L.A. Opera Gets An Admirer In Alleged-Murderer Robert Durst

И смело ей себя вверяю: Durst took a page out
 of Tatyana's handbook and wrote a letter.

"In a scrawling, handwritten letter to The Times, murder suspect Robert Durst doesn’t speak of the serious charges he now faces but instead writes wistfully of his days in Los Angeles. The real estate scion muses about watching the city lights, the hopeless traffic congestion, spending time at a Sunset Boulevard coffee shop and his love of attending the opera. 'I loved watching the traffic come up La Cienega and mush into Santa Monica,' he wrote in his two-page letter, postmarked nearly two weeks after his arrest in the mysterious murder of author Susan Berman, found shot in the head at her Benedict Canyon home 15 years ago. Durst blames L.A.’s political and business leaders for the absence of professional football in Los Angeles, ridicules a performance of Wagner’s Ring Cycle as being a 'true example of Hollywood gone berserk' and ruminates on his own medical condition. 'I have said nothing about charges, crimes or trials,' he adds. 'I’m sure you know what your abilities are to visit me when I get to L.A.' But it seems unlikely Durst will be coming to California anytime soon. Nearly after a month after his arrest, the 71-year-old subject of the HBO documentary The Jinx was in Orleans Parish Criminal District Court Thursday to plead not guilty to state weapons charges, a case that has delayed his extradition to California." [Source] Experts say that Durst is trying to play crazy. Perhaps he's taking cues from the ID Channel. See an excerpt  of the note after the jump.

Los Angeles Opera Costume Sale Reaps Thousands Of Visitors

A potential buyer transforms into a soldier from
La Fille du Régiment or perhaps Carmen.
(Photo: Gary Leonard)

"The line started forming outside of the parking lot at 330 S. Alameda St. around 8 a.m., some two-and-a-half hours before the gates opened. By the time L.A. Opera’s one-day costume shop sale closed on Saturday, March 28, more than 4,000 people had perused the wares. Approximately 1,000 costumes from productions such as The Barber of Seville, The Birds and Salome were on the racks, and crowds scooped up everything from accessories to dresses to 'diva' costumes worn by leads such as tenor Plácido Domingo. About 750 pieces were purchased, and the items left over will be sold at discounted rates to schools around the county (anything remaining after that will be donated to charity). The sale comes as the costume shop leaves its 14-year home for a space on 14th Street in the Industrial District, thanks to rising rents in the searing-hot Arts District, according to Senior Director of Production Rupert Hemmings." [Source]

L.A. Opera Goes For Broke Reviving "Ghosts Of Versailles"

Patti Lupone makes an entrance

It is reported that Tony Award-winning Broadway director Darko Tresnjak researched for over a year, including a trip to Petit Trianon, before staging the opera Ghosts of Versailles at L.A. Opera which opens this evening. Sets and costumes are estimated at $1 million, but other expenses would not be discussed including fees for over 80 dancers, singers and acrobatic artists. Even composer, John Corigliano, was flown from New York to Los Angeles for rehearsals because there are so many new notations in the score. Not to mention the luxury casting of Broadway superstar Patti Lupone in the exotic role of Samira that gets 10 minutes of stage time. A planned Met revival five years ago was called off for budgetary reasons. "A good part of the money for Ghosts is coming from a gift from the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation. Gordon Getty, one of the sons of billionaire J. Paul Getty, is a composer in his own right as well as an opera fan. His representatives didn't respond to requests for comment. Ghosts has seldom been seen in its full grandeur since it debuted at the Metropolitan Opera in

Patricia Racette and Christopher Maltman

New York in 1991. In that staging, Corigliano called for two orchestras — one in the pit and one onstage — but he later reduced it to a single orchestra and made cuts for a 1995 staging at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. The composer also approved a scaled-down chamber version that has been staged at smaller companies. L.A. Opera's production, which opens Feb. 7, features the fullest version of the score that currently exists — not quite as long as the Met premiere but substantially the same work, featuring a full orchestra, according to company leaders." [Source] Tickets for the production are available here. See more beautiful photos after the jump and a complete gallery of 79 photos from the production by clicking here. To learn more about the opera, Ghosts of Versailles, go here.

Tavis Smiley Interviews Renée Fleming About Her Singing

Renée Fleming sat down with Tavis Smiley in Los Angeles to discuss a variety of topics including what it's like to have André Previn write a piece specifically for the soprano; getting boxed into specific singing genres by critics; the "valleys" of her career; how her voice is holding up to the demands of time; singing the national anthem; singing with honesty; the usefulness of critics; what is going to help the arts survive in the future; among other topics discussed. Watch the video of the interview after the jump, as well as a bonus of an earlier

episode of Tavis Smiley interviewing soprano Jessye Norman from 2011. And in case you missed the Kennedy Center Honors tribute to André Previn in 1998 at which Ms. Fleming sang "I Want Magic!" from the composer's operatic rendition of A Streetcar Named Desire, click the image on the right to launch the video of the performance. For more information about Tavis Smiley and to see more of his interviews, go to PBS online by clicking here.

Renée Fleming and Dmitri Hvorostovsky Take Selfie In L.A.

