Opera Heaven

Matthew Erikson
| November 23, 2009 12:00 PM TrackBacks (0) Comments (0)
I'm too often baffled by friends and family who dismiss opera as an archaic art form, irrelevant to contemporary sensibilities or "real life."  Thus, opera companies' valiant attempts at community outreach - cheap student seats or the Metropolitan Opera's HD broadcasts in movie theaters - fall time and again on deaf ears.

That's everyone's loss.  Last weekend, it turns out, was a glorious time for opera in Los Angeles.  If opera neophytes had taken a chance either on USC's production of Benjamin Britten's "Albert Herring" or Handel's "Tamerlano," presented by LA Opera, nearly all, I think, would leave smiling.  (Fortunately, LA Opera's performances continue this week.)

tamerlano3.jpg
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Glum

Matthew Erikson
| November 13, 2009 4:05 PM TrackBacks (0) Comments (0)
I attended a suburban public high school.  And I sang in a glee club for two years.  So why is FOX's new program "Glee" so alien to me?

"Glee" has won critical praise and has topped the Billboard charts for musical tracks that have aired on the show.  Still, after watching one of the episodes, I don't buy it.  It seems too much of a retread of programs like "Beverly Hills 90210" and "Gossip Girl" that indulge some escapist fantasy to relive adolescence. 

In "Glee," teacher Will Schuester leads a ragtag group of geeks, jocks and cheerleaders in highly choreographed, mind-numbing arrangements of mostly 80s and 90s-era pop tunes.  That the characters are cardboard stereotypes is the lesser of "Glee"'s problems.  I mostly object to how it warps the noble idea of music education into some callow, commercialized kind of entertainment a la "American Idol."
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Death in L.A.

Matthew Erikson
| November 9, 2009 7:36 PM TrackBacks (0) Comments (0)
He's baaa-aaack!
 
It's been three weeks since the Los Angeles Philharmonic's new music director Gustavo Dudamel last waved his enchanted baton in Walt Disney Concert Hall.  Yet November promises to be a very busy month for the 28-year-old Venezuelan. Challenging programs of Berio and Berg, featuring soprano Dawn Upshaw and violinist Gil Shaham, are in the offing.  And this last weekend, Dudamel had a chance to put his stamp on one of the most towering works in the repertoire, Verdi's Requiem. 

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There was no memorial or announced dedication attached to this performance, although I'm sure that the murders at Fort Hood weighed on some minds.  (Given our grim 24-hour news cycle, it seems that there's always some prominent death or mass killing to connect with a Requiem concert.)  Composed shortly after Aida, Verdi's chilling vision of the apocalypse is one of the most operatic and, ultimately, humanistic versions.  Personally speaking, I'm more a fan of the otherworldly Requiem by Maurice Duruflé or Benjamin Britten's devastating War Requiem.  But what intense and transfixing power Verdi's vocal writing holds on listeners!  And Sunday afternoon, Dudamel's conducting, combined with the quality of the choral singing, was simply sensational.
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Trick or Treat?

Matthew Erikson
| November 1, 2009 3:24 PM TrackBacks (0) Comments (0)
I'm a fan of my neighborhood of West Hollywood.  Here was the scene on Halloween.
  


P.S.  I was a Mormon missionary.  ;-)

Making the new fresh

Matthew Erikson
| October 20, 2009 8:45 AM TrackBacks (0) Comments (0)
Contemporary classical music doesn't have to be forbidding.  Sure, it's not the kind of music that translates comfortably to your iPod earbuds.  But fortunately, there are some outstanding performers who, when experienced live, entice you into some of the thorniest compositions.  The instrumental sextet eighth blackbird and pianist Gloria Cheng are two of today's leading examples.
 
Both have recently won Grammy Awards and, as luck would have it, both performed recitals last week in L.A.  Eighth Blackbird was at USC as part of a short residency at the Thornton School, culminating in Friday evening's performance at Newman Recital Hall.  A USC alumna herself, Gloria Cheng played the first of this season's PianoSpheres concerts Tuesday night at downtown's Zipper Hall.
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More Dudamel!

Matthew Erikson
| October 11, 2009 10:29 PM TrackBacks (0) Comments (0)
Having been to three different L.A. Philharmonic concerts featuring new music director Gustavo Dudamel over the course of just a week, I feel like a groupie.  But honestly, I haven't experienced this kind of fervor or popular excitement over classical music since I was at the Proms in London a few summers back.  Simply put, the two programs at Walt Disney Concert Hall the past few days were exhilarating.


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Striking a chord

Matthew Erikson
| October 9, 2009 5:11 PM TrackBacks (0) Comments (0)
In 2007, Margo Drakos left a promising career as a cellist in the American String Quartet and Pittsburgh Symphony to start up the website InstantEncore. Billed as the "the world's leading resource for delivering and enjoying live classical music anywhere and anytime," InstantEncore.com can be used to keep up-to-date with artists, ensembles and concerts locally and nationally with the help of several online interactive tools. 

For its efforts, InstantEncore was highlighted as a showcase project at the National Summit on Arts Journalism held at the Annenberg Auditorium on Oct. 2. Organized by the USC Annenberg School for Communication and the National Arts Journalism Program, the inaugural event aimed to discuss the developments of journalism in an ever-changing world.

After the summit, I chatted with the down-to-earth Drakos, the website's official chief operating officer, to find out just how in tune InstantEncore is with the worlds of journalism and concert performance.  According to Drakos, the website not only provides resources to artists, orchestras and music festivals to connect with audiences beyond the concert hall.  It seeks to make a classical music performance a "living, breathing thing."

Your website InstantEncore has been called "the Google of Classical Music."  Is that an apt description?

I like that term - über-aggregator and publisher! I think that at the core we are a community that is trying to provide a valuable link, to allow people to find what they want. I think InstantEncore is one of the key channels for fans to follow things that they love - artists, conductors, whatever.  Not only that, it's a helpful way for musical organizations to upload content. 
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