The series of rehearsals for California Contemporary Ballet’s “The Snow Queen” Ballet (www.snowqueenballet.com) have been underway for over five hours and for Isabella Bunting of Glendale, her most challenging rehearsal of the day lays ahead of her. When director Erin Holt enters the rehearsal studio, Bunting dutifully ties her Pointe shoe ribbons and tests her […]
By Charly SHELTON Exactly one week after Christmas, we ring in the new year with celebration, drinking, love and streamers. And with films like “Love, Actually” for Christmas and “Valentines Day” for Feb. 14, it’s about time New Year’s Eve got a mention. Like similar films before it, “New Year’s Eve” follows several love stories […]
By Ted AYALA Saturday’s Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (LACO) concert at the Alex Theatre was one that was appropriately entitled “Reflection.” Binding the program were the works of 19th, 20th, and 21st century composers reflecting on and finding inspiration in the music of the baroque and early classical eras. But the night was also one […]
By Ted AYALA If you conducted a survey of people from out of state on why they moved to Los Angeles, among the top five answers you’re likely to hear is the lure of the region’s weather. Southern California has long been an attractive destination for people from colder regions eager to enjoy the area’s […]
By Charly SHELTON After the success of “Up in the Air,” director Jason Reitman once again hits the screen with an Oscar contender in the Diablo Cody penned drama, “Young Adult.” This movie follows 30-something, young adult fiction ghostwriter Mavis Gary (an admittedly autobiographical character based on Cody played by Charlize Theron) and her […]
By Ted Ayala When the Soviet Union’s cultural apparatchiks called upon the then 26-year-old Dmitri Shostakovich to provide an opera to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the October Revolution, they probably weren’t counting on it featuring a stark raving mad half-man/half-ape as protagonist. But together with his librettist Alexei Tolstoy, a relation of Leo Tolstoy, […]
By Charly SHELTON It’s time to play the music, it’s time to light the lights, it’s time to meet the Muppets in the newest Muppet movie, simply titled “The Muppets.” Written by and starring Jason Segel of “How I Met Your Mother” and “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” as well as Amy Adams of “Enchanted,” this film […]
By Ted AYALA In 1934, the young Dmitri Shostakovich, 27 years old at the time, was at the apex of his youthful career. His opera “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk District” premiered to sold-out performances in Moscow and Leningrad in 1934, and by 1936 had been performed over 200 times. It was also performed abroad to […]