander and Ebb – Kaufman Music Center – May 10th – 7:00 PM ET/4:00 PM PT

You know the work of John Kander and Fred Ebb: Cabaret, Chicago, Flora the Red Menace, Kiss of the Spider Woman, New York New York, The Scottsboro Boys and Woman of the Year.

Their work will be explored, discussed and performed with host Sean Hartley.

He’s joined by Tony Award-winner Karen Ziemba (Contact) who appeared in two musicals by the duo: Curtains and Steel Pier. The latter was written specifically for her.

Any fan of Kander and Ebb will want to purchase a ticket for this show. Tickets are $15

Those are our Top Ten Best Bets: May 7th – May 10th (even if we cheated a little bit by having two options listed together). But there are a few reminders:

The Metropolitan Opera has their own view of mothers with their theme of Happy Mother’s Day featuring Berg’s Wozzeck on Friday; Puccini’s Madama Butterfly on Saturday and Handel’s Agrippina on Sunday.

Puccini returns for the start of National Council Auditions Alumni Week with a 1981-1982 season production of La Bohème. We’ll have all the details for you on Monday.

LA Opera’s Signature Recital Series continues with the addition of a recital by the brilliant soprano Christine Goerke.

One rumor to pass along to you: word has it Alan Cumming will be Jim Caruso’s guest on Monday’s Pajama Cast Party.

That completes all our selections of Best Bets: May 7th – May 10th. I hope all of you who are mothers have a terrific weekend. For those of you celebrating with your moms, I hope we’ve given you plenty of options to consider.

Have a great weekend! Enjoy the culture!

Photo: Larry Kramer (Photo by David Shankbone/Courtesy David Shankbone)

The post Best Bets: May 7th – May 10th appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

Goldenthal won his Oscar for the score to Julie Taymor’s film Frida. (Taymor, it should be noted, is also his partner). Amongst his other film credits are Drugstore Cowboy, Interview with the Vampire, Heat, The Butcher Boy, Titus (a particular favorite), Collateral and most recently The Glorias.

On stage he has written scores for Juan Darién (and received a Tony Award nomination), The Green Bird and the 2017 revival of M. Butterfly.

In 2006 Los Angeles Opera gave the world premiere production of his opera Grendel, which look at the Beowulf story from the point-of-view of the monster. I was lucky enough to attend opening night of that production.

[As a side note, I wish more companies would be as excited about giving third, fourth or fifth productions of new operas as they are about offering up premieres. Let’s see another production of Grendel!]

Amongst other important compositions of Goldenthal’s is Fire Water Paper: A Vietnam Oratorio which was commissioned by the Pacific Symphony in 1993.

If you need more details about Goldenthal, he studied with Aaron Copland and John Corigliano.

With all this information, it is no wonder that on Tuesday, April 27th, this massively talented composer will be joining Salastina for their weekly Happy Hour. The Zoom event will take place at 6:00 PM PDT and last approximately one hour.

There’s no charge to join in the conversation. I’ll be there…will you?

Photo of Elliot Goldenthal/Courtesy Salastina

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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)

The post Best Bets: April 16th – April 19th appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

There are five recitals in the Signature Recital Series and once they debut they will be available for streaming through July 1st.

Up first – in a recital that debuted last Friday – is tenor Russell Thomas.

Filmed at Atlanta’s Spivey Hall, his recital finds performances of works Adolphus Hailstork, George Frideric Handel, Roberts Owens and Robert Schumann. He’s accompanied by pianist Mi-Kyung Kim.

Thomas was recently named an Artist-in-Residence with LA Opera. That announcement falls in line with something he told me was important for real progress in the performing arts when I interviewed him in 2018. At that time he was preparing to sing Verdi’s Otello with Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl.

“What happens when you diversify the back office then the stage will become diversified and then the audience. You can’t expect audiences to be diversified if they don’t see themselves on stage. …I understand everything is about dollars and cents, but I think the long term survival of classical arts is at stake. If you look around the room and everybody looks the same, there’s a problem.”

I attended that performance of Otello. Thomas is the real deal.

Thomas will be seen in Verdi’s Aida with the LA Opera during the 2021-2022 season.

The second recital is by mezzo-soprano Susan Graham and it will debut on April 23rd. She will be showcasing the work of composer Kurt Weill in this recital filmed at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles.

Amongst the songs she performs are I’m a Stranger Here Myself, Lonely House and September Song. Graham is accompanied by pianist Jeremy Frank.

She is one of those rare singers who embraces music from multiple periods of music. Graham is just as comfortable singing the work of Handel and Mozart as she is works by contemporary composers such as Jake Heggie and Tobias Picker.

Her next appearance at LA Opera will be in a performance of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion in the spring of 2022.

The third recital is by Wagnerian soprano Christine Goerke. This is billed as an intimate performance from New Jersey’s Art Factory with pianist Craig Terry accompanying her. The debut of her performance is scheduled for May 7th.

Goerke’s diverse program will include works by Brahms, Handel and Strauss, show tunes, Italian art songs and a song cycle by Carrie Jacobs-Bonds called Half-Minute Songs.

If you’ve watched any of the Met Opera streaming productions you might have seen her in Turandot and as Brunhilde in Die Walküre. I saw her sing excerpts from Götterdämmerung with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and was seriously impressed with not just the power of her voice, but also the quieter and softer tones as well.

The fourth recital is by soprano Julia Bullock with pianist Laura Boe. The performance was filmed at Blaibach Concert Hall in Germany. This recital will debut on May 21st.

On Bullock’s program are works by John Adams, Margaret Bonds, Robert Schumann, William Grant Still, Kurt Weill and Hugo Wolf. The finale is a series of songs from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The Sound of Music.

Another singer who embraces both classic works and contemporary works, Bullock in the past few years has appeared in the world premieres of John Adams’ Girls of the Golden West at San Francisco Opera and Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones at Opera Theatre of St. Louis.

In 2019 she opened the Los Angeles Philharmonic season with a performance of Samuel Barber’s Knoxville. This was also a concert I attended and I can’t wait for an opportunity to see Bullock in a fully-staged production.

The last recital is by mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges beginning June 4th. Accompanied by pianist Howard Watkins, Bridges’ recital was filmed at Harlem School of the Arts in New York. The program has yet to be announced.

If you’ve seen any of the multiple streams of Philip Glass’ Akhnaten, you know how amazing she is. She also appeared in the composer’s Satyagraha at LA Opera during the 2018-2019 season.

How can you watch the Signature Recital Series? They are available as a package for $45 for non-subscribers and $30 for LA Opera subscribers. Single tickets are not available. However, regardless of when you purchase the package you will have through July 1st to watch each of the concerts. Tickets are available here.

Photo: Russell Thomas from his Signature Recital Series performance (Courtesy Los Angeles Opera)

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