DISNEY THEATRICAL PRODUCTIONS TO DEBUT TOURING STAGE VERSION OF DISNEY’S PHENOMENALLY POPULAR

TO PLAY KODAK THEATRE 16 PERFORMANCES ONLY! DECEMBER 12-23

A new touring stage version of HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL will play Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center for 16 performances only, December 12 to 23. Presented by Disney Theatrical Productions, the division responsible for such smash Broadway hits as The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast and Mary Poppins, HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL is based on the 2006 Emmy Award-winning Disney Channel Original Movie.

Priority seating for HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL is available for groups of 15 or more by calling 1-888-DISNEY6 or 323-308-6333. Single tickets will go on sale October 20.

This new touring stage adaptation of Disney’s HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL is directed by Jeff Calhoun (Big River). HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL features a book by David Simpatico (adapted from the original movie script by Peter Barsocchini), and a score including all the songs from the original soundtrack plus two new songs. The touring company includes a live orchestra and a cast of 34 professional performers.

Commenting on the announcement, Thomas Schumacher, President and Producer of Disney Theatrical Productions, said, “Our stage version of this great property has been mounted as a direct response to overwhelming demand. As someone who has been passionate about theatre since I was a kid, I am thrilled that we are touring this remarkably popular title as a fully realized stage production, and most certainly introducing countless young people to the world of theatre for the very first time. You can’t ask for more than that.”

Schumacher adds, “It is a great joy and privilege for us to be able to produce and present the Disney Channel’s enormously popular property on stage. Rich Ross, president, Disney Channel Worldwide, said, "To have the great characters, movie and music from our Disney Channel Original Movie adapted for this professional theatre tour is an honor and we hope it will provide an opportunity to introduce kids to the arts."

Disney’s HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL is a contemporary musical comedy about a popular high school basketball star and a shy, academically gifted newcomer who discover they share a secret passion for singing. When they sign up together to audition for the lead roles in the school musical, it threatens East High's rigid social order and sends their peers into an uproar.

In a desperate effort to maintain the status quo, the "jocks," the "brainiacs" and even the drama club regulars are soon hatching convoluted plots to separate the pair and keep them offstage. By defying expectations and taking a chance on their dreams, however, the couple inspires other students to go public with some surprising hidden talents of their own.

The creative team for this new touring stage production of HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL, in addition to aforementioned director Calhoun, are choreographer Lisa Stevens, scenic designer Kenneth Foy, costume designer Wade Laboissonniere, lighting designer Kenneth Billington, sound designer Duncan Robert Edwards and music supervisor Bryan Louiselle.

“HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL” premiered on Disney Channel U.S. on January 20, 2006 and posted the highest ratings for a Disney Channel Original Movie up until that time. It went on to become a smash hit internationally and, in 2006, aired on 26 Disney Channels and free-to-air broadcasters worldwide, reaching over 100 million viewers in over 100 countries. It was also the first TV movie to be offered on the iTunes Music Store.

"High School Musical" delivered the #1 album of 2006, the year's #1 TV movie on DVD, licensed amateur and professional touring stage productions, a best-selling junior novel, a popular consumer products franchise at mass retailers, a themed show at Disneyland Parks and Resorts in Anaheim, Orlando and soon, Paris, a sold-out 42 date arena concert tour in North America and soon, Latin America, starring most of the cast, and a touring ice show premiering in late 2007. Adding to its success, it won the two Emmy Awards, a DGA Award, Television Critics Association Award, an Imagen Award, a Director's Guild of America Award and a Humanitas Prize nomination. Its soundtrack received a Billboard Music Award (Soundtrack of the Year) and was nominated for an American Music Award in the Favorite Album (Pop/Rock) category.

Walt Disney Studios announced it will develop a feature film based on the movie for release in 2008. HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL will play Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center for 16 performances only from December 12 to 23. It plays Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings at 7:30 pm; Saturday matinees at 2 pm; and Sundays at 1 pm and 6:30 pm. There is a special Thursday matinee on December 13 at 2 pm.

Tickets for HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL range in price from $20 to $70. VIP Ticket Packages are also available. The package includes a souvenir program and parking and is priced at $125. Priority seating for HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL is available for groups of 15 or more by calling 1-888-DISNEY6 or 323-308-6333. Single tickets go on sale October 20. For more information, visit highschoolmusicalontour.com.

About Kodak Theatre -- Kodak Theatre is the crown jewel of the Hollywood & Highland Center located in the heart of historic Hollywood. The 3,400 seat theatre opened in November 2001 and soon thereafter became known to more than one billion people across the globe as the first permanent home of the Academy Awards®. As a first class live entertainment venue, Kodak

Theatre has hosted a range of prestigious artists and events including Alicia Keys, Celine Dion, Prince, Elvis Costello, Barry Manilow, Stevie Wonder, Harry Connick, Jr., Melissa Etheridge, Dixie Chicks, Tyler Perry, American Ballet Theatre and various touring Broadway productions. Notable television and awards events at Kodak Theatre have included the American Idol finals, AFI Lifetime Achievement Awards to Tom Hanks, Meryl Streep, and George Lucas, Latin GRAMMY® Awards, ESPY Awards and BET Awards.

Kodak Theatre is operated by TheatreDreams. TheatreDreams and its affiliated companies, which also own and operate The Legendary Chicago Theatre, are led by Tony Award®-winning principals Lawrence J. Wilker, Jill Wilker, Joan A. Alper, William W. Becker and Michael Alper. Formed in 2001, TheatreDreams has co-produced three hit Broadway productions: Urinetown: T

he Musical, winner of three 2002 Tony Awards®; Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods starring Vanessa Williams and winner of the 2002 Tony Award® for Best Musical Revival; and Neil Simon’s The Dinner Party starring Henry Winkler and the late John Ritter. The company is actively developing original works and productions throughout the English-speaking entertainment world to nurture and produce the highest quality entertainment for both the United States and abroad.

