On October 25th of last year it was announced that Matt Cook would be the new Artistic and Executive Director of the Sierra Madre Playhouse. This as the company’s home, once a furniture store and movie theater, is celebrating its 100th anniversary this weekend. What better way to bring much-needed exposure to the venue.

The scheduled events large revolve around great films by Harold Lloyd. His granddaughter, Suzanne Lloyd, is joining the celebrations. There is also a sold-out gala, The Bees Knees, which includes a 20s-themed party and access to all the films being shown. And if you haven’t seen Safety Last! you owe it to yourself to see one of the most exciting films ever made.

Cook joins the Sierra Madre Playhouse having been the Executive Director of Blue 13 Dance company and previously holding positions with Pacific Opera Project and Wild Up. Amongst the companies with which he has collaborated are Heidi Duckler Dance, Martha Graham Dance Company and Akron Khan company. He’s also a Grammy Award-winning performer.

Perhaps his biggest challenge is to find a way of making sure the Sierra Madre Playhouse makes it another 100 years and that people who live in Southern California who’ve never been to the playhouse, myself included, find out what they’re all about. Which is precisely where I started my conversation earlier this week with Cook.

What follows are excerpts from our conversation that have been edited for length and clarity. To see the full interview, please go to our YouTube channel.

Q: When you came to the Sierra Madre Playhouse beginning September 1st of last year, had the 100th celebration already been in the works, or is this something that you came up with as a way of reintroducing the Sierra Madre Playhouse to people maybe like me, who had never been? 

The board is full of stakeholders that have been in the community for a very long time, some of them 30 years. So they had it on their radar to celebrate it in some way, but it hadn’t been formalized. So this is step one, this weekend, but then we’ll hope to have a big birthday party in the summer; try to celebrate all year. So I’m just a piece of the puzzle. 

This weekend is centered primarily on Harold Lloyd’s films. What made Harold Lloyd the right person to anchor this first leg of this centennial celebration? 

He was one of the biggest stars of 1924. This whole weekend are comedies from 1924 that were either made then or released then. He was an easy choice. Our curator of the weekend is Laura Gabrielle, who is a film historian. She got in touch with Harold Lloyd’s granddaughter, Suzanne Lloyd, so she’s going to be a big part of it as well. We’re honoring that era. He was one of the biggest stars. 

I read an interview that Suzanne Lloyd gave to Variety last year. She said the following about her grandfather. “He, in a lot of ways, was very much like the character he portrayed on screen. He had a lot of interest in life and people and what made them tick and what he could do to make things better. He liked to promote people from writers to directors, saying, ‘Go out and do your own thing. Go and do your own movie.'” It sounds like she’s discussing the job of an artistic director at a performing arts venue. Does that sound a little bit like your job as well as his perspective of what he did with his career?

Yeah, in ways it does. With the exception that I’m also trying to look outward to the community and not just have it be what I want to do, but what do we want to do. What can be the bridge to the community and the arts. So it’s a little bit of both.

When you’re in a big metropolis or part of a metropolis that includes Los Angeles, which is a cultural center in this country, how do you balance out what is the best thing to service the immediate community around you, versus what is the thing that maybe will get more people to pay attention to you? 

That is a balancing act. We’re in a unique position that we’ve been an institution for 100 years, but this year we’re trying something brand new. That idea came up before I got here, which is why they hired me to transition into a performing arts model. What I’m trying to do is provide world class artists at a very accessible price point. This whole year is a proof of concept. What does the community want? What do they need? So we’re listening. We’re asking a lot of artists, asking a lot of community members, and we’re trying to represent not just Sierra Madre, but now Los Angeles County. We’re really trying to be the regional performing arts center in East LA. There are venues like us, in downtown, the Music Center or the Broad on the West Side and [The Soraya] in Northridge, but there’s no true performing arts space in East LA.

Those venues have 500 seats or more. They can pay an artist, if they wanted to, $75,000 for the evening. That’s not going to be us, but we can still have a world class version. We could even have the same artists, but instead of their opera, we can produce their string quartet or something. We want to have the same quality, but in an intimate setting right now.

The Sierra Madre Playhouse had been a furniture store for 16 years before it became a theater. That sounds to me like the people owned that property were seeing the writing on the wall; there were changes happening that they wanted to take advantage of. That doesn’t seem totally apart and separate from what we’re facing now. What are the challenges for you in competing, not just with some of the arts institutions that you’ve you’ve mentioned, but for things like a smart phone which seems to be the way a lot of people choose to indulge in whatever their particular passions are?

How do you face that moving forward into the next hundred years? 

I think places for people gathering will always be needed and I think the human experience will always be needed. There is a vulnerability, I think, to live theater or live singing of music you can’t replicate on a device. So I think creating an experience is the next step. So it’s like having that as a baseline but then an experience. Maybe not just a recital, but something where the artists talk to the audience to include them in the process – something they can’t get on YouTube. That’s the next step. Then making it accessible. That’s not just price point, that’s genre. That’s also day of the week, time of day. Also marketing efforts to make sure that anyone that wants to be a part of it can be. So there are many factors, but I’m not so worried about that. I don’t think theater will die. I think that we just have to be reasonable. 

We’re in an environment where Center Theatre Group has all but abandoned any sense of a season at the Mark Taper Forum. They’ve got occasional events in there, but nothing formalized like we are all become accustomed to them having. That’s the smallest space at the Music Center. Does that bode well for you?

That’s true and it’s one of the best theaters in the world. But we’re unique in that our overhead is much lower. It costs them so much money to open. I’m not sure of their exact business model and how they filter the revenue and philanthropy. But I would imagine that they need to reduce the amount of work that they put forward. Perhaps they’re too busy or [there’s] too much overhead. But I feel like we’re actually in a really good spot and that over the next five years we’ll grow a lot and then probably plateau to a really comfortable midsize range.

I was talking to Thor Steingraber at The Soraya a couple weeks ago and he was talking frankly about seismic shifts that are going on in the performing arts. For instance, there’s very little, if any, culture covered in the L.A. Times. There used to be regular sections for that. That an institution like The Soraya is competing for advertising dollars not in print, but online. But they’re competing not with other performing arts organizations, they’re competing with Nike. They’re competing with these big monolithic corporations that individual performing arts venues just don’t have the budget to do. What do you see as the main task ahead of you in finding a way of carving out that space so that people know about the Sierra Madre Playhouse? 

I think finding something that is so special that relates to them; being the individual patron for that genre, that it will cut through the noise for them. I think finding something that resonates on a human level and then trying our best to find out what marketing strategies connect with them. You know, this is brand new for me getting to present and market 60 shows at one time. 

I think part of the point for me similar to Thor is that we’re not just an opera company, it’s a performing arts center. So we have many tools to reach the communities. There’s not just one audience that we’re marketing to.

As a performer/musician yourself you’ve experienced the highs and the lows that come with this line of work. What inspires you most at this point today about the best events to produce and the best way to present them?

Problem solving in general is fun for me. My whole life of practicing was all problem solving every day. You go and you try to get better. I think being flexible and remembering that the audience taste does come first, and that’s not at the sacrifice for what I think is good. I would never present something that I don’t like, but I think really listening and thinking about audience impact is important.

