Los Angeles Opera
Encyclopedia
The Los Angeles Opera is an opera
company in Los Angeles, California. It is the fourth largest opera company in the United States. The company's home base is the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion
, part of the Los Angeles Music Center
.
has been general director since 2003; his contract runs through 2013. American conductor James Conlon
has been music director since 2006.
's Otello
starring Plácido Domingo, traces its roots back to the Los Angeles Civic Grand Opera, which was formed in 1948. It presented staged productions through the 1950s. Shortly after its third production at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, the company abandoned its own production projects and recreated itself as the Music Center Opera Association by bringing opera from other cities to the Music Center, notably the New York City Opera
. The NYCO brought productions to Los Angeles every fall from 1966 to 1982.
In 1984, the Music Center Opera Association hired Peter Hemmings
and gave him the task of creating a local opera company which would once again present its own productions. This led to the forming of the Los Angeles Opera. Hemmings stepped down as General Director in 2000, with Plácido Domingo assuming leadership of the company following season. (In fact, Domingo had been involved in the creation of the company, having served as its artistic consultant since 1984.) In November 2001 Edgar Baitzel
was made director of artistic operations. Baitzel was appointed the LAO's artistic director in May 2003 and then the company's chief operating officer in February 2006. Baitzel died in March 2007.
and text by Nicholas von Hoffman
. The company has also turned to theater and cinema world for directors of its productions. During the 2001-2002 season, it mounted a production of Wagner
's Lohengrin
, directed by Austrian actor Maximilian Schell
and a double bill of Bartók
's Bluebeard's Castle
and Puccini
's Gianni Schicchi
, directed by filmmaker William Friedkin
.
Highlights of recent seasons have included Verdi's Falstaff
starring Bryn Terfel
; Kiri Te Kanawa
in the title role of Samuel Barber
's Vanessa
; Puccini's La bohème
and Leoncavallo
's Pagliacci
starring Angela Gheorghiu
and Roberto Alagna
; Charles Gounod
's Roméo et Juliette
and Massenet
's Manon
starring Anna Netrebko
and Rolando Villazón
; an all-star La traviata
(Verdi
) with Renée Fleming
, Rolando Villazón
and Renato Bruson
; Leoš Janáček
's Jenůfa
starring Karita Mattila
; Erwin Schrott
in Don Giovanni
and Le nozze di Figaro; and Kurt Weill
's Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny
starring Anthony Dean Griffey
, Audra McDonald
and Patti LuPone
. To date, Plácido Domingo has sung 20 different roles with the company, most recently Siegmund in Die Walküre
, Vidal Hernando in Luisa Fernanda
, and the title roles in Tamerlano
, Idomeneo
and Parsifal
. He has also conducted 11 different operas and numerous concerts with the company. Other frequent and notable guests with the company have included Samuel Ramey
, Violeta Urmana
, Hildegard Behrens
, Denyce Graves
, Frederica von Stade
, Sumi Jo, Deborah Voigt
, James Morris, Rod Gilfry
, Jennifer Larmore
, Maria Ewing
, Susan Graham
and Ferruccio Furlanetto
.
The company's multi-year Recovered Voices project, begun during the 2006-2007 season, is dedicated to presenting little known operas by the lost generation of composers whose lives and careers were cut short by the Third Reich
. To date, the company has presented Alexander von Zemlinsky
's Eine florentinische Tragödie
(An Italian Tragedy) and Der Zwerg
(The Dwarf), the U.S. premiere of Viktor Ullmann
's Der zerbrochene Krug (The Broken Jug), Walter Braunfels
' Die Vögel (The Birds)
and the U.S. premiere of Franz Schreker
's Die Gezeichneten
(The Stigmatized) as part of this mission, as well as children's performances of Hans Krasa
's Brundibar
.
's opera based on the film Il Postino
with Plácido Domingo as the poet Pablo Neruda
, Charles Castronovo
in the title role and Grant Gershon conducting. The season continued with a revival of the company's production of Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro conducted by Plácido Domingo and starring Daniel Okulich, Marlis Petersen
, Rebekah Camm, Bo Skovhus
, Martina Serafin and Renata Pokupic
. Subsequent productions included a new production of Wagner's Lohengrin
, also conducted by Conlon and starring Ben Heppner
, Soile Isokoski
and Dolora Zajick
, a production of Verdi's Rigoletto
conducted by James Conlon and starring George Gagnidze, a production of Rossini's Il Turco in Italia
starring Nino Machaidze
, Simone Alberghini, Paolo Gavanelli and Thomas Allen, and a production of Benjamin Britten
's The Turn of the Screw
starring Patricia Racette
, William Burden and Ann Murray, conducted by Conlon.
featuring baritone Dalibor Jenis and soprano Oksana Dyka
, conducted by James Conlon. The season continues with Mozart's Cosi fan tutte
conducted by Conlon and featuring Aleksandra Kurzak, Ruxandra Donose, Roxana Constantinescu, Saimir Pirgu, Ildebrando D'Arcangelo
and Lorenzo Regazzo; a revival of Gounod's Romeo et Juliette
, conducted by Placido Domingo and starring Nino Machaidze
and Vittorio Grigolo
; Verdi's Simon Boccanegra
conducted by James Conlon and starring Placido Domingo; Britten's Albert Herring
conducted by Conlon and starring Alek Shrader in the title role, with Janis Kelly and Christine Brewer
sharing the role of Lady Billows; and a revival of Puccini's La Boheme
starring Stephen Costello
and Ailyn Perez, conducted by Patrick Summers.
