Music Center Opera

"We are a theater community in crisis," declared Susan Loewenberg, keynoting the West Coast Theatre Conference at the Los Angeles Convention Center last weekend. "In a nutshell," said the L.A. Theatre Works producer, "we never developed the infrastructure, managerially or artistically, necessary to producing theater." She cited the lack of "a cadre of investors" and movie industry support.

In Garrison Keillor's quizzical opinion, the Grimm Brothers' scary story of Hansel and Gretel may have "put us off going out to have a wilderness experience" and given "a terrible view of family values," but as the theme for the benefit, "An Evening of Enchantment on Stage at the Opera," it proved charming. The party was Saturday night onstage at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, amid the sets for Humperdinck's opera "Hansel and Gretel," which completed its run of performances Sunday.

An orchestra seat-- any seat downstairs--for the Music Center Opera normally costs $85, and next year the tab goes up $5. For Humperdinck's "Hansel and Gretel"--which opened this weekend at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, closing the 1991-92 season--the price was only $60. Only? In the irrational world of opera, everything is relative. It is unclear if the reduction in entry fees turned Humperdinck's heavyweight romanticism into a feasible family-attraction. Still, economy was in the air.

If you had to name a tune for the state of the arts these days, it would surely be "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" Galleries are closing, theaters are sinking, dance troupes and orchestras are struggling, and alternative spaces are reeling. Opera too is feeling the pinch. Yet unlike many of the performing arts, the Fat Lady isn't nearly ready to sing this popular tune. At a time of cutbacks in both public and private funding, opera is holding on.

Your article "Changing Their Tune" concerning the L. A. Music Center Opera production at Pacific Lodge Boys Home was blatantly sensationalized. Rather than dwell on the boys, you emphasized the offense. It could have been an exceptional opportunity to acknowledge the constructive actions of our boys. These youthful offenders, who have been thrown away by society, could have pointed with pride to your article and felt good about their accomplishment. Instead, you dwelled on labels.

The opera was starting in less than 10 minutes and Jesus Ortega, a 13-year-old convicted burglar and purse-snatcher, had forgotten his lines. Not to worry, though. He had the words carefully inked on a cheat sheet stuffed in his pants pocket. But as music swelled and the voices of 55 other youthful offenders in the chorus rose Thursday at the Pacific Lodge Boys Home in Woodland Hills, something clicked in Jesus' head. Suddenly, he did not need a cheat sheet.

The opera was starting in less than 10 minutes and Jesus Ortega, a 13-year-old convicted burglar and purse snatcher, had forgotten his lines. Not to worry. He had the words carefully inked on a cheat sheet stuffed in his pants pocket. But as music swelled and the voices of 55 other youthful offenders in the chorus rose Thursday at the Pacific Lodge Boys Home in Woodland Hills, something clicked in Jesus' head. Suddenly he didn't need a cheat sheet.

When composer-librettist Edward Barnes was commissioned last year by the Los Angeles Music Center Opera to write an opera to be performed by and for Los Angeles area high school students, it seemed only logical that he take on the contemporary immigrant experience. "When we looked at the high school audience we were trying to reach here in Los Angeles, the percentage of immigrants is enormous, so we knew the story would have to touch on something they knew about," said Barnes, 34.

Strange things are happening at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion this week. Unprecedented things. Weird and vaguely wondrous things. Exotically Nordic things. The Music Center Opera is staging its first world premiere. Well, staging may be the wrong word. Try hosting . The centerpiece for this cumbersome, undeniably festive and obviously costly venture has nothing to do with Los Angeles. It isn't even American. It comes--lock, stock and chorus--from Helsinki. Helsinki?

Murders, incest, suicides, seductions and revenge, all driving a blood feud. Sounds like a miniseries, right? Well, it is also the stuff of myth, in particular the Finnish legend of Kullervo, which gets an unusual double exposure at the Music Center this month. This weekend, the Los Angeles Philharmonic presents Sibelius' symphonic poem "Kullervo," 100 years after its premiere established the composer's career. Then on Feb.