BWW Preview: 2019 OPERA IN at Various LA Theaters

Los Angeles Opera and Pacific Opera Projects have a number of interesting offerings for late winter and spring of 2019. LA Opera presents performances of the opera, THE LOSER, on February 22 and 23, 2019, at The Theatre in the Ace Hotel. It will feature the West Coast premiere of Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Lang's compelling new score.

THE LOSER tells a tale of dreams forsaken and hopes unrealized as fellow pianists encounter the massive talent of the young Glenn Gould. With this score, composer David Lang returns to LA Opera for the first time since his unforgettable ANATOMY THEATER. Baritone Rod Gilfry recreates the tour-de-force performance he gave at THE LOSER's Next Wave Festival premiere. Shows take place at the Ace Hotel's theater, 933 South Broadway, Los Angeles, 90015.

From March 2 to 24, LA Opera will perform W. A. Mozart's THE CLEMENCY OF TITUS (LA CLEMENZA DI TITO) at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. It will be the company's premiere of Mozart's late masterpiece. In this opera, ancient Rome becomes vulnerable to the machinations of power players seeking glory. In a drama marked by shifts of morality and loyalty, the composer's unmistakable love for humanity shines through political intrigue in his gloriously tuneful and endlessly inventive music.

Tenor Russell Thomas, seen above, will star as Titus, the leader whose generosity and compassion overrule all other considerations. Designer and director Thaddeus Strassberger, remembered for his spellbinding NABUCCO, will oversee the creation of this new production. Music Director James Conlon will conduct. The opera will be sung in Italian with projected English translations.

Pacific Opera Project will present Mozart's THE MAGIC FLUTE from March 2-10 at the 350-seat El Portal Theatre in North Hollywood. Unlike other productions of the FLUTE you may have seen, this one transports Papageno, Tamino, and the "gang" to the land of 90s video games. Josh Shaw and Scott Levin have written a new English libretto for the opera. With two Sunday matinees and a child-friendly setting, this is the perfect opera for a family outing.

Pacific Opera Project (POP) will present Madama Butterfly ???? on April 6, 13, and 14 at The Aratani Theatre in LA's Little Tokyo. POP asks: what if a brash American naval officer and a young Japanese girl met and fell in love? How would they communicate? Certainly not in Italian! In POP's most ambitous production to date, Artistic Director Josh Shaw's long-time dream of a bilingual Madama Butterfly comes to life. In this co-production with Opera in the Heights of Houston, Texas, Japanese-American artists will sing all the Japanese roles in Japanese and English speaking singers who are not of Japanese ancestry will sing the American roles in English.

From May 4 to 19, LA Opera will present Manuel Penella's 3-act opera EL GATO MONTES (THE WILDCAT) at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Plácido Domingo will star in this great masterpiece of Spanish lyric theater. In this tale of love, passion, and death, a bullfighter and a bandit are rivals for the hand of a beautiful woman. Sung in Spanish with projected English translations, EL GATO MONTÉS tells its idiomatic Spanish story with passionate melodies, dazzling choreography, and a fascinating new staging from Madrid's famed Teatro de la Zarzuela.

LA Opera's June presentation at the Dorothy Chandler will be Verdi's LA TRAVIATA, the story of Violetta who is in the final stage of tuberculosis. She hopes to ease the pain of her remaining days with decadent pleasures and dazzling parties. When a devoted suitor declares his love, however, she thinks her life may change-until her suitor's father asks her to break off the relationship. The opera will be sung in Italian with projected English translations.

In this original Los Angeles Opera production designed and directed by Marta Domingo, the story is updated to the glamorous era of Art Deco. Soprano Adela Zaharia, who recently won Plácido Domingo's international vocal contest, Operalia, stars as Violetta and Music Director James Conlon conducts.

Are you still looking for more opera? Check out Long Beach Opera and Opera Santa Barbara.

Photo of tenorRussell Thomas byLA Opera