's complete Der Ring des Nibelungen
in the summer of 2010. New productions of Das Rheingold
and Die Walküre
were performed in early 2009, followed by Siegfried
(September/October 2009) and Götterdämmerung
(April 2010). Three full cycles were produced from May 29 through June 26, 2010, accompanied by the citywide Ring Festival LA. The innovative production was directed and designed by German theater artist Achim Freyer
and conducted by James Conlon
. The principal artists included Linda Watson, Vitalij Kowaljow, Michelle DeYoung
, Plácido Domingo
, John Treleaven, Graham Clark, Richard Paul Fink, Eric Halfvarson, Alan Held and Jennifer Wilson
, among others.
The festival drew criticism from Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich
, which argued that Wagner's work was the "soundtrack to the Holocaust", a reference to Wagner's anti-Semitic views. Antonovich requested that Los Angeles Opera broaden the scope of the festival to include other classical and operatic performers, while the Los Angeles Opera argued that proper attention was made to educate festival-goers on Wagner's racist views, and that broadening the scope would be inappropriate. On a 3-1 vote, the other supervisors rejected Antonovich's motion to have the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors
send a letter to Los Angeles Opera to shift the focus away from Wagner.
Subsequently, partly as a result of the cost of producing the Ring, the Los Angeles Opera requested an emergency $14 million loan from the Board of Supervisors due to reduced sponsorships and escalating costs. The Board approved the loan 4-1, with Antonovich dissenting.
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
company in Los Angeles, California. It is the fourth largest opera company in the United States. The company's home base is the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion
Dorothy Chandler Pavilion
The Dorothy Chandler Pavilion is one of the halls in the Los Angeles Music Center . The Music Center's other halls include the Mark Taper Forum, Ahmanson Theatre, and Walt Disney Concert Hall.The Pavilion has 3,197 seats spread over four tiers, with chandeliers, wide curving stairways and rich décor...
, part of the Los Angeles Music Center
Los Angeles Music Center
The Music Center is one of the three largest performing arts centers in the nation. Located in downtown Los Angeles, the Music Center is home to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Ahmanson Theater, Mark Taper Forum and Walt Disney Concert Hall...
.
Current leadership
Spanish tenor/conductor Plácido DomingoPlácido Domingo
Plácido Domingo KBE , born José Plácido Domingo Embil, is a Spanish tenor and conductor known for his versatile and strong voice, possessing a ringing and dramatic tone throughout its range...
has been general director since 2003; his contract runs through 2013. American conductor James Conlon
James Conlon
James Conlon is an American conductor and the current Music Director of the Los Angeles Opera.-Early years:Conlon grew up in a family of five children on Cherry Street in Douglaston, Queens, New York. His mother, Angeline L. Conlon, was a freelance writer. His father was an assistant to the New...
has been music director since 2006.
History
The Los Angeles Opera company, which was inaugurated in 1986 with a production of VerdiGiuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...
's Otello
Otello
Otello is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Arrigo Boito, based on Shakespeare's play Othello. It was Verdi's penultimate opera, and was first performed at the Teatro alla Scala, Milan, on February 5, 1887....
starring Plácido Domingo, traces its roots back to the Los Angeles Civic Grand Opera, which was formed in 1948. It presented staged productions through the 1950s. Shortly after its third production at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, the company abandoned its own production projects and recreated itself as the Music Center Opera Association by bringing opera from other cities to the Music Center, notably the New York City Opera
New York City Opera
The New York City Opera is an American opera company located in New York City.The company, called "the people's opera" by New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, was founded in 1943 with the aim of making opera financially accessible to a wide audience, producing an innovative choice of repertory, and...
. The NYCO brought productions to Los Angeles every fall from 1966 to 1982.
In 1984, the Music Center Opera Association hired Peter Hemmings
Peter Hemmings
Peter Hemmings OBE was an English Opera administrator, impresario and singer.As a singer, he was an accomplished chorister in his youth and had a fine bass voice....
and gave him the task of creating a local opera company which would once again present its own productions. This led to the forming of the Los Angeles Opera. Hemmings stepped down as General Director in 2000, with Plácido Domingo assuming leadership of the company following season. (In fact, Domingo had been involved in the creation of the company, having served as its artistic consultant since 1984.) In November 2001 Edgar Baitzel
Edgar Baitzel
Edgar Baitzel was a German opera director and artistic administrator.Born in Koblenz, Baitzel spent the first part of his career in Europe working on the staffs of several notable opera companies, including the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe, the Bavarian State Opera, the Opéra de Nice, and the...
was made director of artistic operations. Baitzel was appointed the LAO's artistic director in May 2003 and then the company's chief operating officer in February 2006. Baitzel died in March 2007.
