E2 FRIDAY, AUGUST 2, 2019 LATIMES.COM/CALENDAR
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Q&As with filmmaker Garret Price,
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To nightatthe7:00show(withJoe Dante);To morrowatthe4:30show
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‘LOVE,ANTOSHA’
ANTON YELCHIN
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Mon-Thu:12:45,3:00,5:15,7:30, 9:40
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Theextraordinary, unfinished life of AntonYe lchin
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The Budapest Festival
Orchestra, which began a
three-concert stint Tuesday
at the Hollywood Bowl, fill-
ing in for the touring Los An-
geles Philharmonic, has had
a regular place on the global
best-orchestra lists pretty
much since Iván Fischer
helped found it in 1983. Still
heading the orchestra, the
Hungarian conductor, him-
self, has steadily grown over
those 36 years, into one of
the world’s most respected.
Together, maestro and
his hand-picked musicians
from Budapest’s best,
brightest and least compla-
cent take everything they do
with utmost seriousness,
and their Bowl debut was no
exception. Beethoven’s “Eg-
mont” Overture was searing.
Brahms’ First Symphony
was majestic. Bruch’s syr-
upy Violin Concerto No. 1
was treated with rare nobil-
ity by the orchestra and its
refined soloist, Nicola Bene-
detti. Depth was the order of
an admirable evening of mu-
sic making in which every-
thing was of the highest or-
der.
But let’s peer around the
corner, what came before
and after the program,
where the situation gets
more interesting and less ex-
plicable. Our national an-
them, a Bowl tradition for
orchestral concerts, was
played with gracious fervor
and some curious added
brass business that sounded
like a celebratory flourish
from Tchaikovsky’s “1812”
Overture. But there was no
Hungarian anthem to follow.
Then there was the en-
core. Fischer addressed the
audience, reminding us that
what the world needs is for
everyone to sing. Parents
should sing to their children,
and children should sing in
choruses. To set an endear-
ing example, he then had the
players put down their in-
struments, stand and sing,
leading them in an a cap-
pella folk song by Dvorák, a
wonderful encore unlike any
orchestra has done before.
Fischer has always
meant for his BFO and its
members to stand for some-
thing. They are meant to be
complete musicians. The or-
chestra gives inventive con-
certs. It takes political posi-
tions, Fischer being an out-
spoken opponent of Hunga-
ry’s authoritarian Fidesz
ruling party, its anti-immi-
gration policies and restric-
tions on the press. For a re-
cent program titled “Danc-
ing in the Square,” Fischer
invited a mix of Roma and
non-Roma children to dance
to Beethoven’s Seventh
Symphony at an outdoor
concert in front of Bu-
dapest’s basilica.
At last summer’s Proms
in London, Fischer included
a program of Hungarian folk
music, and in New York in
April, he introduced a per-
formance of Bartok’s opera,
“Bluebeard’s Castle,” with
the composer’s folk-song ar-
rangements. Fischer has
composed an opera, “The
Red Heifer,” that specifically
addresses institutionalized
Hungarian anti-Semitism.
He also regularly tours with
the orchestra performing his
own highlyacclaimed semi-
staged productions of
Mozart operas. His Mahler,
Bartók and Dvorák record-
ings with the orchestra are
among the best.
But little of this is repre-
sented in the three Bowl pro-
grams, which tellingly don’t
include a note of Hungarian
music — Haydn’s 88th Sym-
phony, Thursday, was writ-
ten for the Hungarian court
orchestra of Esterháza, but
that doesn’t really count —
and couldn’t be more con-
ventional, full of music we
hear here all the time. The
big work Thursday was
Dvorák’s “New World” Sym-
phony. Next week, it’s
Mozart’s “Jupiter” Sym-
phony and his Requiem.
There was surely, though,
a political statement at the
beginning of Tuesday’s pro-
gram. Beethoven’s overture
to Goethe’s “Egmont” com-
pellingly condenses the
drama of overthrowing to-
talitarian rule. Any perform-
ance that doesn’t make that
apparent is irresponsible.
The Budapesters were grip-
ping from the first chords on,
as though this were person-
al. It is a physical orchestra,
and the intensity in the dug-
in string playing seemed to
represent the essence of re-
pression. The forceful wind
players seen on the Bowl’s vi-
deo screens offered powerful
theater all by themselves.
The brass rang the call for
freedom in a way to fill the
streets with triumph.
The Brahms symphony
was less exciting. Missing
was the playfulness that
helps enliven the central
movements. There was no
lack of granitic intensity in
the outer movements. De-
tails were lovingly if soberly
revealed, Brahms placed
high on a pedestal.
That might have been
more effective had Bruch
not been placed on this same
pedestal. His chestnut con-
certo needs no advocates.
Even a sourpuss like Heifetz
let his hair down madly
dashing through the finale
like a child’s first moments
at Disneyland. Benedetti
brought a surfeit of beauty
and elegance to Bruch, but
there was no hint of the kind
of swinging Wynton Marsalis
has lately brought out in her.
It’s hard to argue with great
playing, and the Budapest
band — even accompanying
Bruch — remained at its
best. But just think what
they and Benedetti might
have brought to Bartók.
MUSIC REVIEW
Stellar fill-in at the Bowl
Budapest Orchestra
and music director
Iván Fischer sub for
the touring L.A. Phil.
