Review: GILGAMESH: THE OPERA at Cerritos Center For The Performing Arts

Gilgamesh: The Opera is the world premiere of a sublime new opera at the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts. This is a visionary and essential new work, a seminal and remarkable achievement of storytelling, music, and dance. This production is superbly produced by the Assyrian Arts Institute, with partners Bridge to Everywhere and Lyric Opera of Orange County, and by executive producer Nora Betyousef Lacey.

Watching Gilgamesh: The Opera, I felt energized, inspired, elevated. My little ones, 8 and 9, were also utterly captivated. There is a boldness of vision in this production, an elegance and finesse in detail, an inspiring grandness of scope.

Gilgamesh is one of the world’s oldest heroes, a charismatic king of Uruk ( in modern-day Iraq), living sometime around 2700 BCE. In his story, there are precursors of the great flood and Noah’s Arc, the Garden of Eden, Odysseus' descent into the underworld, and other foundational biblical and ancient stories that many of us will instantly recognize.

Yet The Epic of Gilgamesh is more than a foundational myth. It is an important cultural touchstone for Assyrians, an ancient and now largely Christian minority people whose identity and presence in the Middle East have been under continuous threat of displacement, exile, and genocide. Even Assyrian history is unsafe, as archaeological sites continue to be vandalized in Iraq by extremists. Seeing Gilgamesh: The Opera is not only appreciating a great piece of art, it is also supporting a vital piece of resistance and celebration against the threat of annihilation. 

The music is a lovely surprise. Seldom do I hear a modern score that has this kind of lush beauty. The score by composer Derrick Skye is stunning - evocative, original, and immersive. Acclaimed Mexican conductor María Fátima Corona del Toro lends a beautiful touch to her direction of the orchestra, intimate, personal, yet visceral and epic in scope. The opera is enhanced by live orchestral performances by Bridge to Everywhere, an LA-based transcultural music ensemble. Their elegant, sophisticated, pan-global, culturally diverse sound beautifully orients Gilgamesh in the traditional opera canon while also paying homage to the music and traditions of ancient Mesopotamia.

This is a cast stacked with incredible operatic voices. Anne Elise Teeling, playing the fiery, mercurial goddess Ishtar, stands out for her bold vocal performance and the power of her performance. The libretto and artistic direction by Diana Farrell is excellent.

Gilgamesh’s dance is sublime, athletic, sensuous, bold. It evokes the best of ballet, modern dance, and dance traditions of the region, with striking choreography by Stephen Martin Allan in conjunction with Ashtar Ashurseen, director of cultural dance integration. In a lineup of stellar dancers, Ahmad Joudeh, playing Young Gilgamesh, shines as a particularly charismatic star. His radiant stage presence steals the show, and his soulful movement tells a compelling story without any need for words.

Gilgamesh: The Opera is a striking production to look at, thanks to truly exquisite costuming by Joy Omiesh and creative, immersive scenic and lighting design by Kristin Serena. The overuse of digital projections in live theatre is one of the popular trends I most abhor, but Gilagamesh: The Opera is an exception. The projections by Greg Mitchel are inventive and artistic, instantly evoking the dream-like mood and magic of ancient myth.

Photos by Christina Gandolfo for Assyrian Arts Institute

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