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Last January’s version was clearly an “audience show,” with a fair amount of sing-along to what has become familiar music, mostly of the folk variety. All of the cast members were solid, but Mr. Crossland, a newbie to theatre, impressed with his tenor lead vocals – not surprising, as Mr. Crossland’s mentor was San Diego native John Stewart of the Kingston Trio. Somehow, though, the moment has passed. In January, we could empathize with a cast that had been assembled for a Pete Seeger tribute (Mr. Armstrong even looks a little like Mr. Seeger) and then had to revise suddenly when Mr. Seeger withdrew his support. We could root openly for the sympathetic comments about the Occupy movement. We could watch with studied horror as the Republican Party tried out an ever more conservative, anti-protest, set of presidential favorites.
With an athletic style rooted in ballet and yet wonderfully hip, Les Ballets Jazz de Montreal returned to UC San Diego’s Mandeville Auditorium on Thursday after a three-year absence. The program of three new dances includes “Zero in On,” featuring the jointless ballerina Celine Cassone and Kevin Delaney. In the work choreographed by Cayetano Soto, a white square of flooring and a low-hanging light pole shrink the stage to make the focus even more intense. Lifts are fluid and jaw-dropping, though spread-eagle legs are not always attractive. Spidery thin and impossible to miss with her fire-red hair, Cassone is equally…
Mention the name Gustav Mahler, and it’s hard not to think of resurrection. From his popular Second Symphony—titled the “Resurrection Symphony”—to the rebith of the composer’s musical reputation after World War II, this is a potent Mahler leitmotif. Hearing the San Diego Symphony under Music Director Jahja Ling perform Mahler’s Fifth Symphony Saturday (Nov. 3), I thought about the local orchestra’s own resurrection. In the last decades of the 20th century, the San Diego Symphony lost several complete seasons while languishing in bankruptcy. With significant generous underwriting from Irwin and Joan Jacobs and the subsequent hiring of Ling as Music…
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