Long Beach Opera (LBO) presents the co-world premiere of "The Invention of Morel," by Stewart Copeland, co-founder and drummer of The Police, and the London-based actor, director and playwright Jonathan Moore, who also directs the production. LBO Artistic & General Director Andreas Mitisek conducts the opera.
Based on influential Argentinian author Adolfo Bioy Casares' 1940 novel La invención de Morel, Copeland and Moore's opera examines the triumph of time-bending love over convention in a story of adoration and desire.
The opera is a co-commission by Long Beach Opera and Chicago Opera Theater, where the work had its co-world premiere on February 18, 2017. Performances take place on March 17 at 7:30p, March 24 at 7:30p and March 25 at 2:30p at The Beverly O'Neill Theater, Long Beach.
In the story, an escaped fugitive who is fearful of discovery arrives on an isolated, strange island. While exploring his surroundings, he observes a strangely dressed group of tourists. Soon he falls in love with a woman from their party. Then mysteriously, the tourists all vanish. The heat becomes unbearable. There are two suns and two moons. He fears that he is going insane before he is confronted with the strange invention of the mad scientist Morel.
Copeland comments: "Music is the perfect way to create the effect of Morel's invention of never-ending time loops. The feeling of reality going around and around is how music works and provides a way to represent the overlapping and contrasting realities of the story. I've got a pretty clear idea of how music can drive emotion, which is why I'm so keen on opera-it's the most fun a composer can have with his clothes on."
Mitisek says, "The Invention of Morel redefines the limits of human connection and the power of love and desire. Copeland has set this fantastical tale of the human heart to thrilling music."
The Chicago Tribune gave it 4 stars and wrote: "A brilliant music theater adaptation of the famous 1940 novel ... it's The Tempest perhaps crossbred with TV's The Twilight Zone and Lost, with a touch of Groundhog Day thrown in.
Stewart Copeland's pungent score and
Jonathan Moore's stage direction exert a cumulative hallucinatory power that haunts your thoughts well after you've left the theater. Although classical in style, the twitchy rhythms, percussion-driven ostinatos and pile-driving licks of electric guitar of Copeland's orchestral writing prove you can't keep an old rocker down.... It's by far his best work in the classical genre to date. With this, his fifth opera, Copeland has come of age as a composer of music theater works."
The Chicago Sun Times wrote, "A winningly haunted and haunting production ... the chronicle of a wholly disorienting journey into what Joseph Conrad called The Heart of Darkness. A most intriguing new work ... with its winningly eclectic and expertly sung score, a mix of familiar modernist dissonance spiced with a richly refreshing use of percussion, Latin rhythms and the popular dance music of an earlier time."
The cast includes
Andrew Wilkowske as Fugitive,
Lee Gregory as the Narrator,
Jamie Chamberlin as Faustine, Nathan Granner as Morel, Cedric Barry as Stoever,
Doug Jones as Alec/Ombrellieri,
Suzan Hanson as Dory, and
Danielle Marcelle Bond as Duchess.
Tickets for The Invention of Morel range from $49 to $150, and can be purchased either by calling the LBO Box Office at 562.470.SING (7464) or by going online to
longbeachopera.org. Student Rush tickets for $15 will be available space permitting. For information, please visit
www.longbeachopera.org
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. Founded in 1979, it is the oldest professional opera company in the Los Angeles/Orange County region with a performance history of more than 110 operas, ranging from the earliest works of the 17th century to operas of the 21st. LBO's ever?growing repertoire has provided stimulus for the subsequent founding of other local opera companies, catapulting Southern California into the spotlight as a major opera epicenter. LBO is a recognized and respected member of the U. S. cultural community, receiving funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, California Arts Council, the County of Los Angeles, and the City of Long Beach, along with generous support from individual donors, local businesses, public corporations and private foundations.
In May, LBO is proud to present the Southern California premiere of Martin's The Love Potion, the epic story of Tristan and Iseult-fateful lovers who meet by deception, fall in love by magic, and pursue their love in defiance of heavenly and earthly powers.
LBO's production of The Invention of Morel is made possible by the generous support of the National Endowment for the Arts.
Additional support has been provided by the Arts Council for Long Beach and the City of Long Beach, and supported in part by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Arts Commission.
Photo Credit: Liz Lauren
