Schaal is directing Highway 1, USA by William Grant Still for LA Opera. It is on a program of two one-act operas (the other being Zemlinsky’s The Dwarf). Opening night is Saturday, February 24th at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. It will be performed through March 17th.

The opera tells the story of Bob (Norman Garrett) and Mary (Nicole Heaston). They have gone to incredible lengths to support Bob’s brother Nate (Chaz’men Williams-Ali). They hope that once he has finished his education he will move on with his life. Though Mary dislikes Nate, Bob is honoring a commitment he made to his mother on her deathbed. Nate doesn’t move on and complications ensue.

It is with the Pulitzer Prize-winning opera Omar that many audiences became familiar with Shaal. Her direction of that opera, coupled with the music and libretto by Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels, catapulted the opera into the modern day repertoire.

Just before traveling to Los Angeles to commence rehearsals, I spoke with Schaal about Still’s opera and his optimistic view of the future; the question she’d most like to ask Still if given the chance and the importance of having stories from “people who have built worlds even when the world was against them.”

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

Q: This work premiered in 1963, but remained relatively unperformed until Opera Theatre of Saint Louis did it in 2021. What do you think the two plus generations of opera goers who didn’t get a chance to see this opera missed out on?

I think we missed out on maintaining American lineage. I think this is an incredible work. Of course, Still’s symphonic works were celebrated. His operatic works weren’t as widely received. So I think we missed out not only on this piece, but on Still’s oeuvre, all of his operatic works. The idea that this was birthed in the 40s and then didn’t get its production until the 60s. So it really is, as you said, multiple generations who’ve lost this music. 

We probably don’t have to go too far out on a limb to speculate why, in 2021, an opera company decided to give new life to this opera. But I assume you can’t do it just because of socio-political issues. You have to do it because there’s something in it that warrants it as well. What do you think is at the core of this opera and the way William Grant Still tells this story that warrants continued interest in it?

I think like with so much of Still’s music, there’s really a sense that he is building a world. This music is him dreaming into existence the future. And quite frankly,the future of all of these works being in the world as well. He started writing it in a backdrop of war. That’s this moment. That’s the birth of American sitcom, which I very much think of as an American dreaming container – this home of our aspirational class stories.

The operatic canon also has lots of station in life tensions and class struggle as well. So I think these ideas sit well in this form. But I think touching this music now is an opportunity to also be in our own moment of a backdrop of war. Spending time with this music you can think about the kind of facade of the 50s, the kind of disjointedness of that world. What does it look like to hold the disjointedness of our world now? What are the ways that we resolve these fractures? I think this opera holds all of that.

It’s also a classic story about family dynamics. Particularly as it relates to Nate and his role in the story. The noise that surrounds family dynamics may change over decades, but the core of what family dynamics are really remain the same, don’t they?

One of the delights I have in this music is that I think there’s a dissonance between the words we receive on the page in the libretto and what we hear; the harmonic complexity of Nate’s music, the sweeping kind of mythological landscape that his music invokes. I think there’s a way to think about this character and think about all of these characters beyond a kind of moralism. The libretto, in some ways, is very straightforward. You could feel it like a morality play. You could feel it like a tight sitcom inside of a small apartment. But musically, there’s a complexity to all of the thought. I am very interested in what happens when we strip away the kind of moralistic lens and invite ourselves to really sit in the in the complexity of how we receive these characters in the music.

The opera runs an hour. There are two scenes in it. There’s not a lot of time for enormous exposition about backstory and the way the opera is constructed. Is a backstory important for you in approaching this particular story and the way you want to present it? 

In terms of backstory, I think that depends on the singers, and I cannot wait to be in the rehearsal room with them and to be building the frameworks that they need to hold the music and hold the story. But from my position, holding the stage, the frame for this investigation and this kind of moving beyond the moralism is Mary’s first music when she sings about the fox and the hair. Of course, she’s drawing on br’er rabbit and br’er fox, these African-American folklore kind of traditions of tricksters. These are stories that came across from Africa into America. So I’m very interested in that trickster lineage that this opera starts with. We actually do have a manifestation of the fox and hare on stage to keep reminding us of these other forces that are at play as we receive the story.

I read an interview that you did around the time of Omar where you talked about how great opera operates in many different languages and that it was your role to build a library through which a story will be told. What’s the library that Highway 1, USA requires from you?

