DISCOVERY OF CA: A NIGHT AT THE HOLLYWOOD BOWL(REDUX 8/4/2010)

View from the back!

That's us!

We went to the Hollywood Bowl last night for the first time. What a great experience: it is a large music shell, big enough to fully enclose an entire symphony orchestra with much room to spare, and set into the canyon on a hillside. Radiating out from the open side is a large array of banked seating, enough to seat 20,000 people, and it was full last night!
We drove into town early to avoid the rush hour traffic and toured a few streets in the Hollywood Hills region with famous old homes: the "Hollywoodland Development" on Beachwood Dr, a 20s collection of homes that is situated right under the "Hollywood Sign" (which originally said "Hollywoodland"). And also the most charming set of homes on Hollyridge Loop a barely two car ridge with homes on either side and a dramatic drop off beyond.
Then on to the Bowl, where we picnic'd at Camrose Park and then heard Dudamel and the orchestra performing Gershwin and Bernstein--- popular favorites. The pianist for Rhapsody in Blue was wonderful. Her expression and sense of timing were the best I have ever heard on this piece. And she did encores in which she took musical themes and spontaneously improvised Classical performances on them! The other music was well performed especially the broad orchestral tones on American In Paris, we kept looking for Gene Kelly to appear onstage (but he never did).
The music was fine, but the experience of being in this giant dramatic bowl of people was incredible all by itself. And even more incredible, the experience of having this mass of people all walk out in some semblance of order to endless jam parked cars waiting to leave and flood the local streets with traffic. (Every experience in LA includes a traffic experience!) It took us about 30 min to get moving and we found a route home with little traffic and minimal hassle.