OPEN SPACES

Sound/Stage: Now in its second season, the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s virtual series at the Hollywood Bowl envisions performances in new ways.

By Libby Slate

FROM AERIAL DRONE shots to sweeping views of box seats and benches, from backstage glimpses to onstage perspectives, the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s digital concert video series Sound/Stage captures the Hollywood Bowl as no patron could ever see it in person. The 16-episode series, which premiered last September and recently concluded its second season, presented members of the L.A. Phil—led by music and artistic director Gustavo Dudamel—and guest artists in multifaceted online programs that provided visual and aural sustenance to viewers hungry for music during the COVID-19 shutdown. Sound/Stage delivered music and so much more.

Screen shots from the Sound/Stage Episode devoted to Carnival of the Animals include pianist David Fung.

Bowl regular Jean-Yves Thibaudet performs Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue while part of the camera team is shown attaining artistic piano shots. Members of the Grandeza Mexicana Folk Ballet Company dance in the aisles by empty Bowl box seats, silhouetted against orange stage lighting.

Dudamel and four-time Academy Award-winning director-writer-producer Alejandro G. Iñárritu discuss the crafting of emotion-evoking finales in film and music.

Other artists include Andra Day, J’Nai Bridges, Chicano Batman and Kamasi Washington in the first season and John Adams, Common and Yuja Wang in the second.

“We are in Hollywood’s backyard. This is the Hollywood Bowl. What we tried to create is something that is more cinematic, because we have this incredible community of filmmakers right here in Los Angeles,” Meghan Martineau, the L.A. Phil’s vice president of artistic planning, says.

“I’m spoiled—I have the opportunity to stand onstage at rehearsal or stand in the wings in performance and see up close what’s happening. That’s what we’re able to share with Sound/Stage: You can see the artists walk on, talk to each other, see someone give a little look during a performance. It adds a little personal humanity. The hope is not to replace a live performance, but to create a different experience.”

Live concerts resume at the Bowl this month with four free events for healthcare and essential workers and first responders. A 14-week summer season begins in July.

It was Dudamel who insisted on keeping the connection to orchestra patrons when live performances were canceled last year, and Dudamel who chose the episode themes and content.

Among the themes: Love in the Time of COVID; A Pan-American Musical Feast, in which chef José Andrés discusses the connection between food and music; and Power to the People!, which reflects the Walt Disney Concert Hall festival of the same name cut short by COVID.

It wasn’t just the directors who were contending with the new format.

“The first round was a huge learning curve for everyone,” Martineau recalls. “How do you lay out the [socially distanced] orchestra? Where do you put your camera operators? How do they interact with the musicians? Everybody was challenged to think about their jobs differently.”

Screen shots from the Sound/Stage Episode devoted to Carnival of the Animals.

The second season brought new directors and a new style, with Dudamel speaking more to the viewing audience, more interviews and increased use of animation, such as the four animated folk tales featured in an episode on Saint-Saëns’ The Carnival of the Animals.

Though Sound/Stage expanded the L.A. Phil brand by drawing a global audience, Martineau sees a greater benefit. “If your product is out to more people,” she says, “you’re spreading more good in the world.”