This evening, I will be attending a concert at the Los Angeles Philharmonic where conductor/composer Michael Tilson Thomas will lead the orchestra in the first of three performances of Stravinsky’s Petrushka and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4.

This would put me on a path to have scene MTT, as he is commonly known, leading an orchestra at least two dozen times. Given that he has been battling brain cancer, I am taking every possible opportunity to see him. Let me explain why.

When I was five-year-old we had an organ in the house. My father apparently played it a bit, but it had become neglected and was occupying space. My mother proclaimed, “Someone is going to learn to play that organ or we’re getting rid of it.”

My sister had just been born, my brother was 3 and I was five. Doing the math, it become painfully obvious that I was the target of that comment. So, to music lessons I went. 

While I enjoyed the positive attention I got whenever a lesson went well or I performed at a recital, I began to grow weary of music and music lessons by the time I was ten.

Enter Michael Tilson Thomas who, beginning in 1971, was hosting the New York Philharmonic Young People’s Concerts. I was able to see those broadcasts and it gave me renewed purpose in studying music. The generation before me had Leonard Bernstein. I had Michael Tilson Thomas.

I looked forward to each broadcast so I could get more inspiration and to hear more music. Tilson Thomas made me want to study music and do better at the piano. 

Until I didn’t…

It wasn’t that I lost interest in what Tilson Thomas was offering. It was that I realized the dream I was chasing wasn’t my own. 

But that passion for classical music (and frankly music of all genres) has never waned. Have you heard the incredible live recording Tilson Thomas, the Los Angeles Philaharmonic and Sarah Vaughan did of Gershwin’s music? If not, you must check it out.

If anything, by choosing not to make it my career, it has only deepened. It’s one of the reasons I launched Cultural Attaché – to hopefully interest and inspire others to explore all that the performing arts has to offer.

I’ve never had the chance to meet or interview Michael Tilson Thomas. I expect that the opportunity to do so is not likely. 

Whenever I would meet someone who has worked with Tilson Thomas, I would ask for stories about those collaborations. One such friend, Chris Van Ness, was at USC at the same time as MTT. He told me about musicals where MTT was the pianist. 

Through interviews with musicians, I would hear tidbits about him as a conductor. What he is like off-stage. His deep passion for music and more.

That passion has been abundantly clear in every performance I’ve ever seen of his. Whether it was Mahler’s 8^th Symphony with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra or a performance of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 or some of his own music (notably Meditations on Rilke.)

It is my profound hope that Michael Tilson Thomas knowns the incredible impact he’s had, not just on my own life, but on millions of others who found his knowledge and communication skills invaluable throughout the years.

He is quoted as having said, “The world changes when there’s music in it.” My world changed because MTT was in it. For that I will be forever grateful.

Thank you, Michael Tilson Thomas. I’ll see you tonight.

Main Photo: Michael Tilson Thomas (Photo by Deborah Robison/Courtesy 21C Media Group)

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We have ten options for you and each and every one is a winner. They include Lorraine Hansberry’s last play, a highly-acclaimed new ballet based on the writings of Virginia Woolf, two one-act operas by Ravel and one of a jazz legend’s final concerts. Oh…and a little show called Hamilton.

Here are your Best Bets at Home: July 3rd – July 5th:

Hamilton – Disney Plus – Begins July 3rd

You pretty much have to be living under a rock not to know that the smash musical Hamilton becomes available for viewing on Disney Plus this weekend.

Before the original Broadway cast left the show, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Thomas Kail filmed the show. They shot a couple performances and then shot on-stage and close-ups with the cast without an audience.

This film was originally going to be released theatrically, but Disney has added it to their Disney Plus service realizing that no one was going to see Hamilton on stage for quite some time. Let’s also be honest, the pandemic has slowed down new content for the service. Both factored into the decision to release Hamilton this weekend.

Hamilton won 11 Tony Awards including Best Musical and also the Pulitzer Prize.

The cast includes Tony Award winner Daveed Diggs as “Marquis de Lafayette/Thomas Jefferson”; Tony Award winner Renée Elise Goldsberry as “Angelica Schuyler”; Tony Award nominee Jonathan Groff as “King George”; Tony Award nominee Christopher Jackson as “George Washington”; Jasmine Cephas Jones as “Peggy Schuyler/Maria Reynolds”; Lin-Manuel Miranda as “Alexander Hamilton”; Tony Award-winner Leslie Odom, Jr. as “Aaron Burr”; Okieriete Onaodowan as “Hercules Mulligan/James Madison”; Anthony Ramos as “John Laurens/Philip Hamilton”; and Tony Award nominee Phillipa Soo as “Eliza Hamilton.”

