Dorothy Chandler Pavilion

So, the date, April 8th, 1975.

We're back at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, California.

And our hosts, they're sticking with that four hosts setup.

This year, it's Bob Hope, Shirley MacLaine, Sammy Davis Jr., and Frank Sinatra.

Why do we need the Kennedy Center at all? Why do we need federal funds funding an arts center in Washington, D.C.

just for people in DC who get to go to it I mean why the rest of the country paying for this we've got the Carnegie Hall in New York that gets City funds and gets private donations we got the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in LA uh so I think as far as I know I don't even think they get City funds I think it's all privately funded um you know get get the federal government out that's ridiculous

That's

not ridiculous.

Mm-hmm.

She's just probably the same way, like, "What are we doing? We gotta put on an outfit again and go down to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion or whatever, they're doing this dumb shit, and, and do this again?" Like, it's probably the last thing he wants to do.

Yeah.

And, uh, and then of course he's, everybody has to mention him from the, uh, podium, you know, when they win.

And soon, Hollywood would ask him to come back.

On April tenth, nineteen seventy-two, the forty-fourth Academy Awards were held at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles.

For her performance in Klute, Jane Fonda would take Best Actress.

Gene Hackman would win Best Actor for The French Connection, which would also be awarded Best Picture.

What does engineering have in common with opera? What brought a Tulsa boy to New York City before he even finished high school? And what is it about the music that makes Carmen one of the most performed operas of all time? Uncover all of this and more when Gail Eikenthal interviews director and scenic designer Thaddeus Strasberger on this episode of Behind the Curtain.

Thaddeus helms the LA Opera season opener, Carmen, running October 17th through November 7th at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.

Tickets are on sale now at laopera.org.

Hello, everyone, and welcome to Behind the Curtain.

Sometimes I have a very clear scenic idea about the location or the the metaphorical meaning of the environment.

But in this case, it all started with the people.

And we wanted to, it's a very big house, the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, and we wanted to find a way also to get a very good connection between the audience about getting people downstage and close, that it had a sense of theater to it between the opera moments.

I mean, to me, opera and theater is all one thing, but to sort of speak broadly.

He did.

He was a scenic artist and, uh, worked all the different shows, all the Broadway shows, uh, that would come out to the Music Center Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.

Did a little work for Disney, did other odds and ends, but yeah.

How about influences of early teachers and coaches in your life?

Um, you know, so they were, they were using for fundraising purposes.

Or the, the, the newer, you know, the new- the newer classical films like I did with John Williams and his, uh, orchestral premiere for War Horse at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in LA.

That, you know, um, all of that, that genre of classical music storytelling which was ultimately subsequently copied by the Berlin Philharmoniker, you know, this digital concert hall kind of thing.

I had started doing that in 1997, you know.