Lynn Garafola's La Nijinska

[miliosr]

My copy of Lynn Garafola's magisterial new biography of Bronislava Nijinska (titled La Nijinska) has arrived.

 

I skipped ahead to Chapter 16 where Garafola discusses the Royal Ballet's major revivals of Les Biches and Les Noces in the mid-60s. In Garafola's retelling, Frederick Ashton comes across as the real hero of these revivals as he commissioned them at a time when Nijinska's fortunes were at a very low ebb. Garafola quotes this lovely communication from Ashton to Nijinska in 1964 before she arrived in London to restage Les Biches:

 

"It has always been one of my favourite ballets and I look forward with extreme pleasure to seeing it again, and to having you among us . . . To my way of thinking it is essential that the Royal Ballet should have a masterpiece in its repertoire from one of the greatest choreographers of our time."

 

Ashton signed it, "Your ancient pupil, Freddie."

 

The source notes for Chapter 16 mention that Les Biches was programmed with Les Patineurs and Marguerite and Armand at the first performance. At subsequent performances, Les Biches appeared on the same bill as Les Sylphides and The Dream. How about those as mixed bills at the ballet?

[Sim]

9 hours ago, miliosr said:

My copy of Lynn Garafola's magisterial new biography of Bronislava Nijinska (titled La Nijinska) has arrived.

 

I skipped ahead to Chapter 16 where Garafola discusses the Royal Ballet's major revivals of Les Biches and Les Noces in the mid-60s. In Garafola's retelling, Frederick Ashton comes across as the real hero of these revivals as he commissioned them at a time when Nijinska's fortunes were at a very low ebb. Garafola quotes this lovely communication from Ashton to Nijinska in 1964 before she arrived in London to restage Les Biches:

 

"It has always been one of my favourite ballets and I look forward with extreme pleasure to seeing it again, and to having you among us . . . To my way of thinking it is essential that the Royal Ballet should have a masterpiece in its repertoire from one of the greatest choreographers of our time."

 

Ashton signed it, "Your ancient pupil, Freddie."

 

The source notes for Chapter 16 mention that Les Biches was programmed with Les Patineurs and Marguerite and Armand at the first performance. At subsequent performances, Les Biches appeared on the same bill as Les Sylphides and The Dream. How about those as mixed bills at the ballet?

In our dreams. 

[Jeannette]

Thanks for beginning this thread, Miliosr. I received my copy of La Nijinska last week, just in time to bring it along on a working trip to Bogotá! It’s a biggie - all 497 pages - the product of many years of meticulous research around the globe, including the main Nijinska archives in the US Library of Congress (Wash, DC). Just two chapters in, it’s a fascinating read so far. 

[miliosr]

1 hour ago, Jeannette said:

I received my copy of La Nijinska last week, just in time to bring it along on a working trip to Bogotá! It’s a biggie - all 497 pages 

Yes - you could use it as a door stop!

[Jeannette]

3 hours ago, miliosr said:

Yes - you could use it as a door stop!

I forgot to add: 497 pages before the 100+ pages of appendices, notes, & bibliography!

[alison]

😮

[miliosr]

Lynn Garafola spends some time in Chapter 16 discussing the contrasting critical receptions to the Les Biches and Les Noces revivals in London and New York. The two revivals received raves in London but the reviews in New York were cooler.

 

When the Royal Ballet performed Les Noces as part of its 1967 performances at the new Met, Clive Barnes, then the lead dance critic for the New York Times, compared it unfavorably to the version Jerome Robbins had created for American Ballet Theatre two years earlier. Interestingly, Robbins himself was far more impressed by the Nijinska version. Garafola quotes him telling the choreographer's daughter years later that "he never would have created his own ballet to the same Stravinsky score" if he had seen Nijinska's version first. But as Garafola also notes, Les Noces hadn't been seen anywhere in the thirty years prior to its revival in London in 1966. So, it was an unknown quantity for a large part of the dance world.

 

Garafola again credits Frederick Ashton for his "inspired leadership" in engaging Nijinska to revive Les Noces and compares the revival to Aurora awakening from her long sleep. Alas, in 2022, it would appear that "Aurora" has fallen back into her deep sleep again.

[alison]

Down to the difficulties/cost of supplying 4 pianists plus the requisite singers, I believe.  At least in part, that is.

