The Guadalajara Reporter
Guadalajara's Largest English Newspaper
The penultimate presentations in the May Cultural Festival will surely enthuse local modern dance fans when the 14-year-old Akram Khan Company, one of the foremost innovative dance outfits in the United Kingdom, present the show “Kaash.”
City of London Sinfonia
Administration spokesmen may put a positive spin on it, while musicians decry it and point fingers at their director. But nobody can deny that the face of the Jalisco Philharmonic Orchestra (JPO) has changed significantly in the past few months.
One of Mexico’s most iconic paintings, Raul Anguiano’s “La espina” (the thorn), is on display in Guadalajara, the artist’s birthplace, until May 31.
Thursday night was the first in a series of events inside and outside Guadalajara to celebrate — and raise funds for — the 100th anniversary of orchestral tradition in Jalisco. The observance is slated to conclude, if all goes well, in September with a visit by the entire Jalisco Philharmonic Orchestra to Busan, South Korea, where they have been invited to participate in the Maru Festival.
The highly successful monthly Jazz at Lincoln Center series marches on next week with a much anticipated performance by the Cyrus Chestnut Trio, who bring together old-school jazz, blues and gospel with a heartfelt passion. From a childhood spent playing the piano at church, Chestnut (above) went on to perform with jazz greats such as Chick Corea and Dizzy Gillespie. He has rightly earned his place alongside today’s standout players, with Time magazine calling him “the best jazz pianist of his generation.”
Teatro Vivian Blumenthal (Tomas V. Gomez 125), Thursday, May 14, 9 p.m. 200 pesos.
The United Kingdom takes a back seat at the May Cultural Festival on May 17, when arguably Mexico’s greatest tenor of the moment, Javier Camarena, joins the Jalisco Philharmonic Orchestra for an opera gala. 
Considered the sensation of the moment in the opera world, the 39-year-old received a rare honor at the Metropolitan Opera last April, becoming only the third singer in 70 years to perform an aria encore, following a prolonged ovation for his second act aria “Si, ritrovarla io giuro (Yes, I swear I’ll find her) in Rossini’s “La Cenerentola (Cinderella). Camarena will perform works by Gounod, Bizet, Donizetti, Rossini and Verdi. Note that ticket prices are slightly higher for this performance than other festival shows.
Teatro Degollado, Sunday, May 17, 6:30 p.m. 300-600 pesos.