So many. One of the conversations that I had early on with the production designer, Christopher Myers, was really thinking about this dark underbelly of these times that get presented so often in that plastic forward facing 50s container. So much was going on globally. We’ve been looking at various artists who think about disjointedness and rupture and wholeness in different ways. One of them is James Rosenquist and another is Alma Thomas. Very different ways of dealing with rupture and joint. But those are two artists who’ve been important to me in how do we explode this apartment and begin in the rupture and begin in the mythological landscape of these ideas.

I do not come to the opera for a kitchen sink with running water. I come for myth and violence and holiness and contradiction. So I wanted our stage to be able to hold and begin in that vastness and in the disjointed world before we find ourselves in the intimacy and in the healing and union of Mary and Bob.

William Grant Still did not put any specific mention of race into this work. In fact, Christian Mark Gibbs, who sang Nate at St. Louis, said Still wanted it to be done by various cultural groups. Do you share that opinion of Still’s intention for this work?

I hear him trying to dream this world. I think it’s a challenging dream. An un-raced fantasy is a challenging fantasy. It is as problematic as it is glorious. That is what I hear in the music. And I think he meant it. There’s lots of speculation. Was he saying that in order to protect the legacy of the work and pray that it would get produced, or was he saying it because he was dreaming this future? I would argue he was dreaming this future. This complex, magnificent and also a little problematic future of this un-raced possibility.

Do you feel like this is progress of performing works by Black composers, whether in the concert or the opera house, is going to be sustainable, or do you have fear that this is a response to a moment in time? 

I don’t know any way through this moment that is separated from the global processing of war that’s happening. That’s separated from the election year terror that we have nationally, or that’s separated from the immediate and existential crisis of a warming planet. I think through all of that we rely on our dreamers and the people who have built worlds when the world was against them. And who have left us these seeds and these scaffoldings. I think we need artists who are very skilled in that way. Often those are artists who’ve been excluded from the conversation.

Are there are there differences for you between lesser-known works and even world premieres that people have no awareness of whatsoever? 

Well we don’t get to hang out. It was nice to hang out with Michael and Rhiannon. As we got to work, there’s a richness to that. But I think in terms of the task as a director of holding all of the artists who hold this music and the, what shall we call it, the weight of the task, I think incomparable, but also of the same magnitude.

Since you could hang out with Rhiannon and Michael, if you could hang out with William Grant still, what would you most want to ask him about this opera? 

I would want to talk to him about the dream. I would want to talk to him about that fantasy that he is writing into that music of where we could all head. And I did do one thing he asked me not to do, which was put the gas station on stage. But I have done that because we need the mythological landscape of these ideas, and because I believe in my heart of hearts that he put that there because he didn’t want misery porn. He wanted the dignity and the beauty and the tenderness and the care and the exquisite attention to home craft in that apartment. So I would also just want to run that by him and give him my pitch for why it was important.

I read a conversation that you did with Alicia Hall Moran and two others with Kimberly Drew. You said in that conversation, “I am looking for an opera that tells glorious and horrific stories with grace, violence and beauty.” Moving forward, what are the stories you think that need to be told now and in the near future, whether they’re set in present day or not? 

So many things. I am interested in how we’re all processing war right now. I’ve been in the early phases of working on a piece that takes a text from Ocean Vuong, the mighty poet who thinks so beautifully about processing war. I’m curious about the parade of women, the kind of orgy of women dying of consumption in the canon and the hysteria of it all. So I’ve got some irons in the fire there. And then most of all, I’m always interested in the stories that talk about what happens in the in-between spaces, in the shadows we all cast on one another. I think the opera is the best place for asking all those questions. 

I’m hoping somebody does an opera about Flint, MI. That has everything in it. The fact that it’s still being neglected at this point…that is not the country I grew up in. It just continues, doesn’t it?

For the kind of violence and horror of of everyday life, the form has to be this big. It actually has to be this big. 

To watch the full interview with Kaneza Schaal, please go here.

Main Photo: Kaneza Schaal (Courtesy LA Opera)

The post Kaneza Schaal Takes a Trip Down Highway 1, USA appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

“Shall We Gather is like my other child. I’m about to give birth on September twenty fourth and if…” and before pianist Irina Meachem could finish her sentence, her husband, opera star Lucas Meachem added, “it doesn’t happen, we will induce.”

They are talking about their new Rubicon Classics album of American art songs that features Irina on piano and Lucas on vocals being released on Friday. It’s the perfect example of a passion project for the two who have been married since 2016.

