Alvin Ailey, Joffrey and ABT part of Music Center's 2012-13 season

This story has been corrected. See note below for details.

Christopher Wheeldon’s acclaimed version of “Alice in Wonderland,” danced by the National Ballet of Canada, plus an array of repertory programs by Alvin Ailey, the Joffrey Ballet and the American Ballet Theatre, are among the highlights of the 2012-2013 Music Center season being announced Monday morning at the Walt Disney Concert Hall.  

Also on the bill are some firsts for the 10-year-old Glorya Kaufman Presents Dance at the Music Center: a rare onstage collaboration between two acclaimed contemporary companies -- Hubbard Street Dance Chicago and Alonzo King’s LINES Ballet; the first inclusion of a musical theater hybrid piece, “Traces,” by the Montreal-based troupe 7 Fingers; and the center’s funding role with the L.A. Dance Project, a newly formed arts collective by choreographer Benjamin Millepied. 

The bill for L.A. Dance Project's first performances, which will kick off the Music Center season (Sept. 22-23), includes “Quintett” by William Forsythe, “Winterbranch,” by Merce Cunningham plus a new work by Millepied with composer Nico Muhly, graphic artist Christopher Wool and the fashion house Rodarte.

Dance review: Ballet Geneve debuts Benjamin Millepied works

Touring with contemporary, soft-slippered ballets, Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève made its West Coast debut at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion on Friday with a trio of eye-catching works set to canonical ballet music choreographed by Benjamin Millepied, now known widely for his work in “Black Swan.” 

Heretofore unseen in the U.S., “Amoveo,” “La Spectre de la Rose,” and “Les Sylphides” gave weekend concertgoers a taste of the bright designs, group dynamics and knotty, weighted movement lexicon that stand to be a fixed point in Los Angeles' dance future. (Millepied has plans for a new “L.A Dance Project” arts collective in alliance with the Music Center next season.) Stimulated by humor, sexuality and surprise, these dances never sagged. But they had some off-flavors. 

In “Amoveo” (2006), set to four excerpts from Philip Glass’ “Einstein on the Beach,” relationships moved from delineation to unreadability in seconds, while Paul Cox’s Op Art scrim filled with two slow-moving lines of color that multiplied into a dizzying crosshatch. Tangled, exhaustive partnerings echoed the ceasless looping organ. Finishes were casual, even ugly.

Dance review: Ballet Preljocaj's 'Snow White' at the Music Center

Ballet Preljocaj’s “Snow White,” seen Friday at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, was Grimm indeed, with the ballet hewing to the fairy tale’s original ending of macabre justice for the evil Queen: Forcibly strapped into coal-fired iron shoes, she danced to her death.

Such retribution was to be expected from French choreographer Angelin Preljocaj, whose imagination is far more simpatico with the Brothers Grimm than with Walt Disney. His 25-member company from Aix-en-Provence has presented a diverse repertory at local theaters since 1998. That oeuvre of balletically tinged modern pieces unblinkingly depicts humanity in full spectrum. In the choreographer’s naturalistic and messy world, humans are crude, naive, joyous, sexual and violent, in equal doses. It’s part-Pieter Bruegel, part-Henri Rousseau and, at its most edgy, part-Quentin Tarantino.  

Despite some slow passages, Preljocaj has successfully turned “Snow White” into a poignant and magical adult story, one that's definitely not for small children. There are the familiar elements: The Queen has her magical mirror. Snow White finds protection with seven “dwarfs,” who played clapping games with her when not scuttling up and down a sheer rock wall — some exceptionally nifty aerial stunts were seamlessly blended into the choreography. 

For his score, Preljocaj stitched together recorded selections from nine symphonies by Gustav Mahler, usually an unsatisfactory musical treatment. It worked here because each interlude was framed by an electronic soundscape from new-music group 79D. The overused Adagietto still packed a punch as accompaniment for Snow White’s awakening scene.  

Opera Review: 'Albert Herring' at Dorothy Chandler Pavilion

Aficionados of big voices have been waiting for Christine Brewer to appear in a Los Angeles Opera production for a long time.  Indeed, there were a couple of occasions where she was dangled tantalizingly before us, singing song recitals somewhere in town while Wagner’s “Ring” operas -- her natural habitat -- were playing at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. 