[DrewCo]

Ballet West has scheduled Nijinska's Les Noces for their upcoming season. On their website they give the title in English as well as French which seems a sensible accommodation to audiences in the U.S. (For those unfamiliar with the company--they are based in Salt Lake City, Utah.)

[miliosr]

7 hours ago, DrewCo said:

Ballet West has scheduled Nijinska's Les Noces for their upcoming season.

That is good news! As long as a dance work lives somewhere - it lives.

[FLOSS]

I don't dispute the fact that certain works in the Royal Ballet's repertory cost a lot to stage because of the musical resources they require but I think that if the director wanted to do so he would find a way  to stage them.  Cost increasingly seems to me to be little more than a convenient excuse for not staging certain ballets in the company's twentieth century repertory as it is one which it is very difficult to challenge without access to the accounts. If Kevin  wanted to stage works like Daphnis and Chloe, Les Noces and The Song of the Earth on a regular basis he would find a way of doing so. If he valued these works he would programme these ballets on a triennial revival schedule and either ring fence money in his budget to cover the cost or try to establish a syndicate of people who would be prepared to assist in covering the cost of such revivals.

[miliosr]

I agree that the financial arguments for not doing something are mere pretexts. Certainly, the Royal Ballet was able to find considerable monetary resources to throw at The Dante Project and Like Water for Chocolate. But at least those can be considered (qualified) successes.

 

A better (worse?) example would be American Ballet Theatre (ABT) and its inability during Kevin McKenzie's 30-year tenure to restore Anthony Tudor's one-act The Tragedy of Romeo & Juliet to repertory. The reason given is always cost. But that can't be true given how ABT could find the money for such big-budget bombs as David Parsons' The Pied Piper, the multi-choreographer Within You Without You: A Tribute to George Harrison, Robert Hill's Dorian, Gelsey Kirkland's Sleeping Beauty and even some of Alexei Ratmansky's more outre offerings.

[Ian Macmillan]

It would appear that La Scala Milan has managed to scrape together sufficient Euros to stage a piece called LORE by Wayne McGregor using the score of Les Noces.  Paired with another McGregor work, it opened last night, 24 June.  An extensive Rehearsal photo gallery will feature in Sunday's Links:

 

https://www.gramilano.com/2022/06/photo-album-wayne-mcgregor-afterite-lore/

linked to:

https://www.gramilano.com/2022/06/lore-wayne-mcgregor/

 

[miliosr]

Chapter 16 of La Nijinska begins with a recounting of the Los Angeles ballet scene as it existed in the early 1960s. Nijinska had been teaching there for quite some time and her pupils had included the Tallchief sisters, Maria and Marjorie, and Tula Finklea, who became much better known as the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer star, Cyd Charisse. There were also many other distinguished ballet teachers in Los Angeles at that time, including Stanley Holden, David Lichine and Tatiana Riabouchinska, Eugene Loring and Carmelita Maracci.

 

Crash-landing into this world in 1964 was George Balanchine. With his success in New York assured and flush with funds from an enormous Ford Foundation grant ($6 million in 1963 dollars; $55 million in 2021 dollars), Balanchine was looking to extend his influence to the West Coast. As documented by Lynn Garafola, Balanchine gave a tactless interview to Los Angeles Times music critic Albert Goldberg in which he said (among other things):

 

"I will bring my people - the teachers, choreographers and technicians - to get things started here. We will try to teach the local teachers how to teach . . ." [Note: my emphasis]

 

This infuriated Nijinska, who fired off a letter to the Los Angeles Times (which they didn't print):

 

"Mr. Balanchine . . . allows himself to criticize insultingly the standing of the Ballet Schools of Los Angeles and their leaders; speaking of them as being lost . . . and he being the only one who can bring them forth into the light of civilization."

 

And:

 

"His interview also sounds like a monopolistic dictatorship . . ."

 

As Garafola notes, though, nothing came of Balanchine's proposed 'Ballet of Los Angeles' and it had collapsed by 1967. (Subsequent attempts by some of Balanchine's most fervent apostles to establish a Balanchine-derived ballet company in Los Angeles have also met with either failure or indifference: John Clifford's Los Angeles Ballet (1974-85) and Ballet of Los Angeles (1988-91), and, currently, Colleen Neary's Los Angeles Ballet.)

