Schrott to the Heart

Uruguayan Bass Reprises the Role That Seduced L.A., But He’s Got Mixed Feelings About Don Giovanni

by Julie Riggott

Don Giovanni claims he’s slept with 2,065 women. Erwin Schrott’s not buying it.

“He’s totally a storyteller. I think he’s such a liar, you know?”

Schrott would know about the legendary Latin lover. The opera sensation has been in Don Giovanni’s shoes – and inside his head – on stages in Washington, D.C., Florence, Genoa, Naples, Milan, Valencia and London. But he’s not counting exactly how many performances.

“Why should I count? I am not Don Giovanni. Don Giovanni is the one who counts,” the Uruguayan bass said, laughing.

The 35-year-old Schrott is in demand internationally because his sensual voice, heartfelt acting and good looks make the press rave and crowds swoon. Downtown Los Angeles audiences get a second chance to be seduced as he reprises his role in Mariusz Trelin´ski’s critically acclaimed 2003 L.A. Opera production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni

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L.A. Fashion District Shopping Tour

Monday-Saturday with advance reservation, 10:30 a.m. Three hours of walking and shopping with a guide in the nation’s largest fashion district. $36 per person.

Call (213) 683-9715 or urbanshoppingadventures.com.

Coming occurrences of this event:

Thursday, October 18, 2007
Friday, October 19, 2007
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Sunday, October 21, 2007
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Thursday, November 01, 2007
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Tuesday, November 06, 2007

© Los Angeles Downtown News. Reprinting items retrieved from the archives are for personal use only. They may not be reproduced or retransmitted without permission of the Los Angeles Downtown News. If you would like to redistribute anything from the Los Angeles Downtown News Archives, …

Big Ideas

L.A. Phil Mixes It Up With Famous Finns,

New Works and a Glimpse of the Future

by Julie Riggott

Bigger is better when it comes to the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

“One of the things that I’ve noticed about working with Esa-Pekka [Salonen] is that ideas can’t be big enough,” said Chad Smith, who as vice president of artistic planning interprets and implements the music director’s vision for the Phil.

The new season brings a variety of programming. After the gala opening night with celebrity soprano Renée Fleming on Thursday, Oct. 4, the Phil has three festivals featuring orchestral works complemented by new music, symposia and other events: Sibelius Unbound, the International Youth Orchestra Festival and Concrete Frequency.

“We have to scale our projects bigger. Our audiences expect it, the city expects it, our orchestra expects it, and, indeed, Esa-Pekka expects it,” Smith said.

The season kicks off this Thursday with a program of French and Italian music by Ravel, Berlioz

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Whip ‘Um Good

REDCAT Season-Opener Jumps Into the Worlds of Performance and Amnesia

by Daria Benedict

The phrase “avant garde” gets applied fairly frequently in the 21st century, if not always accurately, as the tag is sometimes affixed to anything just slightly out of the mainstream. A production opening this week at the REDCAT theater, however, lives up to the name.

On Wednesday, Sept. 26, New York-based Cynthia Hopkins kicks off the 2007-2008 REDCAT season with Must Don’t Whip ‘Um. The Los Angeles premiere of the multimedia narrative spectacle will play a run of five shows through Sept. 30. It is a sequel/prequel to Accidental Nostalgia, the first in a trilogy exploring the pros and cons of amnesia. Hopkins is quick to point out that you do not have to know anything about the first installment to see or understand part two.

Must Don’t Whip ‘Um combines music, video, dance, set design, lighting and theater to tell two parallel and intermingling narratives about

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Calendar Listings Update In Progress

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Arts District/Little Tokyo Farmers Market

Weller Court, 123 S. Onizuka St., (323) 660-8660 or ladad.com.
Tuesdays, 10 a.m.-2 p.m.: Farm fresh produce, flowers, olives, oils, hummus, dips, honeys and crafts. Music 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m.

Financial District Farmers Market

Fifth Street, between Flower Street and Grand Avenue.
Wednesdays, 11:30 a.m.-3 p.m.: Produce, flowers, coffee, baked goods and soap, to mention a few.