But Brewer’s LA Opera debut finally came Wednesday night in a most unorthodox way -- slipping into the cast of Britten’s chamber opera “Albert Herring” toward the end of its run.  That’s right -- a chamber opera, and a comedy at that, written for an ensemble cast of equals. 

Fortunately, Brewer’s part -- that of the lordly arbiter of small-town morals, Lady Billows (which she sang in the Santa Fe edition of this production in 2010) --  can sort of lend itself to a Wagnerian soprano. Britten used one, Sylvia Fisher, on his own recording of “Herring.” 

Pau Gasol says hello to Placido Domingo after Lakers beat Heat

Three Spanish talents finished up afternoon performances Sunday and then aligned backstage at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.

After helping the Lakers put away the Miami Heat at Staples Center, Pau Gasol headed a few miles north to catch the final act of L.A. Opera's "Simon Boccanegra," starring Plácido Domingo.

Another Spaniard happened to be in town as well and stopped by to make it a Spanish trifecta of sorts. After conducting his third concert with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at Walt Disney Concert Hall, Pablo Heras-Casado went across the street to greet his fellow countrymen.

Gasol has spoken in the past of his appreciation of opera in general and the superstar tenor in particular. And Domingo is an avid sports fan -- he has attended Lakers games, he sang the National Anthem before a Dodgers game last season and most enthusiastically supported Spain's World Cup champion team.

Music review: Le Salon de Musiques at Dorothy Chandler Pavilion

One of the many pleasures of the monthly Sunday afternoon chamber music series Le Salon de Musiques is its intimacy. The Salon venue on the fifth floor of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion feels as if the listener is  in a carpeted living room with large windows overlooking the city and hills. This special ambience, which includes a brief introduction by a musicologist, Champagne-fueled conversation between audience and performers, and a buffet, allows listeners to get closer to the music and musicians.

For example, after harpist Marcia Dickstein’s lovely, rippling account of Arnold Bax’s rarely performed “Elegiac Trio” for flute, viola and harp, several people said it was the first time they had ever seen and heard the instrument up close.

Dickstein, a Bax scholar, has recorded most of the British composer’s music for harp. His 1916 trio, which shows the Impressionist influence of Ravel, found sympathetic interpreters in Dickstein, flutist Pamela Vliek Martchev and violist Victoria Miskolczy. The trio’s richly harmonic language was perfectly placed between two more substantial French neighbors: Poulenc’s Flute Sonata with piano, composed for Jean-Pierre Rampal in 1957, and Fauré’s late-Romantic Piano Quartet No. 1 in C-minor (Op. 15).

Flutist Martchev offered a technically stirring, lyrical rendition of the Poulenc, superbly accompanied by pianist Steven Vanhauwaert’s delicately calibrated touch. You could almost feel her breath transformed into music.

For the Fauré, John Walz, principal cellist of the L.A. Opera orchestra, got permission to take off from the second half of the matinee performance of “Simon Boccanegra” to fill out a quartet (with Vanhauwaert, Miskolczy and violinist Tereza Stanislav) upstairs. Together they generated an alternately poetic and earthy intensity, never losing the work’s propulsive rhythmic impetus. The pianist’s clarity in playing softly (the piano lid remained open) blended sensitively into the opulent fabric created by his partners.

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Opera review: Los Angeles Opera's 'Albert Herring'

--Rick Schultz

Photo: The February gathering of  Le Salon de Musiques at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Credit: Henry Lim

L.A. Opera celebrates Verdi at 'Simon Boccanegra' party

Opera star Plácido Domingo and conductor James Conlon have worked together all over the world. Yet “Simon Boccanegra,” which opened Saturday at Los Angeles Opera, marked the first time the two have teamed for an opera by Giuseppe Verdi.

At the opening night after-party on the fifth floor of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Domingo thanked donors for making that Verdi collaboration possible. Domingo serves as general director of L.A. Opera and Conlon as its music director.

“We were waiting, James and myself, because even though we have worked across the years on many occasions, this was our first Verdi together,” Domingo said. “So to have the pleasure to do it here it was really, really extraordinary.”