Throughout my career I’ve been in many different projects, all of which I’ve loved. Early in my career, some of them were very critically successful and got awards and things like that, but they had a hard time pulling an audience in our own city. So I had to reflect on that. I think learning from the experience of my peers.

There will always be a place for what we do if we keep the intentions in the right place. We’re not a bank. The goal is not to make money. If we just wanted to make money, you know, we could do Chicago 12 months a year and do a really high Broadway quality style thing. But I’m not even sure that that would sell that long.

One of the reasons some are thriving is because they are not doing things the way you’re supposedly supposed to do them. Pacific Opera Project did a production of Madame Butterfly, seeing that in Japanese and English made me realize that I now want to hear Carmen in Spanish instead of French. How much do you think that kind of thinking is what’s necessary today?

I think it’s essential. That’s not to say that there’s not a place for doing things how they’ve always done, but it should be a piece of a much larger puzzle. I think organizations like Pacific Opera Project are really creating the path for the future. They care about the audience and the art form. And there are a lot of problems of the art form. At a certain point you say, how do I fix them? They don’t have to be a library. All these performing arts organizations don’t have to just be a library. You don’t have to be Broadway. There is space in the middle.

Partnerships are at the root of what makes performing arts organizations really thrive. Through your career, we’ve already mentioned Pacific Opera Project, but you’ve been involved with Wild Up, with Martha Graham Dance, with Heidi Suckler and countless other organizations. Do you see opportunities to partner with these organizations as an opportunity for them to try out new work in a smaller, less eyes on them way or for them to do things that they can’t do as part of their regular seasons?

Absolutely. That is how a lot of this season already got booked. What I want to do is a lot more dance, which just takes longer to develop. One of the dance companies that I’m involved with is planning to do workshops. I can’t announce it yet. I can’t pay what The Soraya can pay for one night, but what we can do is offer space. We can offer community experiences in the space that they can bring students into workshop things. Certainly that’s on the table. I think that’s a very unique market position now as well. I control the building, I control the space. So until the money’s there, we can find different ways to partner and highlight voices that couldn’t otherwise get out there. 

You’re just at the beginning of celebrating the 100th anniversary. If you could foresee the Sierra Madre Playhouse of 2124 celebrating its 200th anniversary, what would you hope that anniversary would look like? What would you like your legacy to be as part of that anniversary?

I think an expanded audience, a more inclusive and diverse audience. That is also the genres they present. The Sierra Madre Playhouse is a welcoming space to be, regardless of who you are. I think that that would be a huge accomplishment, and I think it’ll happen. There are already so many community members that have been patrons and fans for 50 years that now their kids and their grandkids are patrons. I think it’s going to happen. It’s a unique spot in a unique community. I think it’s going to last. The building might change. I don’t know if the building will hold up another hundred years, but it’ll be there, I think.

To see the full interview with Matt Cook, please go here.

Main Photo: Matt Cook, Artistic and Executive Director of the Sierra Madre Playhouse (Courtesy Sierra Madre Playhouse)

The post Matt Cook Launches Sierra Madre Playhouse’s 100th Birthday appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

“I think it’s a tragic perspective that for all of the years of of opera existing and then in America and then for the Met[ropolitan Opera]. That this one person gets, as you say, maybe not the door down, but the reality is there was William Grant Still, there’s Leslie Adams.”

Burrs is alluding to the Metropolitan Opera finally performing the work of a Black composer this year with the staging of Terence Blanchard‘s Fire Shut Up in My Bones. But he doesn’t hold out much hope for change.

“There’s no reason for me to put faith in that. You know, I tend to be candid and so I’ll be candid here. It’s been my experience that they designate a Negro for the year. And what I mean by that is and so that you can then transfer into a decade, into a century. Then the blackness might only be the people on stage, but it’s George Gershwin that’s written it. You know what I’m saying? Now that all of that has advanced to a great extent. But this idea of will the door get open? It’s been my observation, my experience, that door get’s cracked open for somebody to get in. Then it is just quietly, if not outright, closed again until the next set of sociological circumstances insist that there’s a change.”

Burrs continues writing and composing and fighting for what’s right. His latest project is a perfect example. I Can’t Breathe had its world premiere at Marble City Opera in Knoxville, Tennessee in February of this year. The opera features a libretto by Brandon J. Gibson. It is a co-production with Opera Columbus, Cleveland Opera Theatre, and Pacific Opera Project. The latter company presents three performances this weekend at the El Portal Theatre in North Hollywood.

Speaking via Zoom last week with Burrs relayed how the opera came to be.

“Katherine Frady and Brandon Gibson with Marble City Opera were very concerned with what they were experiencing through this period of of police brutality and the deaths of African-Americans, particularly with George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and a few others. Katherine was asking, ‘What can what can we do about this? We can’t just sit here. And the only thing I have control over is the access to my opera company.’ They were trying to determine if there was a work that already existed that could address it. They could not find something that they’d be satisfied with. Katherine came up with the brilliant idea. ‘Brandon, could you write an opera about this?’ Brandon said, ‘Well, yes.’ He’s a writer, but he’d never written a libretto.

“Then it was time to find a composer. One of their board members was very familiar with my work as a composer. She suggested that maybe they should consider reaching out to me. And of course, I said yes.”

I Can’t Breathe depicts the lives of six characters; each of whom is given a generic name like the mother, the athlete, the thug, the scholar, the father and the lover. Each also experiences circumstances that will be familiar to anyone who has paid attention to well-known incidents of police violence against Black people. Burrs says there was absolutely a reason for this structure in the opera.

“There’s an effort that’s always made in society to lump us as African-Americans into just one category. And the way [Brandon] was doing it by putting this heading is there’s going to be so much depth to each of the characters that he wanted to make sure people understood how our everyday lives play themselves out each day.”

Musically that allowed Burrs to create themes for each of the six characters who appears on stage in solo scenes before the final sequence in I Can’t Breathe.

“At its bare minimum the opera can be presented with only one person per scene, which is even more challenging in its own right. So I wanted to make sure that the audience was not going to get lulled into thinking they would know what’s going to happen next because the same themes would carry through for all six scenes, it might even shut them down. I brought all the motifs together for the finale because each of the characters did not interact ever prior but, in effect, in the last section of the opera they get to know each other.”

Artists like H.E.R., Dax and Terence Blanchard have all responded to the concept of being unable to breathe since these incidents started getting national attention. Janelle Monae had the song Say Her Name. Burrs feels there is a place for I Can’t Breathe to offer something different in the way it addresses similar themes and issues.

“We want people to be able to be reflective of what they’re experiencing and to be open to having their perspectives expanded in a way that allows for a better community, a better society – a more humanistic, caring society. Sometimes, too, if you’re white, you’re looking at certain things and you don’t even know that you’re looking at something that is absolutely detrimental to anyone other than you. And that’s fine because you get to benefit from that. But if this helps to open your eyes to what is more just, what is more equal, then that is one of the things to take away from this experience.

“For the experience down the line? You hope that people will sit and say, ‘Oh my God, I couldn’t believe that the world was like that.’ That hasn’t happened in our 400 years or whatever years of history of America for the moment, because we’re seeing things that are so reminiscent of the period of slavery and frankly, that are utilized right to this moment. The opera, VANQUI, represents that. So here we are today from VANQUI about slavery and abolitionists to I Can’t Breathe and the same issues are at hand is troubling. So down the road as history goes on, we hope that people will sit and say, ‘I can’t believe society ever worked like that. But I’m glad this piece is here to remind us of what what life was like and what we should never aspire to because it will be so detrimental.’ Or they’ll sit there and say, ‘Oh my God, nothing has changed and what can I do to help make this change?’ That’s what I’d like to see happen with the experience of I Can’t Breathe.”

