Los Angeles is a city that has almost everything.
One of its most conspicuous lacks is an opera house.
Ironically, the dream of owning one gave the city one of its most iconic landmarks.
The Hollywood Bowl celebrates this year, after the delay forced by the pandemic, a century of hosting music sheltered by the benevolent California climate.
Its construction ended in 1921 with the idea that a city still in development would host high culture events such as those held in the eastern United States.
One hundred years later, pop culture has washed away the memory of those origins to turn the Bowl into the legendary site where the Beatles made history with a 30-minute concert, Janis Joplin gave an illuminated performance in 1969,
The newspapers of the time unanimously described the production of
Julius Caesar
in May 1916 as “epic”.
Hollywood as a backdrop.
The soldiers were commanded by the actors Douglas Fairbanks, William Farnum and Tyrone Power.
“500 dancers will line up behind Caesar and elephants, camels and other animals are expected to be used in procession.
Battles between armies numbering in the thousands will take place along the hills.
Angelenos talked about that setup for years.
Perhaps the most important thing he did was invite a local group of music lovers who were thinking of creating a site to share their hobby as a community to think big.
In the group stood out Artie Mason Carter, a music teacher originally from Missouri, who had spent three years in Europe studying piano.
Upon her return to America, Mason became an early cultural promoter in a city that grew from 11,000 inhabitants in 1880 to more than a million by 1920. Her dream is that there would be a place to listen to quality music for 25 cents on the dollar. .
This became a reality in March 1921 in a vacant lot and was shaped like a shell designed by Lloyd Wright (Son of Frank Lloyd Wright).
Its history also keeps many milestones that were reflecting many of the trends of society.
A woman, Ethel Leginska, conducted an all-male orchestra for the first time in 1925. William Grant Smith became the first black conductor to conduct in 1936.
Some misfortunes have also been about to happen.
One that stands out in the book
Hollywood Bowl: The First 100 Years
, by Derek Traub, happened at a chaotic Jimi Hendrix concert in 1967. When the guitarist started playing
Purple Haze
, the crowd went crazy and ran to the front of the building, where there were some fountains near the orchestra pit.
Bruce Geary, drummer of the Knack, one of the witnesses of that performance, says that the stampede of 2,000 people caused an avalanche that was about to throw a microphone into the water, which would have electrocuted hundreds.
Other outrages came a year later, when a local band made its debut at the venue at the height of its fame.
The group?
TheDoors.
Guitarist Jimi Hendrix rehearses before one of his concerts at the Hollywood Bowl in 1968.
Mason Carter's name is still heard a century later, when the building is owned by Los Angeles County.
He comes up in almost any conversation with Chad Smit, CEO of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
He also with Gustavo Dudamel, the artistic director, who has become de facto the face of the orchestra and of the Hollywood Bowl, which depends on the Philharmonic.
In a recent interview with public radio, the Venezuelan director said that it is the best outdoor venue in the world.
“There is no place like the Bowl.
Nothing can compare to the feeling of performing there on a summer night, as our sound seems to pour out of the hills towards the thousands of music lovers before us”, said the Venezuelan.
Dudamel conducted at the Bowl in September 2005 as a guest of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
Four years later, he would return definitively holding the baton that has made him one of the most recognized Latinos in the city.
His return is now common because musicians use the large structure as a summer venue.
The site has capacity for 18,000 people.
Many attendees hold picnics in the stands in what has become a city rite on summer afternoons.
A few weeks ago, Dudamel began the celebrations there for the centenary of the institution.
It was a presentation showing the eclectic nature of the Bowl's programming, capable of attracting 1.5 million viewers a year.
For that night, pop star Gwen Stefani collaborated with Dudamel and the Philharmonic musicians;
Branford Marsalis and John Williams made appearances;
and the musical bands of two rival universities, that of Southern California (USC) and that of the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA), collaborated for the first time.
It was actually the celebration of the year 101, but it was adjusted because the pandemic prevented it from being held in 2021.
In 1982, composer John Williams greets ET, the alien brought to the screen by Steven Spielberg.
Williams returned to the Hollywood Bowl stage in 2022.Hollywood Bowl
Throughout this summer, the Bowl has an ambitious program prepared after the coronavirus forced the first season to be canceled for the first time in 98 years.
Featured events include concerts by Ricky Martin, soft pop duo Loggins & Messina, John Fogerty, Diana Ross, Grace Jones, Duran Duran, CHVRCHES, Flying Lotus Sheryl Crow, UB40.
A Broadway musical,
Kinky Boots
, written by Cindy Lauper and Harvey Fierstein will also be staged and '90s rap stars Wu Tang Clan and Nas will join forces.
Dudamel will conduct the orchestra in director Yuval Sharon's montage of the third act of Wagner's The Valkyries.
There will also be performances by Chinese star Lang Lang, Joshua Bell, Seong-Jin Cho, as well as dancers from the Paris Opera Ballet, an institution recently taken over by the maestro from Barquisimeto and the most outstanding student of El Sistema. .
A rule that has been maintained since the days of Mason Carter is that there are affordable tickets for a city where all prices are through the roof.
Classical recital attendees can purchase tickets for one dollar on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
The celebration of the next July 4, the anniversary of independence, will be in the hands of comedians Steve Martin and Martin Short, who enjoy a renewed fame, as well as the Hollywood Bowl.