If you want to have the room where it happened come alive in your room, you will need to subscribe to Disney Plus. One month is $6.99 or you can get an annual subscription for $69.99. They are not currently offering one week free-trial memberships.

Les Blancs – National Theatre Live – Now – July 9th

The National Theatre staged Lorraine Hansberry’s last play, Les Blancs, in 2016. This is the film of that production.

Hansberry is best known for her play A Raisin in the Sun.

After 30 previews Les Blancs opened at the Longacre Theatre on Broadway in November of 1970. It closed in mid-December of that year after 40 regular performances. This production came five years after Hansberry’s death. The text was adapted by her husband Robert Nemiroff and it is that text that is used for the National Theatre production directed by Yaël Farber.

Les Blancs, which Hansberry considered to be amongst her most important works, addresses colonialism bridging the time from the late 19th century into the 20th century. Tshembe (Danny Sapani) has returned home to his African country as its struggles with an impeding civil war over the issue of independence from colonial rule. There for his father’s funeral, he finds himself in the middle of the two warring factions.

Michael Billington, writing for The Guardian, said of Les Blancs, “…an epic production by Yaël Farber of a text that explores both the divided individual soul and the bitterness of the colonial legacy…An imperfect play…has been given a near-perfect production.”

Woolf Works – The Royal Ballet – Now – July 9th

If I offer you the combination of Virginia Woolf, choreographer Wayne McGregor and composer Max Richter, would you really need to know more? That alone is a compelling trio.

In this 2015 work created specifically for The Royal Ballet, McGregor used Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway, Orlando and The Waves as inspiration.

He then combined them with excerpts from her diaries, letters and essays. The end result won the Critics’ Circle Award for Best Classical Choreography and the Olivier Award for Best New Dance Production.

The company performing Woolf Works is Alessandra Ferri, Federico Bonelli, Edward Watson, Francesca Hayward, Sarah Lamb and Akane Takada. They are joined by soprano Anush Hovhannisyan. Koen Kessels leads the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House.

Antony and Cleopatra – Stratford Festival – Now – July 23rd

This 2014 Stratford Festival production of Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra was directed by Gary Griffin. Starring as the titular couple are Geraint Wyn Davies and Yanna McIntosh.

One of Shakespeare’s historical dramas, Antony and Cleopatra tells of the love affair between Mark Antony (one of three men ruling the Roman republic) and the passionate and seductive queen of Egypt, Cleopatra.

Their affair leaves them vulnerable to political intrigue that will change their lives and their relationship dramatically.

This begins the final trilogy of Shakespeare productions from Canada’s Stratford Festival. Called Relationships, this trilogy will continue in the next couple weeks with Romeo and Juliet and The Taming of the Shrew.

Still available for streaming are Shakespeare’s King John and The Adventures of Pericles.

Ravel’s L’heure espagnole and L’enfant et les sortilèges – -Glyndebourne – Now – July 5th

Two one-act operas by Maurice Ravel are paired together in this 2012 production by Laurent Pelly at Glyndebourne.

L’heure espagnole had its world premiere in Paris in 1911. Franc-Nohain wrote the libretto based on his own play of the same name from 1904.

The opera tells the story of an unfaithful Spanish woman who tries to make love to multiple different men while her husband is away. When he shows up, the men try hiding in the many clocks her husband owns and sometimes find themselves getting stuck inside them.

The cast of L’heure espagnole features Elliot Madore, François Piolino, Stéphanie d’Oustrac, Alek Shrader and Paul Gay.

The second opera, L’enfant et les sortilèges, had its world premiere in Monte Carlo in 1925. The libretto is by Colette who apparently wrote the libretto in eight days. (Did you see Wash Westmoreland’s 2018 film about her? You should. And classical music fans will enjoy Thomas Adés’ score for this wonderful film.)

In the opera a petulant young child, prone to throwing tantrums and destroying the toys and animals around him, is surprised when they come to life to give him a lesson about kindness.

The cast of L’enfant et les sortilèges features Khatouna Gadelia, Elodie Méchain, Madore, Gay, Julie Pasturaud, Piolino, Kathleen Kim, Natalia Brzezińska, Hila Fahim, d’Oustrac and Kirsty Stokes.

Kazushi Ono conducts the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

Declassified Memory Fragment – Joyce Theater – July 2nd – July 31

Burkina Faso is a small, landlocked country in Africa. From it comes musician and choreographer Olivier Tarpaga who created Declassified Memory Fragment. This 70-minute piece had its world premiere in 2015. It is a work that features dancers and live musicians sharing the stage.