After Lucas made his joke, Irina continued when I spoke by Zoom with them last week.

“It’s just years of passion, or hard work and being told we shouldn’t do this and we can’t do it by people in the business. and I’m just so happy to show that we have done it.”

You may recall that I recently interviewed Lucas when he was appearing in the Santa Fe Opera production of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin. Irina works as an accompanist and also coaches opera singers. Since that interview was so recent, I want to give Irina the opportunity to do most of the talking in this interview. Though Lucas will have his say before we’re done.

Shall We Gather features songs by Aaron Copland, Stephen Foster, Ricky Ian Gordon, Jake Heggie, Florence Price, William Grant Still, Kurt Weill and others. The Meachems uses these songs to explore all the different ways and reasons why we gather.

Irina told me why they wanted to do this project.

“Many years ago we wanted to create something that would be very demonstrative of Lucas and his musicianship and his singing. And we went down the usual route, which is all of the famous arias that he sings. And we were dead set on that for some time. Then we realized there is an opportunity to use the platform that Lucas has to really say something. At the time it was about just inspiring people to come together to find commonalities. And we wanted to challenge ourselves and find repertoire that could really have an impact on those who listen and inspire some positive change.”

It was a journey that ultimately ended up yielding not just an album, but their own foundation.

“We went through a journey of finding repertoire that has been historically overlooked and we found that there were so many challenges with it. It was it was not as easy as it was to find [Samuel] Barber’s Sure on This Shining Night. That’s everywhere and it’s been done so much. So we had to challenge ourselves. That’s what’s inspired us to create Perfect Day Music Foundation. It invites other musicians to go across the same journey that we took the to expose ourselves to new, overlooked and neglected repertoire that deserves to be at the forefront of the standard American art song repertoire. I just I want them to have experience what we have. There’s a lot out there. This album is not a consummate collection. This is just the beginning. This is just our own journey with it.”

Any journey they undertook for Shall We Gather meant they had to have a common definition of what an American art song is. Irina was very precise in describing what they were looking for.

“I think what makes an America art song unique is that are the differences; there’s so much variety. You have the older pieces and the Appalachian songs. We have the Aaron Copland and Stephen Foster. But then you also have blues influence, you have jazz, you have these amazing rhythmic freedom of expression. You have this openness to just possibility.

“And there are certain struggles that we all can come together with. For instance, the song that was released as our first single, That Moment On from Pieces of 9/11 by Jake Heggie. That was something uniquely American. Yet I just saw someone comment on one of Lucas’s posts saying it was not just America, the whole world was impacted by it. So there is this influence that America has on the rest of the world. But it is a place of hope. It is a place of rebellion. It is it is a unique place. And that’s what we tried to find.”

Lucas told WQXR radio that he had to find his husband hat and his singer hat when working with Irina and that the challenge is to find the right balance. Does Irina believe that there is one form of balance for the two when they work together or if it changes project-by-project?

“The first year or two of us collaborating together we had to learn what that balance was. And now it’s the same for every project where where the husband hat doesn’t come off for him. We just are so close. Sometimes in a relationship where you really trust somebody you’re not fully acknowledging the other person for what they have to offer. I feel like we are very respectful of our differences. But when it came to communicating, something as simple as that is just as important as the ideas themselves.”

As in relationships, sometimes the most powerful thing in music is silence. Both Irina and Lucas agree that it is arguably one of the most important parts of their lives.

Irina began by saying, “It speaks louder than the applause itself. There is anticipation, there’s numbness when you’re taking in what that sound really was beforehand.”

Lucas added, ” It also shows a collective agreement with the audience that this is a special moment. When you hear it it’s almost like it’s not even that no one’s speaking, it’s that no one’s breathing and you can feel that. It happens rarely in performances because sometimes you get the crinkle of the wrapper or the cough or anything. But when it does, it’s palpable for me as a performer. And it’s like the audience and I are sharing this moment together.”

In the end Shall We Gather doesn’t just represent what Lucas and Irina Meachem believe are the qualities that bring us together. It also celebrates the project that brought them together.

“This is a duet album and Lucas was so thoughtful to to have included me in such a big part because it is it is equal parts,” Irina says. “A singer goes through so much; they have such a big job to do. And I respect what they go through. I can’t do it. Yet there are things that the pianist does which is equally impressive and important for me.

