Newsletter: Essential Arts & Culture: Mighty year-enders, naked hotel theater, a ‘Messiah’ for rich and poor

It’s December and SoCal is bursting with everything arts and culture. I’m Carolina A. Miranda, staff writer for the Los Angeles Times, and here are some of the week’s most intriguing arts stories:

This is the end, beautiful friend

The year that seemed as if it would never end is coming to an end, and The Times is on it with some mighty year-enders:

We’ll start with classical music critic Mark Swed, who writes about how the year has been a key one for women — with important appointments at fine arts institutions across the country and female conductors achieving greater prominence on stages the world over. Los Angeles Times

A performance by Invertigo Dance Theatre at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in August.

(Ivan Kashinsky / For The Times )

Swed also has a list of the best classical music performances of 2016, which includes nods to the Youth Orchestra Los Angeles and composer Thomas Adès’ buzzed-about opera “Exterminating Angel.” Los Angeles Times

Times theater critic Charles McNulty likewise reports that it was an important year for women in theater. He also gathers the year’s most memorable stage moments, with shouts out to Phylicia Rashad’s revival of August Wilson’s “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” and Ayad Akhtar’s Pulitzer Prize-winning drama “Disgraced.” Los Angeles Times

August Wilson’s “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.”

(Kirk McCoy / Los Angeles Times )

In a separate essay, that’s not quite a year-ender but nonetheless offers plenty to chew on about the state of mind of theater at present, McNulty looks back at a spate of recent stage offerings in London — and how they reflect our collective political anxiety. Los Angeles Times

Times reporter Jessica Gelt, in the meantime, offers an extended look at the place of women in theater. Advances have been made, she writes, but women playwrights and directors still face great challenges getting new works staged. Los Angeles Times

And since we’re on the topic of performance, I used my year-end platform to look at how Black Lives Matter infused protest with performance, creating some indelible — and very stirring — actions over the course of 2016. Los Angeles Times

Times architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne, in the meantime, looks at the exhibitions, buildings and events that shaped 2016 — from a socially conscious Venice Architecture Biennale to the opening of David Adjaye’s new museum on Washington’s National Mall. Los Angeles Times

A view of the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

(Jim Lo Scalzo / EPA )

And, from Robert Mapplethorpe at the Getty to modern photography at the Japanese American National Museum, art critic Christopher Knight (we like to keep our Christophers in bulk around here), rounds up the best shows of the year. Three of these are still open — so get looking! Los Angeles Times

Art about town

And because too much art is never enough, Knight has been hitting our rain-soaked freeways to check out the latest exhibitions — a.k.a. your itinerary for getting away from all those football games in the coming weeks:

“Picasso and Rivera” at LACMA: A face-off between two of the planet’s towering Modernists shows some of their parallel interests in Cubism and ancient art. The exhibition, writes Knight, is laid out like a “graduate school art history lecture,” but it contains a surprise in the form of a small, ground-breaking work that had never before been published or publicly seen. Los Angeles Times

Frank Gohlke at Gallery Luisotti: A gathering of older images by the photographer who was part of the landmark 1975 “New Topographics” exhibition explores mankind’s mark on the landscape. Los Angeles Times

R.H. Quaytman at MOCA: New and recent pieces by the New York painter, also focused on landscape, and the strange light and mysterious conditions that often surround it. Los Angeles Times

A ‘Creation’ that riffs on destruction

The Los Angeles Philharmonic, led Gustavo Dudamel, performed Haydn’s “The Creation” at Disney Hall last week. Staged with special video and lighting effects, it was a show that touched on new beginnings, but also high quotients of doom — “an impressive reminder,” writes Mark Swed, “of what we have to lose.” Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles Philharmonic performance of Haydn’s “The Creation” at Walt Disney Concert Hall.

(Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times )

Swed also took in two very distinct performances of Handel’s “Messiah” — reflecting the realities of the top and bottom 1%. One featured the Trinity Baroque Orchestra and Choir at the Valley Performing Arts Center. The other took place on Skid Row and featured Street Symphony, made up of musicians who perform outreach at jails and homeless shelters. Los Angeles Times

Zanaida Robles conducts the Street Symphony at the Midnight Mission in Los Angeles.

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times )

And because Swed doesn’t appear to rest, he also took in a performance by the Taiwan Philharmonic, which made its U.S. debut at the Segerstrom Concert Hall in Costa Mesa last Saturday. The show he says, was a reminder, that the orchestra is overdue for a major U.S. tour. Los Angeles Times

Naked theater in a hotel room

Charles McNulty recently found himself in a room at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel staring at a naked man sprawled on a bed. All of it was part of a work staged by renegade playwright and director Richard Maxwell, which featured the Obie-winning actor Jim Fletcher as a businessman attending a conference. “The tale Fletcher told wasn’t easy to pin down,” writes McNulty, “but what emerged was a portrait of isolation.” Los Angeles Times

Going ‘BIG’ in the Arts District

In September, a proposed development by Swiss architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron put forth the idea of a pair of skyscapers for L.A.’s booming Arts District. Now the Danish firm Bjarke Ingles Group (BIG) has released renderings for another mega-development in the neighborhood that would include boutique hotels and apartments. Christopher Hawthorne parses the design. Los Angeles Times

James Baldwin in song

Playwright and musician Stew with longtime collaborator Heidi Rodewald.

(Jennifer S. Altman / For The Times )

“Notes of a Native Song,” which runs at REDCAT through Saturday night, is a mash-up of songs, speech, visuals and musical styles that explores the work of 20th century man of letters James Baldwin. The show’s creator, Tony-winning musician and playwright Stew, tells the Times’ Tre’vell Anderson that the piece is an ode to “the real Baldwin, not that very respectable, PBS great-moments-in-black-history-during-February Baldwin.” Los Angeles Times

In other news…

Kaija Saariaho, composer of the opera “L’Amour de Loin.”

(Maarit Kytöharju / Metropolitan Opera via AP )

— The Metropolitan Opera in New York is staging its first opera written by a woman in more than 100 years. (That’d be Kaija Saariaho’s “L’Amour de Loin.”) To mark the moment, William Robin gathers sounds and words from key women composers. New York Times

— Misty Copeland teaches ballet in Cuba. And performs a dazzling “Nutcracker” in Costa Mesa. The Undefeated, Los Angeles Times

— Marina Abramovic’s 70th birthday is everything you’d expect a Marina Abramovic birthday to be. ARTnews

— How an Impressionist canvas by Edgar Degas, currently on view at the Rhode Island School of Design, tells an important story about the ways in which a tinderbox political climate rife with anti-Semitism severed artistic friendships. Boston Globe

— Calvin Tompkins looks at the development of New York’s latest arts institution, The Shed, which will be led by Alex Poots, an impresario known for stirring up artistic genres. New Yorker

— In a new book (which he is presenting at the Bowers Museum on Sunday), journalist Sam Quiñones looks at the visual power of the Virgin of Guadalupe in murals. OC Weekly

— With L.A. rents growing ever more expensive, artists are heading to the Antelope Valley. Curbed

— A judge has dismissed the suit between Ed Asner and Actors’ Equity, which means small theaters will have to pay their actors minimum wage. Deadline Hollywood

— In institutional news: CalArts names Ravi Rajan its fourth president, while Brett Steele joins UCLA as dean of the school of arts and architecture. Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times

— Tubas for Christmas. NPR

Last but not least…

NASA now has an official page on GIPHY — not only a welcome respite from politics, but visual ammunition for all your space-age animated GIF needs. Giphy

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Find me on Twitter @cmonstah.