When Gustavo Dudamel became music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic 15 years ago, the ensemble had already under Esa-Pekka Salonen become the orchestra of the future, playing far more new music than another in America. Dudamel’s response was to commission and premiere even more. His first gala began with the premiere of John Adams’ huge symphony, “City Noir.” The next night, for his first regular subscription concert, he premiered Unsuk Chin’s “Su.” With that he began a tradition of beginning each season with a premiere that has had huge ramifications for L.A. and beyond.
This year, though, the L.A. Phil gala was not, as it had been for over a half-century, an October surprise. The program paired Lang Lang as soloist in Rachmaninoff’s potboiler Second Piano Concerto with the full score to Ginastera’s ballet “Estancia,” a Dudamel favorite that he has performed complete in Walt Disney Concert Hall and in excerpts at the Hollywood Bowl over the last two years. But Dudamel lived up to tradition by opening the season with the premiere of a major cello by Gabriela Ortiz and a new staging of Mendelssohn’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” featuring Spanish film star María Valverde.
Presumably the reason for the same-old, same-old gala (which I missed to hear Julia Bullock perform “Harawi”) was that this week Dudamel and the orchestra were in New York to present the same gala program for Carnegie Hall’s fancy opening night. That might seem more daring for a big fundraiser in a town where Ginastera’s wonderful ballet is little known. Meanwhile, the New York Philharmonic will catch up with the 15-year-old “City Noir” when Adams conducts it next month.
In fact, two years before Dudamel takes over at the New York Philharmonic, Dudamel-mania reached New York with three L.A. Phil concerts at Carnegie. Following the gala were a repeat of the Ortiz-”Midsummer” program (Ortiz is Carnegie’s composer-in-residence this season) and the concert he gave with Natalia Lafourcade at the Bowl last month. The L.A. Phil will take all three programs, dominated by Latin American music, to Bógata, Colombia.
Dudamel and Ortiz have developed a particularly close relationship. Two recent L.A. Phil commissions — a violin concerto, “Altar de Cuerda,” and the ballet “Revolución Diamantina,” have just been released as recordings by the orchestra and are major contributions to new music.
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“Dzonot,” Ortiz’s new cello concerto written for Alisa Weilerstein, takes its title from the Mayan word for abyss. In mythology, it refers to both the source of life and the entrance to the murky underworld. The concerto is full of sonic imagery that travels above and below ground, down to the rivers in deep caverns and up in the skies to the environmentally threatened toh bird.
The solo cello does not stand out in the way the violin does in “Altar de Cuerda.” Instead, Weilerstein seems to serve as part of the weird Mayan underground, with its mysterious gods and beasts. In one movement, she becomes the enchanted voice of a jaguar; in another she channels the song of the toh. The rainforest envelopes all, the orchestra percussion rich and curious.
This is an intriguing fit with “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” directed by Dudamel’s longtime collaborator, Alberto Alvero. The production centers on Valverde, who read lines of different characters in a Spanish translation of Shakespeare. Fleet, flitting here and there, in front of the orchestra and behind, her Puck seems to become the toh bird. Bottom as represented in Mendelssohn’s overture is jaguar-like. The vocal music — which featured Jana McIntyre, Deepa Johnny and the Los Angeles Master Chorale — is sung in the original English.
Arvelo writes in his program note about his fascination with cultural transformations: what happens to Shakespeare spoken in Spanish, what happens to “Midsummer” interpreted by a German composer, what happens to the play when it inspires painters from different eras and cultures (paintings were projected overhead), what happens when Hollywood gets it imaginative hands on things (clips from Max Reinhardt’s 1935 classic were included).
Much of this flew by, especially if one tried to read the English surtitles. Where to look? What to listen for? What’s what? The L.A. Phil sounded brilliant. Disney was lighted to be a wonderland. Valverde, who is Dudamel’s wife, intoned as might a magician. More translations came in the transferring of this program from Disney to the formal, old-school resonant, Carnegie.
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Grant Gershon conducts the Los Angeles Master Chorale at Walt Disney Concert Hall in a celebration of the chorus’ 60th anniversary.
(Jamie Phan / Los Angeles Master Chorale)
That the L.A. Master Chorale took part was significant. The chorus has but a small part in Mendelssohn’s score but brought more magic. Such luxury casting, though, was hardly affordable for the L.A. Phil tour.
Plus the Master Chorale had been occupied with something of its own, celebrating its 60th anniversary three days later at Disney. The chorus and the L.A. Phil have an essential partnership. The Master Chorale was founded by Rodger Wagner to be a companion resident company at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, which was built for the L.A. Phil and opened Dec. 6, 1964.