Ms. Fleming is in Los Angeles for Streetcar Named Desire and Mr. Hvorostovsky for a recital. (Photo: Facebook)

Renée Fleming Will Not See Plácido Domingo Shirtless In LA

Performing together for nearly two decades, Domingo and Fleming share a moment at the Dorothy Chandler Pavillion in Los Angeles. (Photo: Al Seib/Los Angeles Times)

"'We've been trying to get Renée here for a long time. It was difficult. Her girls were in school. But now, they are grown up,' the Spanish singer said. Domingo is the general director of L.A. Opera. Domingo said he saw Fleming in Streetcar in London and was impressed by Previn's 1998 adaptation of the Tennessee Williams plays. Since Fleming appeared in a new semi-staged production last year at Carnegie Hall, he has been working to bring the opera to L.A. 'The dates have been hell,' he said. Fleming said that when she first performed "Streetcar" in 1998, she was going through a difficult personal time and that actress Julie Harris, who had played Blanche on stage, gave her a good piece of advice. 'She said that this role can get you through the day,' said Fleming. The soprano noted that this production of Streetcar features an abundance of shirtless male performers on stage, which prompted Domingo to joke that he failed the audition for the opera. 'I cannot stay onstage without my shirt,' he said." [Source] For more information about Ms. Fleming's performances of A Streetcar Named Desire, click here. Pictures of shirtless male performers from the opera production can be found after the jump.

Barrie Kosky Magic Flute Makes Big Splash At LA Opera

"A celebration of true love conquering all, The Magic Flute transports us into an enchanted world where good faces the forces of darkness. Under the masterful baton of James Conlon, LA Opera presents the U.S. Production Premiere of a highly inventive staging that originated at the Komische Oper Berlin, created by director Barrie Kosky in combination with the British theater group '1927,' whose humorous shows have thrilled audiences all over the world with their interaction between film animation and live-performing actors: 'A perfect mixture of all the things worth loving: silent films, the cabaret of the Weimar Republic, David Lynch, and the brothers Grimm (The Guardian, UK).' Packed with exquisite singing and stage wizardry, Mozart's delightful blend of high comedy and serious drama enchants young and old alike." This is a co-production with Minnesota Opera, where it will be performed in April. Read the New York Times review by clicking here and check out a large photo gallery of the production here. The complete LA Opera cast list is after the jump.

Watch a Cast Rehearsal For L.A. Opera's "Così Fan Tutte"

The clip features an inside look at a musical preparation for the Mozart opera with Aleksandra Kurzak, Ruxandra Donose, Saimir Pirgu and Ildebrando D'Arcangelo, led by maestro James Conlon. Check out a photo gallery of the production by clicking here. The last performance of Così Fan Tutte at Los Angeles Opera will be October 8, 2011.

"The Turn of the Screw" Gets a Scrubdown For L.A. Opera

Patricia Racette stars in 1950s update
(Photo: Lawrence K. Ho/Los Angeles Times)

"Michael Kepler Meo, an impressively confident boy soprano with an eloquent musicality and a becoming stage manner, was a vulnerable Miles. Britten's score and Myfanwy Piper’s libretto suggest a boy who is more a threat, but this Miles was the modern innocent abused and wounded, seeking comfort. That played into Racette's Governess, whose hysteria proved compelling theater, if on the all-purpose side. She seemed the sort who could have been done in by just about anything. Both she and Ann Murray (Mrs. Grose) have large voices, and although they enunciated the English text admirably, they also produced a vibrato-rich blend in ensemble passages that undid them. Ashley Emerson was a striking Flora, the little angel who isn’t such a little angel. William Burden was a suave Quint and also sang the prologue with polish if without the curious edge characteristic of Britten tenors. Tamara Wilson's Miss Jessel was more a spook, coming across as having just been dredged from the lake. An odder, angrier, more mysterious Turn of the Screw can leave an audience too shaken to applaud. Saturday was a night to cheer the cleverness of a director and designer and the devotion of singers, a virtuoso instrumental ensemble and Conlon's engaged conducting." [Source]

L.A. Opera's "Il Turco in Italia" Seems Timely Relevant

Machaidze as Fiorilla
(Photo: Lawrence K. Ho/L.A. Times)

"For all its froth, Turco tackles a sensitive subject more pressing than ever. We laugh knowingly but anxiously, recognizing the timely, touchy topics of immigration, racism and sexual exploitation. The veteran baritone Thomas Allen is affectionate and hilariously hapless as the poet Prosdocimo, his influence on the action always at his own physical expense. As Fiorilla, Nino Machaidze, a soulfully dark-toned soprano who made a star turn in the L.A. Opera production of L’Elisir d’Amore last season more as a singer than an actress, proves this time a magnetic comedian. Whether she is changing in an instant from vixen to harridan, putting on makeup or making cappuccino, she continually twirls exquisite Rossinian roulades. Kate Lindsey, who has been garnering attention in New York as an emerging mezzo-soprano, seems a bit all-American as Zaida, but she produced a pure, sure, all-around lovely sound. Maxim Mironov, as Don Narciso, is a true Rossinian tenor, sweet and extremely flexible, but unlike many a Rossinian tenor, he is also able to squeeze into very tight jeans. Simone Alberghini is a suave Selim. Paolo Gavanelli’s henpecked Don Geronio so captures the quintessential buffo Italian patriarch that you almost wish he might try parodying Berlusconi." [Source]