Hollywood Bowl at night, 1950s. Photo: Music Center Archives/Otto Rothschild Collection
“The height of the pandemic featured a litany of dreams deferred [including] celebrating the Hollywood Bowl’s 100th anniversary, which technically was last year but is being observed with a joy akin to rebirth this summer as the Los Angeles Philharmonic [announces] the iconic venue’s first full season since 2019,” writes Jessica Gelt in Tuesday’s (2/15) Los Angeles Times. “An exciting array of performers, artists, musicians and entertainment luminaries [includes] Billie Eilish … John Williams … Grace Jones … Itzhak Perlman, Lang Lang, Joshua Bell and the Paris Opera Ballet…. Gustavo Dudamel and the L.A. Phil will preside over the festivities with 10 nights of music … including … a collaboration with [the Industry’s Yuval] Sharon, who will direct Wagner’s ‘Die Walküre, Act III.’ The same performance was staged at the Bowl in the 1930s, says [LA Phil CEO Chad] Smith…. ‘We want it to feel like the living room, or the backyard, of the city…. Built into [Hollywood Bowl’s] founding is the ideal of radical accessibility,’ says Smith…. In keeping with that spirit, the Bowl is doubling the amount of $1 tickets it offers … for Tuesday and Thursday night classical concerts and Wednesday jazz.”