New York’s Joyce Theater will stream Declassified Memory Fragment for the first time during the month of July.

Tarpaga was inspired by the various political issues his own country faces as well as other countries like Kenya, Ivory Coast and Zimbabwe. Information from The Joyce Theater states that “Declassified refers to living in a society where aspects of everyday life are subjected to restrictions and cultural expectations of secrecy and privacy, even within the family. The act of declassifying is a process of revealing, exposing what is hidden from view and obscured, not spoken.”

Marina Hars, writing in the New York Times said Tarpaga’s piece, “is an extraordinary, distilled piece of music and dance. As the title suggests, it conjures fragmented memories, images and stories, often from childhood, gathered and transformed through movement and music by Mr. Tarpaga, three fellow dancers, and four musicians.”

Allen Toussaint with Preservation Hall Jazz Band – SF Jazz – July 3rd – 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT

This 2014 performance was one of the last concerts performed by jazz singer and pianist Allen Toussaint. He died one year after this performance at SF Jazz. He appears with Preservation Hall Jazz Band.

Toussaint’s concert is part of SF Jazz’s Fridays at Five. That means the concert will stream only once at 5:00 PM PDT/8:00 PM EDT.

If you like jazz you won’t want to miss this one. New footage from the concert has been added for this presentation. To watch Fridays at Five requires either signing up for one month of concerts for $5 or signing up for a year at $60. With upcoming concerts by John Scofield, Cécile McLorin Salvant and their ongoing Wayne Shorter Celebrations plus this rare performance by Toussaint, it seems like an easy decision.

New York Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall – Medici.tv – July 3rd- July 5th

This 2015 Carnegie Hall concert finds Alan Gilbert leading the New York Philharmonic. The highlight of this performance was the world premiere of Vivo by Magnus Lindberg. Carnegie Hall co-commissioned the work from Lindberg.

Pianist Evgeny Kissin joins for a performance of Tchaikovsky’s crowd-pleasing Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat Minor, Op. 23.

As an encore, Kissin performs Méditation from Tchaikovsky’s 18 Pieces.

Kissin made his Carnegie Hall debut in 1990. That performance also marked his US recital debut.

The concert concludes with Maurice Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé, Suite No. 2.

Susannah -San Francisco Opera – July 4th – July 5th

American composer Carlisle Floyd wrote this opera during his tenure as a member of the faculty at Florida State University. Floyd wrote both music and the libretto. Susannah had its world premiere in 1955 at the University.

His inspiration was a story in the Book of Daniel in certain bibles. Floyd updates the story of Susannah and the Elders to a more contemporary story of a teenage girl whom many in her isolated religious community accuse of being a sinner. Her journey into womanhood is challenged by the residents in a small mountain town in Tennessee.

This San Francisco Opera production was staged in 2014. Michael Cavanagh directed the production and the performance is conducted by Karen Kamensek.

Patricia Racette sings the role of “Susannah.” Brandon Jovanovich sings the role of “Sam Polk”; Raymond Aceto sings the role of “Reverend Olin Blitch”; the role of “Elder Ott” is sung by Timothy Mix; Catherine Cook sings the role of “Mrs. McLean” and the role of Little Bat McLean is sung by James Kryshak.

This was the first time one of Floyd’s operas had been performed by San Francisco Opera. Critics hailed the production and Racette’s performance in the title role.

Melissa Errico with Seth Rudetsky – July 5th – 8:00 PM/5:00 PM (rerun July 6th 3:00 PM EDT/12:00 PM PDT)

Melissa Errico hasn’t had the Broadway career her many fans and admirers feel she deserves. A 1993 revival of My Fair Lady was followed by roles in High Society, Amour, Dracula the Musical and Irving Berlin’s White Christmas. Those subsequent shows had short runs.

Off-Broadway has been far kinder offering Errico a chance to shine in productions of Finian’s Rainbow, On a Clear Day You Can See Forever and Stephen Sondheim’s Passion.

You can experience how talented she is when she appears as Seth Rudetsky’s Concert guest in his online Concert Series. The live performance takes place on July 5th. There is a second streaming of the concert on July 6th. Tickets for each performance are $25.

Those are your Best Bets at Home: July 3rd – July 5th. But before we go, a couple reminders:

Metropolitan Opera offerings Friday – Sunday are Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Donizetti’s Don Pasquale and Rossini’s La Donna del Lago.

All Live with Carnegie Hall events-to-date are archived and available for viewing at any time. They include pianist Daniil Trifonov, opera singer Isabel Leonard, Yannick Nézet-Séguin discussing opera, Michael Feinstein celebrating composer Irving Berlin, opera singer Renée Fleming, violinist Joshua Bell and many more.