Artist Robert Mah

At Marion Meyer Contemporary Art

October 13 – November 11, 2007

354 N. Coast Highway • Laguna Beach • CA • 92651 • USA • 949.497.5442
marionmeyergallery.com

The Accidental Process: Robert Mah’s New Paintings

By Tyler Stallings

Robert Mah is a painter for whom a controlled spontaneity is paramount. He works in a tradition of painting that extends back to the early twentieth century, encompassing a timeline of artists beginning with Wassily Kandisky to Piet Mondrian to Jackson Pollock. Like them, Mah shares a pursuit of painterly passion through abstraction. More specifically, reminiscent of the action painters of the New York School from the 1950s and 60s, he approaches the canvas as an arena in which to perform. The paintings, then, are less about their “objectness” and more about being a record of the process itself.

Incorporating the accidental mark is a chief characteristic of the action painters, or abstract expressionists, and of Mah’s work. It is the stray drip or splatter on the canvas that can suddenly send an artist down an unexpected path. It is this journey that fulfils Mah in the studio, and it is the layers of this journey as seen in the deposits of the paint, by which a viewer can take passage too.

Mah first started painting seriously when he joined the faculty at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, in the Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering as an Assistant Professor in Microbiology in 1963. While there, he enrolled in several art classes. This was a period of time at the tail end of abstract expressionism’s reign in art circles around the country, while Pop Art was just beginning to raise its head. Perhaps, for Mah, it was AbEx’s defining spontaneity, the sense of tapping into the subconscious, and even the seeming artlessness, that suggested a kind of accessibility, and a contrast to the rigors of the scientific method.

Without a doubt, it would have been exciting to be aware, while it was still unfolding, of the first truly original school of painting in the United States. Abstract expressionism established the vigorous creativity of a post-World War II America, and one that was not inhibited by Europe’s dominance and its aesthetics in the art world before the war.
A change in career appointment from UNC to University of California, Los Angeles, brought his artistic production to a halt in 1970. A daily two-hour commute from Huntington Beach to UCLA and a young family left little time for creative output in this direction since his attention was focused on research, teaching, and administration. His retirement from UCLA in 1995 gave him the opportunity to return to his artistic journey. He has picked up from the point of his first inspiration in 1963, again assuming an artistic practice that is committed to emotional honesty and a trust in intuition as guide for the hand and brush.

Two threads of abstraction loop throughout Mah’s recent body of paintings: one is architectonic, and the other is lyrical.

Orbs and rectilinear forms intermingle in Lunar Movements (2006), while rows and columns of forms interlock in Linear Chromatography (2007). Both titles reference scientific terms. The former examines the phases of the moon and its gravitational effects on Earth; while the latter references a laboratory technique involving the separation of the components in a mixture. On one hand, Mah shows us how he finds poetry in these scientific references, as if trying to make unfamiliar to himself that which was very familiar to him for so long in his occupation. Knowing that Mah was a scientist, these architectonic abstractions feel personal. It is as though Mah attempts to challenge the taxing of his mind by the rational, mathematical, and logic of science. In a sense, he has moved from a scientific laboratory of controlled conditions to his studio, an artistic laboratory with an unrestricted setting.

In these works, Mah challenges the illusion of depth and perspective that so many abstract painters have grappled with since the early twentieth century. This is most evident in Linear Chromatography. The puzzle of rectangles remains on the surface but at its center is a wash of paint with a slight horizontal line. Suddenly, the center rectangle suggests a window opening out onto a rainy landscape that stretches into the distance. Though there is the suggestion of recognizable imagery outside the confines of the painting, Mah’s hopes that it is just one level on which to engage his work.

Mah’s second approach is through gesture and lyricism. In works such as Above the Treeline (2006) and Sky Mountain (2007), his paint handling is loose. It appears as though he is simply spilling paint onto the canvas. In fact, his methodology involves the use of brushes and more unorthodox tools like a spatula and a ladle. He uses the ladle to more or less control his spills and to dilute the paint with water to give different effects of density and tonality.

The titles and images in these works reference aerial perspectives. The viewpoint is from that of a bird or an airplane. In Above the Treeline, gradations of black paint suggest a foreground, middleground and background for a landscape. A thick application of blackish paint suggest a thicket of treetops, apropos the title, while a thin, grey wash suggest mist enveloped mountains in the distance. The aerial perspective is traditional among Chinese landscape painters in the ink-and-wash tradition. A connection to this tradition is reinforced by Mah’s exclusive use of black paint and its handling like ink from a well.

In this tradition, there was never a demand for a dutiful observation of reality. Rather, in order to distinguish the main subject, the background might even be omitted altogether, simply leaving it vacant. But the apparent spontaneity or economy of line was due in part to knowledge of how reality worked, so to speak. In this manner, these Chinese painters could disregard such knowledge when they approached their silk or rice paper with ink and brush. Similarly, one feels that Mah is able to act outside the bounds of his scientific training that requires a different kind of strictness, and even outside the bounds of art history once he sits down at his easel.

Perhaps Mah’s consideration of artistic traditions from the East came from his tutelage by the celebrated ceramicist and sculptor, Toshiko Takaezu in Penland, North Carolina in the early 1970s. She exercises a spontaneous approach toward glazing by circumnavigating a vessel while applying a glaze without restraint through pouring and painting. This approach balances her more systematic process of a building her famous closed-topped vessels with stacked coils of clay. She embraces a technique that several ceramists had assumed on the west coast, most notably Peter Voulkos. They were inspired by the Japanese aesthetic in ceramics of accepting accidents in glazing and firing as important to the final outcome. This influence, when combined with the impact and stimulus of Abstract Expressionism in the U.S., produced a new approach towards ceramics, specifically towards the vessel and its functionality.

One of the connections between Mah’s two bodies of work is that both reference the landscape. On one hand, you have Mah’s architectonic works, suggestive of windows, tunnels, and overlapping buildings. And on the other hand, you have the gestural works that are suggestive of mountains and trees. They reimagine the classic theme of man versus nature when considered relative to one another.