To see the full interview with Leslie Burrs, please go here.

Main photo: Jayme Alilaw in the world premiere production of I Can’t Breathe (Photo by Kyle Hislip/Courtesy Marble City Opera)

The post Leslie Burrs Gives Voice to “I Can’t Breathe” appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

That’s how mezzo-soprano Stephanie Doche described herself to me during a Zoom call earlier this week to discuss her title role in Pacific Opera Project’s La Cenerentola. Gioachino Rossini’s opera, based on the story of Cinderella, is being performed Friday at The Ford in Los Angeles.

Doche, who pronounces her last name as a rhyme with posh, is tackling this opera for the third time in her career. Being familiar with Pacific Opera Project and Artistic Director Josh Shaw‘s unique way of presenting operas, she knew she wasn’t necessarily embarking on a traditional production.

“I think compared to a lot of POP’s previous productions this is a little more tame. This is a period production. We are wearing period costumes. They are very bright and exciting and kind of campy costumes. So it’s still like POP colors and explosive, exciting presentations. What I love about POP is that they have a really loyal following. They know when they’re going to come see a POP show that they are going to be entertained, there’s going to be Easter eggs and inside jokes from previous and future shows that they have seen and done.”

She hadn’t heard La Cenerentola until three years into her opera studies. But once she did, Doche found a lot to relate to in this telling of Cinderella’s story.

“She’s been through so many difficulties in her life. In the beginning of the opera I’m really just so sad and I’m trying my best to to keep things positive and keep things moving. By the time you finally get to the end and and by the time I am singing Non più mesta, it is just so satisfying to to know that not only am I at a better place, but my family now loves and respects me. I am loved by the prince. To know that I don’t have to try that hard anymore is really so freeing and exciting.”

I asked Doche if society’s re-evaluation of stories through a more thoughtful, or some might say politically correct, lens would render the story of a young woman who needs the love of a prince to become whole one that ultimately diminishes that same young woman.

“Oh, that’s a good question. I think they’re more complex than that. I think that’s a valid viewpoint to have, because the fairy tale that we know, she does rely on friends to help her. It’s a Disney fairytale. It’s her fairy godmother and all of her friends. And in this it’s Alidoro. And what I also love about the opera specifically is that there is a point where I stick up for my family even though they have mistreated me. I tell the prince, in order for us to be together, you need to be kind to my family and I need to have their forgiveness. So I still have a say in my journey and in the outcome for me.”

In the case of this particular production, it’s a short journey for Doche. There will be only the one performance. She fully understands she has to put everything she can into Friday night before it becomes a memory just after the final note of music is played.

“It’s a lot of pressure, but also a lot of very exciting energy to to put on a show that’s one night only because opening has its own kind of energy. And closing, of course, has its own energy. So it’s going to be a really, really thrilling night. Of course, there’s a part of me that wishes I could do this ten times because I love this music and I love this show and I love my cast and I love POP so much. But I do think that there’s something very freeing about knowing that this is the one chance that I get and I’m going to make sure that I do it the best I possibly can and that I enjoy it all at the same time.”

Is there a fairytale ending for Doche and her career?

“I love opera because things are always changing, because my voice is always changing and will continue to change as I age and develop and sing more repertoire. Or even if I sing the same role several times, it will continue to change. People are composing new operas all the time and there’s opportunities to be a part of that change as well. And so the way that I see my dream career is that I hope to have a lot of opportunities to perform with a wide variety of companies and colleagues in lots of places and also a wide variety of repertoire.”

It was then that she paused and reflected on all those people who get down and dirty to create the opera productions in which she appears.

“I really enjoy getting to know people and places and operas and productions that differ from each other because it makes me feel like my life is richer.”

Which sounds just like a fairytale ending for a small company girl.

Tickets for Pacific Opera Project’s La Cenerentola can be purchased here.

Photo: Stephanie Doche and Arnold Livingston Geis in Pacific Opera Project’s La Cenerentola (Courtesy Pacific Opera Project)

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I have to admit, we did sneak in one event that does actually take place live in a parking lot for those in the Los Angeles area. The other 23 are available for streaming from your home. And there’s great stuff, too.

Our two top picks are both holiday-themed, but couldn’t be more different. Manual Cinema’s Christmas Carol is an imaginative re-telling of Charles Dickens’ story that is suitable for the entire family. Taylor Mac’s Holiday Sauce…Pandemic! is truly for adults. (And you might want to have your favorite holiday sauce at your side.)

I also have Shakespeare, jazz, dance, opera, Broadway stars and more for you. So let’s get started.

Here are your Best Bets at Home: December 11th – December 13th:

PLAY: Stratford Festival’s Romeo and Juliet – Center Theatre Group – Now – March 7th

If you were unable to catch any of the streaming productions Canada’s Stratford Festival made available ealirer this year, Center Theatre Group is making a few of them available through their Digital Stage+ program (events that are free to donors/subscribers and $10 for non-subscribers).

The first of five Shakespeare plays being made available is Romeo and Juliet.

Antoine Yared and Sara Farb play the star-crossed lovers in Scott Wentworth’s production from 2017.

The Toronto Star said of this production, “At the production’s heart is the freshness and credibility of the relationship between Sara Farb and Antoine Yared as the title characters. They play them as youthful, impulsive, and vivacious, but far from a perfect hero and heroine. There are tantrums, shrieks, and teenage mood swings aplenty, many of which play as welcome moments of comedy. The usually central scenes of their meeting, marriage, and morning-after-consummation are handled swiftly, as pivot points in the driving forward action.”

PLAY: Who’s Holiday! – Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS – December 11th – December 15th

The insanely talented Lesli Margherita stars in this one-person show that looks at the Dr. Seuss character Cindy Lou Who forty years after she first met The Grinch Who Stole Christmas. The play was written by Matthew Lombardo (Looped) and was written in rhyme to mirror the original story.

Parents should note this is an adult Cindy Lou Who – expect raunchiness and double-entendres.

Margherita won an Olivier Award for her role as Inez in Zorro the Musical. She originated the role of Mrs. Wormwood in Tim Minchin‘s Matilda the Musical. She also appeared in Dame at Sea.

Who’s Holiday! was performed off-Broadway in 2017 and garnered Margherita a Drama Desk Award for Best Solo Performance.

Elisabeth Vincentelli, writing in the New York Times, said of her performance, “More happens, but it is almost besides this hourlong production’s point, which is to watch the brassy, very funny Ms. Margherita strut her stuff in the designer Jess Goldstein’s festive holiday get-up.

She expertly milks the many double entendres and profane limerick-like rhymes, but this cabaret regular is equally comfortable ad-libbing. (After breaking into a rap at the Sunday matinee, she rasped “I’m out of breath” and reached for a cigarette). She also belts a mean ‘Blue Christmas.'”

There is no charge to watch the show. Donations to Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS are encouraged.