“I feel like I live a very privileged life because all of the work that I’ve put into creating my art, to creating a strong relationship with my spouse and to creating a safe space for my son. That has actually ended well. The most fulfilling part is doing it with Lucas who is a really exceptional singer. And the art, I think, really reflects that.”

Lucas and Irina Meachem’s Shall We Gather will be available on Friday, September 24th.

All photos by Nate Ryan/Courtesy Rubicon Classics

The post Irina Meachem Celebrates The Ways We Come Together 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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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)

The post LA Opera’s Signature Recital Series Has Begun appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

There are nine episodes of Sound/Stage and the programming begins on Friday, September 25th. These performances will be available on the LA Phil’s website, so anyone, anywhere in the world, can watch. All performances were filmed with full social distancing guidelines.

Update: All episodes will remain available for one year from the original streaming date.

No matter how much we felt the distinct absence of not having Hollywood Bowl concerts to enliven our summers, the players of the Los Angeles Philharmonic certainly felt that even more profoundly. For these concerts the Bowl itself was empty, but at least it was filled with the sound of this wonderful music.

Programs will remain available as new episodes go online. There’s a diverse and exciting line-up. Here it is:

September 25th: Love in the Time of Covid

Performers: Los Angeles Philharmonic; Gustavo Dudamel, conductor; María Valverde, narrator; J’Nai Bridges, mezzo-soprano

Program: Peter Lieberson: Neruda Songs: “Amor mio, si muero y tú no mueras”; George Walker: Lyric for Strings and Gustav Mahler: Adagietto from Symphony No. 5

This episode will also include an interview with J’Nai Bridges and an exclusive performance from The Ford.

Note: Peter Lieberson wrote the five-song cycle Neruda Songs based on the poetry of Chilean poet Pablo Neruda. The work was composed for his wife, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson. She passed away in 2006 – only a year after the work was given its world premiere in a concert by the LA Phil conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen. Neruda Songs was a co-commission between the LA Phil and the Boston Symphony. The composer passed away in 2011.

October 2nd: Salón Los Ángeles

Performers: Los Angeles Philharomonic; Gustavo Dudamel, conductor; Jean-Yves Thibaudet, piano

Program: Arturo Márquez: Danzón; George Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue

This episode includes an interview with Arturo Márquez, a performance by Grandeza Mexican Folk Ballet Company, Mexican boleros and an online photo exhibit by Alicia Ruiz.

Note: Pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet is a regular performer with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He appears at both Walt Disney Concert and is a regular part of the Hollywood Bowl season. He had been scheduled to appear at the Bowl with the LA Phil on July 28th in a performance of Franz Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 2. Last October I spoke with Thibaudet about his then 44-year relationship with Gershwin’s music. You can read that interview here.

October 9th: Power to the People!

Performers: Los Angeles Philharmonic; Gustavo Dudamel, conductor; Andra Day, vocalist

Program: Jessie Montgomery: Banner; William Grant Still: Sorrow from Symphony No. 1, “Afro-American”; Andra Day: Rise Up from her 2015 album Cheers to the Fall

This episode includes an interview with Jessie Montgomery, J’Nai Bridges performing Florence Price songs and a performance from the La Reina digital festival at The Ford.

Note: Power to the People! was planned as a major part of the spring programming at the LA Phil earlier this year. That festival was truncated by the pandemic.

William Grant Still was an American composer. His best known work is the symphony being performed in this episode. In 1936 he conducted his own works at the Hollywood Bowl. His opera, Troubled Island, was the first American opera performed at the Metropolitan Opera. Those performances also marked the first time an opera by an African-American composer was performed by a major company.

October 16th: Andra Day

Performer: Andra Day

Day is front and center in this program that features both performances and an interview with the Grammy Award-nominated singer/songwriter. Amongst the songs on this program are her hit Gold (also from Cheers to the Fall) and the classic Nina Simone song, Mississippi Goddamn.

Note: Andra Day is starring as legendary singer Billie Holiday in the upcoming film The United States vs. Billie Holiday. Directed by Lee Daniels (Precious, The Paperboy, Lee Daniels’ The Butler), the film is scheduled for release in early 2021.

October 23rd: Beethoven

Performers: Los Angeles Philharmonic; Gustavo Dudamel, conductor

Program: Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 7

Note: Beethoven’s 7th symphony had its world premiere in 1813 in Vienna. The work doesn’t require a very large orchestra (making it perfect for this series). It is scored for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani and strings. The first Los Angeles Philharmonic performance of this symphony was on April 1, 1921.