Stay safe. Stay sane. Be healthy. And enjoy your Bets Bets at Home: July 3rd – July 5th and your holiday weekend.

Photo: Lin-Manuel Miranda in a scene from the film of Hamilton (Photo courtesy of Disney Plus)

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My personal highlight of the week is the world premiere production of John Corigliano’s The Ghosts of Versailles from 1991. If you like classic opera, Mozart, Tchaikovsky and Handel are also on tap. If you missed the April 25th At-Home Gala, you’ll have the opportunity to see that on both Friday and Saturday.

All productions are scheduled to become available on the Met Opera website at 7:30 PM EDT/4:30 PM PDT and remain available until 6:30 PM EDT/3:30 PM PDT the next day. This means you still have part of Monday, June 8th, to watch Renée Fleming in the 2008 production of Massenet’s Thaïs.

Here’s the line-up for Week 13 at the Met:

Monday, June 8 – Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito

Conducted by Harry Bicket; starring Lucy Crowe, Barbara Frittoli, Elīna Garanča, Kate Lindsey and Giuseppe Filianoti. This is a revival of the 1984 Jean-Pierre Ponnelle production from the 2012-2013 season.

La Clemenza di Tito (“The Clemency of Titus”) has a libretto by Caterino Mazzolà who altered Pietro Metastasio’s libretto which had been used by other composers before Mozart turned his attention to this story. The world premiere took place in Prague in 1791.

Roman Emperor Tito (Filianoti) has his eyes set on his friend Sesto’s sister, Sevilla (Crowe). Sesto (Garanča) is in love with Vitellia (Frittoli). She wants to be married to Tito, but he is not interested in her and she recruits Sesto to assassinate the Emperor in exchange for her love. Intrigue, betrayal and mercy are in store for all involved.

La Clemenza di Tito is not considered to be amongst Mozart’s finest works. When this production opened in 2012, New York Times writer Zachary Woolfe made an argument for greater consideration of the opera. You can read his essay here.

Tuesday, June 9 – Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta and Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle

Conducted by Valery Gergiev; starring Anna Netrebko and Piotr Beczała in Iolanta, and Nadja Michael and Mikhail Petrenko in Bluebeard’s Castle. This Mariusz Trelinsk production is from the 2014-2015 season.

Iolanta was the last opera composed by Tchaikovsky. It featured a libretto by his brother Modesto and is based on a Danish play. The opera had its world premiere in 1892 in Saint Petersburg. It was on a program that also included The Nutcracker.

Set in France in the 15th century, Iolanta tells the story of the title character (Netrebko) who is blind, but doesn’t know she is blind. Her father, King Rene (Ilya Bannik), brings a doctor who believe he can cure her blindness, but only if she is made aware of it. The King refuses to take that chance. However, when a Count (Beczala) visits and falls in love with Iolanta, he reveals her condition to her. Furious the King vows to execute the Count. What will Iolanta do? What can she do?

This marked the first time Iolanta was performed at the Metropolitan Opera. The second half of the program was Bartok’s Bluebeard’s Castle.

The Hungarian composer wrote the opera in 1911 and made modifications in 1912 and 1917 before its world premiere in Budapest in 1918. The libretto was written by Béla Balázs based on a French folktale written by Charles Perrault.

Bluebeard’s Castle tells the story of Bluebeard (Petrenko) who arrives at his castle with Judith (Michael) who insists on their being more light in the castle. Bluebeard initially resists, but relents and one-by-one seven doors are opened throughout the castle. What Judith finds as each room gets opened leads to a startling conclusion for the unsuspecting woman.

These two operas are not commonly performed on the same program. Director Trelinsk explained his reasoning to the New York Times in an interview prior to opening night of his productions.

“Judith continues the story of Iolanta. We feel that the happy ending is not an end at all — that often, our addictions are stronger than us. There’s the classic repetition compulsion, where many years later you realize you have to leave normal life in order to relive your childhood trauma.”

Wednesday, June 10 – Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel

Conducted by Vladimir Jurowski; starring Christine Schäfer, Alice Coote, Rosalind Plowright, Philip Langridge and Alan Held. This Richard Jones production is from the 2007-2008 season.

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

This production was created for the Welsh National Opera and the Lyric Opera of Chicago. The Metropolitan Opera offered this production as part of its family fare programming. Nothing like cannibalism to keep the kiddies happy!

