Cultural Arts in November
November 2012

The 2012-2013 Cultural Season in New Orleans, which got off to a roaring start in October, continues through November, leading up to the Holiday Season and the great cultural events to come. This month features the best in bel canto opera, classical masterpieces and lively stage productions, both original works and full-scale Broadway musicals.

Here is how the cultural calendar is shaping up for the month of November:

Les Miserables
October 30-November 4

Venue: Mahalia Jackson Theater for the Performing Arts
Presenting Organization: Broadway Across America
Tickets: Broadway Across America, Ticketmaster or Mahalia Jackson Theater

Based on the novel by Victor Hugo, Les Miserables is a series of character studies during a turbulent time in the history of Paris and the Bourbon Restoration that followed the end of the Napoleonic era. Gripping in its depictions of the Parisian underclass, the story Jean Valjean's attempts at redemption and the persistence of police inspector Javert to bring him down was adapted for the stage in 1985 and has entertained an estimated 60 million people in 43 countries since then.

This is the official opening production of the 2012-2013 season by Broadway in New Orleans at the Mahalia Jackson Theater. Show times vary.

Frost/Nixon
October 26-November 4, 2012

Venue: Jefferson Performing Arts Center
Presenting Organization: Jefferson Performing Arts Society
Tickets: Jefferson Performing Arts Society

In the years immediately following Richard Nixon's resignation from the presidency, he was determined to begin the process of restoring his disgraced reputation. Around the same time, talk show host David Frost began sensing that his career was on the decline and he was equally determined to resurrect his fading popularity. In a series of nationally televised interviews, both men contend for the audience's attention, each with their own agenda that conflicts with the other's, and the result actually benefits both of them.

The show runs for approximately two hours with a 15-minute intermission. Show times are 7:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday nights and 2 p.m. for Sunday matinees.

All Saints
October 5, 2012

Venue: First Baptist Church
Presenting Organization: Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra
Tickets: Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra

Join the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra in a celebration of All Saints Day as they perform two lengthy pieces of classical music with an appropriate theme for the day. Under the baton of Maestro Carlos Miguel Prieto, the 70-piece LPO will perform Richard Strauss' 1888 composition, "Death and Transfiguration" and Dmitri Shostakovich's Symphony No. 14, composed in 1969 which also deals largely with death-related themes.

Performance time is 7:30 p.m. at the First Baptist Church of New Orleans, 5290 Canal Boulevard, in the Lakeview section of New Orleans. For more detailed information, including ticket availability, call 523-6350 or visit www.lpomusic.com.

Debauchery
November 7, 2012

Venue: Mid-City Theatre
Sponsoring Organizations: Southern Repertory Theater
Tickets: Mid-City Theatre and Southern Repertory Theater

Pat Bourgeois brings you Debauchery! The Soap Opera about a wealthy, eccentric family just trying to find love, family, and infamy in New Orleans. Will Buff tell Cartier that he is really Nick � long lost husband of her sister, Chanel? Will Chanel continue her marriage to dull, predictable Larsen, or will she consummate her coitus-interuptus honeymoon with Nick, who is now Buff? And, if Buff was impotent during his marriage to Cartier, who fathered the twins?

Come join the fun and find out! Performances start at 7:30 p.m.

Opera on Tap
November 7, 2012

Venue: The Rusty Nail
Sponsoring Organizations: New Orleans Opera Association
Tickets: None (FREE and Open to the Public)

The New Orleans Opera Association reprises its highly popular "Opera on Tap" program of light operatic and live stage fare at various locations at the Rusty Nail in the Warehouse District. The performance starts at 7:00 p.m. and run until 8:30. They are free and open to the public.

Symphonic Brass
November 8, 2012

Venue: First Baptist Church of Kenner
Presenting Organization: Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra
Tickets: Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra

The Louisiana Philharmonic presents a night of musical fanfare with the LPO Brass, featuring Vance Woolf and Chicago Symphony musicians Jay Friedman and Christopher Martin at its second Jefferson Parish concert of the new 2012-13 Cultural Season. The concert is being held in the First Baptist Church of Kenner, 1400 Williams Boulevard, Kenner, just one mile from Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport.

Concert time is 7:30 p.m. For more detailed information, including ticket availability, call 523-6350 or visit www.lpomusic.com.

"Angels of Music": Bon Operatit! Performs The Best of Andrew Lloyd Weber
November 14, 2012

Venue: Four Points by Sheraton
Sponsoring Organizations: Four Points by Sheraton and Bon Operatit!
Tickets: FREE and Open to the Public; $5.00 Valet Parking Rate Available for Attendees

A talented trio of classically trained singers, consisting of tenor Jesse Nolan, mezzo-soprano Mary Penick Akin and soprano Lauren Mouney Gisclair, Bon Operatit! offers up a wide selection of musical classics from the genius of Andrew Lloyd Weber. Tunes made popular by one of the greatest songwriters of the 20th century are on the agenda for a fun, FREE evening of live entertainment.

This free performance will last from 7:00-9:00 p.m. at the Four Points by Sheraton French Quarter hotel in the heart of New Orleans' French Quarter, and the public is invited. Valet parking is available for a nominal $5 charge.

The Barber of Seville
November 16 & 18, 2012

Venue: Mahalia Jackson Theater for the Performing Arts
Presenting Organization: New Orleans Opera Association
Tickets: New Orleans Opera Association

Last month Placido Domingo grabbed the headlines for the New Orleans Opera Association. This month it's Samuel Ramey's turn. One of the leading bass-baritones of the present-day opera world, Ramey makes his New Orleans debut in the role of Don Basilio in Gioachino Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville). He has sung in every prestigious opera house in the world, including The Met, Milan's La Scala, London's Covent Garden, Vienna State Opera, Paris Opera, San Francisco Opera and many others, excelling for his roles in the "Three Devils": Boito's Mefistofele, Gounod's Faust, and Berlioz's The Damnation of Faust.

Other leading characters in the cast include soprano Deborah Domanski (Rosina), tenors Michele Angelini (Count Almaviva) and Matthew Worth (Figaro) and bass Thomas Hammons (Dr. Bartolo). Maestro Robert Lyall conducts the Louisiana Philharmonic Opera and Matthew Lata stage directs the production. The opera is sung in Italian with English supertitles (translations) projected above the stage.

Show times are at 8 p.m. on Friday, November 16 and 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, November 18. Good seats are still available. For a detailed synopsis of the opera click here www.neworleansopera.org/2012-2013-season/barber-of-seville-synopsis/. �

Opera on Tap
November 21, 2012

Venue: Four Points by Sheraton
Sponsoring Organizations: New Orleans Opera Association
Tickets: None (FREE and Open to the Public)

Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2
November 29, 2012

Venue: First Baptist Church
Presenting Organization: Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra
Tickets: Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra

German-born conductor Markus Huber guest conducts the LPO in two lengthy pieces, Nielson's Symphony No. 4 "The Inextinguishable" and Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 2. Renowned, internationally acclaimed classical pianist Stephen Hough is the guest pianist on the Brahams composition.

Performance time is 7:30 p.m. For more detailed information, including ticket availability, call 523-6350 or visit www.lpomusic.com.