OPERA: The Five Moons of Lorca – Los Angeles Opera – December 11th – December 25th

Los Angeles Opera launches their digital shorts programs with this new work by composer Gabriela Lena Frank and playwright Nilo Cruz.

The Five Moons of Lorca was inspired by the poet Federico García Lorca’s assassination in the early days of the Spanish Civil War. The short was filmed on the stage at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Choreography and dancing by Irene Rodríguez.

Frank is a Grammy Award-wining pianist and composer who has been commissioned by such artists as the Kronos Quartet, Yo Yo Ma and Dawn Upshaw. Cruz is the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer of Anna in the Tropics.

Frank and Cruz have collaborated several times previously including La centinela y la paloma (The Keeper and the Dove), The Saint Maker, Journey of the Shadow and the Conquest Requiem. Their opera, The Last Dream of Frida, was scheduled for its world premiere by the San Diego Opera earlier this year, but that was postponed due to the pandemic.

There is no charge to watch The Five Moons of Lorca. Of course, donations are encouraged.

MUSICAL: Meet Me in St. Louis – Irish Repertory Theatre – December 11th – January 2nd

Vincente Minnelli’s 1944 film, Meet Me in St. Louis, serves as the inspiration for this musical adaptation by Hugh Martin (High Spirits), Ralph Blane (Best Foot Forward) and Hugh Wheeler (Sweeney Todd). The musical made its debut on Broadway in 1989.

Meet Me in St. Louis follows the Smith family in 1903 and follows them through the seasons leading up to the opening of the World’s Fair in 1904.

In addition to the title song, the musical includes The Boy Next Door, The Trolley Song and Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.

Irish Rep in New York has filmed a version of the musical that was adapted and directed by Charlotte Moore who appeared in the Broadway production. She’s assembled a terrific cast that includes Melissa Errico (Amour), Ali Ewoldt (Phantom of the Opera), Jay Aubrey Jones (Porgy and Bess) and Max von Essen (An American in Paris).

There are 31 opportunities to stream Meet Me In St. Louis. The price is listed as “Pay what you can” with a suggested donation of $25.

PLAY: Breathe. – YouTube and Twitch – December 11th – December 13th and December 18th

This one-person show by Philicia Saunders follows her increasing participation in civil rights issues. She was inspired by her mentor, Sweet Alice Harris, a legendary community organizer in the Watts area of Los Angeles and a civil rights tour in Alabama.

In Breathe. Saunders depicts 20 different characters within a show that combines film, live performance, performance art and artistic swimming.

Saunders may be best-known to Star Wars fans for her role as Tabala Zo in The Force Awakens and The Rise of Skywalker.

Departing from a lot of programming available now, Saunders will perform Breathe. live on December 11th at 8:00 PM EST/5:00 PM PST and on December 12th at 6:30 PM EST/3:30 PM PST. Both performances will be on YouTube.

Encore presentations are taking place on December 13th at 5:00 PM EST/2:00 PM PST on Twitch. This will also feature a TalkBack with Sweet Alice. A second encore takes place on December 18th on YouTube at 8:00 PM EST/5:00 PM PST.

Tickets are available from $5-$50 with proceeds going to Sweet Alice’s Parents of Watts and Community Coalition.

PLAY: Manual Cinema’s Christmas Carol – The Soraya – December 11th – December 13th TOP PICK

We are all familiar with Charles Dicken’s A Christmas Carol and its bitter character, Scrooge. But I can assure you you haven’t seen A Christmas Carol like the one Manual Cinema has put together.

Each live performance (and they are live) combines acting, music, puppets and film to create a one-of-a-kind experience with a twist on the story that will surprise you!

There are six performances available over the weekend. Tickets are $20. I strongly recommend Manual Cinema’s Christmas Carol.

PAGEANT PLAY – La Virgen de Guadalupe, Dios Inantzin – Latino Theater Company – December 11th – December 20th

For 18 years, Los Angeles-based Latino Theater Company has performed La Virgen de Guadalupe, Dios Inantzin in Los Angeles. The pageant play depicts the story of Juan Diego, a peasant in 1531, who has a vision of the Virgin Mary. Diego’s vision took place in Spanish colonial territory that is now known as Mexico.

Mezzo-soprano Suzanna Guzmán (Hopscotch, Carmen) stars in this 2009 filmed performance at Our Lady of the Angels Cathedral in Los Angeles. She is joined by over 100 actors, singers, Aztec dancers and members of the Los Angeles community. This is performed in English and Spanish.

Evelina Fernández adapted The Nican Mopohua (a mid-16th century text) for La Virgen de Guadalupe. José Louis Valenzuela directed. The director first created the work as a thank you to the community after it supported him during a sleep-in he lead protesting the potential closing of the Los Angeles Theater Center in downtown Los Angeles.

There’s no charge to watch the streaming production and it will be available through December 20th.

CABARET: Merry Christmas Darling: Heidi Kettenring Sings Karen Carpenter – Laguna Playhouse – December 11th – December 28th

On October 13, 1978 – when the soundtrack to the film version of Grease and albums by The Rolling Stones, Donna Summer and The Who were topping the Billboard charts, A&M records released A Christmas Portrait, an album of holiday songs by The Carpenters.

That was followed by a television special. The record became very popular and ultimately went Platinum. A second album, using outtakes from that recording session, was released two years after Karen’s death in 1983.

The darling of Downey, California is being celebrated in Merry Christmas Darling: Heidi Kettenring Sings Karen Carpenter. The show is being streamed via the Laguna Playhouse.

Kettenring appeared as Nessarose in the Chicago company of Wicked. She’s toured as Belle in Beauty and the Beast; Anna in The King and I and Penny in Hairspray.

Karen Carpenter had a one-of-a-kind voice. Kettenring sounds terrific even if she’s not Karen. But that doesn’t take away from the pure joy of hearing these songs sung well and remembering everything that made the Carpenters so beloved.

Tickets are $35 can be purchased through December 25th. The show will be available for streaming through December 28th.  

JAZZ: The Klezmatics: Happy Joyous Hanukkah – SFJazz – December 11th – 8:00 PM EST/5:00 PM PST

Hanukkah has started and what better way to celebrate than with the Grammy Award-winning ensemble The Klezmatics. Their music is so infectious it is impossible not to be filled with joy – particularly in this concert at SFJAZZ from 2015.

This is part of SFJAZZ’s Fridays at Five series. The concert will only stream once at 8:00 PM EST/5:00 PM PST. You’ll need either a one-month membership ($5) or an annual membership ($60) to stream the concert. That will give you access to additional concerts for the length of your membership.

JAZZ: Dave Holland – Village Vanguard – December 11th – December 12th – 8:00 PM EST/5:00 PM PST

Since his start at London’s Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club, bassist Dave Holland has made a name for himself in the jazz world. From collaborations with Miles Davis (including Bitches’ Brew), Joe Henderson, Kenny Wheeler through to his work as a bandleader (including the 2005 Grammy Award winner Overtime), Holland is considered one of the best.

His most recent release is this year’s Without Deception which finds him performing with pianist Kenny Barron and drummer Johnathan Blake.

For these two concerts from New York’s Village Vanguard he’ll be joined by Jaleel Shaw on saxophone; Steve Nelson on vibraphone and Obed Calvaire on drums.

Tickets are $10.