 

So much juicy news in this biography which would otherwise be lost!

 

Edited June 26, 2022 by miliosr

[DrewCo]

4 hours ago, miliosr said:

 

As Garafola notes, though, nothing came of Balanchine's proposed 'Ballet of Los Angeles' and it had collapsed by 1967. (Subsequent attempts by some of Balanchine's most fervent apostles to establish a Balanchine-derived ballet company in Los Angeles have also met with either failure or indifference: John Clifford's Los Angeles Ballet (1974-85) and Ballet of Los Angeles (1988-91), and, currently, Colleen Neary's Los Angeles Ballet.)

 

So much juicy news in this biography which would otherwise be lost!

 

 

Nijinska's irritation with Balanchine is interesting to learn about -- I haven't started Garafola's book yet -- but non-Balanchine-derived ballet companies haven't had much success in Los Angeles either. At least not sustained success. I don't know the histories in detail but read, in an essay by Don Hewitt, that both Lichine and Loring tried to get companies off the ground without any long term success and despite the presence of so many good studios and dancers. And I remember myself that the Joffrey gave it a try for a number of years.....and then pulled out.

 

(Smaller contemporary ballet/dance groups have had some success... including L.A. Dance project and Barak Ballet both of which do have ties to Balanchine and NYCB. But a major ballet company? Los Angeles has not proven the easiest place to build that for anyone from any tradition....)

[miliosr]

9 hours ago, DrewCo said:

but non-Balanchine-derived ballet companies haven't had much success in Los Angeles either. At least not sustained success. I don't know the histories in detail but read, in an essay by Don Hewitt, that both Lichine and Loring tried to get companies off the ground without any long term success and despite the presence of so many good studios and dancers. And I remember myself that the Joffrey gave it a try for a number of years.....and then pulled out.

 

(Smaller contemporary ballet/dance groups have had some success... including L.A. Dance project and Barak Ballet both of which do have ties to Balanchine and NYCB. But a major ballet company? Los Angeles has not proven the easiest place to build that for anyone from any tradition....)

Why Los Angeles cannot sustain a ballet company (or, in the case of the present Los Angeles Ballet, sustain it at sufficient scale) is a topic in its own right. Probably the biggest reason (but far from the only one) is the sheer size of the Greater Los Angeles area, which sprawls across five counties and makes transportation a nightmare.

 

L.A. Dance Project does have a connection to the New York City Ballet (NYCB) via Benjamin Millepied and the occasional piece made for the company by his old NYCB colleagues, Justin Peck and Janie Taylor. But, at heart, L.A. Dance Project is a contemporary dance project; evidenced by Millepied's programming of works by such modern and postmodern dance luminaries as Merce Cunningham, William Forsythe, Martha Graham and Bella Lewitzky. (I can't speak much to Barak Ballet other than to say it's a micro company.)

 

Perhaps the most successful dance company in Los Angeles history is one of the earliest: Denishawn (Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn), which was the first "modern dance" company in the US. Not only did it give us the modern dance pillars Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey and Charles Weidman but it also featured a young dancer by the name of Louise Brooks. (Yes, that Louise Brooks.)

[Jeannette]

Lynn Garafola’s LA NIJINSKA is a Winner! 🥳 

 

I was determined to finish reading the tome and, dog gone it, I did…with one week to spare before traveling back to the US from my gig in Colombia! One chapter a night after work, at the hotel, did the trick.

 

LA NIJINSKA is an altogether magnificent biography of one of the most important classical ballet creators of the 20th Century. It’s meticulously researched, yet simply (clearly) written so that both specialist and generalist can swim through each chapter with little pause.

This bio now fills what was a major gap in ballet history. I especially appreciate the descriptions, via letters and reviews, of her most important lesser-known works, e.g., Chopin Concerto, [Bach] Etude, and Brahms Variations. One or two of these are apparently salvageable, as Ms Garafola mentions in a preview chat on YouTube…ballets having either been filmed privately in the 1950s/60s or carefully notated. Wouldn’t it be grand to see a reconstruction or two of these much-lauded yet truly rare works from her post-Diaghilev years? 🙏  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 11, 2022 by Jeannette

[miliosr]

On 10/07/2022 at 19:21, Jeannette said:

This bio now fills what was a major gap in ballet history. I especially appreciate the descriptions, via letters and reviews, of her most important lesser-known works, e.g., Chopin Concerto, [Bach] Etude, and Brahms Variations. One or two of these are apparently salvageable, as Ms Garafola mentions in a preview chat on YouTube…ballets having either been filmed privately in the 1950s/60s or carefully notated. Wouldn’t it be grand to see a reconstruction or two of these much-lauded yet truly rare works from her post-Diaghilev years? 🙏  

 

 

The last chapter (Chapter 16) in Lynn Garafola's biography of Nijinska is tantalizing because, in that chapter, Garafola describes how Nijinska made one final push at the end of her life to cement her legacy by staging her works for a start-up troupe in Buffalo, New York. Those works included Chopin Concerto and Brahms Variations. A close reading of the end notes suggests that quite a few of those young dancers who comprised the Buffalo troupe are still around and could conceivably contribute to a restaging of these works. (One name I recognized from the end notes was Lynn Glauber, who danced with the Bejart troupe during the mid-70s.)

 

Alas, unless there's a concerted effort in this regard, I think what we're left with is what Garafola described in Fjord Review:

 

How many ballets did she make in total?

About 50, 60.

And how many are extant?

Two, “Les Noces” and “Les Biches,” in authoritative productions. A few other ballets have been reconstructed, such as “Le Train Bleu” by Frank W. D. Ries and “Bolero” by Irina Nijinska and Nina Youshkevitch for the Oakland Ballet. The “Three Ivans” from the last act of “The Sleeping Princess is also extant.” But that’s about it.

[Jeannette]

8 hours ago, miliosr said:

 

The last chapter (Chapter 16) in Lynn Garafola's biography of Nijinska is tantalizing because, in that chapter, Garafola describes how Nijinska made one final push at the end of her life to cement her legacy by staging her works for a start-up troupe in Buffalo, New York. Those works included Chopin Concerto and Brahms Variations. A close reading of the end notes suggests that quite a few of those young dancers who comprised the Buffalo troupe are still around and could conceivably contribute to a restaging of these works. (One name I recognized from the end notes was Lynn Glauber, who danced with the Bejart troupe during the mid-70s.)

 

Alas, unless there's a concerted effort in this regard, I think what we're left with is what Garafola described in Fjord Review:

 

How many ballets did she make in total?

About 50, 60.

And how many are extant?

Two, “Les Noces” and “Les Biches,” in authoritative productions. A few other ballets have been reconstructed, such as “Le Train Bleu” by Frank W. D. Ries and “Bolero” by Irina Nijinska and Nina Youshkevitch for the Oakland Ballet. The “Three Ivans” from the last act of “The Sleeping Princess is also extant.” But that’s about it.

Anna-Marie Holmes was among those dancers with the Buffalo troupe - a regular guest star, in fact. Isn’t she a specialist in staging revivals? Brahms and Chopin were among the ballets performed by Buffalo in ‘69/‘70.

 

Clips of a film of a B-R de MC performance of [Bach] Etude can be seen around the internet, taken from the wings by either Ann Barzel or another private filmmaker. One wonders if more was filmed or notated-recorded in some other manner?

 

So there you have the makings of a glorious triple bill of Nijinska’s best known neo-classical ballets!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 17, 2022 by Jeannette

[Lynette H]

More reviews of the book, should you be interested 

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/05/books/review/la-nijinska-lynn-garafola.html

 

 

https://www.seeingdance.com/la-nijinska-220407/

 

 

https://danceinternational.org/la-nijinska-finally-the-biography-she-deserves/

 

https://literaryreview.co.uk/dance-like-theres-no-yesterday

 

There are more reviews out there, if you search. 

 

A really substantial and thoroughly researched piece of work.  I'm only a hundred pages in so far but it's really gripping. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[miliosr]

Today's 'Dance Links' has a link to a Gramilano story in which the upcoming Men in Motion performance is discussed. This part of the story caught my eye:

 

Fokine’s Le Spectre de la Rose and works by Serge Lifar and Bronislava Nijinska are in the programme, which will be announced shortly.

[FLOSS]

I would counsel caution. As far as the work by Nijinska is concerned excerpts from Les Bisches seem unlikely while a bleeding chunk from Les Noces is all but impossible. I suppose it might be a reference to the solo for the Beau Gosse from Le Train Bleu which was originally danced by Anton Dolin. It is a piece of genuine Nijinska choreography which Dolin taught to at least one young dancer whose name escapes me at present. Muntagirov made the solo look so good that you rather wished you could see the entire ballet. Sadly as danced by the Paris Opera Ballet many years ago it does not add up to much,largely I suspect,  because the four leading roles are essentially demi-character ones which call for the dancers concerned to inhabit their roles rather than performing them in quotation marks.The other possibility I suppose is Nijinska's Bolero which has, it is claimed, been  reconstructed. I saw it staged. The best I can say about it is that bits of it looked a bit like Nijimska's work. The bulk I thought unconvincing. Perhaps someone has unearthed another work, after all Nijinska worked in the USA for many years and there might be someone left who could stage something really interesting. As far as Spectre de la Rose is concerned I am still waiting ro see a convincing performance of it. As for Lifar those who have seen a great deal of his work seem to think that Suite en Blanc is the only worthwhile piece he created. If  we are lucky it might be an excerpt from that work. If we are unlucky it might be something far more self indulgent such as an excerpt from Icare or his version of L'Apres Midi d' un Faune.

[Jeannette]

Maybe they're preparing Nijinska’s version of “The Three Ivans” from among her contributions to Diaghilev’s 1921 Sleeping Princess (Beauty)? Ratmansky was working on bringing that back to life at ABT a few years ago…just as he brought back “Porcelain Princesses” (also Nijinska). 
 

 

 

Edited July 29, 2022 by Jeannette

[FLOSS]

The Three Ivans would not be that difficult to stage. It was danced by the Royal Ballet for years and it was filmed at least twice..It evenly. made its way into de Valois' 1976 staging of Sleeping Beauty at least in its initial season. There must be quite a lot of former dancers scattered across the globe who know the choreography.The problem is that it means you lose the coda to the grande pas de deux. There is also Nijinska's version of Violente's solo from the Prologue it is the version which Nijinska herself danced and which De Valois also danced for Diaghilev.She used that version in her 1978 staging of the ballet and it is seen in the 1978 recording danced by Laura Connor.

 

As everyone seems to be concerned by the lack of works by female choreographers perhaps Kevin should bite the bullet and look at the company's back catalogue. Of course that would mean he would have to stage some pf de Valois' ballets as well.My choice would be The Prospect Before Us which BRB revived most successfully about twenty years ago plus Howard's La Fete Etrange which was ill- served by a dimly lit revival during Mason's directorship. I recognise it raises the awkward question of why there is nothing later than a work created in the 1940's? But perhaps it should be asked. For the avoidance of doubt I don't think that Cathy Marston is the answer to that question. The Cellist was, for me, an idea that did not really work in performance. I don't like dance works which are full of padding and fail to use the corps intelligently.

[Ian Macmillan]

For the further avoidance of doubt, I fear we are not at one over your concluding point - but that's life.  I'll get by - and Cathy will be fairly busy with Zurich company when she takes over next year. 

[Jan McNulty]

12 hours ago, FLOSS said:

 

 

As everyone seems to be concerned by the lack of works by female choreographers perhaps Kevin should bite the bullet and look at the company's back catalogue. Of course that would mean he would have to stage some pf de Valois' ballets as well.My choice would be The Prospect Before Us which BRB revived most successfully about twenty years ago plus Howard's La Fete Etrange which was ill- served by a dimly lit revival during Mason's directorship. I recognise it raises the awkward question of why there is nothing later than a work created in the 1940's? But perhaps it should be asked. For the avoidance of doubt I don't think that Cathy Marston is the answer to that question. The Cellist was, for me, an idea that did not really work in performance. I don't like dance works which are full of padding and fail to use the corps intelligently.

 

Having loved Stina Quagebeur's Nostalgia for Northern Ballet perhaps Mr O'Hare could commission something from her.

 

I loved The Cellist and the work that Cathy has done for NB.

[miliosr]

I bought my tickets for Ballet West's April 2023 mixed bill (including Nijinska's Les Noces)!

Edited October 13, 2022 by miliosr

[alison]

Do report back, miliosr.  It's quite a while since Les Noces has been seen in the UK.

[miliosr]

On 13/10/2022 at 09:28, miliosr said:

I bought my tickets for Ballet West's April 2023 mixed bill (including Nijinska's Les Noces)!

I'm just back from opening night of Ballet West's mixed bill, which included Nijinska's Les Noces. Still pondering what I just saw . . . 

 

In any event, I'm going again tomorrow night after which I'll try to put my thoughts into words.

[DrewCo]

Will be eager @miliosr to read your thoughts when you are able to write about the performances...

[Emeralds]

I was at one of the performances of Les Noces the last time the Royal Ballet performed it- I’ve caught most of the mixed bills the company has performed, or if I couldn’t actually go, have browsed/perused the ticket sales online. Unfortunately Les Noces at ROH has generally not enjoyed good ticket sales whatever else it is programmed with in recent times. That could just be bad luck that it was coincidentally programmed with modest box office performers. But artistic directors or boards of directors or both will be wary of losing even more money. Also, with regard to programming it this year, the marketing department might have difficulty having to advertise a ballet based on a Russian wedding. If you want a Nijinska ballet, it would be easier to market Les Biches, even if there might be some chuckling and sniggering (I can hear it now): ”Can we use the English translation instead, Mr O’Hare?”.

 

I would love to see a revival of Les Biches (only seen it twice) whereas I’ve seen Les Noces about 20 times; both Anthony Dowell and Monica Mason liked programming it- it was last seen at ROH in 2012 (so it has actually fared marginally better than Cinderella so far). Seriously, would love to see Les Biches again. And the Le Train Bleu solo - if they can find the rest of the ballet, that would be great too. Would like to see her Porcelain princesses, Three Ivans and Violente choreography, although I wouldn’t overhaul or reboot the RB Sleeping Beauty just to see them. Perhaps a gala type or mixed bill programme. 

Edited April 16, 2023 by Emeralds

[Josette]

On 25/06/2022 at 17:21, miliosr said:

Chapter 16 of La Nijinska begins with a recounting of the Los Angeles ballet scene as it existed in the early 1960s. .... There were also many other distinguished ballet teachers in Los Angeles at that time, including Stanley Holden, David Lichine and Tatiana Riabouchinska, Eugene Loring and Carmelita Maracci.

 

As Garafola notes, though, nothing came of Balanchine's proposed 'Ballet of Los Angeles' and it had collapsed by 1967. (Subsequent attempts by some of Balanchine's most fervent apostles to establish a Balanchine-derived ballet company in Los Angeles have also met with either failure or indifference: John Clifford's Los Angeles Ballet (1974-85) and Ballet of Los Angeles (1988-91), and, currently, Colleen Neary's Los Angeles Ballet.)

 

 

 

 Stanley Holden, upon retiring from the The Royal Ballet, settled in Los Angeles in 1969 after a brief teaching stint with John Hart in San Diego.  Stanley directed the Los Angeles Music Center Dance Academy for about one year, with the opening on February 2, 1970, after he auditioned about 450 applicants for 50 openings, of which I was one who was accepted.  I am still in touch and have remained close friends with several of his original Dance Academy students of that time (I had lunch with one today).  He opened Stanley Holden Dance Center in 1972 on Pico Boulevard in the Rancho Park area of West L.A.  I bring this up because Stanley was not teaching in L.A. in the 1960's.  His students and everyone adored him.   

 

Melissa Barak, former dancer with New York City Ballet and Los Angeles Ballet, and then director of her own Barak Ballet in L.A., took on the directorship of Los Angeles Ballet this current season. Colleen Neary and Thordal Christensen are not the current directors of Los Angeles Ballet.   

[miliosr]

3 hours ago, Josette said:

 Melissa Barak, former dancer with New York City Ballet and Los Angeles Ballet, and then director of her own Barak Ballet in L.A., took on the directorship of Los Angeles Ballet this current season. Colleen Neary and Thordal Christensen are not the current directors of Los Angeles Ballet.   

But Neary and Christensen still were the directors when I wrote my original post (June 2022). It was only later in the summer that the Los Angeles Ballet's board of directors announced the leadership change:

Los Angeles Ballet names Melissa Barak artistic director - Los Angeles Times (latimes.com)

 

Edited April 17, 2023 by miliosr