We have seen many wonderful performances at the Hollywood Bowl, so it is hard to pick just one that is the best, or the first one that sticks in the top of my mind. The first time we took our kids, ages 8 and 10, we sat in the very last row ($1.00 seats back then), and saw Victor Borge way down on the stage. We didn't have binoculars, but because the sound was so good we didn't miss a thing. Our son was transfixed, our daughter enraptured, and they both have been fans of both Borge and the Bowl, ever since. That was back in the 1980's.
We have made trips back every year since then, in one configuration or another. Sometimes we meet friends for a picnic on the lawn across the street. The walk through the tunnel under the highway is always a little nervous-making -- either from the crush of the crowds and the low ceiling, or the thought of the hundreds of cars caught in traffic right overhead. But halfway through the tunnel we always hear a mellow sax playing Coltrane or Gershwin, and that shifts anxiety into happy anticipation. The saxophonist has been there at the end of the tunnel for years and years. We think he knows who we are because he always smiles and waves. But we are only a few of the thousands he greets each season.
This year my husband and I went all on our own, and realized we hadn't done that since we were first married, 40 years ago. The concert was WALT DISNEY'S FANTASIA, and John Mauceri was back! Oh yes, he was back conducting like he had never left. The orchestra was brilliant and the program selections were perfect.
Disney, as we all know, is often criticized for trivializing and watering-down both art and music. But I certainly did not find that to be the case with John Mauceri leading us through the strains of Bach, Beethoven, Stravinsky, Dominguez, Dukas, Ponchielli, Sibelius, Debussy, and Tchaikovsky. The Bowl was filled to capacity, and there were lots of children present. But never in my life have I experienced a more respectful and responsive crowd. The animation presented on the big screens, each frame hand drawn, served to keep the attention of even the most fidgety.
The unexpected presentation of DESTINO, Disney's 1946 collaboration with Salvador Dali, was breathtaking; Armando Dominguez' ballad poignant and haunting.
Even the fireworks, usually the high point for a Bowl night out, seemed anti-climactic to the evening's musical and artistic gifts.
Yes, Disney does diminish and compress and constrain in the interpretation of the classics -- be it literature or music. But when that process makes literature and music accessible and whets the appetite of the young for more, it is to the good. Victor Borge did the same thing, and it certainly increased our curiousity for more when we had sampled his deliciously entertaining "appetizers."
So I say "thank you" to the imaginators, the dreamers, and the artists who collaborate to open our world to their vision. And no apologies to those who think their work small. It's big enough. It really is.
