Mission accomplished: L.A. Opera's 'Ring'

Sunday, midnight, Los Angeles Ordinance No. 181069, which is meant to close down numerous medical marijuana dispensaries around town, went into effect. No police, however, needed summoning to the Music Center. Los Angeles Opera shooed away its regulars by 11. Nine days earlier, the company had begun dispensing a drug with the street name of the "Ring" (short for its pharmaceutical appellation, "Der Ring des Nibelungen").




This opiate, invented in the 19th century by one Richard Wagner, is not, strictly speaking, a chemical substance. But it operates on the central nervous system like any other narcotic, altering perception, consciousness and sense of time. And, yes, it is highly addictive.



So law or no law, a clientele will return Tuesday when the second of three "Ring" cycles will begin. Once more the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion will become a darkened den in which "Ring" junkies while away the hours in the dreamy fantasies of Achim Freyer's fantastical production. The women are buxom. A hero's bulging pecs are blue before sex and red after. A parade of primeval improbabilities entices us and warns us. Steal from Nature, this saga makes evident, and she will destroy you.





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L.A. Opera has now accomplished what it set out to accomplish. The company has stubbornly overcome considerable musical, theatrical, acoustical and fiscal obstacles and mounted a notable "Ring." Not all dubious Wagnerites are Freyer converts, but when the director and his team took their bows Sunday night, they were greeted by bellowing bravos, underpinned by a significantly dimmer low-pitched roar of boos, which created a purposefully textured chord. The cast was cheered and cheered.



This "Ring" went well. There were no significant mishaps that I could detect. Wagner made his operas for huge voices powered by huge egos, for intrepid singers willing to surmount their physical limitations. Freyer, himself no small ego, takes a new step, requiring the singers to subsume their egos in his theatrical action paintings. Singers confronted by the steep rake of the stage, by cumbersome costumes and an unfriendly Chandler acoustic, seem to have negotiated their peace with the production and the place.



Wagner expected the "Ring" to be performed in a festival setting where for a week audiences would exchange normal lives for immersion in his fantasies. The hardy (and well-off) perfect Wagnerites still go to Bayreuth for that. In a sacrament of kinky public masochism, the most devout bring blindfolds to blot out the horrors of modern stagecraft.



The L.A. "Ring" better represents the cosmopolitan art world. Freyer's "Ring" is a vision and dialogue with Wagner and it will be known and long discussed as such. While there were plenty of musical pleasures — enough so that the "Ring" can be responsibly broadcast on radio, as KUSC is doing — a blindfold in the Chandler would have meant considerable sensory deprivation.



Central to Freyer's concept is time. With overly ambitious hopes for tourism (and reportedly the requests of singers for some two-day recovery periods), the L.A "Ring" is spread too long over nine days (six would be more like it). But that still was a condensed enough period to allow for the complicated unfolding of time in Wagner's long operas to be felt as a powerful force.



Taking place before the dawn of historical time, "Das Rheingold" is a light fair populated with curious creatures. In "Die Walküre," love-centered, characters can only be in the present when they touch circular time. Played out on a farfetched racetrack, "Siegfried" presents a hero in competition with his environment. Entropy takes over "Götterdämmerung." When the world collapses, Freyer breaks down the stage and leaves a mess.



Freyer had time on his side. The hours a "Ring" audience spends in his fantasy realm add up to the better part of a day, and many told me that after getting used to strange imagery the drug began to take effect.



Since each opera was individually produced over the past two seasons, the strengths and limitations of the cast were no surprise. In "Siegfried" and "Götterdämmerung," John Treleaven and Linda Watson are also beneficiaries of time. I found myself having grown fond of their voices. Treleaven finally fully throws himself fearlessly into comic book Siegfriedery. Watson is an unflappable Brünnhilde. Perhaps her ability to express righteous indignation is directed Freyer-ward (given some of her public comments), but maybe we have the director to thank for bringing out that essential part of Brünnhilde's character. Her strong "Immolation" scene moved me.



Seeing these operas together also helps account for the multiplicity of Freyer's dramatic techniques, be it masked characters needing to use their bodies and voices in ways to get beyond facial expression or all the magical symbols that may or may not have specific meaning.



James Conlon conducted as tirelessly as he bounces around town talking up Wagner. The orchestra fatigues more easily but should settle in better during the next two cycles.



We're not done yet. But the milestone has been reached. L.A. Opera has made an L.A. "Ring," a Freyer "Ring." The Wagner drug has a significant new formula.



But if this "Ring" is to also be appreciated as a new Los Angeles and Wagner landmark, it must be filmed for DVD, and so far we have found no sponsorship for that to happen. The "Ring" is about time, and time, which is far more tyrannical than Ordinance No. 181069, in this crucial regard has almost run out.

ACL Festival 2009 Video

Hulu and Austin City Limits Festival have teamed up to create the "Best of ACL Festival 2009," streaming on Hulu. Thievery Corporation has four videos from their live performance last year (Vampires, Heart's a Lonely Hunter, Mandala, and Hare Krsna). Other artist performances include Bon Iver, Dave Matthews Band, Ghostland Observatory and Pearl Jam.

Mountain Goats go on tour, providing John Darnielle a quick respite from penning tales of mankind's misery

I don't know a whole lot of official information on The Mountain Goats' plans for the near future, but I'd wager it involves recorded tales of human misery. The subjects of alcoholism, drug use, religion, and black metal will likely be involved. But I do know one thing about The Mountain Goats' plans for the near future: they're going on tour starting this weekend. But don't worry, the tour ends mid-June, giving John Darnielle plenty of time to record more heartbreak and sadness.