Thursday, June 11 – Corigliano’s The Ghosts of Versailles

Conducted by James Levine; starring Håkan Hagegård, Teresa Stratas, Renée Fleming, Gino Quilico and Marilyn Horne. This Colin Graham production is from the 1991-1992 season.

The Metropolitan Opera commissioned this work for its 100th anniversary in 1983. It wasn’t performed there until eight years after that centennial. This film is from those performances.

Beaumarchais is the playwright who wrote the plays that inspired Rossini’s The Barber of Seville and Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro. His third play in that series, The Guilty Mother, serves as the inspiration for this opera by John Corigliano and librettist William M. Hoffman.

In the opera, ghosts occupy the theatre at Versailles. Marie Antoinette (Stratas), not too happy about her execution, spurns the advances of Beaumarchais (Hagegård). He offers his new opera, A Figaro for Antonia, as a means to win her love and change her fate. Now an opera appears within the opera, utilizing the familiar Figaro characters.

I interviewed Corigliano when LA Opera performed The Ghosts of Versailles. Here’s what he told me about how he handled opening night at the Met:

“The premiere of the opera, this is what I did. I sent out for a take-out chicken. I had a bottle of wine and ten milligrams of valium. I ate the chicken, took the valium and wine to the opening. If you’re asking about something that happened at opening night, I was a zombie. It was traumatizing. I’d never written an opera, it was overwhelming. I couldn’t face it without a little help.”

I haven’t seen this world premiere production and definitely look forward to it. The LA Opera production was amazing and I personally think Corigliano had nothing to worry about. This is a terrific work.

Friday, June 12 and Saturday, June 13 – At Home Gala

This on-line “gala” took place on April 25th of this year. Here is our preview for the event before it happened.

Simply put, nearly anyone who is anyone in the opera world performed from their homes in a live streaming event. It was an amazing show to watch and equally impressive was the Met Opera being able to coordinate live performances from all over the world.

Sunday, June 14 – Handel’s Rodelinda

Conducted by Harry Bicket; starring Renée Fleming, Stephanie Blythe, Andreas Scholl, Iestyn Davies, Joseph Kaiser and Shenyang. This revival of Stephen Wadsworth’s 2006 production is from the 2011-2012 season.

Handel’s opera had its world premiere in London in 1725. The libretto is by Nicola Francesco Haym who revised Antonio Salvi’s earlier libretto. Scholars have long considered Rodelinda to be amongst Handel’s finest works.

Queen Rodelinda’s (Fleming) husband has been vanquished and she is plotting her revenge. Multiple men have plans to take over the throne, but they have Rodelinda to contend with who is maneuvering herself to prevent that from happening. She is still faithful to her husband who is presumed dead.

Fleming appeared at the Met in this role in 2006 as well as this revival. Iestyn Davies, so memorable in last week’s The Exterminating Angel, made his Met debut in this opera in the role of Unolfo, a man who remains loyal to the King.

That’s all for Week 13 at the Met. Philip Glass fans have a lot to look forward to in Week 14.

Photo: The company of The Ghosts of Versailles/Courtesy of the Metropolitan Opera Archives

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During the 15-minute intermission you have to switch from being what is now a very sweaty swan into The Stranger. How would you describe your time making that transformation?

MW:  It’s a complete reset. We come in and we’re completely sweaty and exhausted. You have to shower and change costumes and make-up. It’s almost like a completely different show. You get half a second to sit down and resent. It’s quite a short amount of time. I have to get into stranger mode. Getting the costume on changes your demeanor.

WB: I like to sit in the wing and have a little stretch and think about The Stranger and think about how he’d be. The music always helps me get in the mindset. I have a moment and think about him and how he would shock people to show the big difference between the two.

What toll do these parts take on your body and how much longer do you want to continue to dance at this level of intensity?

MW: It can be really hard on your back and lot of the movement is heavy on the quads because it is contemporary and down in the floor. The sheer level of cardio you have to do is hard to maintain your fitness. The day after I’m pretty tired until we do another one. I’m not sure [how much longer.] It depends what comes up. As I get older I learn more sports science and get better with food. I can keep going for another couple years.

WB:  I’d like to say that I could do it forever, but the body doesn’t tell me that. I take it day by day. Hopefully I have a good ten years in me, but you never know. The good thing is there are so many aspects of dance you can explore after your career is over.

These roles were made famous by Adam Cooper when the ballet first premiered. He’s also credited as a Principal Coach for this production. What influence did he have on your when you were coming of age as a dancer?

MW: I was always very aware of Adam because his career path has been the same as mine – from a classical company to musicals and now New Adventures (Matthew Bourne’s company). I was massively inspired by him and his versatility. His input on this role was hugely interesting. He came in and gave original intentions. Aside from that, he can still do it. 