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Although the Music Center doesn’t thus far seem to be giving this anniversary much attention, the Master Chorale had a special program Sunday of 22 short, mostly a cappella pieces that ranged from the 16th century to the present. They were meant to show the range what has become, under Grant Gershon, one of the most versatile, to say nothing of the finest, choruses in America.
There is little the chorus can’t do. It has been an essential institution on its own and in its collaborations with the L.A. Phil. This time there was no Philip Glass or Meredith Monk or Steve Reich or Nico Muhly or other composers Gershon has championed in his transformative 23 years as music director.
Instead, there were small pieces, quite a few by little-known composers, along with Bruckner motets, bits of Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff and Bernstein. It would have been unlikely that anyone other than Gershon had heard of all the composers, the likes of Juan Gutiérrez de Padilla (1590-1664) or Robert Lucas Pearsall (1795-1856). The music of the late Elinor Remick Warren, whom Dorothy Chandler commissioned to write the chimes theme for her pavilion, made a welcome appearance.
Yet this long, obscure miscellany turned out to be a garland of little gems. Little was major or important, but each one was special, capable of reminding us that the sound of this chorus in Disney is a splendor to be encountered nowhere else.
Gevi Movie Synopsis: When a few people die in a hilly area because of a landslide and the lack of proper hospital facilities, an entire community rises against the police and politicians. However, this bravery only deepens their struggles.Gevi Movie Review: Debut director Tamil Dhayalan emerges as a strong voice to watch. Gevi is occasionally slow-paced, but the honest storytelling holds so much impact that everything else doesn’t matter. As we are introduced to the people living in Gevi, a small village near Kodaikanal, the screen is dark–lit only by torch lights and yellow-lit sodium vapor lamps. It’s one of their unfortunate days, a landslide has hit, and the villagers carry the injured up and down the hills in a makeshift cradle, trying to quickly reach the hospital. But a few minutes in, it becomes clear that this unfortunate day is nothing new to them. Every time someone falls sick, the same routine repeats, and still, nothing changes in their lives.However, the film reminds us that this struggle isn’t their whole life. It also talks about different people and the community’s lifestyle. Gevi is also conscious of its social commentary. So, when it shows the power hierarchies at play, it doesn’t hesitate to depict the multiple dimensions within it. For instance, even as the Gevi people fight to survive, the film portrays how their rebellion, in itself, is not a threat and is simply overlooked by those in power. In addition, it shows how the middlemen within the system suffer too. At the center of this story is the lovely couple Mandharai and Malaiyan (a brilliant Sheela Rajkumar and Aadhavan), who are awaiting their child’s birth. So nestled within a raw, moving story are delicate, beautiful bonds and moments you’re made to care for. For instance, when two lives are in danger, caught on different sides of the hills, the director decides to cut to a flashback. Caught in the rain, a pregnant wife tells her husband that the raindrops feel like their child’s little kisses, and the husband laughingly replies that he doesn’t have so much creativity and to him, it feels like his child is urinating. The scene is brief, cute, yet powerful. Because when the film instantly pulls you back to the present day, you realise: their fight that night is not just to survive, but to protect such tiny dreams and little joys of hope. Moments like these pull the viewer into Gevi’s world and make them part of it. The only time where the film lets its audience down is how each person in the village is written with soul, but in sharp contrast, be it the nonchalant politicians or egoistic cops, every other character is one-dimensional and just evil. That said, even through songs and lyrics like “Eesan sonaalum ration kedaikuma”, the film delivers a sharp critique of systemic oppression. Something that makes Gevi even more compelling is the way the film is shot. Right at the beginning of the film, when the Gevi people are mourning over the death of their loved ones due to the landslide, the camera moves away as far as it can, capturing an aerial view of “just the Gevi people” wrapped in a small place, all alone in the vast hills, which remains a silent observer of their struggles. Such images speak volumes about how unseen and unheard they are within this system. Props to cinematographer Jagan Jaya Surya—every frame enhances the moment, complementing the rawness of the story being told. Written By:Harshini SV
Theater and television actor Tom Troupe has died at 97.
Troupe died Sunday morning of natural causes in his home in Beverly Hills, according to his publicist, Harlan Boll.
Known for his extensive career in theater and TV, Troupe made his Broadway debut in 1957 playing Peter van Daan in “The Diary of Anne Frank.” A year later, he moved to Los Angeles and appeared in more than 75 TV series over the course of his career, including “Mission: Impossible,” “Star Trek,” “Planet of the Apes,” “CHiPs,” “Quincy M.E.” and “Who’s the Boss.”