CLASSICAL: Stephen Hough Recital – Philharmonic Society of Orange County – December 11th – December 18th

Easily one of the finest classical pianists in the world, Stephen Hough will perform a live recital for the Philharmonic Society of Orange County. Critics long ago ran out of superlatives to describe his playing.

The scheduled program finds Hough performing: Bach/Busoni: Chaconne from Partita No. 2 in D minor, BWV 1004; Schumann: Fantasie in C major, Op. 17; Liszt: Funérailles and Mephisto Waltz No. 1, S. 51 and Schumann: Kinderszenen, Op. 15, mvt. 7, “Träumerei.”

The recital debuts at 10:00 PM EST/7:00 PM PST and will remain available for streaming for one week. Tickets are $20.

DANCE/THEATRE: Matthew Bourne’s The Car Man – Center Theatre Group – December 11th – December 13th

Hector Berlioz’s opera Carmen serves as the inspiration for this ballet from Matthew Bourne (all-male swan version of Swan Lake.) Another source of inspiration for Bourne was the novel The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain and its subsequent film versions.

The ballet had its world premiere 20 years ago in Plymouth, England. The Car Man played the Ahmanson Theatre one year later.

Lewis Segal, in his Los Angeles Times review, said of Bourne’s choreography, “Whether he’s evoking the heat, insects and lust of a night when nothing is happening or the surreal frenzy of social dances that barely contain the characters’ primal urges, this is daring, accomplished, uncompromisingly lurid movement theater.

Center Theatre Group and Matthew Bourne have teamed up to make his film of The Car Man available for viewing with five opportunities to see it this weekend. The film of the ballet will stream on Friday at 8:00 PM PST; Saturday at 2:00 PM and 8:00 PM PST and on Sunday at 1:30 PM and 6:30 PM PST.

Tickets are $10 (whether you are a donor/subscriber or not).

Can you believe we’re halfway through Best Bets at Home: December 11th – December 13th? Let’s keep going.

PLAY: The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk – The Wallis – December 11th – December 18th

England’s Kneehigh Theatre originally brought The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk to the Wallis in 2018. Now Kneehigh Theatre, Bristol Old Vic and Wise Children bring a film of the show to The Wallis for one week of streaming.

This highly theatrical show portrays the life of painter Marc Chagall and his wife Bella. Through the use of color and imagery mirroring the master painter’s work and music from the Russian Jewish history, this show offers many of the same delights found in other Kneehigh projects such as their Brief Encounter and Tristan and Yseult. Marc Antolin plays Marc Chagall and Audrey Brisson plays Bella. The show was written by Daniel Jamieson and directed by Emma Rice.

When The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk played The Wallis I spoke to Antolin about the show and his role. You can read that interview here.

This is a wonderful show. I strongly recommend seeing it. Tickets are $21.38 (the current exchange rate with the English pound. But it doesn’t not include any additional credit card fees).

PLAY/DANCE/MUSIC/POETRY: KICKBACK – About Face Theatre – December 12th – January 12th

A collection of short plays, dance, music, and poetry make up this online festival from Chicago’s About Face Theatre. The work centers around Blackness and queerness and where those two worlds meet.

For KICKBACK, About Face reached out to numerous artists to create work. The end result features contributions from Dionne Addai, Ky Baity, Keyonna Jackson, Robert Cornelius, Ben Locke, ShaZa (a collaboration between Zahra Baker and Shanta Nurullah), About Face Artistic Associate Paul Oakley Stovall, Michael Turrentine, Cori Wash, Vic Wynter and Rebuild Foundation resident artists Jenn Freeman and avery r. young.

Rebuild Foundation and their collections were made available to the artists who were asked to use their archives as inspiration for their work.

During our turbulent times, it will be fascinating to see what these artists have to say about where we’ve been, where we are and most importantly, where we might be going.

OPERA: La Bohème – San Francisco Opera – December 12th – December 13th Starting 2:00 PM EST/11:00 AM PST

Conducted by Giuseppe Finzi; starring Michael Fabiano, Alexia Voulgaridou, Nadine Sierra, Alexey Markov and Christian Van Horn. This John Caird production is from the 2014-2015 season.

Easily one of the most popular operas in the world, Giacomo Puccini’s La Bohème had its world premiere in Turin, Italy in 1896. The libretto is by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. The opera is based on Henri Murger’s 1851 novel, Scènes de la vie de bohème.

The story centers on four friends who are unable to pay their rent. Successfully getting out of a potentially bad situation with their landlord, all but one go out on the town. Rodolfo stays home and meets a young woman named Mimi. They fall in love, but Mimi’s weakness may be a sign of something far more life-threatening than they know. (If this sounds like the musical Rent, it is because La Bohème served as Jonathan Larson’s inspiration for that musical.)

San Francisco Opera had two casts performing La Bohème. Joshua Kosman, writing for the San Francisco Chronicle, said one performance in this production stood out.

“If one singer left a particularly outsize impression from the weekend’s openings, it was Fabiano, whose performance as Rodolfo made good on the promise of his fine 2011 company debut in Lucrezia Borgia and hinted at even more impressive things to come. This was a full-throated, almost heroic depiction of the moonstruck poet, with muscular sound, impeccably placed high notes and an air of romantic ardor that lent weight and power to everything he sang.”

CLASSICAL: Reaching Dreams Through Music – Lang Lang International Music Foundation – December 12th – 3:00 PM EST/12:00 PM PST

Classical pianist Lang Lang and his foundation have assembled an illustrious cast for Reaching Dreams Through Music. Joining Lang Lang and his wife will be Stay Human’s Jon Batiste, ballet dancer Misty Copeland, opera singer Renée Fleming, actor/director Ron Howard, musician Wyclef Jean, jazz pianist/vocalist Diana Krall and pop singer Sam Smith.

The purpose of this streaming event is to celebrate the role music plays in our lives and how it has shaped these artists lives since their childhood. In short, if reading is fundamental, music is instrumental in our lives.

The Young People’s Chorus of New York City will also be making an appearance, along with the LLIMF Young Scholars and Junior Music Camp Music Ambassadors.

There is no fee to watch Reaching Dreams Through Music. There was no information available as to how long this program will be available for viewing at press time.

OPERA: Bryn Terfel in Wales – Met Stars Live in Concert – December 12th – 12:00 PM EST/9:00 AM PST

Bass-baritone Bryn Terfel is what you’d call a cross-over artist. He’s performed in countless opera productions (you should see him in Don Giovanni if you get the chance), he’s portrayed the title character in Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler’s Sweeney Todd and he has released albums of songs from his native Wales.

That’s exactly where you’ll find him in this Met Stars Live in Concert performance – specifically Brecon Cathedral.

Joining Terfel are harpist Hannah Stone, pianist Jeff Howard, the Welsh traditional folk group Calan plus soprano Natalya Romaniw and tenor Trystan Llyr Griffiths – two rising young Welsh singers.

The announced program finds a combination of holiday-appropriate songs, music by Gustav Holst, Richard Wagner, Lerner and Loewe and traditional songs.

The show takes place live on Saturday, but will remain available for streaming afterwards. Tickets are $20.

DANCE: Pam Tanowitz Dance – The Joyce Theatre – December 12th – December 26th

Acclaimed choreographer Pam Tanowitz debuts new work live from New York’s The Joyce Theatre on Saturday at 5:00 PM EST/2:00 PM PST. You may recall she is the choreographer of Four Quartets in which she collaborated with Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho and American painter Brice Marden on a presentation of T.S. Eliot’s monumental work.

