A diplomatic China Philharmonic plays Disney Hall by Mark Swed, Music Critic

You must have heard about a president-elect last week talking on the telephone with the president of Taiwan, and thus, by evading protocol, possibly upending U.S. China policy. Now what? …

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 5:20pm on December 6, 2016☆⚑

A 'Wonderful Town' in search of wonder by Mark Swed, Music Critic

The centennial of Leonard Bernstein's birth is not until the summer after next, but the West Coast has already gotten a jump-start over Broadway with the musicals. Michael Tilson Thomas last…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 7:10pm on December 3, 2016☆⚑

The next new Finnish star conductor takes the stand in Disney Hall by Mark Swed, Music Critic

Not everything is a surprise with Santtu-Matias Rouvali, a 31-year-old former Los Angeles Philharmonic Dudamel Fellow who returned Friday night to Walt Disney Concert Hall for his first subs…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 7:20pm on November 13, 2016☆⚑

Noh theater: The world's oldest stage tradition is popping up everywhere by Mark Swed, Music Critic

Japanese Noh theater, according to Penguin Classics' volume of the plays, "is one of the great achievements of civilization." Few would dispute that claim, if only because there are so few w…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 9:00am on November 11, 2016☆⚑

The connection between Gordon Davidson and Neville Marriner, and what it means for modern-day L.A. by Mark Swed, Music Critic

The Music Center is lowering its county flag to half-mast for Gordon Davidson, who died Sunday at age 83. As founder of Center Theatre Group at the Mark Taper Forum, he made Los Angeles a th…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 7:35pm on October 4, 2016☆⚑

The L.A. Phil's opening gala at Disney Hall finds Dudamel & Co. in full jazz swing by Mark Swed, Music Critic

A gala's a gala.  Who can ask for anything more?  Well, critics do all the time, and so, my emails show, do at least some concertgoers who complain of same old, same old with the annua…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 4:50pm on September 28, 2016☆⚑

Gustavo Dudamel, Cecilia Bartoli and a grim, bizarre 'West Side Story' in Salzburg by Mark Swed, Music Critic

So is "West Side Story" an opera, or what? For a semi-staged performance last month at the Hollywood Bowl, Gustavo Dudamel found an ideal balance between the Broadway roots and operatic pote…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 8:11pm on August 22, 2016☆⚑

Puccini extreme: Dudamel's gloriously pessimistic 'Tosca' an indictment on the appeal of fascism by Mark Swed, Music Critic

"Tosca" is Puccini extreme, the composer's most political opera. At its center is his most fiery heroine, Tosca, the diva who attempts to live for art under tyranny in Rome during Napoleonic…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 9:34pm on July 25, 2016☆⚑

Booed in Vienna, Dudamel makes revelatory L.A. Opera debut to frenzied cheers by Mark Swed, Music Critic

It was one short walk for a music director and one surprising leap for an opera company. The week after finishing his seventh season with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in Walt Disney Concert …

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 7:56pm on June 12, 2016☆⚑

Review: A sleek and polished 'West Side Story' for the West Coast by Mark Swed, Music Critic

It's Gay Pride outside and Sharks and Jets inside as Michael Tilson Thomas leads the San Francisco Symphony and Broadway singers in the complex musical.SAN FRANCISCO — "West Side Story…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 9:00am on July 2, 2013☆⚑