However, he continued to act in stage productions, appearing in “The Lion in Winter,” “Fathers Day” and “The Gin Game,” all three of which also co-starred his wife, actor Carole Cook. He also starred in a single-character play he co-wrote called “The Diary of a Madman.”
Troupe also had roles in several films, including 1991’s “My Own Private Idaho,” starring Keanu Reeves and River Phoenix; 1970’s “Kelly’s Heroes,” which starred Clint Eastwood and Don Rickles; and 1959’s “The Big Fisherman.”
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He and Cook were awarded the L.A. Ovation Award for Career Achievement in 2002 because of their extensive stage work over the years in Los Angeles.
Born in Kansas City, Mo., on July 15, 1928, Troupe got his start acting in local theater productions before he moved to New York City in 1948.
He won a scholarship to train with stage actor and theater instructor Uta Hagen at the Herbert Berghof Studio in Manhattan before he went to fight in the Korean War, where he was awarded a Bronze Star. After the war, he returned to New York to act on the stage.
Troupe married Cook in 1964. The actor, who was known for her roles in “Sixteen Candles” and Lucille Ball’s “The Lucy Show,” died in 2023 at the age of 98.
Troupe is survived by his son, Christopher, daughter-in-law Becky Coulter, granddaughter Ashley Troupe and several nieces and nephews.
A still from ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’
| Photo Credit: Sony Pictures
The best slasher films offer a particular gory comfort, with the chase, deaths and a kind of twisted logic. I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) based on Lois Duncan’s 1973 young adult novel was immense fun and spawned two sequels, I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (1998) and I’ll Always Know What You Did Last Summer (2006), a series in 2021 and countless headline options to sub-editors.
The latest reboot after the show was cancelled, is a sequel to I Still Know What You Did Last Summer and features the two survivors of the 1997 Southport massacre, Julie (Jennifer Love Hewitt) and Ray (Freddie Prinze Jr.).
I Know What You Did Last Summer (English)
Director: Jennifer Kaytin Robinson
Cast: Madelyn Cline, Chase Sui Wonders, Jonah Hauer-King, Tyriq Withers, Sarah Pidgeon, Billy Campbell, Gabbriette Bechtel, Austin Nichols, Freddie Prinze Jr., Jennifer Love Hewitt
Runtime: 111 minutes
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Storyline: Five friends are haunted by a death they were responsible for a year ago
Southport has a new bunch of terrorised friends — Danica (Madelyn Cline), Ava (Chase Sui Wonders), Milo (Jonah Hauer-King), Teddy (Tyriq Withers) and Stevie (Sarah Pidgeon).
After Danica and Teddy’s engagement party, the five friends go for a drive on the winding cliff road where a terrible accident occurs. Stevie, who had a problem with substance abuse, just got cleaned up and was working at Ray’s bar when she joined the friends on the fateful cliff road drive. The five friends decide to keep quiet about their involvement and go their separate ways.
A year later, Ava returns to Southport for Danica’s bridal shower. The events of the previous year naturally have affected the friends. Teddy, whose father, Grant, (Billy Campbell) a wealthy real estate mogul who “scrubbed the internet” of all mentions of the earlier killings, spirals out of control prompting Danica to break their engagement. Danica is now engaged to sweet Wyatt (Joshua Orpin).
A still from ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’
| Photo Credit:
Sony Pictures
On her flight to Southport, Ava meets Tyler (Gabbriette Bechtel) who hosts a true crime podcast called Live, Laugh, Slaughter (one wonders how slaughter is a laughing matter) and is coming to North Carolina to follow up on the 1997 Southport killings.
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Soon enough Danica gets an anonymous note saying, yes, “I Know What You Did Last Summer,” and it all starts again — the hook, slicker, hat, blood and bodies. The kills are not particularly imaginative, the chases are on the wrong side of thrilling and the final reveal will have your eyes roll right out of their sockets.
While it was nice to see Prinze Jr. and Hewitt reprise their roles, I Know What You Did Last Summer offers nothing new by way of plot, character or dialogue. The young cast act for all they are worth and the effort shows. The movie provides unintentional laughs with memories of Keenen Ivory Wayans’ Scary Movie (2000). Unless, one can come up with radically new twists to the slasher formula, it is probably time to lay the hooks and ghostface to rest. Sigh.
I Know What You Did Last Summer is currently running in theatres