Luxembourg Gardens, Paris, 2012: April showers bring May flowers
Luxembourg Gardens, Paris, Spring 2012
by Leticia Marie Sanchez
All Photography and text © 2012 Leticia Marie Sanchez
Tempests at the Tuileries, Paris, 2012
Tempest at the Tuilieries
by Leticia Marie Sanchez
All Photography and text © 2012 Leticia Marie Sanchez
Cultural Cocktail Hour in Paris: Nocturnal Louvre
Nocturnal Louvre
by Leticia Marie Sanchez
All Photography and text © 2012 Leticia Marie Sanchez
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Cultural Cocktail Hour and the European arts scene- will be away in Europe this May
Cultural Cocktail Hour will be in Paris and Venice this month, reporting on the European arts scene.
Please check back on this site in June for reviews and photography!
In the meantime, please take the time to explore the different existing categories on Cultural Cocktail Hour, including my favorite, “Artistic Anecdotes”
Happy Spring, everyone!
Leticia Marie Sanchez
Editor-in-Chief
Cultural Cocktail Hour
p.s. this month is Opera Month in Los Angeles- please enjoy one of the many opera offerings (see below)
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May is Opera Month in LA
May is Opera Month in Los Angeles
From the traditional to the avant-garde
The operas playing in Southern California include:
LA Opera’s Herb Ross production of La Bohème
opening May 12
starring Stephen Costello and Ailyn Perez
Conducted by Patrick Summers
LA Opera. 135 North Grand Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90012 (213) 972-8001
For full schedule, please visit
http://www.laopera.com
The Los Angeles Philharmonic presents Mozart’s Don Giovanni,
the first part of the epic three-year Mozart/Da Ponte Trilogy
May 18 to 26
Walt Disney Concert Hall.
Conducted by Gustavo Dudamel
Starring baritone Mariusz Kwiecien
Costumes by Rodarte designers Kate & Laura Mulleavy
Stage design by Walt Disney Concert Hall architect Frank Gehry.
111 South Grand Ave. LA, CA 90012. 323.850.2000
www.LAPhil.com
The Long Beach Opera presents
West coast premiere of Osvaldo Golijov’s Ainadamar
with libretto by David Henry Hwang.
May 19 and 26
Based on the life of Spanish playwright and poet
Federico Garcia Lorca.
For more information call 562.432.5934
or visit
www.LongBeachOpera.org
read moreBackstage at LA Opera: the scene behind the scene….
Backstage at LA Opera:
Sneak Preview of La Bohème
By Leticia Marie Sanchez
All text and photography ©2012
Life Imitates Art, and art imitates life in LA Opera’s upcoming production of La Bohème. In Puccini’s opera about bohemian Paris, the two young lovers, Rodolfo and Mimi, will be played by real life married couple Stephen Costello and Ailyn Pérez.The operatic duo began dating in 2005 after they starred together in a production of, you guessed it, La Bohème. Pérez, a recent winner of the Richard Tucker Award, reflected on the moment when she first saw Costello as the leading man of her heart: “The moon was out, and I saw him, and I thought, I don’t know where he’s been.”
Costello and Pérez met at as students at the Academy of Vocal Arts.Costello emphatically pointed to the music departments at their respective public high schools as boosts to their current success. “We were both products of public school systems. We wouldn’t be in this career if we didn’t have strong music departments in the schools that we went to.” Costello and Pérez treated audiences to a musical interlude as did Janai Brugger, winner of the 2012 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions who performed “Musetta’s Waltz.”
While the cast and director gave glimpses of the upcoming onstage magic, Director of Production Rupert Hemmings and Technical Director Jeff Kleeman explained the magic that goes on behind-the-scenes. Four forty-foot trucks had arrived with the Parisian garrets. While we see the stars on stage singing arias, the crew behind the scenes works without fanfare to create vast new worlds.
From the fifty core members of the crew to the dressmakers working at the costume shop to tailor the sumptuous costumes (the Simon Boccanegra gowns, for instance, arrived from London and had to be refitted), it is a team effort that results in majestic details of sight and sound. Sitting in one’s opera seat with a lorgnette or binoculars, one does not even fathom the fast-paced complexities, technological systems, and integration of automation. The seemingly invisible hand is what makes the production seamless.
The curtain falls. The audience applauds. But what happens to the sets after the production?
The sets are sometimes flown in twenty-foot airfreights, the largest box a 747 can handle, as was the case with the set of LA Opera’s “The Fly.” A police escort chaperoned the “Il Postino” set upon its arrival in Loredo, Mexico. With all of the international demands on the elaborate sets, it is only natural that an unusual situation may arise. Mr. Hemmings alluded to the mysterious disappearance of a costume container in a Rotterdam harbor. What happened to the gowns? Hemmings surmised that some “well-dressed pirates” now roam the Netherlands streets.
Above and Left, Backstage at LA Opera
Left, Costume Design for La Bohème
Cultural Picks- the best of ballet in LA this April
Mikhail Baryshnikov!
The choreographer from Black Swan!
This week, LA gets a double-dose of ballet
Enjoy this week’s Cultural Cocktail
Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève
April 13-15
Dorothy Chandler Pavillion
North American premieres of Les Sylphides, Le Spectre de la Rose as well as Amoveo,
Choreographed by Benjamin Millepied, former New York City Ballet principal dancer and choreographer of the award winning film Black Swan.
135 North Grand Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90012 (213) 972-0711
In Paris
April 11-21
Adapted from Ivan Bunin Directed by Dmitry Krymov
Performers Mikhail Baryshnikov and Anna Sinyakina
with Maxim Maminov, Maria Gulik and ensemble. The Broad Stage at the Santa Monica College Performing Arts Center. 1310 11th Street Santa Monica, CA 90401 (310) 434-3200
http://thebroadstage.com/
read moreCultural Picks LA: April 7-8
Herb Ritts: L.A. Style
April 3-Aug 26
Getty Center.
West Pavillion
1200 Getty Center Drive.
LA, CA. 90049.
(310) 440-7300
http://www.getty.edu/
Cellist John Walz & Pianist Robert Thies—Free Concert
Sun, April 8th 6 pm
Brahms: Sonata in F major; Debussy: Sonata for Cello & Piano.
Bing Theater. No reservations needed.
LACMA.
5905 Wilshire Blvd. Los Angeles CA 90036
323 857-6000
http://www.lacma.org
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Cultural Pick for LA- weekend of March 30th
APHRODITE and the Gods of Love
opens March 28
Getty Villa. 17985 Pacific Coast Highway, Pacific Palisades, CA.
(310) 440-7300
http://www.getty.edu/
read moreLA Cultural Pick: March 23-25
Ballet Preljocaj – Snow White
March 23-25
Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. 135 North Grand Ave. LA, CA, 90012
With costumes by Jean Paul Gautier and the music of Gustav Mahler, this performance is likely to sell out soon.
For information on tickets, please call (213) 972-0711 or visit
http://www.musiccenter.org/
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