Productions
The Los Angeles Opera offers productions in the standard operatic repertory as well as new and rarely-staged operas. During the 2003-2004 season, the company performed the world premiere of Nicholas and Alexandra, with music composed by Deborah DrattellDeborah Drattell
Deborah Drattell is an American composer. She was born in Brooklyn, New York, and started her career in music as a violinist. Her compositions have been performed by the New York Philharmonic, Orchestra of St. Luke's, the Tanglewood and Caramoor Music Festivals, and many other groups and venues...
and text by Nicholas von Hoffman
Nicholas von Hoffman
Nicholas von Hoffman is an American journalist and author. He wrote for the Washington Post. Later, TV audiences knew him as a "Point-Counterpoint" commentator for CBS's 60 Minutes, from which Don Hewitt fired him in 1974.-Biography:He is of German-Russian extraction, descendant of Melchior...
. The company has also turned to theater and cinema world for directors of its productions. During the 2001-2002 season, it mounted a production of Wagner
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...
's Lohengrin
Lohengrin (opera)
Lohengrin is a romantic opera in three acts composed and written by Richard Wagner, first performed in 1850. The story of the eponymous character is taken from medieval German romance, notably the Parzival of Wolfram von Eschenbach and its sequel, Lohengrin, written by a different author, itself...
, directed by Austrian actor Maximilian Schell
Maximilian Schell
Maximilian Schell is an Austrian-born Swiss actor who won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in Judgment at Nuremberg in 1961...
and a double bill of Bartók
Béla Bartók
Béla Viktor János Bartók was a Hungarian composer and pianist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century and is regarded, along with Liszt, as Hungary's greatest composer...
's Bluebeard's Castle
Bluebeard's Castle
Duke Bluebeard's Castle is a one-act opera by Hungarian composer Béla Bartók. The libretto was written by Béla Balázs, a poet and friend of the composer. It is in Hungarian, based on the French fairy tale "Bluebeard" by Charles Perrault...
and Puccini
Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini was an Italian composer whose operas, including La bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, and Turandot, are among the most frequently performed in the standard repertoire...
's Gianni Schicchi
Gianni Schicchi
Gianni Schicchi is a comic opera in one act by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Giovacchino Forzano, composed in 1917–18. The libretto is based on an incident mentioned in Dante's Divine Comedy. The work is the third and final part of Puccini's Il trittico —three one-act operas with...
, directed by filmmaker William Friedkin
William Friedkin
William Friedkin is an American film director, producer and screenwriter best known for directing The French Connection in 1971 and The Exorcist in 1973; for the former, he won the Academy Award for Best Director...
.
Highlights of recent seasons have included Verdi's Falstaff
Falstaff (opera)
Falstaff is an operatic commedia lirica in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi, adapted by Arrigo Boito from Shakespeare's plays The Merry Wives of Windsor and scenes from Henry IV. It was Verdi's last opera, written in the composer's ninth decade, and only the second of his 26 operas to be a comedy...
starring Bryn Terfel
Bryn Terfel
Bryn Terfel Jones CBE is a Welsh bass-baritone opera and concert singer. Terfel was initially associated with the roles of Mozart, particularly Figaro and Leporello, but has subsequently shifted his attention to heavier roles, especially those by Wagner....
; Kiri Te Kanawa
Kiri Te Kanawa
Dame Kiri Jeanette Te Kanawa, ONZ, DBE, AC is a New Zealand / Māori soprano who has had a highly successful international opera career since 1968. Acclaimed as one of the most beloved sopranos in both the United States and Britain she possesses a warm full lyric soprano voice, singing a wide array...
in the title role of Samuel Barber
Samuel Barber
Samuel Osborne Barber II was an American composer of orchestral, opera, choral, and piano music. His Adagio for Strings is his most popular composition and widely considered a masterpiece of modern classical music...
's Vanessa
Vanessa
Vanessa can refer to:* A member service officer at SOMB.* Vanessa , a female given name coined by Jonathan Swift, originally as a nickname for Esther Vanhomrigh* Vanessa , a genus of butterflies...
; Puccini's La bohème
La bohème
La bohème is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions quadro, a tableau or "image", rather than atto . by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, based on Scènes de la vie de bohème by Henri Murger...
and Leoncavallo
Ruggero Leoncavallo
Ruggero Leoncavallo was an Italian opera composer. His two-act work Pagliacci remains one of the most popular works in the repertory, appearing as number 20 on the Operabase list of the most-performed operas worldwide.-Biography:...
