Blog Profile / Culture Monster

James Levine, wheelchair-bound, returns to conducting at Met

Following an absence of more than two years to recover from injuries from a fall, James Levine made his big return to the podium Sunday to conduct the Metropolitan Opera orchestra at Carnegie Hall.

Review: With 'Tosca,' Los Angeles Opera goes for grand

Conductor Plácido Domingo never wavers, and Sondra Radvanovsky is resplendent in title role, though other singers don't rise quite so well to the challenge. An essay in the program for Los Angeles Opera's new production of "Tosca," which opened at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion on Saturday night, begins by quoting Benjamin Britten on Puccini's opera. Show More Summary

Review: 'Marriage of Figaro' a wedding of many talents

Mozart's opera is wonderfully performed in an L.A. Philharmonic production that even involves architect Jean Nouvel and designer Azzedine Alaïa. Jean Nouvel, the French architect, is credited with creating "installations" for the Los...Show More Summary

Illuminating the power of change in the L.A. Basin

Photo File: From the monumental to the mundane, a digital exhibition dips into the Southern California Edison photo archive to explore the 'breathtaking' history of the region from 1940 to '90. For nearly a century starting in the 1880s, photographers went from sluice to street corner to suburban pool to record one utility's efforts to electrify Greater Los Angeles and beyond.

August Wilson's words came straight from his soul

Stagecraft: The revered playwright had a talent for capturing how people really spoke, and his advice — 'keep your hands moving' — have hit home. Stage and film legend James Earl Jones once said, "It's hard for an actor to go wrong if he's true to the words that August has written."

Case study conservation on the Eames' Case Study House

Paint tests, monitoring devices and a new floor at Charles and Ray Eames' landmark home are all part of a pilot project of the Getty Conservation Institute's Conserving Modern Architecture Initiative. Surprisingly, little has changed...Show More Summary

For William Wegman, 1970s works seem so new

The Sunday Conversation: 'He Took Two Pictures. One Came Out' at Marc Selwyn Fine Art features works that the photographer came across fairly recently. "William Wegman: He Took Two Pictures. One Came Out," an exhibition of the artist's text-based black-and-white photographs from the 1970s, is on view at Marc Selwyn Fine Art through July 6.

Vincent Kartheiser, from 'Mad Men' to 'Pride and Prejudice' onstage

Vincent Kartheiser will swap his sharp suits for ruffles and coattails. The Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis announced that the “Mad Men” star will play Mr. Darcy in its summer production of “Pride and Prejudice.”

Review: Pacific Symphony salute to Duke Ellington fails to swing

The program includes a bevy of favorites, but there is little indication of what Ellington means to music, of the scope of his originality or the importance of his influence. What do we do with the Duke? He was, most agree, the greatest jazz composer who ever lived. And more.

MOCA architecture show opening pushed back to June 16

The Museum of Contemporary Art released a statement Friday saying it has moved back the opening date of its show about contemporary Los Angeles architecture, part of the Getty's "Pacific Standard Time Presents" initiative, by two weeks, to June 16.

Carole King to be honored with Obama-hosted show, Gershwin Prize

Carole King seems to have fans in high places: The singer-songwriter's life will be staged with an eye toward Broadway, and next week her oeuvre will be honored at the White House.

Cellphone toss: Is National Review writer's act heroic or criminal?

Talk about taking issues into your own hands.

Review: 'Chess' revival takes an inventive spin at East West Players

There’s a wryly energetic thrust to “Chess,” being revived by East West Players in an imaginative production that certainly puts its own spin on this problematic concept album-turned-popera.

N.Y. photography exhibition shows secretly snapped images

Residents of a Tribeca apartment building are fuming over a new exhibition of photographs in which they star -- and which were taken without their knowledge. Some of the residents are considering legal action, the New York Post reported.

Kennedy Center changes Honors process after Latino groups' outcry

L.A. Philharmonic concerned about potential subway noise

A test suggests that a new downtown connector line might be heard in Disney Hall. METRO says it will find a way to eliminate all sounds. Nothing in the Los Angeles Philharmonic's repertoire calls for 135-ton trains. The orchestra aims to keep it that way when Metro light rail cars start rumbling through a subway tunnel near Walt Disney Concert Hall.

'The Marriage of Figaro,' right in time with the 21st century

The Mozart-Da Ponte opera is relevant today, says Christopher Alden, director of Los Angeles Philharmonic's production, which has Jean Nouvel and Azzedine Alaia. Suffice to say that Mozart and librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte weren't thinking about Proposition 8 when they composed "The Marriage of Figaro."

'Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder' heads to Broadway

The musical comedy “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder” may be nearly as nimble as its lead actor, Jefferson Mays, who plays multiple characters and dies no less than eight times in the production. In its third incarnation, the production will transfer to Broadway this fall, its producers announced Thursday. 

Connie Butler of MoMA goes to Hammer Museum as new chief curator

After more than a year-long search, the Hammer Museum has hired Connie Butler, currently the chief curator of drawings at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, as its chief curator.

Debating the art market as the best judge of quality

On May 24 at China's Hong Kong Convention Center an outfit called Intelligence Squared will host a formal debate during the debut of the newest spinoff of the Art Basel franchise of international art fairs. The motion under consideration will be: "The Market Is the Best Judge of Art's Quality."