Compositionally, even though the titles ground the work with references to an observable reality, neither people nor animals populate the scenes. Only the remnants of culture with the rectilinear forms or the secluded, wild landscape at the tops of mountains are apparent.

A reductive palette is perhaps the most daring aspect shared among all the works. Like the notable Abstract Expressionist, Franz Kline, only gradations of black paint are used in the majority of Mah’s recent work. It would appear that his goal is to restrict a certain number of choices, especially when viewed in contrast to his early work that involved layers of a multitude of colored paints. By taking color out of the equation, he can focus on the relationship between the forms, and the interplay of improvisation and discipline between spills and geometric forms.

In a more recent work, Harnessing Hydrodynamic Turbulence (2007), Mah brings his varied working methods into a singular composition. Here he lays down his signature spill. Then, clearly, inspired by its resemblance to a waterfall, he takes a route that does not place it within the context of a lofty mountainside, but instead places it squarely within the confines of the man-made world. He does so by painting an overlay of rectangles and polygons onto the spill. These forms suggest an hydroelectric dam that is referenced in the title. It is the one man-made structure that can mimic a soaring mountain wall that is accompanied by an occasional and controlled release of a graceful cascade of water. In this new work, it is clear that Robert Mah has, indeed, discovered his special vocabulary.

Tyler Stallings is the director of University of California, Riverside’s Sweeney Art Gallery. His writing and other curatorial work can be viewed at www.tylerstallings.com.

The Orange County Museum of Art AND THE NEWPORT BEACH FILM FESTIVAL Announce Cinema Orange fall Film Series

Celebrate “Cool” with Independent Films and Art on Thursday Evenings at OCMA

The Orange County Museum of Art and the Newport Beach Film Festival proudly announce the fall lineup for their popular Cinema Orange film series. Cinema Orange spotlights independent classic and contemporary feature-length documentary films from around the globe. This season’s programming includes films that celebrate midcentury art, design, and jazz; coinciding with the premiere of the new exhibition, Birth of the Cool: California Art, Design, and Culture at Midcentury.

Cinema Orange features Helvetica, an independent film that explores typography, graphic Design, and global visual culture; The Sophisticated Misfit, a groovy documentary on the life of contemporary artist, Shag; and Let’s Get Lost, a rare documentary on the life of elusive jazz musician Chet Baker. Interactive question and answer with filmmakers to follow select screenings. Films screen at the museum’s Newport Beach location and are free with paid museum admission. Galleries are open until 8 pm on Thursdays; $10 general museum admission includes access to the galleries until 8 pm.

October 11, 7:30 pm Helvetica (2007 / Documentary / UK / 80 minutes) Directed by Gary Hustwit Helvetica encompasses the worlds of design, advertising, psychology, and communication, and invites us to take a second look at the thousands of words we see every day. Focusing on the proliferation of a single typeface that celebrates its 50th birthday in 2007, the film examines the larger context of how type affects our lives. The film is an exploration of urban spaces in major cities and the type that inhabits them, and a fluid discussion with renowned designers about their work, the creative process, and the choices and aesthetics behind their use of type. November 8, 7:30 pm The Sophisticated Misfit (2007 / Documentary / USA / 59 minutes) Directed by Marc Chervinsky Featuring Shag, Whoopi Goldberg, Paul Frank, Patton Oswalt This documentary explores artist Shag's world of midcentury furniture, wet bars, and jet-set L.A. style. He embraces a simpler time, but his artwork is filled with subtle winks acknowledging that this period wasn't so simple. Director Mark Chervinsky to participate in a post-screening Q&A. December 13, 7:30 pm Let’s Get Lost (1988 / Documentary / USA / 120 minutes) Directed by Bruce Weber Nominated for Oscar, Best Documentary Feature Featuring Chet Baker, William Claxton, Jack Sheldon, Chris Isaak This rarely screened documentary charts jazz trumpeter Chet Baker's meteoric rise, precipitous fall and sadly diminished end, inter-cutting footage from Baker’s musical heyday and the last years before his untimely death.

Cinema Orange is curated by Leslie Feibleman, senior film programmer and director of special programs & outreach, Newport Beach Film Festival. Media sponsorship is provided by Squeeze OC. Image credits: Still from Helvetica; Still from The Sophisticated Misfit; Still from Let’s Get Lost.

MUSEUM INFORMATION
The Orange County Museum of Art in Newport Beach is located at 850 San Clemente Drive. Hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Wednesday through Sunday, with extended hours Thursdays from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Admission is $10/adults; $8/seniors and students; children twelve and under and OCMA members are free. Third Thursdays are free. For more information, call 949.759.1122 or visit www.ocma.net.

NEWPORT BEACH FILM FESTIVAL INFORMATION
The ninth annual Newport Beach Film Festival will run from April 24^th through May 1st, 2008 and will showcase over 350 films from around the world, including feature length narrative, documentary, short and animated films that will compete for both Jury and Audience awards. www.NewportBeachFilmFest.com

La Bohème

Music by Giacomo Puccini

Libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa

Four performances only – October 24, 28, November 1, 3 2007

Segerstrom Hall, Orange County Performing Artscenter

Opera Pacific, led by Artistic Director John DeMain, presents Puccini’s La Bohème at Segerstrom Hall, Opera Pacific’s opera house, at the Orange County Performing Artscenter. The production, originally conceived and staged by Jim Robinson for the New York City Opera and presented for the first time on the West Coast, will be conducted by Edoardo Müller, and directed by Michael Scarola. The sets are by Allen Moyer and the costumes are by James Schuette. The scenery and costumes belong to New York City Opera.

Framed in Paris at the outbreak of World War I, Robinson’s La Bohème contrasts the elegance of the belle époque with the march of industrialization and war. La Bohème will be sung in Italian with English translation projected above the stage. The arias, some of the best known in all of opera, include “Quando me'n vo',” “Mi chiamano Mimi” and “Che gelida manina.”