's Pagliacci
Pagliacci
Pagliacci , sometimes incorrectly rendered with a definite article as I Pagliacci, is an opera consisting of a prologue and two acts written and composed by Ruggero Leoncavallo. It recounts the tragedy of a jealous husband in a commedia dell'arte troupe...
starring Angela Gheorghiu
Angela Gheorghiu
Angela Gheorghiu is a Romanian soprano opera singer. Since her professional debut in 1990, she has sung as soprano leading roles at New York's Metropolitan Opera, Covent Garden's Royal Opera House, the Vienna State Opera, Milan's La Scala, and many other opera houses in Europe and the United States...
and Roberto Alagna
Roberto Alagna
Roberto Alagna is a French-Italian tenor. He was born in Clichy-sous-Bois, Seine-Saint-Denis, France.-Early years:Alagna was born outside of the city of Paris in 1963 to a family of Sicilian immigrants . As a teenager, the young Alagna began busking and singing pop in Parisian cabarets for tips...
; Charles Gounod
Charles Gounod
Charles-François Gounod was a French composer, known for his Ave Maria as well as his operas Faust and Roméo et Juliette.-Biography:...
's Roméo et Juliette
Roméo et Juliette
Roméo et Juliette is an opéra in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, based on The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. It was first performed at the Théâtre Lyrique , Paris on 27 April 1867...
and Massenet
Jules Massenet
Jules Émile Frédéric Massenet was a French composer best known for his operas. His compositions were very popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and he ranks as one of the greatest melodists of his era. Soon after his death, Massenet's style went out of fashion, and many of his operas...
's Manon
Manon
Manon is an opéra comique in five acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Henri Meilhac and Philippe Gille, based on the 1731 novel L’histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut by the Abbé Prévost...
starring Anna Netrebko
Anna Netrebko
Anna Yuryevna Netrebko is an Russian operatic soprano. She now holds dual Russian and Austrian citizenship and currently resides in Vienna. She has been nicknamed "La Bellissima" by fans.-Biography:...
and Rolando Villazón
Rolando Villazón
Emilio Rolando Villazón Mauleón is a Mexican tenor. He settled in France and in 2007 became a French citizen.-Early life and education:...
; an all-star La traviata
La traviata
La traviata is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi set to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave. It is based on La dame aux Camélias , a play adapted from the novel by Alexandre Dumas, fils. The title La traviata means literally The Fallen Woman, or perhaps more figuratively, The Woman...
(Verdi
Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...
) with Renée Fleming
Renée Fleming
Renée Fleming is an American soprano specializing in opera and lieder. Fleming has a full lyric soprano voice.Fleming has performed coloratura, lyric, and lighter spinto soprano repertoires. She has sung roles in Italian, German, French, Czech, and Russian, aside from her native English. She also...
, Rolando Villazón
Rolando Villazón
Emilio Rolando Villazón Mauleón is a Mexican tenor. He settled in France and in 2007 became a French citizen.-Early life and education:...
and Renato Bruson
Renato Bruson
Renato Bruson is an Italian operatic baritone. Bruson is widely considered one of the most important Verdi baritones of the late 20th and early 21st century. He was born in Granze near Padua, Italy.-Biography and career:...
; Leoš Janáček
Leoš Janácek
Leoš Janáček was a Czech composer, musical theorist, folklorist, publicist and teacher. He was inspired by Moravian and all Slavic folk music to create an original, modern musical style. Until 1895 he devoted himself mainly to folkloristic research and his early musical output was influenced by...
's Jenůfa
Jenufa
Jenůfa is an opera in three acts by Leoš Janáček to a Czech libretto by the composer, based on the play Její pastorkyňa by Gabriela Preissová. It was first performed at the Brno Theater, Brno, 21 January 1904...
starring Karita Mattila
Karita Mattila
Karita Marjatta Mattila is a leading opera soprano. She was born in Somero, Finland.Mattila appears regularly in the major opera houses worldwide, including the Metropolitan Opera, the Royal Opera House in London, Théâtre du Châtelet, Opéra Bastille, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco...
; Erwin Schrott
Erwin Schrott
Erwin Schrott is an operatic bass-baritone, particularly known for his interpretation of the title role in Mozart's Don Giovanni.-Career:...
in Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and with an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It was premiered by the Prague Italian opera at the Teatro di Praga on October 29, 1787...
and Le nozze di Figaro; and Kurt Weill
Kurt Weill
Kurt Julian Weill was a German-Jewish composer, active from the 1920s, and in his later years in the United States. He was a leading composer for the stage who was best known for his fruitful collaborations with Bertolt Brecht...
's Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny
Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny
Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny is a political-satirical opera composed by Kurt Weill to a German libretto by Bertolt Brecht. It was first performed in Leipzig on 9 March 1930.-Composition history:...
starring Anthony Dean Griffey
Anthony Dean Griffey
Anthony Dean Griffey is an American operatic tenor. With his lyric tenor voice, Griffey has become a regular presence on the stages of opera houses around the world....
