We’ve reached that semiannual time of the year when seasons change — in this instance, summertime concerts are reaching their conclusions and fall/winter/spring seasons are beginning to ramp up.
Among the summertime finales:
Hollywood Bowl
323-850-2000, www.hollywoodbowl.com
Hollywood Bowl celebrates the music of John Williams Friday-Sunday with the great composer-conductor joining David Newman on the Bowl stage; one of the greatest Hollywood musicals, “Singin’ in the Rain,” screens on Sept. 7 with Newman conducting the Los Angeles Philharmonic playing the score live; and, in an unusual Bowl program, famed cellist Yo-Yo Ma playing Bach’s six unaccompanied cello suites on Sept. 12.
Pasadena Pops
626-794-7172, www.pasadenasymphony-pops.org
The Pasadena Pops concludes its summer season Sept. 9 at the Los Angeles County Arboretum when Principal Pops Conductor Michael Feinstein leads the orchestra in music from Universal Studios movies, including selections from Henry Mancini and John Williams.
Los Angeles Opera
213-972-8001, www.laopera.org/carmen
Moving indoors, L.A. Opera opens its 2017-2018 season with one of the most popular operas ever written: Bizet’s “Carmen,” which opens 7 p.m. Sept. 9 in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.
There also will be six other performances, Sept. 14 to Oct. 1, with the Sept. 17 and Oct. 1 offerings being 2 p.m. matinees and the Sept. 23 performance being simulcast as free, high-definition at the Santa Monica Pier and at Exposition Park.
Puerto Rican soprano Ana María Martinez will sing the title role for the first time in Los Angeles. Riccardo Masi and Brandon Jovanovich will each perform the role of Don José during portions of the run, while Alexander Vinogradov makes his company debut as Escamillo.
LAO Music Director James Conlon will lead the LA Opera Orchestra and Ron Daniels will direct a revival of a previous LAO production.
Pittance Chamber Music
Members of the LAO Orchestra, in their role of Pittance Chamber Music, will make the ensemble’s 2017-2018 season debut 3 p.m. Sept. 16 in the Pavilion’s Eva and Mark Stern Grand Hall.
The 10 instrumentalists will be joined by soprano Elizabeth Zharoff, a Domingo Colburn Young Artist member, in a program of music by Berg, Brahms, Mozart and Leonard Bernstein. Zharoff will sing Berg’s “Seven Early Songs for Soprano and Piano” and selections from Bernstein’s opera, “Trouble in Tahiti.”
Valley Performing Arts Center
818-677-3000, www.valleyperformingartscenter.org
The Valley Performing Arts Center at Cal State Northridge presents a Sept. 16 screening of Milos Forman’s Academy-Award winning film “Amadeus” at 7 p.m. with Richard Kaufman conducting the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and members of the L.A. Opera Chorus. LACO’s founding music director, Sir Neville Marriner, conducted the soundtrack in the 1984 movie.
The evening will honor the Younes and Soraya Nazarian Foundation in recognition of the family’s recent $17 million gift that will rename VPAC as the Younes and Soraya Nazarian Performing Arts Center, also known as The Soraya.
Robert D. Thomas is a freelance music writer. Email BobTatFORE@aol.com. Read more of his reviews at www.insidesocal.com/classact.