With these performances, Opera Pacific begins its 22nd season. Since its inception Opera Pacific has been the resident opera company of the Orange County Performing Artscenter for the entire history of the venue.

The cast of La Bohème includes American soprano Kelly Kaduce as Mimi, Mexican born tenor Arturo Chacón-Cruz as Rodolfo, Canadian baritone James Westman as Marcello, and returning to Opera Pacific, Megan Monaghan as Musetta and Andrew Gangestad as Colline.

First presented in Turin in 1893, La Bohème was conducted by a young Arturo Toscanini, and established Puccini as a new star in Italian opera. According to Opera America, La Bohème is one of the two most performed operas in North America. The adaptations and references to the opera in popular culture are myriad, from a 1926 silent MGM film starring Lillian Gish, to the Tony Award winning Broadway smash musical Rent.

La Bohème is based on Murger's novel Scenes de la Vie de Boheme, although the opera is based more on Murger's adaptation of his novel for the stage (La Vie de Boheme, 1849) than on the novel itself. Puccini's opera draws from a collection of true-life sketches describing life among the original bohemians, the poor artists of Paris's Latin Quarter.

The opera begins on a moonlit Christmas Eve, in the garret of the poet Rodolfo which he shares with the painter Marcello and two others. When the frail seamstress Mimi comes to Rodolfo's door for help, the two fall passionately in love. Mirroring the relationship of Rodolfo and Mimi is that of Marcello, who is carrying on a turbulent affair with flirtatious Musetta. Rodolfo, for his part, is impossibly jealous of Mimi, and the two regretfully part, until Musetta reveals that Mimi is dying of consumption. Rodolfo flies to Mimi's side, and the lovers are united, only to be separated forever by Mimi's death.

Soprano Kelly Kaduce makes her Opera Pacific debut in the signature role of Mimi. Ms. Kaduce has garnered thunderous praise for her stage portrayals, most recently for her star-making turn in David Carlson's Anna Karenina for Florida Grand Opera and Opera Theater of St. Louis. Of her performance in Anna Karenina, The New York Times said, “The soprano Kelly Kaduce was a terrific Anna, conveying the title character’s passion and despair.” Kaduce was mentioned in the August 2007 issue of Opera News as “a radiant new voice in American Opera…She has developed one of the most individual profiles of any young soprano around today.” After her stay in Orange County she returns to Malmö Opera as Marguerite in Faust, to Minnesota Opera in her first assumption of the title role in Rusalka, and to Opera Theatre of St. Louis in the title role of Madama Butterfly. Kelly is married to her La Bohème co-star Lee Gregory, singing the role of Schaunard.

Arturo Chacón-Cruz, who sings the role of Rodolfo, made his Italian debut this season with Teatro Comunale di Bologna singing Rodolfo in La Bohème, his Spanish debut as Christian in Cyrano de Bergerac with Valencia Opera opposite Plácido Domingo, his debut with Teatro di San Carlo in Naples as Rinuccio in Gianni Schicchi, his French debut with Festival de Radio France and Montpellier Opera singing Marcello di Bruges in Il Duca d’Alba, and his debut as Roméo in Roméo et Juliette with Detroit Opera. Chacón- Cruz has also appeared often in concert. He made his Carnegie Hall debut in March 2002 singing Mozart’s Coronation Mass, and he returned in June 2003 to sing Beethoven’s Mass in C and Charpentier’s Te Deum with the New England Symphonic Ensemble, as well a concert with the New York Pops in 2006.

Originally from Stratford, Ontario, baritone James Westman in the role of Marcello, was baritone in residence with the San Francisco Opera Adler's Fellowship program until March 2000. Westman's performances at the San Francisco Opera include: Silvio in Pagliacci, Guglielmo in Così fan tutte, Marcello in La Bohème, Germont in La Traviata, Renato in Un ballo in maschera and Sid in Albert Herring. Westman also sang the baritone’s signature-role, Germont, with the English National Opera for his London debut. Mr. Westman also recently sang a new role in Dallas, Talbot in Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda, before joining the Opéra de Montréal for another new role, Frédéric in Lakmé. Mr. Westman also returned to London for a commercial recording for Opera Rara and a concert performance of another Donizetti opera, the rare Imelda de’ Lambertazzi.

A native of Philadelphia, Megan Monaghan, singing the role of Musetta, was recently hailed by Opera News as "...A voice of pure silver, easily negotiating coloratura flights of fancy with exquisite musicianship..." for her role of Gilda in Dayton Opera’s production of Rigoletto. Ms. Monaghan’s recent engagements have included Floriana in Zazà at Alice Tully Hall Lincoln Center, Cunegonde in Candide at the Teatro Argentina, Rome, Clomiri in Handel’s Imeneo at Glimmerglass Opera, Barbarina and Susanna (cover) in Le Nozze di Figaro with Opera Pacific, and Gilda in Rigoletto with both Dayton Opera and Eugene Opera. She was also a member of Opera Pacific’s Young Artist program. Ms. Monaghan also recorded Maestro Lorin Maazel’s new opera 1984 with the conductor before its’ premiere at Covent Garden.

Andrew Gangestad returns to Opera Pacific singing the role of Colline, after singing the role of Leporello in last season’s Don Giovanni and singing twice in the 2005-2006 season (Ramfis in Aïda and Angelotti in Tosca). In the 2004-05 season, he sang at the Metropolitan Opera as Colline in La Bohème, Vaudemont in I Vespri Siciliani, and Lignière in the company premiere of Cyrano de Bergérac. He also sang at Sarasota Opera as Leporello in Don Giovanni and Carnegie Hall as Hermit in Der Freischütz with Opera Orchestra of New York. The bass’s recent engagements included returning to the Metropolitan Opera as Truffaldino in Ariadne auf Naxos, Count Ceprano in Rigoletto, and Lignière in Cyrano de Bergerac.