October 30th: Kamasi Washington: Becoming

Performer: Kamasi Washington

Program: Saxophonist Kamasi Washington performs music from the documentary Becoming and also appears in interviews

Note: On May 6th of this year Netflix began streaming Nadia Hallgren’s documentary Becoming. The film follows former first lady Michelle Obama on the book tour for her memoir of the same name.

The recording of Washington’s score features 15 tracks running approximately 30 minutes.

November 6th: Solitude

Performers: Los Angeles Philharmonic; Gustavo Dudamel, conductor

Program: Thomas Adés: Dawn (US Premiere); Duke Ellington: Solitude

This episode will also include a performance by Jean-Yves Thibaudet of Erik Satie’s Gymnopedie No. 1 plus an interview with jazz legend Herbie Hancock and more.

Note: Adés’s Dawn was given its world premiere by the London Symphony Orchestra with Simon Rattle conducting in August. The composer is quoted on Faber Music’s website as saying about the work, “In this piece the sunrise is imagined as a constant event that moves continuously around the world. This eternal dawn is presented as a ‘chacony’ – in the word that Purcell used some 330 years ago, a mile or two away.”

Faber Music also states that this seven-minute work was designed to be performed by varying sizes of orchestras positioned any desired way around the performance space. Making it perfect for 2020.

November 13th: Chicano Batman

Performers: Chicano Batman

Note: Los Angeles-based band Chicano Batman released their self-titled first album in 2010. They followed that up with 2014’s Cycle of Existential Rhyme, 2017’s Freedom Is Free and this year’s Invisible People. The members of the band are Eduardo Arenas, Carlos Arévalo, Bardo Martinez and Gabriel Villa.

Bardo Martinez, in an interview with Lanre Bakare of The Guardian, said of their music, “We’re trying to bring something that’s from our heritage. Everyone knows that black people have the funk and soul, but we’ve got that too. In the 70s in Latin America people were getting funky and getting down. We’re showing people that that exists.”

November 20th: Finales

Performers: Los Angeles Philahrmonic; Gustavo Dudamel, conductor

Program: Ludwig van Beethoven: Finale from Symphony No. 7; Gabriela Ortiz: Corpórea: “Ritual Mind – Corporeous Pulse”; Maurice Ravel: The Fairy Garden from Mother Goose

This episode will include an interview with Gabriela Ortiz, a conversation with filmmaker Alejandro G. Iñarritu (The Revenant; Birdman) and more.

Note: This is not the first time Gabriela Ortiz’s music has been paired by the Los Angeles Philharmonic with a work by Beethoven. In October 2019 the orchestra gave the world premiere of Yanga with Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. I spoke with her about that work and sharing the stage with not just one of the most-beloved composers in the world, but with his masterpiece. You can read that interview here.

It goes without saying that nothing takes the place of us all being in the same place with the musicians hearing this music live. With Sound/Stage at least we get to see the musicians together in the same venue creating new performances for us to watch safely at home.

Photo by Natalie Suarez for the Los Angeles Philharmonic/Courtesy of the Los Angeles Philharmonic

The post The LA Philharmonic’s Sound/Stage – UPDATED appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

“They are both very much a part of my musical DNA and influences,” he says. “I have to reconcile the fact that I need to find the way to combine the best of both worlds in my music. Both genres speak and resonate heavily with me.”

Diehl, who has a new trio album due out this fall and often plays with recent Grammy Award-winner Cécile McLorin Salvant, finds himself fronting the LA Philharmonic this weekend for performances of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue on Saturday and the composer’s Second Rhapsody on Sunday. This is part of the celebration of the music of William Grant Still and the Harlem Renaissance. Thomas Wilkins conducts both concerts.

When we discussed the upcoming concerts yesterday, it was just after a rehearsal with the LA Philharmonic. And it was clear the jazz/classical line was going to be straddled for these concerts.

“With the Rhapsody in Blue, I’m doing some improvisations in the cadenzas and that’s difficult,” he reveals. “It’s got to feel like it is a seamless part of the piece, but on the other hand it should have some feeling of improvisation and freedom in the phrasing and the content and the ideas. It’s really making sure there’s a nice balance between the improvised and the written material.”

From Diehl’s perspective at the piano, the greater challenge can be found in the Second Rhapsody.

