Actress Tsai Chin From The Joy Luck Club Featured As Program's Narrator
FRIDAY AND SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 12 AND 13 AT 8:30 PM
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 14 AT 7:30 PM
September 12 media sponsor: KNX 1070 Newsradio
September 12 and 13 sponsored by Pasadena Showcase House for the Arts
September 13 media sponsor: KTWV 94.7FM The Wave
September 14 is a Lexus Passionate Performance
September 14 media sponsor: sponsored by KPCC 89.3 FM
Principal conductor John Mauceri leads the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra in the final subscription program of the season featuring the incomparable Peking Acrobats in their Hollywood Bowl debut on Friday and Saturday, September 12 and 13 at 8:30 p.m. and Sunday, September 14 at
7:30 p.m. The program also features special guest narrator Tsai Chin, the actress best known for her role as "Auntie Lindo" in the film The Joy Luck Club.
"This concert will explore this most ancient of cultures and how it has permeated storytelling, fantasy, music, and drama for thousands of years," Mauceri says. "And, it certainly seems appropriate to do a program celebrating the culture and civilization that created and invented fireworks."
The Hollywood Bowl Orchestra is featured in the first half of the evening, performing favorite works including music from acts one and two of Puccini's Turandot and selections from Ravel's Mother Goose suite. The Peking Acrobats perform with the orchestra in an original program of acrobatic feats in the program's second half, followed by a spectacular finale of fireworks.
JOHN MAUCERI's accomplishments extend nationally and internationally, not only to the world's greatest opera companies and symphony orchestras, but also to the musical stages of Broadway and Hollywood, before large television and radio audiences, and in recording studios and major publications. Mauceri has received substantial recognition for his work as one of the principal forces behind the movement to preserve two of America's great art forms, the American musical and music for the American cinema. He is equally at home conducting artists ranging from Plácido Domingo (during a live broadcast of the Grammy Awards) to Madonna (with whom he recorded the soundtrack to Andrew Lloyd Webber's Evita), from Garth Brooks (an inaugural inductee into the Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame) to the Smashing Pumpkins (for the 1996 MTV Music Awards). Carol Burnett, Chicago, John Denver, Rodney Gilfry, Jonathan Pryce, Jane Eaglen, Jennifer Larmore, Patrick Stewart, Tito Puente, Charlotte Church, and Trisha Yearwood are among the multitude of artists who have performed with Mauceri and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra. Mauceri's first recordings with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra reached the "Top Ten" in Billboard's crossover chart, and one received Germany's highest award, the Deutsche Schallplatten Prize. To date, the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra has made four successful tours to Japan and one to Brazil. Mauceri and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra have presented an astonishing number of premieres, and under Mauceri's tenure, opera and ballet returned to the Bowl's stage. In addition to his Hollywood Bowl position, Mauceri has served as music director for the Pittsburgh Opera since June 2000. The only American ever to have held the post of music director of an opera house in Great Britain and Italy, he served as music director of the Scottish Opera, and recently completed his three-year tenure as music director (direttore stabile) of the Teatro Reggio in Turino.
THE PEKING ACROBATS are comprised of the finest acrobatic troupes in China today and have received acclaim from countries around the world. An outgrowth of the Great China Circus, popular during the 1920s, this group became an integrated professional acrobatic company in 1958. The September 12, 13, and 14 performances mark the group's Hollywood Bowl debuts.
Raised in Shanghai, the daughter of China's preeminent Peking Opera actor, Zhou Xinfang, TSAI CHIN was trained at The Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, London and has a Master's Degree in Drama from Tufts University (Distinguished Service to Profession Award from the Alumni Association). Her career was launched in London starring in the title role of The World of Susie Wong. Films in the UK include The Inn of the Sixth Happiness, You Only Live Twice, and Virgin Soldiers. Her roles in the experimental theatres include Klytemnestra in The Oresteia and Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter. In 1989 she returned to the West End in Madame Butterfly. With the success of playing Auntie Lindo in The Joy Luck Club, she now lives in Los Angeles. Other major US films include The Red Corner and stage work includes: The Woman Warrior (Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award), Golden Child (on Broadway and regional theatres). She was last seen at the Mark Taper Forum in The House of Bernardo Alba. Her autobiography, Daughter of Shanghai, published by St. Martin's Press, has been an international success. This program is Chin's Hollywood Bowl Debut.
EDITORS PLEASE NOTE:
Friday, September 12, 8:30 PM
Saturday, September 13, 8:30 PM
Sunday, September 14, 7:30 PM
HOLLYWOOD BOWL (2301 N. Highland Ave. in Hollywood)
Fireworks Finale - Treasures of China
Hollywood Bowl Orchestra
JOHN MAUCERI, CONDUCTOR
PEKING ACROBATS, special guests
TSAI CHIN, narrator
Puccini: Turandot - music from Acts 1 and 2
Ravel: Laideronnette, Empress of the Pagodas from
Mother Goose
Mahler: "Of Youth" from The Song of the Earth
Portman: The Joy Luck Club
Stravinsky: Chinese March from The Song of the Nightingale
Tchaikovsky: Chinese Dance ("Tea") from The Nutcracker
Rodgers: Overture to Flower Drum Song
Dun: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Sakamoto: The Last Emperor
Second half:
Peking Acrobats with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra
Puccini/Alfano: Finale from Turandot (with fireworks)
September 12 media sponsor: KNX 1070 Newsradio
September 12 and 13 sponsored by Pasadena Showcase House for the Arts
September 13 media sponsor: KTWV 94.7FM The Wave
September 14 is a Lexus Passionate Performance
September 14 media sponsor: sponsored by KPCC 89.3 FM
Tickets ($3 - $45) are on sale now at the Hollywood Bowl box office, by calling Ticketmaster at 213.480.3232, at all Ticketmaster outlets (Robinsons May, Tower Records and Ritmo Latino locations), or online at hollywoodbowl.com. Groups of 12 or more may be eligible for a 20% discount, subject to availability; call 323.850.2050 for further details. For general information or to request a brochure, call 323.850.2000.
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Elizabeth Hinckley, 213.972.3034; Laura Segal Stegman, 310.645.1755; for photos: Beth Norber, 213.972.3409