Budapest
Festival
Orchestra
What:Mozart’s “Jupiter”
Symphony and Requiem
Where:Hollywood Bowl,
2301 N. Highland Ave.
When:8 p.m. Tuesday
Cost:$8-$162
Info:hollywoodbowl.com
NEW YORK — Edward
Snowden, a former National
Security Agency contractor
whose leaks of classified
documents transformed the
debate about government
surveillance, is ready to tell
his story.
Metropolitan Books, an
imprint of Macmillan Pub-
lishers, announced Thurs-
day that Snowden’s “Perma-
nent Record” will be re-
leased Sept. 17 in more than
20 countries.
According to Metropoli-
tan, Snowden will describe
his role in the accumulation
of metadata and the “crisis
of conscience” that led him
to steal a trove of files in 2013
and share them with report-
ers. Metropolitan spokes-
woman Pat Eisemann de-
clined to offer additional de-
tails.
Snowden noted in a tweet
Thursday that the book
would be released on Consti-
tution Day.Snowden, who
faces U.S. charges that could
land him in prison, is cur-
rently living in exile in Mos-
cow, and promotion else-
where will likely be re-
stricted to interviews done
remotely.
He has been widely con-
demned by intelligence offi-
cials, who allege Snowden
has caused lasting damage
to national security, and de-
fended by civil libertarians
and other privacy advocates
who praise Snowden for re-
vealing the extent of infor-
mation the government was
gathering.
Notable revelations in-
cluded a massive program
collecting metadata on mil-
lions of domestic phone
calls.
“Edward Snowden de-
cided at the age of 29 to give
up his entire future for the
good of his country,” John
Sargent, CEO of Macmillan,
said in a statement. “He dis-
played enormous courage in
doing so, and like him or not,
his is an incredible Ameri-
can story. There is no doubt
that the world is a better and
more private place for his ac-
tions. Macmillan is enor-
mously proud to publish
‘Permanent Record.’ ”
Financial details were
not disclosed for a book that
was itself a covert project,
quietly acquired a year ago
by Macmillan and identified
under code names in inter-
nal documents. Snowden’s
primary contact with the
publisher was his principal
legal adviser, Ben Wizner, di-
rector of the American Civil
Liberties Union’s Speech,
Privacy, and Technology
Project.
Snowden is set to tell his story
Metropolitan Books
will publish the NSA
leaker’s memoir,
‘Permanent Record.’
associated press
Two weeks after allega-
tions of domestic assault,
Mike Fleiss, the executive
producer of ABC’s “The
Bachelor,” and his wife have
divorced.
Laura Kaeppeler Fleiss, a
former Miss America from
Wisconsin, received a $10-
million settlement, accord-
ing to a person familiar with
the matter but not author-
ized to speak publicly. The
couple will share custody of
their 4-year-old son.
She withdrew her allega-
tions of assault stemming
from an alleged altercation
earlier this month at one of
the couple’s homes in
Hawaii. Her representative
did not immediately re-
spond to a request for com-
ment on Wednesday.
The dispute flared when
the pair were arguing about
a recent pregnancy. Mike
Fleiss, in court documents,
alleged that his wife of five
years deceived him because
he was under the impression
that she was taking birth
control. He said he grabbed
her cellphone and strode
from the house, a scene that
was captured by security vi-
deo.
ABC and Warner Bros.
Television, which produces
“The Bachelor,” declined to
comment Wednesday. Pro-
duction of the show was not
interrupted by the allega-
tions, a Warner Bros. execu-
tive said.
Fleiss, 55, filed for divorce
on July 10; it was his second,
following a split from his
high school sweetheart in
- In court documents, he
denied that he assaulted his
wife, whom he met in 2012
when he was a judge for the
Miss America pageant.
The dispute between
Fleiss and his wife stood out
because the producer be-
came famous by peddling
televised romance.
In a court declaration,
Laura Fleiss, 31, claimed
that a recent pregnancy —
she now is apparently about
12 weeks along with the cou-
ple’s second child — was the
cause of strife in the mar-
riage, leading her husband
to file for divorce. Laura
Fleiss claimed that when
they got married, her hus-
band agreed to have only one
child. When he learned she
was pregnant for a second
time, she claimed in her legal
filing, he “demanded” she
get an abortion.
On July 4, she claimed, he
threatened to divorce her
and cut her off financially if
she did not terminate her
pregnancy, and she said he
told her: “Next time I see
you, I don’t want to see your
stomach.”
“I have not hurt, attacked
or attempted to physically
harm Laura or our child,”
Fleiss said in a declaration
filed earlier this month. He
also submitted text ex-
changes with his wife and of-
fered to supply video footage
of the incident for the court
to review.
A security-camera image
captured what appeared to
be a scuffle, but in court
documents, Fleiss relayed
his version of the encounter.
He said that he took her cell-
phone because “I wanted to
be sure she was not having
an affair and that the baby
she was carrying was mine.
She would not give the
phone to me, so I took it out
of her hand.”
The news comes on the
heels of a successful season
of “The Bachelorette,” which
concluded Tuesday evening
with an average of 7.4 million
viewers, up roughly 10% from
the 2018 edition’s finale rat-
ings.
‘Bachelor’
creator settles
his divorce
The Fleisses have
settled their divorce
for $10 million; Laura
Fleiss withdraws her
assault allegations.
By Meg James and
Amy Kaufman
PRODUCERMike
Fleiss, creator of ABC’s
“The Bachelor,” at 2014’s
Tribeca Film Festival.
Desiree Navarro
CULTURE COMPANY TOWN
MARK SWED
MUSIC CRITIC