Finally Unfinished: Part 1 was created during the pandemic (with obvious precautions in place) and is set to new music by composer Ted Hearne. It is a site-specific work that utilizes The Joyce Theatre in all its emptiness.

Gustave Le Gray, No. 2 has its New York premiere in this program. Composer Caroline Shaw‘s music for solo piano serves not just as the score for the dance, but also its inspiration.

The dancers are Jason Collins, Brittany Engel-Adams, Christine Flores, Zachary Gonder, Lindsey Jones, Victor Lozano, Melissa Toogood.

Tickets are $13 (including service charges).

OPERA: La Bohème aka The Hipsters – Pacific Opera Project – December 12th – December 13th

Josh Shaw and Pacific Opera Project are back with another drive-in opera for you: their version of Puccini’s La Bohème (I guess it’s La Bohème week). Only their version, as you would expect, is not going to be traditional.

Several years ago Shaw updated Puccini’s opera to present-day and gave the opera a subtitle, The Hipsters. He’s been reworking it again so that the opera takes place between Christmas Eve 2019 and November 2020. I wonder what significant events might inspire him since Act 3 is in April of 2020 and Act 4 appears timed to the elections.

No longer will you find the bohemian characters Puccini introduced to the world. These hipsters are a graphic designer, a screenwriter, an English major, an indie-rocker and a fashion designer.

The cast includes Arnold Livingston Geis as Rodolfo, Oriona Falla as Mimi, Ben Lowe as Marcello, Maria Dominique Lopez as Musetta, E. Scott Levin as Schaunard, Keith Colclough as Colline, and Luvi Avendano in the roles of Benoit, Alcindoro and Parpignol.

The socially-distanced performances take place in the parking lot of the Camarillo United Methodist Church at 5:30 PM. Tickets are $65-$175 per car (there are sections just as there would be in an opera house).

CABARET: Shoshana Bean – Sing Your Hallelujah – For the Record Live at the Apollo Theatre – 9:00 PM EST/6:00 PM PST

Singer/actress Shoshana Bean sold out New York’s Apollo Theatre the last two years in a row. The pandemic made a trifecta impossible, so what’s a girl to do? Film a special there. That’s exactly what Bean has done with Sing Your Hallelujah which is being streamed on Saturday night.

The show was inspired by the holiday television specials some of us grew up with (or maybe you experienced A Holly Dolly Christmas earlier this week).

Joining Bean for the show are Gavin Creel (Tony Award-winner for Hello, Dolly!), tap dancer Jared Grimes, Jeremy Jordan (The Last Five Years), singer Shayna Steele, Connie Talbot (Britain’s Got Talent Finalest) and Daniel J. Watts (Tony Award-nominee for his performance as Ike in Tina – The Tina Turner Musical). David Cook serves as Music Director.

Tickets start at $30 with various VIP packages also available that will include a Q&A hosted by Sara Bareilles.

PERFORMANCE: Taylor Mac’s Holiday Sauce…Pandemic! – CAP UCLA – December 12th – 10:00 PM EST/7:00 PM PST TOP PICK

Two years ago, after rocking my world with A 24-Decade History of Popular Music, Taylor Mac returned to Los Angeles to perform Taylor Mac’s Holiday Sauce. Mac, who prefers judy as the preferred pronoun, brought to CAP UCLA at Royce Hall a holiday concert like no other.

judy is back in a pandemic version of this holiday show which has been safely produced to skewer our world this holiday season. Fans of Mac will know to expect wildly imaginative costumes (by designer Machine Dazzle), uniquely arranged songs (with the assistance of Music Director Matt Ray) and definitely an adult take on everything. This is NOT family friendly material. Unless, of course, you’re “family.”

Mac was the named a MacArthur Fellow and this year became the first American to win the International Ibsen Award. American Theatre Magazine says the award is considered “the Nobel Prize for theatre.”

Taylor Mac’s Holiday Sauce…Pandemic will only stream once. Tickets require a minimum of $25 with proceeds going to CAP UCLA.

CLASSICAL: Jeremy Denk Recital – 92nd Street Y – December 13th – 3:00 PM EST/12:00 PM PST

If you didn’t get a chance to see pianist Jeremy Denk‘s recital from Caramoor in October, he’s performing the same program from New York’s 92nd Street Y on Sunday.

The program is scheduled to include: Mozart’s Piano Sonata in C Minor, K 457; Thomas “Blind Tom” Wiggins’s The Battle of Manassas; Joplin/Chauvin’s Heliotrope Bouquet; Tania León’s Ritual; Frederic Rzewski’s Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues and Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No 32 in C Minor, Op. 111.

You’ll get two classical period compositions, ragtime, the work of a young Black man during The Civil War and the work of two contemporary composers. How’s that for diverse?

Tickets are $15.

OPERA: Pasión Latina – Lyric Opera of Chicago – December 13th – 7:00 PM EST/4:00 PM PST

Music from Argentina, Cuba, Guatemala, Mexico, Puerto Rico and Spain is on tap in this concert starring soprano Ana María Martínez that will premiere on Sunday on the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s YouTube channel and Facebook page.

Martínez has appeared at LA Opera in the title role of Carmen and in the title role of Madama Butterfly with Lyric Opera of Chicago. Those are just two of her many roles she’s performed around the world.

Joining Martínez in Pasión Latina are Mexican-American tenors René Barbera and David Portillo; Mexican tenor Mario Rojas, Mexican-American bass-baritone Richard Ollarsaba; Mexican soprano Denis Vélez and Puerto Rican baritone Ricardo José Rivera.

The singers will be accompanied on piano by Ryan Opera Center music director Craig Terry and Ensemble pianist Chris Reynolds. The show concludes with a concert segment in which the singers are joined by members of the Lyric Opera Orchestra.

This concert is free.

CHORAL: Broadway Inspirational Voices: A Season of Hope and Inspiration – December 13th – 7:00 PM EST/4:00 PM PST

What began as the Broadway Gospel Choir in 1994 has become an acclaimed ensemble that has captured the hearts of all those who hear them sing. Broadway Inspiration Voices is a music group that has members of Broadway and off-Broadway shows – whether singers or musicians – as their members.

Last year BIV was awarded a Special Tony for Excellence in Theatre.

This Sunday they are live streaming A Season of Hope and Inspiration. As it is a live stream, this will only be shown live as scheduled.

You won’t want to miss this concert. Take a look at who’s joining them: guest appearances by Debbie Allen, Gavin Creel, Montego Glover, Celia Rose Gooding, Angela Grovey, Marva Hicks, LaChanze, Telly Leung, Lisa Lynne Mathis, Audra McDonald, Michael McElroy, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Karen Olivo, John Eric Parker, Phylicia Rashad, Angela Robinson, Jeanine Tesori, Leslie Uggams, Schele Williams and Vanessa Williams.

There will also be performances featuring Shoshana Bean, Crystal Monee Hall, Marcus Paul James, Patti LuPone, Leslie Odom Jr., Billy Porter, Daniel J. Watts, and hundreds of guest artists from Broadway, U.S. National tours, London’s West End, and Australia.

