\”The MeshugaNutcracker!\” tells the tale of eight citizens of Chelm, the mythical shtetl of fools, who gather every year to perform at their Chanukah festival. Through the course of the two-act musical, each tells a story of Chanukah heroes from the time of the Maccabees through today.
Conlon became a maestro with a mission: to help revive the music of composers banned (and often murdered) by the Nazis.
I will be frank. I\’m tired of hearing the same holiday songs over and over. So the best Chanukah present I\’ve received this year is a pile of Chanukah-themed CDs with lots of new holiday songs, many of them quite good.
missFlag, an up-and-coming indie band from Israel, hopes to receive some special attention of its own when it makes its first stab at securing a place in the history of commercial pop music success stories.
Mixing punk rock and opera may be about as heretical as it gets, yet that is precisely what Julien Nitzberg, librettist and lyricist of \”The Beastly Bombing,\” has done.
Bell is, by his own admission, more of a cultural Jew than a religious one. \”My mother is Jewish, a very typical Jewish mother,\” he said. \”She was very involved in my practicing. Both my parents were behind me and loved music. But for me, Jewishness was very much a cultural tie. I feel very close to the Jewish side of the family. I grew up with my Jewish cousins, going to all the bar mitzvahs, so I feel very close to that side, and I identify myself as being Jewish.\”
Just south of the 10 Freeway, in a nondescript part of Culver City stands Club Fais Do-Do.
Steve Reich, composer, turns 70 and wonders what all the fuss is about.