Mountain Goats tourdates:



05.30.10 - Portland, OR - Doug Fir

05.31.10 - George, WA - Sasquatch

06.01.10 - Victoria, BC - Element

06.02.10 - Vancouver, BC - Rickshaw Theatre

06.04.10 - Boise, ID - Neurolux

06.05.10 - Missoula, MT - The Palace

06.07.10 - Calgary, AB - MacEwan Hall *

06.08.10 - Edmonton, AB - Edmonton Events Center *

06.09.10 - Saskatoon, SK - The Odeon Events Center *

06.10.10 - Winnipeg, MB - Garrick Centre *

06.12.10 - Iowa City, IA - The Blue Moose Tap House

06.13.10 - Omaha, NE - Slowdown

06.15.10 - Englewood, CA - Gothic Theatre

06.16.10 - Salt Lake City, UT - Urban Lounge

09.08.10 - Leeds, UK - Brudenell Social Club Leeds

09.09.10 - London, UK - Koko

09.10.10 - Dorset, UK - End the Road Festival

10.08.10 - Austin, TX - Austin City Limits

Lil Tunechi Weekend: 'Get A Life'

We get back to partying and rebellious rock and roll on Lil Wayne's "Get a Life" clip. All this week, we've been previewing Wayne videos — "Da Da Da," the Nicki Minaj-featuring "Knockout" and "Runnin'." — that are set to get their debuts on MTV Jams and MTV 2 during the Memorial Day holiday. On Friday (May 28), the preview concluded with Weezy and the versatile band ¡Mayday! rocking on "Get a Life."

Like the clip for "Da Da Da," "Get a Life" was filmed on the roof of the Marlin Hotel, and it features an inspired performance by the Birdman Jr. and his crew of instrumentalists. Back in February, ¡Mayday! bandmember Plex spoke to MTV News about shooting with Wayne.

"It was a whole mess of people," he said of the sets for "Da Da Da" and "Get a Life," which were filmed back-to-back in Miami during Super Bowl weekend. Those were just two of nine Wayne shot in less than 72 hours. "I didn't notice who was there, but I saw Shane [Mosley] because I'm a big fan. Then, you know, the whole Cash Money/ Young Money clique was there. A few NFL players were there. It was crazy."

"I'm just tryna get my own," Wayne sings, dressed in a red ¡Mayday! T-shirt. "I'm up early in the mornin', gettin it by all means/ Gotta get this dough!"

The balance of the fruit of their collective labor, a full-length "Da Da Da," premiered Friday (May 28) on Jams and MTV2.

"[The video] was set up like a reality show," Plex said of "Da Da Da." "They followed us out of the tour bus, up the stairs and then we jumped on the stage and started playing. It was fun, man. They was trying to re-create, spin off of 'The Streets Have No Name' by U2 — the one where they were performing on the rooftop and people start gathering around. [Wayne's video] was doing something parallel to that on the rooftop of the Marlin. They had helicopter shots and all."

Which of the four new Wayne videos are you most excited to see this weekend? Let us know in the comments!

Poll: David Archuleta Voted Best "American Idol" Ever

illboard ranked all of the "American Idol" contestants according to song and album sales and radio play, but we asked you to vote on which singer is really the best. Hundreds of thousands of votes were cast to pick your favorite male and female "Idol," David Archuleta and Carrie Underwood (see individual male and female results here). And over the last week, you turned out in droves again in the run-off vote between David and Carrie. So who is your ultimate favorite idol? The votes are in.... and the winner is David Archuleta with a whopping 92% of you picking him over Carrie's 8%! Congrats, David.

Winning our poll is "really flattering," Archuleta tells Billboard.com. "I guess the fans I have are just really supportive. I think it's cool that people consider me their favorite, especially because it's Billboard. I check Billboard every week and I'm starting to get the magazine more, and I have a Billboard book, so it's just funny that this is from Billboard, too. It's not just some teen website, you know? It's Billboard. I think that's cool."

What does he think of getting more votes than Carrie Underwood? "It's crazy," he says. "Carrie's just so successful. She's sold millions and millions of albums and she has a great voice and a great personality."

All you Archuleta fans will be heartened to hear he's got a new album on the horizon. "We've been talking about releasing a single later this summer and then having the album come out this fall," he details. "I think I worked to get more lively grooves into some of the songs. Except for "Touch My Hand," there wasn't really anything on my last album that made people move. It was more light and fluffy and fun because that's all we really had time to do. I didn't really have time to go through the songs and say, 'This song has a story that needs to be said. This song really shows who I am.' So it's been nice having more time to think about what I want to say and share with other people so they can say, 'Hey, I think I'm getting to know who David Archuleta is.'"

Now that you've crowned David the best "Idol" of all time, we know your eyes will be on the Season Nine finale this week. And while you gear up to see whether Lee DeWyze or Crystal Bowersox joins the ranks of "Idol" winners, get your fill of "Idol" related Billboard goodies below.

The Ten Greatest Music Videos In Roadrunner History

Roadrunner recently compiled their definitive list of the 10 best videos in the label's long history. Take a look at the list to see where Slipknot landed and for which video!

Titi DJ, Indra Lesmana & All II 2004 Finalists (Medley) video

Result and Reunion Show - The Season Finale Indonesian Idol Season 1. They sang medley. Started from the boys "Akulah Arjuna", then the girls "Ratu Sejagad", continue to all finalists boys & girls "Hanya Memuji", last Titi DJ & Indra Lesmana "Dunia Boleh Tertawa".

Watch IT !!!