, Audra McDonald
Audra McDonald
Audra Ann McDonald is an American actress and singer. She currently stars in the ABC television drama Private Practice as Dr. Naomi Bennett. She has appeared on the stage in both musicals and dramas, such as Ragtime and A Raisin in the Sun...
and Patti LuPone
Patti LuPone
Patti Ann LuPone is an American singer and actress, known for her Tony Award-winning performances as Eva Perón in the 1979 stage musical Evita and as Madame Rose in the 2008 Broadway revival of Gypsy, and for her Olivier Award-winning performance as Fantine in the original London cast of Les...
. To date, Plácido Domingo has sung 20 different roles with the company, most recently Siegmund in Die Walküre
Die Walküre
Die Walküre , WWV 86B, is the second of the four operas that form the cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen , by Richard Wagner...
, Vidal Hernando in Luisa Fernanda
Luisa Fernanda
For the zarzuela by Federico Moreno Torroba, see Luisa Fernanda .Luisa Fernanda Lozano is a Mexican television entertainment news anchor. She worked for Telemundo until the end of 2007...
, and the title roles in Tamerlano
Tamerlano
Tamerlano is an opera in three acts written for the Royal Academy of Music , with music by George Frideric Handel to an Italian text by Nicola Francesco Haym, adapted from Agostin Piovene's Tamerlano together with another libretto entitled Bajazet after Nicolas Pradon's Tamerlan, ou La Mort de...
, Idomeneo
Idomeneo
Idomeneo, re di Creta ossia Ilia e Idamante is an Italian language opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The libretto was adapted by Giambattista Varesco from a French text by Antoine Danchet, which had been set to music by André Campra as Idoménée in 1712...
and Parsifal
Parsifal
Parsifal is an opera in three acts by Richard Wagner. It is loosely based on Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival, the 13th century epic poem of the Arthurian knight Parzival and his quest for the Holy Grail, and on Chrétien de Troyes' Perceval, the Story of the Grail.Wagner first conceived the work...
. He has also conducted 11 different operas and numerous concerts with the company. Other frequent and notable guests with the company have included Samuel Ramey
Samuel Ramey
Samuel Edward Ramey is an American operatic bass with a long, distinguished career.During his best years, he was greatly admired for his range and versatility, having possessed a sufficiently accomplished bel canto technique to enable him to sing the music of Handel, Mozart, Rossini, yet power...
, Violeta Urmana
Violeta Urmana
Violeta Urmana, born Violeta Urmanavičiūtė is a diva who began her career as a mezzo-soprano but has transitioned successfully into soprano roles....
, Hildegard Behrens
Hildegard Behrens
Hildegard Behrens was a German soprano with a wide repertory including Wagner, Weber, Mozart, Richard Strauss, and Alban Berg roles.-Biography:...
, Denyce Graves
Denyce Graves
Denyce Graves is an American mezzo-soprano opera singer.-Early life:Graves was born on March 7, 1964, to Charles Graves and Dorothy Graves-Kenner. She is the middle of three children and was raised by her mother on Galveston Street, S.W., in the Bellevue section of Washington...
, Frederica von Stade
Frederica von Stade
Frederica von Stade is an American mezzo-soprano. Born in Somerville, New Jersey, she acquired the nickname "Flicka" in her childhood. Von Stade attended the Mannes College of Music in New York City. She made her debut with the Metropolitan Opera in 1970 and in 1971 appeared as Cherubino in The...
, Sumi Jo, Deborah Voigt
Deborah Voigt
Deborah Voigt is an American operatic soprano. Voigt regularly performs in opera houses and concert halls worldwide.- Early life and education :...
, James Morris, Rod Gilfry
Rod Gilfry
Rodney Gilfry is a leading American opera baritone. After launching his career at Frankfurt Opera in 1987, Gilfry quickly established a reputation for stylish singing and acting...
, Jennifer Larmore
Jennifer Larmore
Jennifer Larmore is an American mezzo-soprano opera singer, noted for coloratura and bel canto.- Career :Jennifer Larmore is an American mezzo-soprano, well known for her versatility, natural beauty and stage craft...
, Maria Ewing
Maria Ewing
Maria Louise Ewing is an American opera singer who has sung both soprano and mezzo soprano roles. She is noted as much for her acting as her singing.-Life and career:...
, Susan Graham
Susan Graham
Susan Graham is an American mezzo-soprano.Raised in Midland, Texas, she is a graduate of Texas Tech University and the Manhattan School of Music. She studied the piano for 13 years...
and Ferruccio Furlanetto
Ferruccio Furlanetto
Ferruccio Furlanetto is an Italian bass. His professional debut was in 1979 at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, in a production of Verdi's Macbeth, conducted by Claudio Abbado...
.
The company's multi-year Recovered Voices project, begun during the 2006-2007 season, is dedicated to presenting little known operas by the lost generation of composers whose lives and careers were cut short by the Third Reich
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
. To date, the company has presented Alexander von Zemlinsky
Alexander von Zemlinsky
Alexander Zemlinsky or Alexander von Zemlinsky was an Austrian composer, conductor, and teacher.-Early life:...
