Dorothy Chandler Pavilion

STAGE Settle in as the Bolshoi Ballet performs one of classical ballet's most famed works: "Swan Lake. " The production was originally choreographed for the Bolshoi by Marius Petipa in 1877. More than a century later the modern version will still take your breath away. Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 N. Grand Ave., L.A. 7:30 p.m. Fri. 2 and 7:30 p.m. Sat. 2 p.m. Sun. $34 to $125. (213) 972-0711; http://www.musiccenter.org .

The Music Center announced on Wednesday that its board has elected Lisa Specht to become the new chair, succeeding Kent Kresa who took on the post in 2011. Specht is expected to assume the role immediately. Specht is a partner in the Los Angeles law firm of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP, and has served as chair of the L.A. Memorial Coliseum Commission. She joined the Music Center board in 2007 and most recently served as vice chair. PHOTOS: Arts and culture in pictures by The Times A spokeswoman for the Music Center said that Kresa is stepping down because he is moving with his family to Oregon.

The Joffrey Ballet brings its production of Frederick Ashton's "Cinderella," set to Sergey Prokofiev's stunning score, to downtown for five performances. Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. 135 N. Grand Ave. Thu., Fri., Sat. 7:30 p.m.; Sat.-Sun. matinees 2 p.m. (213) 972-7211. www.musiccenter.org

The new 2013-14 season of Dance at the Music Center will feature works by choreographers Matthew Bourne, Ethan Stiefel and Alexei Ratmansky. The season, which the Music Center announced this week, will also include return appearances by Ballet Preljocaj and the Paul Taylor Dance Company. The dance series -- whose full title is Glorya Kaufman Presents Dance at The Music Center -- will take place at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, unless otherwise noted. As previously announced, Nederlands Dans Theater will present "Chamber" (Oct.

A wealth of holiday music and dance awaits the public during the 50th Annual L.A. County Holiday Celebration , a six-hour extravaganza featuring both contemporary and traditional performances. More than 40 groups reflecting L.A.'s diverse cultural landscape have been selected to present music as diverse as hip-hop and handbells. The show is free (even parking) and will be broadcast live in HD on KCET, on the radio at 90.7 KPFK, and on the Web at kcet.org. Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 N. Grand Ave. 3 p.m.-9 p.m. Thurs.

For the occasion of its Los Angeles Philharmonic-sponsored program on Sunday evening, the Beaux Arts Trio hewed to dead-center of the standard repertory, perhaps for the purpose of attracting as many bodies as possible to the vast Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, hardly a heaven-sent venue for the intimate muse. Still, to downplay the pleasures of hearing Haydn's Trio in E-flat, Hob.

Chayim Frenkel and Meir Finkelstein, both sons of Holocaust survivors, wanted to offer up a different kind of commemoration for the 50th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camps. What they had in mind, they say, was to focus on the triumph of those who survived, and on Jewish liberation through history. The result, after more than a year and a half of planning, is an evening-long work, the "Liberation '95" Symphony, which comes to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion tonight.

Most opera-goers regard Verdi's "Don Carlo" as a quintessential Italian opera. No one can deny that the national label makes stylistic sense. Most scholars offer the counter-argument that the opera really is French. After all, Verdi conceived the sprawling masterpiece in 1867 for Paris, composing specifically for a French text. At the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion on Friday, however, "Don Carlo" might just as well have been Russian. The conductor and the mezzo-soprano came from the Bolshoi.

The Los Angeles Music Center Opera bears an unsettling resemblance to that infamous girl with a curl. When it's good, as it was Thursday with Verdi's "Stiffelio," it's very good indeed. When it's bad, it's horrid. Saturday night, the company staged "Der Fliegende Hollander"--only the second Wagner challenge ventured since Los Angeles took the operatic plunge 10 seasons ago. And, yes, alas, it was horrid. If this "Dutchman" doesn't fly, don't blame the hard-working, apparently fearless singers.

The Los Angeles Philharmonic has picked the first woman ever to conduct a series of subscription concerts at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. British-born Sian Edwards, 30, who has conducted operatic performances at Covent Garden and Glyndebourne, is scheduled to appear at the Music Center the week of Nov. 25, 1991.