You can watch the concert for free, but you do need to register for it. you can also make donations to Broadway’s Inspiration Voices and also purchase a VIP experience that allows for some pre-show fun.

We’ve come to the end of Best Bets at Home: December 11th – December 13th. With so many options from which to choose, I’m not going to add any reminders. If you are curious, check out our This Week in Culture section on the main page or the Now Playing section.

Stay safe. Stay healthy. Have a great weekend and enjoy these Best Bets at Home: December 11th -December 13th.

Photo: Scrooge and the Ghost of Christmas Past from Manual Cinema’s Christmas Carol (Courtesy of The Soraya)

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If you know anything about Pacific Opera Project and their productions, you know this won’t be a standard production of Mozart’s opera. The title alone tells you this is being filtered through Shaw’s incredible imagination. Rather than call their production by the name Mozart gave it, it has been tweaked to be Covid fan tutte.

In the Mozart/Lorenzo da Ponte version the story is as follows:

Ferrando and Guglielmo are vacationing with their fiancées, Dorabella and Fiordiligi. They are sisters. Don Alfonso challenges the men to a bet revolving around the women and their ability to be faithful. Using disguise, deception and a wicked sense of humor, Mozart’s opera ends happily ever after for one and all.

As Shaw has reimagined the opera the story goes like this:

Rather than vacationing just anywhere, the two girls finds themselves quarantined at a golf course in Southern California. They have struck up a rather cosy (no pun intended) relationship with two caddies. One member at the club, Don Alfonso, challenges his buddies to see if the girls will remain faithful to them. Due to the Covid pandemic, the boys are “furloughed,” offering them the chance to adopt disguises and see if they can challenge their girlfriend’s fidelity without the girls realizing they are really their boyfriends. Throughout the production, all the rules of social distancing and protective gear will factor into the story.

The company includes Jamie Chamberlin, Nathan Granner, E. Scott Levin, Christina Pezzarossi, Ariel Pisturino and Colin Ramsey. Kyle Naig arranged the music and conducts. The English language libretto is by Shaw, who also directs.

There will be three performances of Covid fan tutte: November 14th, 15th and 22nd all at 5:30 PM PST. Tickets are $65-$175 per car. To purchase tickets, please go here.

Pacific Opera Project is also presenting the US staged premieres of two one-act operas by Christoph Willibald Gluck. The two operas are La Corona (“The Crown”) and Il Parnaso Confuso (“The Confusion on Parnasus”).

Both one-act operas have libretti by Pietro Metastasio.

La Corona (a rather timely title and certainly no coincidence) was meant to debut in 1765. The emperor for whom it was written died before it could be performed. The work never received a performance until 1987 on the 200th anniversary of the composer’s death.

A wild boar is causing problems for the residents of Kalydon. Princess Atalanta wants the boar killed, but isn’t comfortable with the idea of her sister and her friend joining. Prince Meleagro doesn’t want them joining either, in spite of their wanting to. How the boar gets killed, who gets to take credit for it and why are explored.

Il Parnaso Confuso had its world premiere in 1765 in Vienna.

Apollo and the muses of music, lyric poetry and tragedy are asked to sing at an emperor’s wedding. With all their squabbles amongst the muses they end up missing the celebrations.

The cast includes Tiffany Ho, Meagan Martin, Jessica Sandidge and Audrey Yoder. Once again, Naig arranged the music and will conduct. Shaw directs.

Both operas will be performed in Italian with English subtitles.

The Gluck one-acts will be performed on November 20th at 5:30 PM and November 21st at 5:30 PM. Ticket prices are the same. Tickets can be purchased here.

All performances take place at the Camarillo United Methodist Church.

Update: This post has been updated to reflect a new start time for the November 20th performance of the two Gluck one-act operas. It has been changed from 7:00 PM to 5:30 PM

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For the uninitiated, Madama Butterfly tells the story of an American naval officer (Peter James Lake) who falls in love with a Japanese girl (Janet Todd). They get married and he returns to America. She is desperately in love with him and is pregnant. He continues his life in America until circumstances require he return, with his American wife, to Japan. What follows is opera at its most tragic.

The revised libretto was written by Pacific Opera Project’s Josh Shaw and Houston’s Opera in the Heights’ Artistic Director Eiki Isomura. (Opera in the Heights co-presented the opera. After its final performance in Los Angeles, the company headed to Houston for additional performances.)

Making this change in the libretto is not the only thing that makes Pacific Opera Project’s Madama Butterfly interesting. All the Japanese roles are sung in Japanese by Japanese-American artists. Every singer in the chorus is Japanese-American.

Shaw conceived, designed, and directed this bilingual Butterfly. The performance was conducted by Eiki Isomura.

None of this would matter if the production wasn’t good. I attended the matinee on April 14th, 2019 at the Aratani Theatre. It is good. Quite.

Pacific Opera Project does not to do conventional productions of opera. There is always something interesting to see and hear in their work. Last year I spoke with Shaw about this production. I encourage you to read that interview before you watch this take on Madama Butterfly.

Photo: Pacific Opera Project’s Madama Butterfly (Photo by Martha Benedict/Courtesy of Pacific Opera Project)

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Gianni Schicchi is the only comedic opera Puccini wrote. The story, which sounds like many families today, depicts the Donati family who are waiting on Buoso Donati to die so that they will inherit his riches and live the life of luxury they always wanted. When he does, damn the torpedoes.

In Ravel’s opera a young boy, after acting up one too many times, is sent to his room. While there, everything in his room comes to life. They have a message for the little brat about misbehaving.

So what do these operas have in common? Josh Shaw, director and designer, is linking them by having the young boy in L’enfant et les Sortilèges be Gherardino, the youngest of the Donati family. Shaw has stated that characters from Gianni Schicchi will somehow appear in this opera, too.

Joshua Horsch will conduct the three performances that all feature a cast of 16.

Traditional?  No. But is Pacific Opera Project about traditions or creating new ones?

Photo of Gianni Schicchi by (Courtesy of Pacific Opera Project)

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What Pacific Opera Project does so effectively is take well-established operas and find a new and/or contemporary spin on the work. This revival of The Mikado features colorful costumes and sets that seem right out of contemporary Tokyo. The lyrics have been written to, in the spirit of the original, poke fun at and comment on the people and issues of our time.

Shaw is the director and the designer of The Mikado. Parisa Zaeri is the music director.

The cast of The Mikado includes E. Scott Levin (Ko-Ko), Phil Meyer (Pooh-bah), Charlie Kim (Nanki-poo), Janet Todd (Yum-Yum), Abbe Drake (Pitty-Sing), Tiffany Ho (Peep-Bo), Adelaide Sinclair (Katisha), William Vallandingham (Pish) and Benjamin Howard (Tush.)

There is traditional seating and table seating with the option at the tables to also get food and wine.

For tickets go here. As of press deadline, the first weekend is nearly sold out with tickets having sold briskly for the subsequent weekends.

Update:  Pacific Opera Project just announced that they will live stream this Saturday’s matinee performance. You can watch it on POP’s Facebook page or their YouTube Channel

Photo courtesy of Pacific Opera Project.

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Gail Gordon, Numi Opera’s Founding Director also wants to put an emphasis on Lost Voices, operas that were suppressed during World War II by the Third Reich. The inaugural season launches on Thursday with a production of Alexander Von Zemlinsky’s Der Zwerg. There is a second performance on Sunday and both take place at the Theatre at the Ace Hotel.