Baritone Lee Gregory sings the role of Schaunard and is a regular performer with American Opera projects collaborating with new playwrights and composers, performing their works in progress. Recent performances include Mercutio in Roméo et Juliette with Toledo Opera and Nashville Opera, Mr. Marshall in Regina at Bard's SummerScape Festival, John Brooke in Little Women with Dayton Opera, and Moralès in Carmen with New York City Opera. Mr. Gregory also sang the title role in Don Giovanni and Melchoir in Amahl and the Night Visitors with the Opera Company of Brooklyn, and the roles of Maximillian in Candide and Ping in Turandot with Des Moines Metro Opera. A winner of the Licia Albanese Puccini Foundation Competition, Mr. Gregory has participated in a number of training programs including San Francisco Opera's Merola Opera Program and the Western Opera Theater Tour, Aspen Music Festival, Cincinnati Opera's Apprentice Artist Program, and the Des Moines Metro Opera Tour. Gregory is married to his La Bohème co-star Kelly Kaduce, singing the role of Mimi.

Singing the dual roles of Benoit and Alcindoro is Michael Gallup, who has been a regular guest of opera companies throughout the United States. He has also performed opera at the Hollywood Bowl under Michael Tilson Thomas, Sir Charles Groves, and Leonard Slatkin. Notable roles at Los Angeles Opera include Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Faninal in Der Rosenkavalier, the Sacristan in Tosca, Trinity Moses in The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, Doctor Bartolo in Le Nozze di Figaro and Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Taddeo in L’Italiana in Algieri, Don Alfonso in Cosí fan tutte, Dulcamara in L’elisir d’amore, Zuniga in Carmen, and Alcindoro/Benoit in La Bohéme. Elsewhere he has performed to great acclaim the roles of Leporello for Michigan Opera Theater, Opera Pacific, Dayton Opera and Utah Opera, Dulcamara, Don Magnifico and Doctor Bartolo for Arizona Opera, Mustafà in L’Italiana in Algieri for the Palm Beach Opera, Faninal for Portland Opera, Alcindoro/Benoit for Dallas Opera and Vancouver Opera and Don Alfonso in Cosí fan tutte and Osmin in The Abduction from the Seraglio for the San Luis Obispo Mozart Festival.

Edoardo Müller will lead the orchestra in Puccini’s melodious operatic score, with a libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa . Since his debut at the Metropolitan Opera in 1984 conducting Il barbiere di Siviglia, Edoardo Muller has returned often conducting performances of Lucia di Lammermoor, I puritani, L’elisir d’amore, La fille du regiment, Roméo et Juliette and La Cenerentola. A regular presence throughout the opera houses of the United States, recent seasons have had Edoardo Muller conducting Il barbiere di Siviglia for Michigan Opera Theatre, La cenerentola for Houston Grand Opera and L’italiana in Algeri for Seattle Opera. Muller was for many years the Director of the School for Advanced Studies at the Teatro all Scala in Milan. He has also frequently appeared in recital with artists including Renata Tebaldi, Leyla Gencer, Katia Ricciarelli, Carlo Bergonzi, Jose Carreras and Piero Cappuccilli. His has recorded in collaboration with world-renowned tenor Ramon Vargas, Verdi Arias for BMG classics.

Stage Director Michael Scarola made his professional directing debut with the Sarasota Opera in 1996 with La Forza del Destino. Since then, his work has been seen with major opera companies throughout the United States and abroad. He was on the Metropolitan Opera Directing Staff for five seasons, where he worked on the Met premieres of Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and La Cenerentola, starring Cecilia Bartoli and conducted by James Levine, as well as many other productions. Recent engagements have included a return to the Directing Staff of New York City Opera, as well as directing Bernstein's Mass for the Dallas Symphony Orchestra in commemoration of the 40th Anniversary of the JFK assassination, and directing excerpts from Mass for the re-opening of the opera house at Washington’s Kennedy Center. He also directed Bernstein's Mass for Catholic University, where he has been named Visiting Director of Opera.

Opera Pacific Prologue

An Opera Pacific prologue on La Bohème will be held at Bowers Museum on Sunday, October 7 at 2:00 p.m. Opera Pacific’s Prologues provide an introduction to the opera for all audiences and are designed to provide information for those new to opera, as well as those who have been lifelong fans of the art form. The Prologue speaker will be Ron Shaheen, who lends his insight into the history, music and plot intricacies as intended by the composer. Audience members have the opportunity to ask questions of and engage in discussions with the speaker, and hear excerpts from the upcoming production performed by cast members.

22nd Season of Opera Pacific

Celebrating its 22nd Season, Opera Pacific has established itself as one of the finest professional opera companies in the nation. Opera Pacific's mainstage productions, extensive community outreach programs, and energetic Guild Alliance combine to create a cultural resource for all of Southern California. More than 670,000 people have enjoyed Opera Pacific's productions at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, while over 575,000 young people have discovered the world of opera through the company's in-school presentations, Student Previews, and nationally recognized Opera Camps.

In addition to the "grand opera" repertory, Opera Pacific has responded to the need for strong, professional productions of classic American musical theatre and European operetta. Under the baton and dedication of John DeMain, opera is an event with the honest communication of the stories and musical values of the works, combined with exciting singers, and major opera house scale productions.

Tickets for La Bohème

Tickets for La Bohème are priced from $27 to $191, and are available by calling 1-800-34-OPERA, online at www.operapacific.org, or by visiting the Orange County Performing Artscenter Box Office at 600 Town Center Drive in Costa Mesa. For information, go to www.operapacific.org. For groups, call (714) 830-6361.

Photos by Carol Rosegg.