“It was written for a film called Delicious in 1931 and it’s less of a piano concerto. Even though the piano is clearly out front, it’s really embedded in the ensemble. The challenge in playing that piece is really figuring out how to weave the material together as a soloist because there is a lot of back and forth between the ensemble and piano. The mystery lies in how to connect the dots of the piece and not just let it be a series of motifs.”

Walking the line between jazz and classical, music as written and improvised music, is something Diehl has given a lot of thought. He also thinks that maybe we’ve gotten a little too precious with classical music performances.

“Even though there is a lot of scholarship and practice, it’s my firm belief we don’t really know how Chopin or Liszt sounded. We don’t have recordings of classical music like we do jazz musicians like John Coltrane or Louis Armstrong. I’d be really interested to get a time machine to see how these guys and women performed their music. There’s a part of me that thinks it could be radically different than the way we interpret or perform today. I bet it was more raggedy, a lot more rawness. If Beethoven was improvising a cadenza it was, at times, a bit raw and edgy – certainly for the time.”

Since the concerts in which Diehl is appearing also include William Grant Still’s music, it was important for the pianist to discuss how amazing Still’s accomplishments were.

“You have to talk about race,” he says. “The fact that this is a man who was an African-American who made a career in classical music as a composer and conductor. That was quite a feat for the early 20th century. It’s quite a feat even now in classical music. He had a vision of wanting to incorporate the African-American folk tradition, meaning the blues specifically, and the syncopations of African-American folk music. This music was seen as either primitive or simply a novelty to be exploited. Just to see a man like him have even a modicum of success in getting major orchestras to play his pieces, that’s incredibly encouraging and inspiring.”

Diehl believes it is vitally important that we continue to acknowledge and support artists like Still and pianist Hazel Scott who received a shout-out from Alicia Keys during last weekend’s Grammy Awards.

“Wow, she could play. Play their music! The music just has to be heard. I’m a big advocate of John Lewis who was the music director of the Modern Jazz Quartet. Whenever I get the opportunity in concerts, I play his music. For artists with a platform it’s important to be rooting for those artists and composers who could be forgotten if people don’t play their music. Sometimes it takes larger institutions to really keep these people in the consciousness of the greater public.”

Or it might take an artist like Cécile McLoran Salvant who brilliantly bridges the past while moving jazz vocals forward. Diehl is regularly found on the piano for both her recordings and concerts.

“She’s a special artist because what she does that most people can’t do is make connections. And not just between Duke Ellington and say Herbie Hancock, but connections between art and human relations to that art and culture. She points things out – anything you can think about – she can make all kinds of associations. That’s so rare. That’s another level of artistry.”

Which takes us back to Gershwin. When asked if he agrees with the composer’s statement that “Life is a lot like jazz…it’s best when you improvise,” Diehl pauses for a moment before responding.

“Ah…maybe I should slightly alter that. Gershwin was a very YOLO type of guy. [You only live once] For me it’s life is a lot like jazz if you improvise and you also have a plan. If you have a generic structure of what you’re doing and then you can work within that framework. Even when I’m soloing, I’m not ‘off the cuff – I have no idea the next note that follows.’ A lot of time I’m thinking on a macro scale – how will this all fit together. It’s not random.”

No more than his playing classical and jazz music is.

Photos of Aaron Diehl by Jaime Kahn/Courtesy of the LA Philharmonic

Photo of George Gershwin by Alfredo Valente/Courtesy of the NY Public Library

The post Aaron Diehl Plays Rhapsodies in Deux appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

The first concert finds his Symphony Number 1 (“Afro-American”) on a program with Ellington’s Come Sunday from Black, Brown and Beige, George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, and Ellington’s Harlem. This first symphony had its premiere in 1931.

The second concert will feature his Symphony Number 4 (“Autochtonous”) sharing the program with Ellington’s Three Black Kings,  Gershwin’s Second Rhapsody and the world premiere of Still Holding On by Adolphous Hailstock. Still’s 4th symphony dates to 1947. Hailstock’s piece is written in celebration of Still.

Much like Gershwin, Still incorporated blues and jazz elements into his compositions. In 1936, Still conducted two of his works with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl. It marked the first time an African-American conductor lead a major orchestra in this country.

Leading the LA Philharmonic for these concerts is Thomas Wilkins. Aaron Diehl is the soloist for both of the Gershwin rhapsodies.

Photo of William Grant Still by Maud Cuney-Hare

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