's Eine florentinische Tragödie
Eine florentinische Tragödie
Eine florentinische Tragödie , Op. 16 is an opera in one act by Alexander Zemlinsky to a libretto adapted by the composer from a German translation by Max Meyerfeld of a play by Oscar Wilde.-Performance history:...
(An Italian Tragedy) and Der Zwerg
Der Zwerg
Der Zwerg , Op.17 is an opera in one act by Austrian composer Alexander Zemlinsky to a libretto by Georg Klaren, freely adapted from the short story The Birthday of the Infanta by Oscar Wilde.-Composition history:...
(The Dwarf), the U.S. premiere of Viktor Ullmann
Viktor Ullmann
Viktor Ullmann was a Silesia-born Austrian, later Czech composer, conductor and pianist of Jewish origin.- Biography :...
's Der zerbrochene Krug (The Broken Jug), Walter Braunfels
Walter Braunfels
-Life:Walter Braunfels was born in Frankfurt am Main. His first music teacher was his mother, the great-niece of the composer Louis Spohr . He continued his piano studies in Frankfurt at the Hoch Conservatory with James Kwast....
' Die Vögel (The Birds)
Die Vögel (opera)
Die Vögel , Op. 30 is an opera in a prologue and two acts by Walter Braunfels. The libretto, written by the composer, is a free adaptation of Aristophanes' comedy The Birds which was performed at the Dionysos Theatre in Athens in 414 BC....
and the U.S. premiere of Franz Schreker
Franz Schreker
Franz Schreker was an Austrian composer, conductor, teacher and administrator. Primarily a composer of operas, his style is characterized by aesthetic plurality , timbral experimentation, strategies of extended tonality and...
's Die Gezeichneten
Die Gezeichneten
Die Gezeichneten is an opera in three acts by Franz Schreker, libretto by the composer.-Composition history:...
(The Stigmatized) as part of this mission, as well as children's performances of Hans Krasa
Hans Krása
Hans Krása was a Czech composer who was killed in the Holocaust at Auschwitz. He helped to organize cultural life in Theresienstadt concentration camp.-Life:...
's Brundibar
Brundibár
Brundibár is a children's opera by Jewish Czech composer Hans Krása with a libretto by Adolf Hoffmeister, originally performed by the children of Theresienstadt concentration camp in occupied Czechoslovakia...
.
2010-2011 season
The 2010-2011 season opened with the world première of Daniel CatánDaniel Catán
Daniel Catán was a Mexican composer of Russian Sephardic Jewish descent known particularly for his operas and his creative friendship with the tenor Plácido Domingo.-Career:...
's opera based on the film Il Postino
Il Postino
Il Postino is a 1994 Italian film directed by Michael Radford. The film was originally released in the U.S. as The Postman, a straight translation of the Italian title...
with Plácido Domingo as the poet Pablo Neruda
Pablo Neruda
Pablo Neruda was the pen name and, later, legal name of the Chilean poet, diplomat and politician Neftalí Ricardo Reyes Basoalto. He chose his pen name after Czech poet Jan Neruda....
, Charles Castronovo
Charles Castronovo
Charles Castronovo , is an American tenor. He is currently in demand internationally as an opera singer. Castronovo was born to a Sicilian father and an Ecuadorian mother in Queens, New York but grew up in Southern California. He attended California State University, Fullerton for undergraduate...
in the title role and Grant Gershon conducting. The season continued with a revival of the company's production of Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro conducted by Plácido Domingo and starring Daniel Okulich, Marlis Petersen
Marlis Petersen
Marlis Petersen is a German coloratura soprano, particularly known for her performances in the title role of Alban Berg's opera Lulu, and as Konstanze in The Abduction from the Seraglio and Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos....
, Rebekah Camm, Bo Skovhus
Bo Skovhus
Bo Skovhus is a Danish opera singer .Skovhus studied at the Royal Academy of Music in Aarhus, at the Royal Academy for Opera of Copenhagen and in New York with Oren Brown....
, Martina Serafin and Renata Pokupic
Renata Pokupic
Renata Pokupic is a renowned Croatian opera singer with a strong international career.- Life and career :...
. Subsequent productions included a new production of Wagner's Lohengrin
Lohengrin (opera)
Lohengrin is a romantic opera in three acts composed and written by Richard Wagner, first performed in 1850. The story of the eponymous character is taken from medieval German romance, notably the Parzival of Wolfram von Eschenbach and its sequel, Lohengrin, written by a different author, itself...
, also conducted by Conlon and starring Ben Heppner
Ben Heppner
Ben Heppner, CC is a Canadian tenor, specializing in opera and other classical works for voice.Heppner was born in Murrayville, British Columbia, and lived in Dawson Creek...
, Soile Isokoski
Soile Isokoski
Soile Isokoski is a Finnish lyric soprano. She is an opera singer as well as a concert and lieder singer.- Career :Isokoski was born in Posio...
and Dolora Zajick
Dolora Zajick
Dolora Zajick is an American mezzo-soprano who specializes in the Verdian repertoire. Zajick is arguably the leading exponent in the dramatic Verdian mezzo-soprano repertoire....
