The world rarely arrives in sonata form… we could all use a good recap. New releases With Christmas listening and gift-giving so close at hand, this is the perfect time to pick up some new manifestations of holiday favorites. Don’t depend on radio and Spotify to fill your ears this season. Local entities have put … Read more
Blending voices, woodwinds and organ: few knew this Baroque texture like ol’ Johann Sebastian. This particular combo gets a hearing this Saturday evening, with a concert of Bach arias and duets featuring soprano Hannah Waldman, tenor Jeff Greif, oboist David Kossoff, bassoonist John Campbell and organist Stephen Karr. From the press release: Bach’s mastery of … Read more
Vocal focus from CCMN* Southern CA Vocal Events Lauri D. Goldenhersh’s Weekly Highlights This is that time of the year when the most touted carpets are red, narrow, and bedecked with well-dressed superstars. This Sunday, of course, is Oscar Sunday, an international holiday that tends to steal an incredible amount of focus in SoCal. So … Read more
Imagine Los Angeles in 1913: before World War I, before Hollywood, before downtown was really a thing. Pacific Opera Project has done it again, building something unique from the familiar, and giving Richard Strauss’ beloved opera-about-opera, Ariadne auf Naxos, a nostalgic turn in modernity by looking back to the show’s own time period… in California. Sung … Read more
by Carol Winston, guest reviewer Pacific Opera Project’s production of Mozart’s The Abduction From the Seraglio opened this week, and was performed at the historic El Portal Theater in North Hollywood to a sold-out audience on Saturday night. The 360-seat house was a terrific venue for the opera, the small Art Deco space creating an … Read more
By Bryan Dahl, Guest Reviewer Why do hipsters always burn their mouths when they eat? Because they have to chew their food before it’s cool…right? Before you go see Pacific Opera Project‘s (POP) production of La bohème, forget what you think you know about both hipsters and opera. Picture an intimate crowd of about two … Read more
The Chamber Opera Players of Los Angeles, founded by E. Scott Levin and Ariel Pisturino, specializes in presenting quirky chamber operas which can be performed in under an hour, using small casts and piano accompaniment in an intimate space. On November 7 and 8, they showcased two works: George N. Gianopoulos’s The Last Silent Voice – a world … Read more
Community review by Arthur Freeman Pacific Opera Project’s new production of Puccini’s Tosca, running through Sept 28 at St. James’ Church in Pasadena, is billed as “a moving production”, which is meant both literally and in terms of emotional impact. The production’s most unusual element involves the audience moving from location to location as the … Read more
Review by Coril Prochnow: As a revival of Cavalli’s La Calisto is being seen in Europe and the United States, Pacific Opera Project launched their own version of the complex and bawdy comedy in Highland Park during the merry month of May, executing what is quite possibly a premiere of the work in Southern California. The entertainment started as soon … Read more
Nowadays, the word “pop-up” probably doesn’t refer to things toasted. It can be a small shop opening suddenly to offer goods to the neighborhood for a short time. It might be a spectacular children’s book or a 3D work of art like you’ve never seen before. But in our neck of the woods, it may … Read more
