Newsletter: Essential Arts & Culture: Yo-Yo Ma seduces; PST: LA/LA officially lifts off; mourning a theater innovator
A searing cello solo. Latin American art takes over Los Angeles. And the passing of a great man of the stage. I’m Carolina A. Miranda, staff writer for the Los Angeles Times, with the week’s essential arts news:
Yo-Yo Ma commands the Bowl
It was, reports Times classical music critic Mark Swed, “an unquestionably great, memorable Bowl occasion.” For more than 2½ hours on Tuesday night, cellist Yo-Yo Ma played all six of Bach’s solo cello suites straight through. Writes Swed: “With the Bowl doing everything right — the lighting, the mood, the outstanding sound system — Ma made the astonishing argument against dumbing down.” Los Angeles Times
Pacific Standard Time officially debuts
Dozens of artists, curators and scholars descended on the Getty Center this week for the official launch of Pacific Standard Time: Los Angeles / Latin America. And it did not go without notice that the 80-plus exhibitions devoted to Latin American and U.S. Latino art land in SoCal at a divisive political moment, reports Times contributor Matt Stromberg. “It is an indictment of all of the false narratives that have been coming out of the White House, about the contributions of Mexican Americans in particular,” said L.A. painter Judithe Hernandez. “It could not have come at a better time.” Los Angeles Times
Since we’re on the subject of PST: Artists Stefan Benchoam and Jessica Kairé are the proprietors of a tiny, egg-shaped museum of contemporary art in Guatemala City dubbed the “NuMu.” This week, they drove a replica of that egg 3,000 miles to Southern California for installation at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Before it was hammered into place, however, The Times took the egg for a joyride. Fry’s Electronics in Burbank will never be the same. Los Angeles Times
In other PST news: Caribbean Fragoza looks at what it means to call art Latin American or Latino. “PST: LA/LA attempts to break up homogenizing notions of what Latin American art is and who Latin American artists are,” she writes. LA Weekly
And Maximiliano Durón reports on one of the central questions raised by the series: how the U.S. views Latin America. And he shares a fascinating anecdote in the process — about the PST curator who tried to travel her exhibition of contemporary Guatemalan art to other U.S. institutions, who responded with, “We don’t really have a Guatemalan population here.” ARTnews
Plus, Catherine Wagley reports on how PST is writing Chicano art into art history, an area sorely overlooked by U.S. institutions. Artnet
And Eva Recinos looks at how Latina photographers in L.A. are telling their own stories. LA Weekly
Wondering which to show to hit first, second and third for Pacific Standard Time? Our Datebook is your essential guide. Los Angeles Times
A director with his ear to the ground
Peter Hall, the founder of the Royal Shakespeare Company and a figure whose theatrical works “exerted a commanding influence on theater in the English-speaking world for well over 50 years,” has died at the age of 86. New York Times
Times theater critic Charles McNulty pays tribute: “Directors can’t simply let a play speak on its own, but they must put their ear to the ground. Meaning for Hall always returned to an intimate confrontation with the line. He didn’t believe that Shakespeare could be properly done without respecting the forms in which he wrote his plays. Verse, diction, rhetorical patterns — attention to these matters is what allowed a play to live again.” Los Angeles Times
An enlivening ‘Iphigenia’
Charles McNulty also caught a performance of “Iphigenia in Aulis” at the Getty Villa. He says the play, done in collaboration with Chicago’s Court Theater, “doesn’t have the directorial imagination to capitalize on the playwright’s lacerating modernity, which reveals as much about our inept political leaders,” but that the staging compensates with its “lucidity” and an eye-catching performance by Sandra Marquez, who plays Clytemnestra. Los Angeles Times
‘Carmen’ here and there
Mark Swed notes that the L.A. Opera has kicked off its season with a production of “Carmen” — again. “Is it cynical to dismiss so provincial a ‘Carmen’ as nothing more than box office bait?” he asks. Los Angeles Times
Times contributor Catherine Womack, in the meantime, interviews Ana María Martínez, who stars in the title role. “She is the poster girl for freedom,” says Martínez of the willful Carmen, “for liberation, for speaking your truth, and for being comfortable in your own skin.” Los Angeles Times
And since we’re on the subject of “Carmen,” The Times’ Daryl Miller writes about “Carmen Disruption” at City Garage, a play by Simon Stephens that isn’t “Carmen,” but instead is about an opera singer who has made a career of playing Carmen. Los Angeles Times
Kusama-mania
Demand for the Yayoi Kusama exhibition at the Broad museum in downtown L.A. is so great that the museum announced Monday it will sell another 40,000 tickets for the show — which will go on sale Oct. 2. The Times’ Deborah Vankin offers guidance on how to score a ticket. I’m sure prayer and sacrificial altars wouldn’t hurt. Los Angeles Times
A playwright becomes the star
Halley Feiffer is the award-winning writer behind the play with the very long name — it starts, “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Gynecologic Oncology Unit” — that is about to open at the Geffen Playhouse. Now she is starring in her own work. “It’s already so vulnerable being a playwright,” she tells the Times’ Jessica Gelt. “It’s just as scary being an actor and taking your clothes off literally and metaphorically for 500-plus people every night.” Los Angeles Times
Plus, Gelt also reports on how theater is pivoting to video — in the form of movie-style trailers. This summer. One man. Will soliloquy with a skull in his hand. [Explosion.] [Explosion.] [Explosion.] Los Angeles Times
Tech and the city
Apple has recently opened a new campus in Cupertino, Calif., and Amazon is in search of new headquarters. Times architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne uses this opportunity to examine the different relationships these companies have with the urban fabric: Apple turns its back on the city, while Amazon seeks it out. But he notes a common attitude about the places they inhabit: “the most powerful tech companies owe nothing to the American city.” Los Angeles Times
Plus: In the wake of the death of architect Gin Wong, who in his role as lead designer at William Pereira’s firm was responsible for landmarks such as the swooping Union 76 gas station in Beverly Hills, Hawthorne looks at the fraught topic of credit in architecture. Los Angeles Times
In other news …
—Chinatown gallerist Greg Escalante, champion of Lowbrow art and a founder of Juxtapoz magazine, has died at 62. Los Angeles Times
—Marc Masterson, the artistic director at South Coast Repertory, will depart when his contract expires at the end of the current season. Los Angeles Times
—Documenta has a deep deficit following this summer’s show, organized by Adam Szymczyk. Artnet
—A Rhode Island classical music festival ends in a failure of “epic proportions.” Boston Globe
—Wood from L.A. artist Sam Durant’s controversial “Scaffold” sculpture in Minneapolis will be buried in a secret location. Minneapolis Star Tribune
—A queer art exhibition in Porto Alegre, Brazil, has been shut down after far-right critics accused it of being offensive. Hyperallergic
—From the Department of Terrific Oversights: Nikon picked 32 photographers to promote a camera — and they were all dudes. New York Times
—The bird that inspired Mozart. Spectator
—Eight years after the death of Pina Bausch, her namesake dance company is going strong. New York Times
—That guy who claimed to have cracked the code of the elusive Voynich Manuscript – not quite. New Yorker
—The bureaucracy of Burning Man. Citylab
—An aeronaut’s view of Los Angeles. Lost LA
And last but not least …
What the world needs: Outkast riding a Cadillac on a Confederate monument. New Yorker
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