, a production of Verdi's Rigoletto
Rigoletto
Rigoletto is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The Italian libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on the play Le roi s'amuse by Victor Hugo. It was first performed at La Fenice in Venice on March 11, 1851...
conducted by James Conlon and starring George Gagnidze, a production of Rossini's Il Turco in Italia
Il turco in Italia
Il turco in Italia is an opera in two acts by Gioachino Rossini. The Italian-language libretto was written by Felice Romani...
starring Nino Machaidze
Nino Machaidze
Nino Machaidze is a Georgian coloratura soprano.Her breakthrough came after being spotted as Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi at La Scala, leading to the opportunity to play Juliette in the Salzburg Festival in 2008 in Gounod's Romeo et Juliette opposite Rolando Villazón.Discography:* Opera Fedora,...
, Simone Alberghini, Paolo Gavanelli and Thomas Allen, and a production of Benjamin Britten
Benjamin Britten
Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, OM CH was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He showed talent from an early age, and first came to public attention with the a cappella choral work A Boy Was Born in 1934. With the premiere of his opera Peter Grimes in 1945, he leapt to...
's The Turn of the Screw
The Turn of the Screw
The Turn of the Screw is a novella written by Henry James. Originally published in 1898, it is ostensibly a ghost story.Due to its ambiguous content, it became a favourite text of academics who subscribe to New Criticism. The novella has had differing interpretations, often mutually exclusive...
starring Patricia Racette
Patricia Racette
Patricia Lynn Racette is an American operatic soprano. A winner of the Richard Tucker Award in 1998, she has been a regular presence at major opera houses internationally. Racette has enjoyed long-term partnerships with the San Francisco Opera, where she has been a regular performer since 1989,...
, William Burden and Ann Murray, conducted by Conlon.
2011-2012 season
Los Angeles Opera's 2011-2012 season begins on September 17, 2011, with the company's first presentation of Tchaikovsky's Eugene OneginEugene Onegin (opera)
Eugene Onegin, Op. 24, is an opera in 3 acts , by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The libretto was written by Konstantin Shilovsky and the composer and his brother Modest, and is based on the novel in verse by Alexander Pushkin....
featuring baritone Dalibor Jenis and soprano Oksana Dyka
Oksana Dyka
Oksana Dyka , also spelled Oksana Dika, is a Ukrainian operatic soprano.-Career:Dyka graduated in 2004 at the Kiev Conservatory and sang as a soloist at the Kiev.Opera from 2003 until 2007....
, conducted by James Conlon. The season continues with Mozart's Cosi fan tutte
Così fan tutte
Così fan tutte, ossia La scuola degli amanti K. 588, is an opera buffa by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart first performed in 1790. The libretto was written by Lorenzo Da Ponte....
conducted by Conlon and featuring Aleksandra Kurzak, Ruxandra Donose, Roxana Constantinescu, Saimir Pirgu, Ildebrando D'Arcangelo
Ildebrando D'Arcangelo
Ildebrando D'Arcangelo is an Italian bass-baritone opera singer.-Biography:A Native of Pescara, Abruzzo, D'Arcangelo began his studies in 1985 at the conservatory of Luisa D'Annunzio in Pescara, under Maria Vittoria Romano, honing his skills under Paride Venturi in Bologna.From 1989 to 1991 he...
and Lorenzo Regazzo; a revival of Gounod's Romeo et Juliette
Roméo et Juliette
Roméo et Juliette is an opéra in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, based on The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. It was first performed at the Théâtre Lyrique , Paris on 27 April 1867...
, conducted by Placido Domingo and starring Nino Machaidze
Nino Machaidze
Nino Machaidze is a Georgian coloratura soprano.Her breakthrough came after being spotted as Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi at La Scala, leading to the opportunity to play Juliette in the Salzburg Festival in 2008 in Gounod's Romeo et Juliette opposite Rolando Villazón.Discography:* Opera Fedora,...
and Vittorio Grigolo
Vittorio Grigolo
Vittorio Grigolo is an Italian singer.Grigolo was born in Arezzo, but raised in Rome.He began singing by the age of four...
; Verdi's Simon Boccanegra
Simon Boccanegra
Simon Boccanegra is an opera with a prologue and three acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave, based on the play Simón Bocanegra by Antonio García Gutiérrez....
conducted by James Conlon and starring Placido Domingo; Britten's Albert Herring
Albert Herring
Albert Herring, Op. 39, is a chamber opera in three acts by Benjamin Britten.Composed in the winter of 1946 and the spring of 1947, this comic opera was a successor to his serious opera The Rape of Lucretia...
conducted by Conlon and starring Alek Shrader in the title role, with Janis Kelly and Christine Brewer
Christine Brewer
Christine Brewer is an American soprano. She grew up in the Mississippi River town of Grand Tower, Illinois. She attended McKendree University in Lebanon, Illinois and concentrated on music education. She was a music teacher for several years before embarking on a professional music performing...
sharing the role of Lady Billows; and a revival of Puccini's La Boheme
La bohème
La bohème is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions quadro, a tableau or "image", rather than atto . by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, based on Scènes de la vie de bohème by Henri Murger...
starring Stephen Costello
Stephen Costello
Stephen Costello is an American operatic tenor and a recipient of the 2009 Richard Tucker Award. Costello has performed in noted opera houses around the world including Covent Garden, Metropolitan Opera, and Lyric Opera of Chicago...
and Ailyn Perez, conducted by Patrick Summers.