Mark Morris Dance Group
Mozart Dances
Choreography by Mark Morris

With pianists Garrick Ohlsson and Yoko Nozaki Conducted by Jane Glover

Three performances only! October 20 and 21, 2007 Dorothy Chandler Pavilion

Mark Morris Dance Group will bring their acclaimed Mozart Dances to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion October 20 and 21 for three performances only. Formed in 1980, Mark Morris Dance Group is recognized as one of the world's leading dance companies and noted for its commitment to live music, a feature of every performance on its full international touring schedule since 1996. The Southern California Premiere of Mozart Dances will feature pianists Garrick Ohlsson and Yoko Nozaki with a full orchestra conducted by Jane Glover. The engagement, part of the Dance at Music Center season, is October 20 at 7:30pm, and October 21 at 2:00pm and 7:30pm.

Mozart Dances features Piano Concerto No. 11; Sonata in D Major for 2 Pianos and Piano Concerto No. 27 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The dancers perform against bold, fluid backdrops designed by acclaimed British artist, Howard Hodgkin. Choreographed for 16 dancers; Mozart Dances had its premiere in August 2006 at Lincoln Center’s New York State Theater as part of the Mostly Mozart Festival’s celebration of Mozart’s 250th birthday. The music was chosen collaboratively by Morris, the pianist Emanuel Ax (who performed in all three compositions; his wife, the pianist Yoko Nozaki, joined him for the sonata), and Louis Langrée, the conductor of the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra.

Voice of Dance called the evening “one of the greatest dance events of the new century.” Mozart Dances was commissioned by Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (New York), New Crowned Hope (Vienna) and the Barbican Centre (London).

Tickets for Mark Morris Dance Group are priced from $25 to $95. Advance tickets are available at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion Box Office, 135 N. Grand Avenue. Day of the performance tickets go on sale at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion Box Office, 135 N. Grand Avenue, at 6:00 pm for evening performances and at 12:00 noon for matinee performances. Tickets are also on sale through Ticketmaster Phone Charge at 213/365-3500 or 714/740-7878, online at www.ticketmaster.com, and at all Ticketmaster Outlets.

About Mark Morris Dance Group

Mark Morris Dance Group was formed in 1980 and after giving its first concert that year in New York City, the company's touring schedule steadily expanded to include cities both in the U.S. and in Europe. In 1986, it made its first national television program for the PBS series “Dance in America.” In 1988, MMDG was invited to become the national dance company of Belgium, and spent three years in residence at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels. The company returned to the United States in 1991 as one of the world's leading dance companies, performing across the U.S. and at major international festivals. MMDG made its debut at the Mostly Mozart Festival in 2002 and at the Tanglewood Music Festival in 2003 and has since been invited to both festivals annually. The company's London seasons have garnered two Olivier Awards.

It has maintained and strengthened its ties to several cities around the world, most notably its West Coast home, Cal Performances in Berkeley, CA, and its Midwest home, the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts in Urbana, IL. MMDG also appears regularly in Boston, MA; Fairfax, VA; Seattle, WA; and at the Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival in Becket, MA.

MMDG is noted for its commitment to live music, a feature of every performance on its full international touring schedule since 1996. MMDG collaborates with leading orchestras, opera companies, and musicians including cellist Yo-Yo Ma in the Emmy Award-winning film “Falling Down Stairs” (1997); Indian composer Zakir Hussain, Mr. Ma and jazz pianist Ethan Iverson in Kolam (2002); The Bad Plus in Violet Cavern (2004); pianists Emanuel Ax and Yoko Nozaki for Mozart Dances (2006) and with the English National Opera in Four Saints in Three Acts (2000) and King Arthur (2006), among others. In May of 2007 Mark Morris made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera as a choreographer and director with the first new Metropolitan Opera production of Gluck's early masterpiece Orfeo Ed Euridice in over 35 years. MMDG's film and television projects also include “Dido and Aeneas,” “The Hard Nut” and two documentaries for the U.K.'s South Bank Show.

In fall 2001, MMDG opened the Mark Morris Dance Center in Brooklyn, NY, the company's first permanent headquarters in the U.S., housing rehearsal space for the dance community, outreach programs for local children, as well as a school offering dance classes to students of all ages.

bout Mark Morris
Mark Morris was born on August 29, 1956, in Seattle, Washington, where he studied as a young man with Verla Flowers and Perry Brunson. In the early years of his career, he performed with Lar Lubovitch, Hannah Kahn, Laura Dean, Eliot Feld, and the Koleda Balkan Dance Ensemble.

He formed the Mark Morris Dance Group in 1980, and has since created more than 120 works for the company. From 1988-1991, he was Director of Dance at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels, the national opera house of Belgium. Among the works created during his tenure were three evening-length dances: The Hard Nut; L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato; and Dido and Aeneas.

In 1990, he founded the White Oak Dance Project with Mikhail Baryshnikov. Morris is also much in demand as a ballet choreographer. He has created six works for the San Francisco Ballet since 1994 and received commissions from American Ballet Theatre, and the Boston Ballet, among others. His work is also in the repertory of the Pacific Northwest Ballet, Dutch National Ballet, New Zealand Ballet, Houston Ballet, English National Ballet, and The Royal Ballet.

Morris is noted for his musicality and has been described as “undeviating in his devotion to music.” He has worked extensively in opera, directing and choreographing productions for The Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, English National Opera, and The Royal Opera, Covent Garden. Morris was named a Fellow of the MacArthur Foundation in 1991. He has

received eight honorary doctorates to date. In 2006, Morris received the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs Mayor's Award for Arts & Culture and a WQXR Gramophone Special Recognition Award.

He is the subject of a biography by Joan Acocella (Farrar, Straus & Giroux) and Marlowe & Company published a volume of photographs and critical essays entitled “Mark Morris' L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato: A Celebration.” Morris is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2007, he received the Samuel H. Scripps/American Dance Festival lifetime achievement award.