WB: Massively. I saw it many years ago when I was a young boy. It was incredible to see all these men on stage and how powerful they can be. Especially Adam and his movement quality.  Having him there and having him go through the movement and explaining how and why we should do it just upped our game massively.

Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake originally debuted in 1995 and was considered shocking at the time. How has social perspective changed and how do you think Swan Lake is viewed now versus how it was back then?

MW: Interestingly I had a conversation with Matt about this. The audiences laugh at completely different places and a lot of what was shocking is not shocking anymore. There are still fundamental things that hit home which is what makes the production so good. The fact the animal is a man has provocative ideas behind it. It’s not the main point, but there is a connection between two men you are watching. Audiences are much more accepting of the concept and the idea.

WB:  It has changed massively. Everyone is a lot more accepting of things and sex and everything like that. Back in the day it was shocking to see two men dancing in such quarters. It wasn’t done. Now they find it amazing. Two big strong men lifting each other and dancing and celebrating. I think Matt changed all that.

Tchaikovsky, the composer who wrote the music for this ballet, one said, “To regret the past, to hope in the future and never to be satisfied with the present; that is what I spend my whole life doing.” Does that sum up the life of a dancer and how much does this represent how you look at your own life?

MW:  I try to adapt to the moments and the opportunities I have in front of me and stay positive and forward-thinking. I try to enjoy as much as I can. At the moment I’m really enjoying the show I’m in and being here and everything that’s happening.

WB: I totally agree with that. You can’t regret the past because it is the past. I’ve never heard that before. It’s amazing. We strive for perfection as performers. When [your performance] is under, it bums you out, but then you come in the next day and get into the studio and hope it doesn’t happen again. 

Swan Lake continues at The Ahmanson Theatre through January 5th.

Main photo:  Max Westwell and James Lovell in Swan Lake (Photo by Craig Schwartz/All photos courtesy of Center Theatre Group)

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Simply put, Duke Ellington’s Nutcracker swings! Why wouldn’t it? Ellington and Strayhorn were behind some of the best jazz songs of all time. When they collaborated on this interpretation of Tchaikovsky’s ballet music, they gave new life to a piece of music we all know and love.

Certainly you know The Nutcracker. Whether from the ballet or its use in countless television commercials or the memorable way it was paired with animation in Fantasia.

This arrangement dates back to 1960. The original recording was made over 5 days in May and June of that year. Not only did they change the tempo and arrangements, they changed some of the titles as well: Overture, Toot Toot Tootie Toot (Dance of the Reed Pipes), Peanut Brittle Brigade (March), Sugar Rum Cherry (Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy), Entr’acte, Volga Vouty (Russian Dance), Chinoiserie (Chinese Dance), Danse of the Floreadores (Waltz of the Flowers) and Arabesque Cookie (Arabian Dance).

Given that this work doesn’t run that long, you can probably count on performances of classic Ellington tunes like It Don’t Mean a Thing If It Ain’t Got that Swing, Mood Indigo and  Take the A Train.

And even though this is called Duke Ellington’s Nutcracker, don’t forget how important Billy Strayhorn was for this and much of Ellington’s work.

For tickets go here.

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The performances actually begin with a work by Russian composer Rimsky-Korsakov. Dubinushka, a four-minute work written in 1905-1906 opens each concert. A dubinushka is a little oak stick used by workers both for their work and also as a weapon to defend  themselves against oppressive masters.

What follows is traditional, yet exciting. Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 is one of the most-performed of all piano concerti. That it is being performed here is the traditional component. The exciting component, and the reason why this concert stands out, is the soloist: Daniil Trifonov.

Trifonov is one of the most exciting pianists in classical music. He performs a diverse amount of material and is universally praised for his insightful and thoughtful performances.

As a side note, Trifonov will be performing an all-Bach program at Campbell Hall in Santa Barbara on February 7th. Two days later he’ll perform the same program at the Soka Performing Arts Center.

Closing out the LA Phil concerts is Aaron Copland’s Symphony No. 3. MTT has long been a fierce advocate of Copland’s work and has recorded much of it. This was Copland’s last symphony and it is his longest orchestral work. The composer began work on the symphony in 1944 and had its premiere in 1946.

Those dates are significant as it means Copland was writing this in the final year of World War II. Symphony No. 3 uses Fanfare for the Common Man as an inspiration for the final movement. He did not re-use that work in the symphony. Rather its theme is developed in different ways that lead to the climax of the symphony.