Der Ring des Nibelungen
The company presented its first presentation of Richard WagnerRichard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...
's complete Der Ring des Nibelungen
Der Ring des Nibelungen
Der Ring des Nibelungen is a cycle of four epic operas by the German composer Richard Wagner . The works are based loosely on characters from the Norse sagas and the Nibelungenlied...
in the summer of 2010. New productions of Das Rheingold
Das Rheingold
is the first of the four operas that constitute Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen . It was originally written as an introduction to the tripartite Ring, but the cycle is now generally regarded as consisting of four individual operas.Das Rheingold received its premiere at the National Theatre...
and Die Walküre
Die Walküre
Die Walküre , WWV 86B, is the second of the four operas that form the cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen , by Richard Wagner...
were performed in early 2009, followed by Siegfried
Siegfried (opera)
Siegfried is the third of the four operas that constitute Der Ring des Nibelungen , by Richard Wagner. It received its premiere at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus on 16 August 1876, as part of the first complete performance of The Ring...
(September/October 2009) and Götterdämmerung
Götterdämmerung
is the last in Richard Wagner's cycle of four operas titled Der Ring des Nibelungen...
(April 2010). Three full cycles were produced from May 29 through June 26, 2010, accompanied by the citywide Ring Festival LA. The innovative production was directed and designed by German theater artist Achim Freyer
Achim Freyer
Achim Freyer is a German stage director, set designer and painter. A protege of Bertolt Brecht, Freyer has become one of the world's leading opera directors, working throughout Europe and, since 2002, in the United States, principally with the Los Angeles Opera...
and conducted by James Conlon
James Conlon
James Conlon is an American conductor and the current Music Director of the Los Angeles Opera.-Early years:Conlon grew up in a family of five children on Cherry Street in Douglaston, Queens, New York. His mother, Angeline L. Conlon, was a freelance writer. His father was an assistant to the New...
. The principal artists included Linda Watson, Vitalij Kowaljow, Michelle DeYoung
Michelle DeYoung
Michelle DeYoung is an American classical vocalist who has an active international career performing in operas and concerts. Raised in Colorado and California, DeYoung is a graduate of the Metropolitan Opera's Lindemann Young Artists Development Program...
, Plácido Domingo
Plácido Domingo
Plácido Domingo KBE , born José Plácido Domingo Embil, is a Spanish tenor and conductor known for his versatile and strong voice, possessing a ringing and dramatic tone throughout its range...
, John Treleaven, Graham Clark, Richard Paul Fink, Eric Halfvarson, Alan Held and Jennifer Wilson
Jennifer Wilson
Jennifer Wilson is an American soprano known especially for her Wagnerian opera roles. She is the daughter of Newton Wilson and Katherine Still...
, among others.
The festival drew criticism from Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich
Michael D. Antonovich
Michael Dennis Antonovich is a politician and the most senior-serving member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors...
, which argued that Wagner's work was the "soundtrack to the Holocaust", a reference to Wagner's anti-Semitic views. Antonovich requested that Los Angeles Opera broaden the scope of the festival to include other classical and operatic performers, while the Los Angeles Opera argued that proper attention was made to educate festival-goers on Wagner's racist views, and that broadening the scope would be inappropriate. On a 3-1 vote, the other supervisors rejected Antonovich's motion to have the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors
Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors is the five-member nonpartisan governing board of Los Angeles County, California. Members of the board of supervisors are elected by district. They were as of December 2, 2008:*District 1: Gloria Molina...
send a letter to Los Angeles Opera to shift the focus away from Wagner.
Subsequently, partly as a result of the cost of producing the Ring, the Los Angeles Opera requested an emergency $14 million loan from the Board of Supervisors due to reduced sponsorships and escalating costs. The Board approved the loan 4-1, with Antonovich dissenting.
Education and Community Programs
For over 20 years, LA Opera has produced a wide variety of education and outreach programs designed to bring opera to people of all backgrounds, from young children experiencing opera for the first time to experienced opera lovers of all ages. These include "In-School Operas" performed for and by elementary school students; full-scale student matinees and a summer "Opera Camp" for secondary school students; accredited teacher training programs; large-scale free community performances for families; a popular lecture series for ticket holders before every mainstage performance; and open dress rehearsals for senior centers. In 2008, these programs were enjoyed by an all-time high of more than 159,000 students, teachers and community members.Music Directors
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Other resident conductors
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