Long Beach Opera Interviews David Henry Hwang About AINADAMAR Libretto Today, 5/5

Which came first, the music or the libretto? Today, May 5, 2012, 4:00PM, at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Andreas Mitisek, Artistic and General Director of Long Beach Opera, will interview Tony award-winning author David Henry Hwang about his libretto for Ainadamar, the opera by Argentine composer Osvaldo Golijov based on the life of Spanish poet and playwright Federico Garcia Lorca and his murder by Fascists during the Spanish Civil War.

This special event with Hwang precedes LBO’s new production of Ainadamar, directed by Mitisek, May 20 at 7:00PM and May 26, 2012 at 8:00PM, at the Terrace Theater in Long Beach.
Offering a rare glimpse into the creation of an opera, the discussion will explore the connections among Hwang, Golijov, and Lorca’s varied works. Highlighting the afternoon will be excerpts from the opera performed by LBO cast members, followed by an audience Q&A.

David Henry Hwang was born August 11, 1957 in Los Angeles, Calif., and studied at Yale School of Drama and at Stanford University. The status of Asian- Americans in modern society is a recurrent theme in Hwang’s plays. The Dance and the Railroad, an early play about a Chinese opera singer working as a laborer, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. In 1988, Hwang’s best known play, M Butterfly, made him the first Asian-American recipient of a Tony Award. Golden Child garnered Hwang another Tony nomination and a 1997 Obie Award. On Broadway, his work includes the book for the 2003 revival of Flower Drum Song and Elton John and Tim Rice’s Aida. Hwang is no stranger to opera having written the librettos for Philip Glass’The Voyage, 1000 Airplanes on the Roof, and The Sound of a Voice (produced by LBO in 2006) as well as Unsuk Chin’s Alice in Wonderland (with Chin) and Osvaldo Golijov’s Ainadamar. Hwang has also written for television and appeared on numerous television programs. Although he lives in New York City, he travels frequently to Los Angeles where East West Players, the nation’s oldest Asian American Acting Company, has named its mainstage theater after him (David Henry Hwang Theater.)

“David Henry Hwang Reveals His Ainadamar” in collaboration with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art plays Saturday, May 5, 2012, 4:00PM - 6:30PM at the Bing Theater, LACMA, 5905 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles. Tickets are $25 General Admission; $40 VIP ticket (includes wine). LBO subscribers and Museum members $20 General Admission, $30 VIP. Tickets are available online at www.longbeachopera.org/tickets, 562-432-5934, or from the LACMA Box Office.

More details on the LACMA event and Ainadamar are available online at http://www.longbeachopera.org or by calling LBO at 562-432-5934.

Long Beach Opera (LBO) is internationally known for its cutting-edge interpretations of unconventional repertory. 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. Founded in 1979, LBO is one of the largest opera companies in Southern California and the oldest professional opera company in the Los Angeles/Orange County region. LBO is proud of its performance history which includes more than 90 operas ranging from the earliest works of the 17th century to new operas of the 21st.