About Garrick Ohlsson

Since his triumph as winner of the 1970 Chopin International Piano Competition, pianist Garrick Ohlsson has established himself worldwide as a musician of magisterial interpretive and technical prowess. Although he has long been regarded as one of the world’s leading exponents of the music of Frédéric Chopin, Mr. Ohlsson commands an enormous repertoire, which ranges over the entire piano literature. A student of the late Claudio Arrau, Mr. Ohlsson has come to be noted for his masterly performances of the works of Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert, as well as the Romantic repertoire. His concerto repertoire alone is unusually wide and eclectic – ranging from Haydn and Mozart to works of the 21st century – and to date he has at his command some 80 concertos.

In the 2007-08 season, Mr. Ohlsson appears in North America with the symphony orchestras of Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Fort Worth, Houston, Indianapolis, Minnesota, Nashville, San Francisco, Seattle, and Toronto. Special projects include performances in Berkeley and Los Angeles with Mark Morris Dance Group and pianist Yoko Nozaki in the critically acclaimed “Mozart Dances”; performances with the Russian National Orchestra and Vladimir Jurowski in California and at New York’s Lincoln Center; and a Florida tour with the Pittsburgh Symphony. With the Sydney Symphony and Vladimir Ashkenazy, he will perform Rachmaninov’s Third Piano Concerto to be recorded live on the Octavia Records label. A recital project focusing on the piano music of Scriabin and Russian contemporaries will begin in San Francisco and San Diego in the spring and will carry through the 08/09 season. Additionally, he performs with the Warsaw Philharmonic, RTVE Madrid, and the MDR Leipzig Symphony Orchestra.

In 2006-07, Mr. Ohlsson opened the Mostly Mozart Festival in New York in a live, nationally televised performance. Mr. Ohlsson is an avid chamber musician and has collaborated with the Cleveland, Emerson, Takács and Tokyo string quartets, among other ensembles. Together with violinist Jorja Fleezanis and cellist Michael Grebanier, he is a founding member of the San Francisco-based FOG Trio.

About Yoko Nozaki

Since her 1972 New York City debut recital, pianist Yoko Nozaki has won consistent critical acclaim during two decades of chamber music performances, recitals, and concerts with several major American orchestras. She has also appeared at such music festivals as Mostly Mozart, Ravinia, Ojai, and Tanglewood and frequently collaborates with her husband, pianist Emanuel Ax.

Ms. Nozaki and Mr. Ax’s joint appearances have included recitals in the Distinguished Artist Series at the 92nd Street Y and the Metropolitan Museum in New York. They have performed together with several major orchestras, including St. Louis, Minnesota, Detroit, and Cleveland. During the summer of 1992, they gave performances of the Mozart Two-Piano Concerto at the Mostly Mozart Festival in New York with Edo de Waart and at the Blossom Festival with Leonard Slatkin. They also participated in a Tanglewood Festival evening featuring the Brahms Leibeslieder Waltzes and the Rossini Petite Messe Solennelle, commemorating that composer’s 200th birthday.

A performance of the Mozart concerto with Mr. Ax and the Minnesota Orchestra under the direction of David Zinman soon followed. In August 1996, Ms. Nozaki made her Ravinia Festival debut in a performance of the Mozart Three-Piano Concerto with Mr. Ax and Christoph Eschenbach. That season also included debut appearances at the Ojai Festival and at Carnegie Hall with the New York String Orchestra.

More recently, Ms. Nozaki and Mr. Ax highlighted a four-city tour in 1999-2000 with an acclaimed performance at the Freer Gallery in Washington, D.C. In 1999, the pair also toured with Jamie Laredo and the Brandenburg Ensemble, including a Celebrity Series performance at the Symphony Hall in Boston.

In 2001, Ms. Nozaki and Mr. Ax were joined by the percussionists Mark Damaloukis and Matt Wood for a Lincoln Center Great Performers concert exploring modern music for piano and percussion. Last season, she made her debut appearance at The Hollywood Bowl. Recent and upcoming engagements include appearances with The Toronto Symphony, and Orchestre de Lyon in Paris.

Dance at the Music Center presents some of the world’s most renowned ballet and contemporary artists on stage at the Music Center’s Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Ahmanson Theatre and Walt Disney Concert Hall. At Dance at the Music Center, the audience can experience compelling, sensual, and provocative dance events with works by some of the world’s greatest choreographers. This season includes The Mark Morris Dance Group, American Ballet Theatre, COMPLEXIONS Contemporary Ballet, and the Teatro alla Scala Ballet Company.

Dance at the Music Center tickets are priced from $25 to $115 and are available at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion Box Office, 135 North Grand Avenue. Tickets are also available through Ticketmaster Phone Charge at 213/365-3500 or 714/740-7878, and at all Ticketmaster Outlets and online at www.ticketmaster.com. For groups of 15 or more, call Connie Nelson at (310) 831-1022. For more information about Mark Morris Dance Group and all Dance at the Music Center engagements, visit musiccenter.org.

Reprise! Broadway’s Best

“Damn Yankees”

Music and lyrics by Richard Adler & Jerry Ross

Book by George Abbott & Douglass Wallop

Based on the novel by Douglass Wallop 


"The Year The Yankees Lost the Pennant"


Choreography by Lee Martino

Directed by Jason Alexander

Limited engagement of 16 Performances Only!

November 6 to November 18 (Press Opening Nov. 7)

at UCLA’S Freud Playhouse

Jason Alexander, new Artistic Director of Reprise! Broadway’s Best will direct the second production of its 2007-2008 season, “Damn Yankees,” music and lyrics by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross, book by George Abbott & Douglass Wallop, based on the novel "The Year The Yankees Lost the Pennant,"
by Douglass Wallop. “Damn Yankees” won seven 1956 Tony Awards including Best Musical. Reprise! musical director Gerald Sternbach conducts, and the choreography is by Lee Martino, who just choreographed the recent Reprise! “On Your Toes.” “Damn Yankees” is presented by special arrangement with Jeff Richards and James Fuld.

“Damn Yankees” will preview on Tuesday, November 6 and will open on Wednesday, November 7, and continue through Sunday, November 18 at UCLA’s Freud Playhouse.