Chinatown Farmers Market

727 N. Hill St., between Alpine and Ord streets, (213) 680-0243 or chinatownla.com.
Thursdays, 2-6 p.m.: Wares from certified growers, plus a variety of Asian produce.

Echo Park

Parking Lot No.

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Rat Pack Redux

The New Old Lounge Act at Cicada Restaurant

by Kristin Friedrich

If you’re committed, and your shoes are semi-comfortable, Thursday nights in Downtown Los Angeles can include endless combinations of the following: symphony, theater, live music, an art walk, sporting events, a speakeasy, and bars of the wine, dive, faux bordello, frat boy and velvet rope variety.

As if the list needs to get any more colorful, there is now a Texas-born crooner who channels Sinatra and cracks wise, Rat Pack-style, with an orchestra that does not exist.

Max Vontaine appears every Thursday at Olive Street’s ornate Cicada restaurant, his rich baritone teasing out hits from the Chairman, Bobby Darin, Cab Calloway, Tom Jones and Elvis. He also tosses in the odd chestnut such as The Doors’ “Riders on the Storm” and the theme song from “The Love Boat.”

One imagines a conversation with Vontaine to be filled with wafting smoke, deep chuckles and “You’re money” and “Daddy-O” asides. But

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Coming Into Focus

With 162 Projects, Downtown Continues to Evolve

Coming Into Focus|With 162 Projects, Downtown Continues to Evolve

by Evan George, Andrew Haas-Roche, Kathryn Maese, Kathleen Nye Flynn and Jon Regardie

Excerpts from the list relating to arts, entertainment and culture follow. Complete list of 162 projects is here.

Development Map The traditionally slow winter period had little effect on the pace of development in Downtown Los Angeles. Over the last several months, even as temperatures dropped and people tended to remain indoors whenever possible, the community not only continued its residential revolution, but began adding the bells and whistles that mark the turn from a collection of separate housing complexes into an actual neighborhood.

In the last several months, in fact, the community began to come into focus, with the opening of nearly a dozen restaurants, bars and retail outlets – everything from the upscale J Restaurant & Lounge to a second installment of coffee shop Groundwork to two locales

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Restaurant & Lounge

On the site of the historic Little J’s, a hangout of celebs such as Natalie Cole, Janet Jackson and Stevie Wonder, this South Park lounge offers signature cocktails, fine spirits, cigars, beer and wine by the glass.At 1119 S. Olive St., (213) 746-7746. jloungela.com

Library Bar

This Financial District pub has seven craft beers on tap — some brewed locally like Pasadena’s Craftsman Brewing Co., all of them artisan or small batch — and serves another dozen high-end bottled beers, including several Belgian ales.At 630 W. Sixth St., (213) 614-0053. librarybarla.com

Redwood Bar & Grilldaily

It’s a pirate’s life now for the Redwood Bar & Grill, the former Los Angeles Times watering hole. Nautical gear is everywhere, including fishing nets and floats, weathered wooden planks and the stumps of dock timbers. A rusty anchor and reproductions of pirate flags adorn the ceiling of the entryway.At 316 W. Second St., (213) 680-2600 . theredwoodbar.com

Bar 107

Dark and

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‘Sexo y Violencia’for the People

Lucha VaVoom Brings Burlesque and Wrestling Back to the Mayan

by Lea Lion

It is a hazy Thursday morning in early February and three women are doing warm-up stretches in an unassuming, wood-floored dance studio in Atwater Village. They are chatting about their upcoming Valentine’s Day show and killing time waiting for the fourth dancer to arrive.

One of the dancers, Rita D’Alpert, who goes by the stage name Ursulina, has two-tone hair – blonde on top, black underneath – cut into a shaggy ‘do. She is wearing black low top Converse sneakers and matching arm-warmers. Moana Santana has dark brown bangs across her forehead and is dressed head-to-toe in black, including a tank top that reads “Sexo y Violencia” in cursive script across the chest. Audrey Deluxe, a tall blonde, embodies the most all-American look of the crew.

They could be any dancers with any troupe in the country. But their conversation reveals otherwise.

“Why don’t you try wrestling?”

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