Leonard Bernstein said of this work, “The symphony has become an American monument, like the Washington Monument or the Lincoln Memorial”.

For tickets on Thursday go here.

For tickets on Friday go here.

For tickets on Saturday go here.

For tickets on Sunday go here.

Photo of Daniil Trifonov courtesy of DaniilTrifonov.com

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Changing the gender of the swans added a layer of repressed homosexuality that, no doubt, mirrored that of the ballet’s composer, Tchaikovsky. Critics were divided on whether or not the Oedipal longing the Prince character had for his mother, which, when unfulfilled found him running to The Swan, was more of a 1950s view of homosexuality. Perhaps the 21st century updating will address those concerns.

Nonetheless, audiences were swept up in the inventiveness of this Swan Lake. As did Tony voters who awarded the production three Tony Awards for Best Costume Design, Best Choreography and Best Direction of a Musical in 1999.

Casting for this production is as follows:

The role of ‘The Swan’ is performed by Will Bozier and Max Westwell.

‘ThePrince’ is performed by James Lovell and Andrew Monaghan

‘The Queen’ is performed by Nicole Kabera and Katrina Lyndon.

‘The Girlfriend’ is also performed by Katrina Lyndon. She is joined by Freya Field and Carrie Willis.

The production will run at the Ahmanson through January 5th.

For tickets go here.

Photo:  Will Bozier and company in Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake (Photo by Johan Persson/Courtesy of Center Theatre Group)

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Los Angeles Ballet will be performing at the Alex Theatre in Glendale, Royce Hall at UCLA, the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood (with the Los Angeles Ballet Orchestra) and the Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center.

This production of the holiday classic was choreographed by Thordal Christensen & Colleen Neary and is set in Los Angeles in 1912. The music is, of course, the Tchaikovsky music we’ve known and loved for years.

Christensen and Neary are the artistic directors of the Los Angeles Ballet. The company was founded in 2004 and gave its first performances in 2006 with this production of The Nutcracker.

LAB will be performing works by Ballanchine in February at The Broad Stage. This summer they will do a local tour with The Sleeping Beauty.

We’ve just survived Black Friday and are in the midst of Cyber Monday as I write this. But much like those popular shopping opportunities, it’s always best to shop locally. That’s why I’ve selected Los Angeles Ballet’s production of The Nutcracker.

Alex Theatre performances are on December 7th and 8th. For tickets on the 7th go here. For tickets on the 8th go here.

Royce Hall performances run from December 13th through December 15th. For tickets go here.

Dolby Theatre performances run from December 20th  through December 24th. For tickets go here.

Redondo Performing Arts Center performances run December 28th and 29th. For tickets for the matinee on the 28th go here. For tickets for the evening performance on the 28th go here. For tickets on the 29th go here.

Photo of the Los Angeles Ballet ensemble performing The Nutcracker by Reed Hutchinson/Courtesy of Los Angeles Ballet

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Bell is currently on a four-stop California tour with Italian pianist Alessio Bax. They begin their performances Wednesday night at Walt Disney Concert Hall before moving on to performances in Palo Alto, Davis and Oxnard.

On the cusp of turning 52 in December (and still holding to the fact he’s 51 for now), Bell is touring, he is the Music Director of the Academy of St. Martins in the Fields and he is also a father of three boys. This seemed like a perfect time to look back on his childhood, how someone like 18-year-old violinist Daniel Lozakovich can navigate similar territory as Bell did and when, if ever, Bell can have done it all.

You said in an interview on Violin Channel that if you could go back in time you would have practiced harder during your teenage years.

How challenging was it for you to balance being a teenager with being a musician?

I had a slightly unusual sort of teenager years. From the age of 12 I started getting really into music and studying at university. All of my closest friends were much older than I was. I went through the motions in high school, but I wasn’t really well understood there.

I can’t say I had a normal upbringing. I graduated high school at 16 and moved out of the house. I was young to be living on my own at 16, but I was close to my family – just ten minutes away – and  I could bring laundry over.

As far as balancing things, I was into tennis and basketball. I  was totally addicted to video games. I did waste a lot of hours when I was 13-16. My mother would drop me off at music school and I would sneak  out the back and go to the video arcade. I had my name on a lot of the games with the high score. I was a perfectionist and always wanted to do better. I did a lot of fun activities. Maybe that’s why I still love what I’m doing and I never got burned out and had that big crisis that others had.

I recently saw Daniel Lozakovich play with the LA Philharmonic the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto. He earned so much applause at the end of the first movement…

If there is no applause after the 1st movement, there’s a problem. The first movement is an entity in itself. It ends so bombastically it seems ridiculous not to clap.

