Featured Articles in This Edition
Jenn Thornton
Constance Dunn
Danielle Accovelli
Michelle LynSaturday, September 12th, marked the beginning of the 30th anniversary season of the LA Opera at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion—and Sunday, September 20th, celebrates the long-awaited opening of the Broad Art Museum, sitting directly across the street from Walt Disney Concert Hall.
The opera season begins with a good laugh and a good cry from two one-act shows: the first featuring Placido Domingo playing the title role in Gianni Schicchi, followed by Marco Berti and Ana Maria Martinez as the star-crossed lovers in Pagliacci. The season continues in October and November with a sumptuous performance of Moby-Dick (in English), conducted by James Conlon and commissioned by the Dallas Opera Company.
For film buffs and Halloween enthusiasts, LA Opera Off Grand presents three showings of the 1931 classic, Dracula, starring Bella Lugosi, with live music performed by Philip Glass and the Kronos Quartet at the Ace Hotel Theater. Rounding out the fall performance schedule is Bellini’s Norma, starring Angela Meade and Jamie Barton. The New York Times reviewed Meade and Barton as “the duo that every opera lover should hear.” High praise!
Before your evening at the opera, make a day of it at the Broad, where nearly 2,000 pieces of the worlds’ most expensive modern and contemporary art will be housed in the 120,000 square foot structure that took three years to complete, at a cost of $140 million. Called “The Veil” by architect/design firm Diller Scofidio + Renfo, the façade is a honeycomb of fiberglass-reinforced concrete panels that curve into an Oculus window and provide abundant natural light to the galleries within.
From the lobby, both the escalator and elevator lead directly to the center of the third floor, where large-scale works by Marlene Dumas, Mark Bradford, Julie Mehretu, and El Anatsui are on view. Entire third-floor galleries are devoted to iconic artists including Jeffrey Koons and Andy Warhol. The second floor is dedicated entirely to “art on view” storage, a concept that allows patrons a look at art not currently on display, or on loan from other institutions.
Personally, I can’t wait to see the Yayoi Kusama Infinity Mirrored Room on the first floor. Captioned “The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away,” the installation cost just short of $1 million.
