LB OPERA ANNOUNCES OPERA SEASON STARTS MARCH 2022

The 2022 season will establish a bold new vision for the company that seeks to catalyze the issues of our times through the lens of art, embraces alternative leadership models that value diversity and inclusion, creates and explores the collaborative relationships between cinematic and live opera that invite new audiences, and acknowledges that opera has the power to be relevant, provocative, and inspiring.

Information about season tickets at longbeachopera.org.

The season will begin in March of 2022 with a new production of Karlheinz Stockhausen’s acapella opera STIMMUNG. This transcendental meditation through music will become a literal feast for the senses in a new production at LBO directed by Alexander Gedeon and conducted by Jenny Wong. The season continues with a new short film and live performance entitled QUANDO creatively produced by Derrell Acon.  Music from Verdi’s operas La Traviata and Don Carlo and Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice are repurposed and refashioned into a 25-minute short film,  which will be presented with a live performance in April of 2022.

In May, LBO will present a new production and adaptation of Handel’s Giustino, conceived of and directed by Artistic Director James Darrah, conducted by Music Director Christopher Rountree, and featuring a score adaptation and new music composed by Shelley Washington. Finally, LBO will end its season with Anthony Davis & Richard Wesley’s The Central Park Five. The Pulitzer Prize winning opera will be presented in a brand new production directed by actor/director and star of Apple TV+’s “The Morning Show” Desean Terry.

In addition to LBO’s exciting new season featuring projects curated by new Artistic Director James Darrah, new Associate Artistic Director Derrell Acon and Minister of Culture/ Artist in Residence Alexander Gedeon, LBO is adding a new member to its senior leadership team; Christopher Rountree will serve as LBO’s new Music Director, effective immediately.

Rountree, the founder and Artistic Director of Wild Up, is a lauded conductor who has made a name for himself in contemporary music and opera from Los Angeles to New York City, including multiple collaborations with James Darrah such as the world premiere of Missy Mazzoli’s Proving Up in Omaha and New York City. In addition to his duties as Music Director, Rountree will conduct at least one project per season during his tenure including this season’s Giustino, directed by Darrah.

James Darrah LBO’s new Artistic Director and CCO states, “The future of opera at LBO involves empowering dynamic teams of artistic leaders in the field in ways that consistently challenge expectations. I’m so happy to welcome my good friend and one of my favorite collaborators Christopher Rountree to the LBO team and fold his unique brand of fearless, passionate music making into the fabric of LBO’s exciting plans.”

Darrah continued, “We are both interested in constant provocation, innovation and a deeper exploration of the exciting intersection between film and opera, orchestral ensembles and opera companies, and programming that stays on the pulse of both the opera world but also pop culture. LBO is searching for new models and new methods to incorporate our collective key values into a “season” that is not just about programming four performance periods–but curating a larger creative forum that is just, equitable and unprecedented.”

“As we work to build a new identity as a creative “home” to spur a new generation of artists from all mediums ready to push on the boundaries of opera’s forms, I’m excited to begin this process in 2022 by incorporating and engaging with several projects the team at LBO had already started to plan before I joined as the new Artistic Director. LBO embarks this season on a journey and  evolution toward a new model of making opera and, as we seek to lead the field, we will all be making bold, unapologetic choices in this pursuit by taking real progressive action in the post-pandemic landscape.”

Christopher Rountree says “It’s the most remarkable thing: getting to make work with such a brilliant band of friends, and to make that work so close to home. Jenny, James, Derrell, Alexander and the whole team at LBO are poised to cut a new opera from the cloth of the old, a buzzing brilliant space where all of the arts meet, and where they intersect with justice, equity, and a thoughtful discourse about history and about the future of our society and our art. I am overjoyed to join this team, and to get to shape the music making at LBO for years to come.”

General Director & CEO Jennifer Rivera states “This is an incredibly exciting and precipitous time to be at Long Beach Opera. Our upcoming season is all about the astonishingly talented game changers we have curating our projects and leading our company.  And now, in addition to this Artistic team helmed by James Darrah and Derrell Acon, we are adding Christopher Rountree as our Music Director. Chris is a person who is a totally unique leader in the field of contemporary music and experimentation. He has been able to figure out what is needed in the world of music, and if it doesn’t exist, create it. All I can say about the coming season with this team is: Prepare to be inspired.”

More about the season:

STIMMUNG

. LBO’s STIMMUNG takes place in a “magical kitchen” in which the audience encircles the six performers at a central table, and the singers will virtuosically prepare a meal for the audience over the hour-long duration of the piece. At the culmination of the performance, singers and the audience alike break bread together.

