W.H. Auden News

Events coming up in the next few weeks for the LA Opera include special celebrations on November 22, Britten's 100th birthday.

Tonight, Oct. 17, immediately following the 8 p.m. performance of The Normal Heart at The Fountain Theatre, guest speakers Timothy Kordic, Project Manager of the LAUSD HIV/AIDS Prevention Unit, and Nancy Ramos, Positively Speaking Facilitator, will host a special talkback with high school students and audience members about the reality of AIDS in 2013 and living with/preventing the disease. Director Simon Levy will moderate the discussion.

The Metropolitan Opera and Le Poisson Rouge announced details for 'An Evening of Britten and Muhly,' two concerts at Le Poisson Rouge tonight, October 17 at 7:30 p.m. and 10 p.m. Metropolitan Opera stars Patricia Racette, Kathleen Kim, and Iestyn Davies will perform at the event. Composer Nico Muhly will host and perform on piano.

This Thursday, Oct. 17, immediately following the 8 p.m. performance of The Normal Heart at The Fountain Theatre, guest speakers Timothy Kordic, Project Manager of the LAUSD HIV/AIDS Prevention Unit, and Nancy Ramos, Positively Speaking Facilitator, will host a special talkback with high school students and audience members about the reality of AIDS in 2013 and living with/preventing the disease. Director Simon Levy will moderate the discussion.

Nico Muhly's opera Two Boys will have its North American premiere at the Met October 21, in a production conducted by David Robertson and directed by Bartlett Sher.

Music Director Alan Gilbert will lead the New York Philharmonic in a celebration of the centennial of English composer, conductor, and pianist Benjamin Britten. The program will include Britten's Serenade for Tenor, Horn, and Strings, featuring tenor Paul Appleby and Philharmonic Principal Horn Philip Myers, and Britten's Spring Symphony, with soprano Kate Royal (in her Philharmonic debut), mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke (Philharmonic subscription debut), tenor Paul Appleby, New York Choral Artists directed by Joseph Flummerfelt, and Brooklyn Youth Chorus directed by Dianne Berkun-Menaker. The concerts, which include a performance on the composer's 100th birthday, November 22, will take place Thursday, November 21, 2013, at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, November 22 at 8:00 p.m.; and Saturday, November 23 at 8:00 p.m.

The Normal Heart is Larry Kramer's groundbreaking drama about public and private indifference to the onset of the AIDS crisis, and one man's fight to awaken the world to its urgency. The title of the play is taken from a line in a poem by W.H. Auden: "We must love one another or die."

Music Director Marin Alsop leads the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) and pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet in Bernstein's Symphony No. 2, "Age of Anxiety" on Thursday, September 26, 2013 at 8 p.m. at the Music Center at Strathmore and Friday, September 27, 2013 and Saturday, September 28, 2013 at 8 p.m. at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall. Also on the program are Gershwin's Cuban Overture and Ravel's Piano Concerto in G Major and Daphnis and Chloe: Suite No. 2. Please see below for complete program details.

The Metropolitan Opera and Le Poisson Rouge announced details for "An Evening of Britten and Muhly," two concerts at Le Poisson Rouge on Thursday, October 17 at 7:30 p.m. and 10 p.m. Metropolitan Opera stars Patricia Racette, Kathleen Kim, and Iestyn Davies will perform at the event. Composer Nico Muhly will host and perform on piano.

A new season rich with laughter and compelling drama was announced today for the Center Theatre Group/Mark Taper Forum by Michael Ritchie, CTG Artistic Director.

Academy Award, Tony Award and Emmy Award winner Christopher Plummer will star in a Center Theatre Group special event, 'A Word or Two,' written and arranged by Plummer and directed by Tony Award winner Des McAnuff at the CTG/Ahmanson Theatre.

David Abeles (Once, Original Cast Member) will take over the role of 'Pierre' in the hit downtown production of NATASHA, PIERRE & THE GREAT COMET OF 1812 beginning tonight, July 9th. Dave Malloy, the show's creator, played his final performance as 'Pierre' on June 21st, as he leaves to work on several new projects including commissions from LCT3, San Francisco's American Conservatory Theater, and the Youth Musical Theater Company in Berkeley, as well as upcoming shows at the Incubator Arts Project and The Bushwick Starr.

Classic Stage Company's new production of Bertolt Brecht's THE CAUCASIAN CHALK CIRCLE, featuring Christopher Lloyd (Azdak), directed by Brian Kulick (who directed Brecht's Galileo last season), and featuring new music by Tony Award-winning singer/songwriter Duncan Sheik (Spring Awakening), closes today, June 23, after a two-week extension.

David Abeles (Once, Original Cast Member) will take over the role of 'Pierre' in the hit downtown production ofNATASHA, PIERRE & THE GREAT COMET OF 1812 beginning Tuesday, July 9th. Dave Malloy, the show's creator, will play his final performance as 'Pierre' Friday, June 21st, as he leaves to work on several new projects including commissions from LCT3, San Francisco's American Conservatory Theater, and the Youth Musical Theater Company in Berkeley, as well as upcoming shows at the Incubator Arts Project and The Bushwick Starr. From June 22nd through July 7th, the role of 'Pierre' will be played by Luke Holloway.

Crooked Heart Theater announced today that it will donate 100% of proceeds from the Hollywood Fringe Festival run of The Other F Word to Eve Ensler's V-Day, to help stop violence against women and girls.

Crooked Heart Theater announced today that its new play The Other F Word will have its world premiere at the Hollywood Fringe Festival in June.

Director Brian Kulick sets Classic Stage Company's interesting and spirited new production of Bertolt Brecht's The Caucasian Chalk Circle during the fall of the Soviet Union, 'when the hammer and sickle were replaced by the Coca-Cola bottle.'  The production's Playbill cover depicts a satisfied looking Christopher Lloyd scribbling over that iconic communist emblem with a piece of chalk.  This is certainly an unusual take for a play that, when it premiered in 1948, was intended to depict the fairness to be found in Soviet leadership.

If I were a classical music critic I might describe The Giacomo Variations as an ambitious exploration of common themes expressed in the three operas Mozart composed with librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte.

Classic Stage Company, under the leadership of Artistic Director Brian Kulick and Executive Director Greg Reiner, presents Bertolt Brecht's THE CAUCASIAN CHALK CIRCLE featuring Christopher Lloyd (Azdak), directed by Brian Kulick (who directed Brecht's Galileo last season), and featuring new music by Tony Award-winning singer/songwriter Duncan Sheik (Spring Awakening). The show was recently extended for two additional weeks through Sunday, June 23. The official opening is tonight, May 30.?

Crooked Heart Theater announced today that it will donate 100% of proceeds from the Hollywood Fringe Festival run of The Other F Word to Eve Ensler's V-Day, to help stop violence against women and girls.