The return of the native: California-born Kent Nagano has been one of the most admired maestros in Europe for ten years. Now he's principal conductor at Los Angeles Opera, and a key player in the cultural revival of the City of Angels.

It's 7.05 on a mildly sticky evening in early June as the well-dressed, well-bronzed clusters of Los Angeles operagoers chat their way up North Grand Avenue toward the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Few heads turn as a lean, neatly-turned-out man cuts against the pedestrian traffic on his way to the artists' entrance, toting some light luggage. It is Kent Nagano, Los Angeles Opera's new principal conductor, who will lead the evening's performance of Turandot. I get a discreet nudge from the lady on my left. "Less than twenty-five minutes to curtain, and he's not breaking a sweat," she murmurs as Nagano zips by. "Now that's a cool dude."

Nagano is a singular ...