The boisterous applause following the production continued into the late-night buffet supper. Addressing the dinner guests, L.A. Opera Chairman Marc Stern ticked off Domingo’s many accomplishments, which include 138 roles, 3,500 career performances, 100 opera recordings and 12 Grammy Awards, then added: “Honestly, all of that was nothing more than a rehearsal -- or a warm-up -- for what [Domingo] did tonight.”

Opera review: Placido Domingo in L.A. Opera's 'Simon Boccanegra'

Perhaps to establish their bona fides, critics reviewing Plácido Domingo in the title role of Verdi’s “Simon Boccanegra” tend to point out that Domingo is not a baritone, as the role calls for. While it’s true that Domingo first positioned himself as a baritone, that was a long time ago, and he very quickly moved up to tenor roles, in which he established a stellar reputation.

In recent years, however, the 71-year-old, who is also general director of Los Angeles Opera, has transposed some tenor roles downward, and Boccanegra seems to sit reasonably comfortably in his range.

None of these issues mattered much Saturday to an enthusiastic audience when Domingo starred in Verdi’s opera at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Baritone, schmaritone: Domingo was a commanding vocal and dramatic presence, and especially touching in his death scene.

PHOTOS: Los Angeles Opera's "Simon Boccanegra" with Plácido Domingo

To be sure, his voice has contracted in dimension and has acquired some sandpaper, but there was still plenty of power and expression when needed. One could argue that Domingo’s dramatic capabilities have actually grown. In addition to his death scene, one thinks of Boccanegra’s meditations on power, his deep-felt efforts to heal the city's and country’s social and political divisions, and especially his restraint in the touching scene in which he discovers his long-lost daughter, Amelia.

“Simon Boccanegra” is a strange child in the Verdi canon. It flopped when it premiered in 1857, but it took on new life when the composer revised it in 1881, with the essential input of Arrigo Boito, who created the amazing Council Scene in Act 1. Even so, it hasn’t exactly become an audience favorite, perhaps because of the low, dark vocal coloring — there is only one female principal role — and the gloom and improbability of the plot. It usually takes someone with the stature of Domingo to bring it to the stage.

Los Angeles Dance Festival to debut in a busy April

With the goal of highlighting local dance, Diavolo Dance Theater and Brockus Project are co-producing a new Los Angeles Dance Festival, April 14 and 15, at the Brewery Arts Complex just east of downtown.

So far, 16 contemporary dance companies have signed up to participate, including Barak Marshall’s dance company, Oni Dance, Kybele Dance Theater and Lula Washington Dance Theatre. Deborah Brockus, artistic director of Brockus Project, said she is awaiting word from several other groups.

“What I want to do with this festival is somewhat similar to the American Dance Festival in North Carolina,” said Brockus, speaking of the annual summer event that is an international leader for dance training of college students, and for presenting and commissioning contemporary work.  For the Los Angeles Dance Festival, “the companies are all going to be doing open classes in the day, and then there are performances in the evening.”

The classes will take place in Brockus Project’s two studios at the Brewery Arts Complex on Moulton Avenue, and the performances will be at Diavolo’s studio space, also at the Brewery, which can seat as many as 150. If the Saturday performance sells out, a later second show would be added, Brockus said. She based her selection on "strong working companies that tour to different places."

2011 year in review: Best in dance

Two significant events reverberated in 2011 for Los Angeles dance, book ends to the touring companies that annually blow in and out of town.

In January, 12 dance groups were invited to compete on “The A.W.A.R.D. Show!”, a reality-TV style co-production of the Joyce Theater Foundation and REDCAT, Cal Art’s downtown performance and arts center. Choreographer Barak Marshall won the $10,000 prize, but all the participants surely benefited from the recognition and audience exposure that being at REDCAT confers.

Then last month, the formation of L.A. Dance Project was announced, a new “arts collective” founded by choreographer and dancer Benjamin Millepied, with backing from the Music Center.

In both these instances, powerful institutions reached out to sustain or create local infrastructure. Both have potential to be exciting developments, particularly if they have long-lasting impact. This kind of support is vital, and has been notably absent for decades. Will it continue? Stay tuned in 2012.

Oh, and about those touring companies…it was a year of superlative performances, from established powerhouses and groups making debut engagements. These were personal favorites, with photos of each: