Cry Me a River! Oldest Bust of Caesar found in the Rhone
I came. I saw. I was thrown overboard.
From today’s news:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article3932198.ece
read more“Declarations of Love in Music and Image”- The J. Paul Getty Museum and LA Opera
On May 3rd The J. Paul Getty Museum in conjunction with LA Opera, hosted a conference on the “Declarations of Love in Music and Image.” Speakers included: Michael Walsh, music critic for TIME magazine, Mitchell Morris, UCLA Musicology Professor, and Scott Allan, assistant curator in the Department of Paintings at the J. Paul Getty Museum. The conference concluded with a dynamic and moving performance by LA Opera. Soprano Tammy Jenkins, Tenor Robert MacNeil, and pianist Daniel Faltus performed selections from Puccini’s Tosca, Suor Angelica, and La Rondine.
Scott Allan illuminated the Getty exhibit on Fragonard’s “Allegories of Love”, a departure from the artist’s earlier, frothier Rococo style. Love becomes elevated from frivolous entanglements to a new state of spiritual ecstasy. The exhibit compared Fragonard’s Sacrifice of the Rose with Bernini’s Ecstasy of St. Theresa.
Allen also noted that in the Allegories, Fragonard’s palette becomes darker, more muted, invoking nocturnal mystery. For instance, in The Oath of Love, these darker shades contrast with the lovers who are symbolized by a radiant central energy.
Fragonard’s Kiss illustrates the power of love to vanquish even death. The sarcophagus breaks open and one can see the lovers embrace through the vapors as Love travels to the great beyond.
Fragonard’s The Kiss, 1785, Brown Ink over black chalk; The Albertina, Vienna
Professor Morris’ lively lecture on Puccini revealed that at the time of La Rondine, musicologist Fausto Torrefranca accused Puccini’s music of inciting criminal decadence. Cesare Lombrosio, an Italian Criminologist, believed in the degeneration social theory, whereby humans could “evolve” into a class of criminals. Torrefranca’s critical attacks suggested that Puccini’s opera could do the trick. Modern audiences, those of the Mozart for Babies age, may find it absurd to think that at one point in history, exposing children to opera was considered a recipe for Juvenile Delinquency. Perhaps Torrefranca’s misguided attacks can be best summarized by a Bon Jovi song: Shot through the Heart and Opera’s to Blame, Darling, you give Music a bad name.
On Torrefranca’s Most Wanted List
This Wednesday, a play that won’t break the Piggy Bank
Sometimes the best things in life are free!
For those who have a taste for the theater, but not always the ducats to attend, this Wednesday May 14th the Pasadena Playhouse is offering a “Pay What You Can” Performance Of John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men
Pasadena Playhouse Mainstage
Tickets offered on a pay-what-you-can basis to arts groups and community groups – call the box office at (626) 356-7529 for details.
Take advantage of this opportunity! Tickets for this production are normally at least $50.
read moreCultural Events this weekend in Los Angeles, May 10
Art: To see or not To See
1. Huntington Library
Chinese Gardens: Liu Fang Yuan, The Garden of Flowing Fragrance
A scholar’s retreat: step back in time where you can inhale the lotus, plum, and pine. Saturday and Sunday: 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. 1151 Oxford Road San Marino, CA, 91108. 626.405.2100
2. Theater: To Attend or Not to Attend
Of Mice, Men, and the American Dream: A Weeklong Celebration of Culture and Community May 12-17. Pasadena Playhouse. 39 South El Molino Avenue, Pasadena, CA, 91101. (626)356.7529 http://www.pasadenaplayhouse.org/of_mice&men.htm.
Highlights include: The performance of Mice and Men at the Pasadena Playhouse, photo exhibit: “In the Fields,” and lectures with historians, critics, and activists.
3. Music: To Hear or Not To Hear
Do not mourn Adonis- he is still alive!!
Check out Cuban sensation Adonis Puentes at:
The Latin Jazz Festival at the Greek Theater, May 10th. 7pm 2700 North Vermont, Griffith Park, CA, 90027
Hollywood Studio Bar & Grill, May 12th 8pm. 6122 Sunset Blvd. Hollywood, CA, 90028
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Cultural Events Los Angeles; This weekend in LA, May 2-4
This week’s cultural cocktail: A dose of book burning, a pick-me-up of Prokofiev, and a shot of Bette Davis’ eyes! Enjoy.
Film: To see or Not to see
Fasten Your Seat Belts: The Essential Bette Davis
LACMA 5905 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA, 90036. (323).857.6000
Friday May 2 7:30 P.M Jezebel; 9:30 P.M The Old Maid
Saturday May 3 7:30 P.M All About Eve; 9:30 P.M Of Human Bondage
For information about tickets, please visit:
http://www.lacma.org/programs/FilmListing.aspx#1206741726758
THEATER: TO SEE OR NOT TO SEE
Ray Bradbury’s Farenheit 451
Playing through June 18th.
Thur, Fri, Saturday: 8p.m.; Sunday 3p.m.
Fremont Center Theater; 1000 Fremont Avenue, South Pasadena, CA, 91030
A theater Mr. Bradbury supports. If you are lucky, you may even see him in the audience! For tickets call: (323) 960-4451 Online: www.plays411.com/raybradbury
MUSIC: TO HEAR OR NOT TO HEAR Sunday May 4, Royce Hall UCLA
American Youth Symphony. 7pm Concert; 5:30 Pre-Concert Lecture; Free Admission!
Alecander Treger, conductor; Natasha Paremski, piano; Liadov, Eight Russian Folk Songs; Rachmaninoff, Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Prokofiev, Symphony No. 5. For more information, visit: http://www.uclalive.org/event.asp?Event_ID=522
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To See Or Not to See This Weekend in LA, April 26
FILM: To see or not to see
La Fille du Régiment– Donizetti
Saturday, April 26, 2008
If you do not have the luck to be at the Metropolitan Opera, fear not.
The Met now screens operas live in HD in movie theaters across the world! To find out about tickets and show times at a theater near you visit
http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/broadcast/hd_events.aspx
Juan Diego Flórez’s high C’s have received A’s from critics and audiences alike. La Fille du Régiment is a co-production with the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London, and the Wiener Staatsoper, Vienna.
MUSIC: To Hear or not to Hear
Southwest Chamber Music at the Norton Simon Museum
8:00 p.m. Concert; 7:30 p.m. Prelude Talk
411 W. Colorado Boulevard, Pasadena, CA 91105-182; 626.449.6840
Program
Charles Ives Children’s Day at the Camp Meeting
Franz Schubert The Shepherd on the Rock
Gustav Mahler Symphony No. 4 in G major (arr. Stein)
For tickets: http://www.swmusic.org/site/concerts/master.html
ART: To See or Not To See
“Consuming Passion: Fragonard’s Allegories of Love”
Getty Center
1200 Getty Center Drive, Los Angeles, California 90049
http://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/consuming_passion/
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To see or not to see in LA this weekend 4/18/08
Weekend Cultural Menu
Art: To see or not to see:
“The Color of Life: Polychromy in Sculpture from Antiquity to the Present”
Daily through June 23, 2008
Museum, Floor 2, Getty Villa
The White House should not be white. Greeks had fun with garish colors. Check it out.
Check Website for ticket availability: http://www.getty.edu/visit/
Music: To hear or not to hear
Walt Disney Concert Hall
Thibaudet Plays Grieg
Thursday April 17, 2008 8:00 P.M
Friday April 18, 2008 8:00 P.M
Saturday April 19, 2008 2:00 P.M
Sunday April 20, 2008 2:00 P.M
111 South Grand Avenue Los Angeles, CA, 90012
323.850.2000
FEATURED ARTISTS: LA Philharmonic; Charles Dutoir, conductor; Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Piano
Program:
Ravel, Mother Goose Suite; Grieg, Piano Concerto; Saint-Saens, Symphony No.3 “Organ.”
Books: To read or not to read
Stravinksy’s The Poetics of Music
Who makes the best companion to a concert? Igor Stravinsky!
In 1939 Igor Stravinsky delivered the Charles Eliot Norton Lecture at Harvard, a six-part lecture series which eventually comprised this gem of a book. Stravinsky’s insights are as timeless as music itself. He will make a wonderful companion to the Philharmonic, the Met, or even listening to classical music in your room. He discusses Wagner, Verdi, Berlioz, Weber, Tchaikovsky, and Mussorgasky in a language that is as poetic as it is polemic.
Pablo Picasso. Portrait of Igor Stravinsky. 1920. Graphite and charcoal. Musée Picasso, Paris, France.
read moreGet Lost! (Lost in Battery Park, that is)
Fritz Koenig’sThe Sphere
It is the stillness after the storm, a place for reflection on the violence that occurred nearby in lower Manhattan. It is what Mayor Michael Bloomberg called a symbol of the “power of art to heal.”
The Sphere, a globe sculpted by the German artist Fritz Koenig, is the only structure to survive and remain standing after the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. The 45,000-pound steel and brass work, its face dented, chipped, fragmented, scuffed and scratched, now rests in a quiet place in Battery Park, a short distance from Ground Zero.
More than survivor, the Sphere plays the role of witness, a witness that bears physical evidence of the assault. According to an interview in the online magazine Echo Germanica with Koenig’s translator, Percy Adlon, “They found the innards of one airplane inside a hole that was ripped open in the top of the sculpture. They found a bible in there, an airline seat, papers from offices on the top floor. It became its own cemetery.”