The authors of this classic musical have given Reprise! permission to update and adapt this classic musical – and bring it forward in time from the mid-fifties to 1981, Los Angeles, where Joe, a middle aged man is endlessly frustrated that his beloved Dodgers are constantly thwarted by those … well, damn Yankees.

Desperate, Joe makes a deal with the devil, Applegate, to exchange his soul for becoming a youthful baseball star leading his team towards the pennant. In the battle of fantasy vs. true love, Joe finds he misses his wife more and more – when Applegate sends in his secret weapon – the irresistible temptress Lola. “Whatever Lola Wants, Lola Gets” she sings – but does she? And does Joe lead Dodger Blue to victory before the devil owns him for eternity?

“Damn Yankees” first opened on Broadway in 1955, just one year after “The Pajama Game,” created by the “Yankees” creative team, took Broadway by storm. That team was the new composer-lyricist duo Richard Adler and Jerry Ross, veteran book writer and director George Abbott, and producers Harold Prince, Robert Griiffith and Frederick Brisson. Prince would go onto one of the most prolific careers in musical theatre as a producer and director with credits including “West Side Story,” “Fiddler on the Roof,” “Cabaret,” “Company,” “Sweeney Todd,” “Evita,” and “The Phantom of the Opera.” “Damn Yankees” also solidified Bob Fosse’s career as a choreographer, along with its two stars Gwen Verdon and Ray Walston.

The original “Damn Yankees” ran 1,019 performances, followed by a London production, and a very popular film, directed by Abbott and Stanely Donen, featuring Tab Hunter and almost the entire original Broadway cast.

“Damn Yankees” had a successful Broadway revival in 1994, which starred Bebe Neuwirth and Victor Garber as Applegate, and was directed by Jack O’Brien and choreographed by Rob Marshall, who went on to make the film of “Chicago.” Garber was succeeded by Jerry Lewis, who then starred in a national tour and the London production.

“Damn Yankees” is the second attraction of the 2007-2008 Reprise! Broadway’s Best season. It will be followed by “Li’l Abner” February 5 to 17, 2008 (press opening February 5) and “Flora the Red Menace” May 6 to 18 (press opening May 7).

“Damn Yankees” will preview on Tuesday, November 6 and will open on Wednesday, November 7 (press opening). It will perform Tuesday through Friday evenings at 8:00pm; Saturdays at 2:00pm & 8:00pm, and Sundays at 2:00pm & 7:00pm through Sunday, November 18. Single ticket prices are Tuesday, August 14 (preview) $60.00; Opening night - $75.00; Tuesday through Thursday performances - $70.00; Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, (all performances) - $75.00. Reprise! offers a $20.00 Student/Senior rush 15 minutes before showtime (subject to availability). For tickets, please call the UCLA Central Ticket Office at 310/825-2101.

For further information on Reprise! Broadway’s Best, please visit www.reprise.org.

About Reprise! Broadway’s Best

Reprise! Broadway’s Best, now in its eleventh season at UCLA’s Freud Playhouse was founded by Marcia Seligson, who served as Producing Artistic Director from 1995 – 2005, and is honored as its Founding Artistic Director. In 2007, Jason Alexander was named Artistic Director. In 2005, Jim Gardia became Producing Director. Reprise! has presented twenty-seven of America’s best and most classic musicals of this century. The late Peter Matz, one of Broadway, television and popular music’s most important conductor-arrangers, served as the musical director from the founding of Reprise! until his death in August, 2002. Gerald Sternbach has succeeded him.

Since the beginning (“Promises, Promises” starring Jason Alexander, Alan Thicke, and Jean Smart) the scope of Reprise! productions has grown considerably – the rehearsal time has doubled, costumes and scenery have increased, and orchestras have been enlarged as Reprise! has worked its way through some of the great, and often infrequently seen American musicals. Originally presented as “in concert” (i.e. scripts in hand), the productions are now completely staged and choreographed. The casts are drawn from the best Broadway performers working today and actors working here in Los Angeles who rarely have the opportunity to appear in musicals. The number of performances of each show has grown from seven to sixteen.

The productions have included “Finian’s Rainbow” with Andrea Marcovicci and Rex Smith; “Wonderful Town” with Lucie Arnaz and Stephanie Zimbalist; “Of Thee I Sing” with Gregory Harrison and Maureen McGovern; “The Boys From Syracuse” with David Hyde Pierce and Lea DeLaria; “Call Me Madam” with Karen Morrow; “Mack & Mabel” with Douglas Sills, Jane Krakowski and Donna McKechnie; “Strike Up The Band” with Charles Nelson Reilly; “1776” with Roger Rees and Orson Bean; “The Most Happy Fella” with Rodney Gilfry; “Anything Goes” with Rachel York and Brent Barrett; “On The 20^TH Century” with Bob Gunton, Carolee Carmello, Mimi Hines, Robert Picardo and Dan Butler; “She Loves Me” with Rebecca Luker and Scott Waara; “Babes In Arms” with Joey McIntyre and Jodi Benson; “Kismet” with Len Cariou and Anthony Crivello; “Company” with Christopher Sieber and Judith Light; “Brigadoon” with Marin Mazzie and Jason Danieley; “Pippin” with Sam Harris and Michael Arden; “Applause” with Sheryl Lee Ralph and Jean Louisa Kelly; “On The Town” with David Elder and Harriet Harris; “City Of Angels” with Stephen Bogardus and Burke Moses; “Zorba” with Marc Kudisch and Judy Kaye; “My One and Only” with Michael Gruber and Rachel York. “Sunday In The Park With George” with Kelli O’Hara and Manoel Felciano; and “No Strings” with Scott Bakula and Sophina Brown.

Reprise! also produced three large special events – “Sweeney Todd” with Kelsey Grammer and Christine Baranski; “Hair” with Steven Weber, Sam Harris and Marissa Jaret Winokur; and “Follies” with Patty Duke, Vikki Carr, Bob Gunton and Harry Groener.