…Esa-Pekka Salonen was conducting and had to tell the audience there was more to come. But what I’m wondering is how do you handle that kind of attention and not let it overcome you, particularly now in the social media age?

If you are really sensitive, and we all are as musicians because you are baring your soul on stage – or at least you should be. Today people are brutal and cruel online. They hide behind their computers. It’s really a phenomenon that is so destructive. For me it is difficult. I try to avoid looking at social media places where people can be mean.

For a young person it might be more difficult. But you have to have good influences around you that balance the right amount of praise with the right amount of constructive criticism. 

When did you as a performer realize you had moved from knowing how to play a piece to knowing why you were playing a piece? In other words, where your level of maturity caught up to the work of the composer?

There’s no beginning or end to that. It’s a constant process. There’s never knowing a piece. Maybe because of my teachers, particularly Josef Gingold, it was never just about playing the piece, it was always about getting to the emotional content of the piece. It’s always cute when I talk to very young kids and I say, “Have you done the Bruch concerto?” And they respond, “Oh I’ve done that.” As if they’ve learned it, but they haven’t quite understood that this is an ongoing process. It’s a constant evolution about how you think about a piece. That’s why we play classical music, because it presents endless challenges. It’s never boring. You can always find new ways and it strikes you in different ways each time.

You’ve spent time lately playing more chamber music as you will this week with Alessio Bax. How do these concerts challenge you in ways being a soloist with an orchestra does not?

Going in and playing Mendelssohn is enjoyable, but you are there for 30 minutes and you leave. You usually have one or two rehearsals with the orchestra, but it doesn’t allow for the level of depth of rehearsal that chamber music does. I love that I can work hour and hours exploring the music and going on a tour and performing night after night. Each time we work to see what we can improve.

Violinist Jascha Heifetz said, “There is no top. There are always further heights to reach.” What further heights do you want to reach?

Of course he’s right. I’ve never heard that quote from him. If there was a top, he was pretty close. For me it is just as personal.  For me it is expanding my repertoire. I would like to get into doing more composing. I write all my own cadenzas for the major violin concertos and I’ve been doing arrangements.  I’m kind of a wannabe composer and that’s what I want to explore in the next decades. Life is a little bit too short or a lot too short that we can’t do all the things we want. That’s something, as I am getting older, I’m more aware of than when I was younger. I won’t  get to do everything I want to do.

Main photo of Joshua Bell by David Bazemore

All photos courtesy of Joshua Bell

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Founded in 1740, The Mariinsky Ballet was previously known as The Kirov Ballet – its former Soviet name.

Jewels is considered one of the first abstract ballets. There are three acts each named for a precious stone:  Emeralds, Rubies and Diamonds. The music used for each act, which will be performed live by the Mariinsky Orchestra, comes from composers Gabriel Fauré, Igor Stravinsky and Peter Tchaikovsky.

For Emeralds Ballanchine chose music from Fauré’s Pelléas et Mélissande and Shylock. For Rubies he used Stravinsky’s Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra. For Diamonds he used music from Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 3 in D Major.

In 2016, Alistair Macaulay wrote in The New York Times about Jewels: “It remains a perfect introduction to ballet: Few full-length story ballets are as satisfying as this storyless one…”

Here is the line-up for the five performances:

October 24th:

Emeralds: Daria Ionova, Maxime Zyuzin

Rubies: Renata Shakirova, Kimin Kim, Ekaterina Chebykina

Diamonds: Alina Somova Vladimir Shklyarov

October 25th:

Emeralds: Maria Shirinkina, Konstantin Zverev

Rubies: Nadezhda Batoeva, Philipp Stepin, Maria Bulanova

Diamonds: Ekaterina Kondaurova, Andrei Yermakov

October 26th matinee:

Emeralds: Daria Ionova, Maxime Zyuzin

Rubies: Renata Shakirova, Kimin Kim, Ekaterina Chebykina

Diamonds: Maria Khoreva, Timur Askerov

October 26th evening:

Emeralds: Maria Shirinkina, Konstantin Zverev

Rubies: Nadezhda Batoeva, Philipp Stepin, Maria Bulanova

Diamonds: Ekaterina Kondaurova, Andrei Yermakov

October 27th:

Emeralds: Daria Ionova, Maxime Zyuzin

Rubies: Renata Shakirova, Kimin Kim, Ekaterina Chebykina

Diamonds: Maria Khoreva, Timur Askerov

For tickets go here.

Photo:  Nadezhda Batoeva & Kimin Kim in Rubies/ Photo by Natasha Razina © State Academic Mariinsky Theatre

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