New York Knights aka Beethovenhead?
Saturday, June 18, 7 pm
Trinity Church, Southport Summer Music Festival
When Trinity Church's choirs and soloists join the Knights Chamber Orchestra for a seemingly innocuous program of Bach, Handel, and Beethoven, the Knights hope to score a knockout with their first ever performance of Beethoven's famous Fifth Symphony at this concert. It may not be polite.
One thing's for sure: you can bet that lots of people are going to have it on YouTube and DVD, but only a few will be there in person (no matter what they later say).
This is all guesswork on my part, but on one count there's no denying that the Knights explode with the music's power because they tune themselves right through the notes into the composer's brain. In Ludwig's case it could come out as Beethovenhead.
Casanova, or The Giacomo Variations
A chamber opera play in two acts with John Malkovich and Ingeborda Dapkunaite.
Music passages from works by W. A. Mozart (1756-1791) and Lorenzo da Ponte (1749-1838). In E
Royal Opera production directed by Michael Sturminger. Vienna Academy Orchestra conducted by Martin Haselböck
Chateau de Versailles
July 3 through 5
"Four hours with intermission" says it all. Who but the French would embrace such a conceptual Baron Münchausen and display it on their grandest stage, the palace at Versailles. During an intoxicating summer of fireworks and classical music celebrating Venice, this mad fantasy will show that Mozart can stand up in every way, shape and form to Malkovich's swaggering, riveting, Venetian libertine.
They're calling it a semi-opera, but there's nothing semi-anything about the energy which flows from the intersection of Malkovich and Dapkunaite, with Mozart's music precisely where they as actors are most vulnerable to the music's power and charm. It's Sturminger's profound acknowledgment that Mozart's characters all first fall love with music, only then with each other and themselves.
Puccini's Turandot As It was Meant To be: At the Hollywood Bowl with Gustavo Dudamel and LA Phil
Sunday, July 17, 6:30 pm
Featuring LA Philharmonic, LA Master Chorale and The Dude
Cast led by Christine Brewer, Francesco Hong, Hei-Kyung Hong and Alexander Vinogradov
In Giacomo Puccini's fiercely misogynistic Turandot, grand opera's equivalent to the chariot race in Ben-Hur, love overcomes a vengeful ice queen, but not right away. It's all very preposterous, set in a playwright's fanciful (i.e., politically incorrect) China, but the music absolutely demands Pavarotti and Callas, along with extravagant production values and the biggest venues you can afford.
Like the Hollywood Bowl. And with Gustavo on the podium and LA Phil on stage, together to harmonize perfectly with the singers, the night is guaranteed to be spectacular.