QUANDO (PROJECT “0”)

The season continues with a new, short opera film and live performance entitled QUANDO.  Music from Verdi’s operas La Traviata and Don Carlo and Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice are repurposed and refashioned into a 25-minute short film that follows a starry-eyed young couple as their night on the town unravels into a surrealist swirl of decadence, intrigue and, ultimately, vengeful justice.

The short film, a co-production with Heartbeat Opera in New York City and produced by LBO’s own Derrell Acon, will be screened as is, and then followed by a second presentation that features live composer-performers actively disrupting and reconstituting the music from the score for a one-of-a-kind theatrical experience. No two performances will be the same, as the ending will change with each iteration of the live performances, and audiences will be challenged to re-examine their perceptions of art and its role in societal transformation.

In addition to the film project, Acon is launching NO EVIL, an initiative meant to create a self-replenishing fund of seed money for new projects in the opera field by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color) creators. Acon is in conversation with OPERA America, the Sphinx Foundation, and other industry colleagues about the full structure of NO EVIL Projects, which has an anticipated launch of 2022.

GIUSTINO

The next production of the season, Handel’s rarely-performed Giustino with new music and arrangements by Shelley Washington will be conceived of and directed by LBO’s new Artistic Director and visionary James Darrah, and conducted by LBO’s exciting new Music Director Christopher Rountree. In this new version and production, Handel’s glorious music and surprisingly relevant drama re-emerges as a site specific, cinematically driven, wild contemporary party.

THE CENTRAL PARK FIVE

Back by popular demand and increasing societal relevance, The Central Park Five will return to Long Beach Opera as their final season offering in a brand new production directed by Juilliard-trained actor / director and star of Apple TV+’s “The Morning Show” Desean Terry. The harrowing account of five teenagers wrongfully convicted, incarcerated and eventually exonerated remains a devastatingly relevant indictment on racial injustices in America.

Long Beach Opera will continue its exploration of cinematic opera not only with its productions this year of the acclaimed “desert in”on operabox.tv and within the 2022 season with QUANDO and Giustino, but with the creation of new operatic short films.

The first to be released this fall is entitled Entry and takes inspiration from LBO’s 2022 season as an operatic cinematic dance short that explores the nature of reintegration, having just collectively experienced a period of isolation, activation, and transformation. Set against the backdrop and beauty of the American West and through the specific lens of collaboration with local indigenous artists, the film will explore isolation in an ever-expansive and changing world.

Featuring a newly commissioned and composed score by Alex Simon and text by indigenous poet “BlueBird”, choreography and performance by Anne Pesata and vocals by Anna Schubert, Entry will be released in the fall of 2022 as a free offering on LBO’s YouTube channel and continues LBO’s exploration of the merger of opera, film, and new artistic voices outside of the medium. The film is directed, shot and edited by actor/director Raviv Ullman, who starred in LBO’s ‘desert in’.

ABOUT LONG BEACH OPERA
Long Beach Opera (LBO) is internationally known for its cutting-edge interpretations of unconventional repertoire. LBO creates immediate, inventive, and often boldly avant-garde productions for an adventurous audience and stands apart from most opera companies in the number of world, American, and West Coast premieres the company has staged.

Calendar Listing
STIMMUNG
By Karlheinz Stockhausen
NEW PRODUCTION
March 19, 20, 26, 27 2022
All performances at 2:30 PM
Location: Former Grocery Store “Fresh n Easy” in Long Beach
Alexander Gedeon, director
Jenny Wong, conductor

QUANDO (PROJECT “0”)
Music by Giuseppe Verdi and Christoph Willibald Gluck
NEW SHORT FILM and LIVE PRODUCTION
April 23 at 7:30 PM & 24 at 2:30 PM, 2022
Location: Art Theatre, Long Beach
Derrell Acon, creator and producer

GIUSTINO 
By George Frideric Handel, with adaptations/ new music by Shelley Washington
NEW PRODUCTION / WORLD PREMIERE ADAPTATION
May 21, 22, 28, 2022
All performances at 7:30 PM
Location: TBA
James Darrah, concept and director
Christopher Rountree, conductor
Shelley Washington, composer and sound designer

THE CENTRAL PARK FIVE
By Anthony Davis / Richard Wesley
NEW PRODUCTION
June 18, 7:30PM 19 2:30 PM, 25 7:30 PM  2022
Location: TBA
Desean Terry, director

Information about season tickets can be found at longbeachopera.org.

FUNDING INFO

Supported in part by a grant from the Arts Council for Long Beach and the City of Long Beach.

Long Beach Opera events are supported, in part, by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Arts Commission.

Long Beach Opera receives support from the National Endowment for the Arts.