“Gustavo Dudamel’s contract as music and artistic director of the L.A. Philharmonic runs through the 2025-26 season, and he has put down deep roots here,” writes Mark Swed in Monday’s (4/7) Los Angeles Times. “We now have Theodore Braun’s compelling new documentary, ‘Viva Maestro!’ … Character is at the heart of ‘Viva Maestro!’—Dudamel’s personal character and that of his music making…. In Dudamel’s case, … what you see is what you hear, and that’s what makes him and the movie riveting. A hard-hitting documentarian, Braun … followed Dudamel to Caracas, Venezuela, in 2017 to watch him rehearse the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra…. The dichotomy between Caracas, with political strife and a homicide rate that made it one of the most dangerous major cities in the world, and Dudamel’s glamorous life in L.A. and his conducting gigs in world capitals could hardly be greater. The 2017 trip also was the last time Dudamel was able to return to his country…. To watch Dudamel in rehearsal … is the closest we can get to understanding what makes him tick and what makes him great.” The film is currently in limited release at theaters in Los Angeles and New York.
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