Seven dancers with the Ballet Nacional de Cuba reportedly have defected while traveling last month in Mexico, with some of them resurfacing in the past week seeking asylum in the United States. The website Cafe Fuerte , dedicated to Cuban American affairs, has run an interview with some of the dancers, who said they defected because they are seeking a better life. "It's the hardest decision I've made in my life," dancer Annie Ruiz Diaz, 24, told the site. "We were determined to find a better life, artistic and economic well-being for our families.

[This post has been updated.] The Bolshoi Ballet in Russia has called off its new production of Igor Stravinsky's "The Rite of Spring," citing the recent acid attack on the company's artistic director, Sergei Filin. The production, which was to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Russian composer's work, had been scheduled to debut in late March in Moscow and would have been broadcast to cinemas around the world. Organizers at the Bolshoi said in a statement Thursday that the production will be postponed until "the artistic director of the ballet returns back to the theatre.

Click here to download TV listings for the week Dec. 23 - 29 in PDF format This week's TV Movies     SUNDAY Enduring as the Alps, comforting as hot cocoa, and more sing-along-able than any Broadway musical before or since, it's the 1965 big-screen adaptation of Rodgers and Hammerstein's “The Sound of Music.” Julie Andrews stars. (ABC, 7 p.m.) MONDAY 'Tis the day before Christmas, and all through the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Downtown Los Angeles, local dance ensembles and musical groups will assemble for the “53rd Annual L.A. County Holiday Celebration.” (KCET, 3 and 8 p.m.)

Los Angeles brims with traditions this time of year, and every Christmas Eve for more than half a century, the city's many faiths have shared one stage. The annual Los Angeles County Holiday Celebration, which started as a 12-hour neighborhood talent show, will showcase 23 local music and dance groups from cultures near and far during a three-hour concert that's free to all and is broadcast on TV, radio and the Web. "It's really become what you do in L.A. on Christmas Eve, even if you don't celebrate Christmas," said Adam Davis, managing director of the Los Angeles County Arts Commission, which produces the program.

Igor Stravinsky's "The Rite of Spring" will turn 100 next year. To celebrate the occasion, music groups around the world will hold festivals and special performances in honor of the piece's tumultuous 1913 premiere in Paris. In Los Angeles, the Music Center downtown will hold a "Rite of Spring" festival that will include performances and other events all tied to Stravinsky's masterpiece. The festival, titled "L.A.'s Rite: Stravinsky, Innovation, and Dance," will unfold over several months beginning in February.

Between 2004 and 2008, Los Angeles Opera was home to the most beautiful "Madame Butterfly" in America. But it was no doubt time to retire Robert Wilson's glowing, ascetic, stylized production, already 11 years old when it first arrived here from Paris and requiring enormous care to present properly. During that same period, San Francisco Opera mounted a more commonplace - and when it came to lighting and movement, sloppier - staging of Puccini's ever-present opera. This "Butterfly" has flown south.

Between 2004 and 2008, Los Angeles Opera was home to the most beautiful "Madame Butterfly" in America. But it was no doubt time to retire Robert Wilson's glowing, ascetic, stylized production, already 11 years old when it first arrived here from Paris and requiring enormous care to present properly. During that same period, San Francisco Opera mounted a more commonplace - and when it came to lighting and movement, sloppier - staging of Puccini's ever-present opera. This "Butterfly" has flown south.

The start of fire season and opera season in Los Angeles often coincide. It's weird - a scheduling remnant from the days when the Los Angeles Opera and Los Angeles Philharmonic shared the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion and bickered over dates - but it works. The late-summer air is hot and dry, toxic with smoke. People are on edge. Sensitivities are heightened. Emotions flare. Jerks cut you off on the freeway. That's neither an improper apocalyptic atmosphere nor apoplectic state in which to receive opera.

STAGE Settle in as the Bolshoi Ballet performs one of classical ballet's most famed works: "Swan Lake. " The production was originally choreographed for the Bolshoi by Marius Petipa in 1877. More than a century later the modern version will still take your breath away. Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 N. Grand Ave., L.A. 7:30 p.m. Fri. 2 and 7:30 p.m. Sat. 2 p.m. Sun. $34 to $125. (213) 972-0711; http://www.musiccenter.org .