Originally, Koenig was opposed to resuscitating this small graveyard, but, later told the World Trade Center Commemoration on-line, that he eventually realized that, in its scarred survival, the Sphere “has a different beauty, one I could never imagine…it has its own life-different from the one I gave to it.”
This sculpture conveys a symbolic spiritual message. Unknown forces transcend human limitations and the struggle for power and domination. The moment when the sun hits the Sphere, casting off gold flecks, marks the transition from minor to major, melancholic cords yielding to harmony.
Confused at the panoply of memorabilia on the lawn, a little boy asks his mother, “What do we take?”
Embarrassed, his mother scolds him, “We don’t take anything. We’re just looking at it.”
But looking is itself a form of appropriation. Each person takes away something different. Observing the scene was Asia Henderson, a Park Enforcement officer from the city, someone who sees The Sphere every day. When asked what the statue meant to her, she paused. “It’s a symbol of hope. Life goes on.”
Upon exiting the Battery Park gates, you will find yourself on the New York Streets with the bustle of cars, red sightseeing buses, taxies, sirens, and honks. Life goes on, on the streets, near Ground Zero, in Manhattan skyscrapers, in private homes.
Anyone who yearns for that moment of stillness after the storm should Get Lost, lost in Battery Park, and visit the tree-sheltered Sphere.
read moreGen Art’s The New Garde: LA Fashion Week, March 2008
Since 2003, Gen Art has given the opportunity to emerging fashion talent to display their work in high-profile group runway shows and fashion presentations in New York, Los Angeles, Miami, and Chicago. Designers debuted by Gen Art include: Zac Posen, Rebecca Taylor, and Philip Lim for Development.
Taking place during L.A’s Fashion Week, the New Garde sashayed at the Park Plaza Hotel,showcasing designers including Jessie Kamm, J. Mary, and Le Sang des Betes.
Upon Entering the Park Plaza, guests were greeted with a Singing in the Rain and Grecian Goddess motif. Three young gamines, encapsulated in clear white boxes and holding transparent umbrellas, smiled bravely while faux raindrops splashed upon their fetching bright blue dresses. They carried parasols labeled Botox, a cynical insinuation that a wrinkle-free complexion can keep rainy days at bay?
A few steps beyond, tall, willowy Graces in floor-length yellow and white draped gowns, stood atop platforms, like Aphrodite or Galatea, ready to spring to life. The blue dresses conveyed a sense of playfulness, outfits to wear to paint the town red. On the other hand, the yellow and white gowns expressed formality, attire for a wedding, while the fringe hinted at the potential for kicking up one’s heels, a throwback to the Charleston, Roaring Twenties, and visions of Daisy Buchanan.
J. Mary’s demi-couture employs structured feminine tailoring, evoking Film noir, enthralling Femme Fatales of the 1940’s in their trench coats and power suits. J. Mary favors dark colors, and the rotating runway of the Gen Art show hinted at smoke and mirrors, a mystery lurking behind the curtain.
J. Mary
Jessie Kamm displayed her collection in an Out of Africa Motif, a tableaux of models standing inside a khaki-colored tent replete with exotic plumage and plants. On the pulse of fashion, Kamm’s work corresponds with the popular safari trend that has taken the runways by a Botswana storm. Kamm’s clothes are eminently wearable, from the classic white shirt and khaki pants that can take one from work to travel in the Serengeti. Kamm’s work reminds women to put their best foot forward; it is, afterall, a jungle out there.
Jesse Kamm
Nature is a recurring motif in Kamm’s work; a trip to Joshua Tree National Park, inspired her Desert Death collection. Monarch Butterflies, tortoises, and rabbits transform tunics, tanks, and hooded capes into wearable art. (See http://www.jessekamm.com/).
Kamm draws the original designs by hand. Vogue calls her work, “artisinal hipster” clothing, but her ethic goes beyond the simply hip. Kamm, along with her scientist husband, Lucas Brower, own land in Panama that they are converting into a sustainable sanctuary which runs on solar power and rainwater. Beyond the runway, the fashion, and the spectacle, looking to the Earth for inspiration and striving to protect her is what is truly beautiful.
Text and Photography Copyright © 2008 LMS
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Peripatetics: Jump into LA’s only cultural cab
For those in Los Angeles, Cultural Cocktail Hour can also serve as a menu to cultural events around the city. If you would like to entertain out of town guests or are looking for your own artistic adventure, consider this your Cultural Taxi (and yes, I will be covering New York as well!)
Cultural Cocktail Los Angeles
1 Part Dudamel
2 Oz of The Getty Malibu
2 Teaspoons Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens
And a Splash of BCAM
Shaken, Not Stirred
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