News

Looking for something pretty, witty and bright? LA Opera can offer a production of West Side Story when it kicks off its 40th anniversary season in September at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.

Music director James Conlon begins his 20th and final season in Los Angeles by conducting the company premiere of the Leonard Bernstein-Stephen Sondheim classic, which will feature iconic Jerome Robbins original choreography and star Gabriella Reyes as Maria and Duke Kim as Tony. The first of eight scheduled performances is Sept. 20.

Also announced Tuesday for the Chandler are Puccini’s La Bohème (starting Nov. 8) in a Herbert Ross production led by Colombian American resident conductor Lina González-Granados; Philip Glass’ ancient Egypt-set Akhnaten (Feb. 28), led by Ukrainian-born Finnish guest conductor Dalia Stasevska and starring countertenor John Holiday; and two other operas conducted by Condon: Verdi’s Falstaff (April 18), starring Craig Colclough, and Mozart’s The Magic Flute...

Review: Beautiful music and an epic setting come together for Kenneth Branagh’s The Magic Flute The creative tools at writer/director Kenneth Branagh’s disposal for his lavish, World War I-set, English-language adaptation of Mozart’s 1791 opera The Magic Flute begin with an attractive cast of emerging opera stars including Metropolitan Opera lyric bass René Pape. Production designer Tim Harvey helps Branagh recreate the No Man’s Land battlefields of World War I era France with epic dazzle. Los Angeles Opera music director James Conlon and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe bring to life Mozart’s timeless score. Actor and writer Stephen Fry adapts Emanuel Schikaneder’s original German libretto into an accessible English version with Branagh providing the screenplay. The result is a lively mix of cinematic imagery and stage opera staging. Branagh’s movie may fail to capture the spark of watching a live performance at one...

My usual explanation in this space: I am especially interested in piano and choral music, plus symphonies, so that’s what I get the most promos of. Other stuff obviously gets through my filters, but the percentages of what comes in inevitably affect what comes out, i.e. this list. That said, in terms of number of centuries spanned, rather than genres or formats or whatever, I think I'm covering as much or more musical territory than most critics. By the way, look for a shorter list of my favorite classical reissues of 2012, to follow in a day or two.

1. Tokyo String Quartet, Jon Manasse, Jon Nakamatsu Brahms: Piano Quintet, Clarinet Quintet (Harmonia Mundi) There were recordings this year that were more important in terms of bringing new repertoire to light, or featuring young artists, or bringing classical into the 21st century, or being more controversially newsworthy. Examples of all of those follow.