This is not Gordon’s first time producing opera. She created Opera Nova in 2000. In 2008 she lead Santa Monica College Opera Theatre. She was also instrumental in the West Coast Premiere of Tobias Picker’s An American Tragedy.

Der Zwerg is based on a story by Oscar Wilde called The Birthday of the Infanta. Zemlinsky used that as the inspiration to tell the story of a dwarf who is unaware of his grotesque appearance until he is given as a gift to a woman with whom he is smitten, but she wants nothing to do with the dwarf. The cast for Numi Opera’s production features Rodell Rosel, Shana Blake Hill, Oriana Falla and Roberto Perlas Gomez. Christopher Luthi is the Musical Director.

We spoke with Gordon, who is directing Der Zwerg, about the challenges of establishing a new opera company in a city rich with them, why she chose Der Zwerg to launch Numi Opera and the challenges of doing it herself.

How difficult is it to launch a new opera company in Los Angeles?

I have never heard so many “no’s” in my life. I worked with a wonderful grant writer. She got me started. Because I was new they needed a three-year footprint before they were comfortable. When I heard back it wasn’t that they didn’t feel the subject was worthy, but as a new company I didn’t have a footprint. Aside from the money my husband I have raised, it is going to cost me a little chunk of change.

Los Angeles has a robust opera scene. What did you see was missing from the local opera scene that prompted the formation of Numi Opera?

It was not necessarily related to what is or is not here in Los Angeles. In all fairness I did not even think about how I would fit into the landscape. It was just something that I felt I needed to do as a person of Jewish extraction. When I did see Der Zwerg at LA Opera I had one of those visceral reactions. Zemlinsky hit me head on. He was the first one I wanted to perform. I think his music is magnificent. It has many emotions in it. 

[LA Opera had a series called Recovered Voices that launched in 2007. It was a passion project for James Conlon. In 2008, they performed Der Zwerg.]

Given James Conlon’s passion for this material and particularly music silenced by the Nazis, did you have any conversations with him about your plans?

I told him I was going to do this opera and it was his baby. I wanted his blessing. He said, “Where are you performing?” I told him the Theatre at the Ace Hotel. I briefly told him my mother was a Polish immigrant and the rest of my family went into hiding for five years. These composers and this music really speaks to me. I lost so much family during the war. He was lovely about it. He got excited.

Zemlinsky described himself as hideous. He also had a failed relationship with Alma Schindler who married Gustav Mahler within months of breaking off her relationship with Zemlinsky. How much do we think this relationship inspired the composer’s interest in the Oscar Wilde story?

I think 100%. Zemlinsky felt this was quasi-autobiographical and he said so himself in some papers I read where he wrote about his heartbreak with Alma and how he felt he was always an ugly little man. His relationship to the dwarf was autobiographical. He felt it was him. Emotionally he was distraught.

There must have been something appealing about Zemlinsky?

If you think in terms of the most brilliant person you know, regardless of what they look like, the brilliance of the brain is attractive. He was the finest conductor and teacher at the time. He was the one everybody went to to learn composition. He had so many facets to him that being five-foot-tall and very thin with a very large nose paired in comparison to his other capabilities.

Your second production in December is Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s Der Ring Des Polykrates. Korngold was a student of Zemlinsky’s. Is it possible to hear the influence of the teacher on the student from one work to the other?

Korngold was 17. This was his first opera. In Der Ring Des Polykrates you’ll hear much more lyric statements. It doesn’t quite have the emotional depth that Zemlinsky did, who was 24. Between 24 and 17 is a lifetime of differences, particularly in that time of the world. It doesn’t ever really go down in the darkness the way Der Zwerg does. But when you hear some of these beautiful lines the dwarf sings, you’ll hear similarities in the writing.

Nellie Melba, an Australian operatic soprano in the late Victorian era and early 20th century said, “The first rule in opera is the first rule in life: see to everything  yourself.” Do you agree with her and how does that statement reflect your starting of Numi Opera?

Yes I do. I’m at a point where I’m trying to learn – the word is delegate. I have visions about things and how they should be. Fortunately for me, I’m surrounded by people who believe in what I see and what I feel. That’s very helpful. I think it is true. I think you have to see it, feel it and be it before you can produce it.

For tickets on Thursday go here.

For tickets on Sunday go here.

All photographs courtesy of Numi Opera.

Update: Gail Gordon’s name has been changed to correct the previously listed Gale Gordon. Cultural Attaché apologies for the error.

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Over the weekend, Pacific Opera Project, or POP, opened its production of Puccini’s Madama Butterfly. The new libretto was written by Shaw and Eiki Isomura. There are two performances this weekend at the Aratani Theatre in Little Tokyo before the show moves to Houston’s Opera in the Heights for additional performances. Isomura is the Artistic Director there and this is a co-production between the two companies. Sunday’s matinee is sold out, but a limited number of tickets were still available for Saturday night’s performance at press time.

POP was founded in 2011. Each production they do is site-specific and involves and re-thinking of opera conventions in an effort to make opera more accessible. They also live-stream many of their productions.

I spoke with Shaw while he was deep into rehearsals for Madama Butterfly about his unique way of presenting opera and how his specific ideas for Puccini’s opera came to be.

You’ve wanted to do this bilingual, non-Italian production of Puccini’s opera for quite some time. How does the production mirror those original thoughts you had?

The vision is still the same. There were so many ideas, I can’t tell you where it came from. It wasn’t one day I had an epiphany and suddenly I wanted to do Madama Buttefly in English and Japanese. It probably began when I was singing Pinkerton. It hit me how illogical the plot was and that slowly developed into this idea.

What appeared illogical to you?

How are these two people talking to each other? We accept that as a given because we know the story, but if you take the story and take a step back and look at it, there’s no way they could be speaking the same language. It is a great opera. It’s one of the best operas. I was in the show twice before I ever thought this doesn’t work on paper.

What were the challenges in maintaining the integrity of Puccini’s music while reworking the libretto to suit both Japanese and enlightening?

I’ve written several translations from whatever language to English and, in general, I’ll change whole meanings of songs to make them funny or work better. In this production, for what I wrote, I really tried to stick as close to the original libretto as I possibly could. I know in the English section it is very close. It’s sung 2/3 in English and 1/3 in Japanese, but he [Isomura] is doing well. It felt like cheating to change the meaning to work within our context.

In changing the language, what does your production ultimately say about love and our ability to communicate with something other than language?

I always love to discuss and debate Madama Butterfly. Did these two people really love each other? She loves him, but did he love her? Was it infatuation or is he really a prick? That’s what I’m trying to show with this production. You’ll have an even stronger opinion on that as presented as if it really happened. On the night they got married, they really couldn’t directly communicate. Each audience member gets to see and make their own opinions about that. 

Why do you think we, as a culture, respond so strongly to love stories where the couple does not end up together?

Nobody wants to see a show about the day nothing ever happened. I stole that from one of my teachers. I think most people have been in some situation where they are madly in love and it doesn’t work out for one reason or another – sometimes very serious consequences. In opera, we take it one step further and somebody dies. We want to go and be entertained.

This production also marks your first grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. Do you think your passion for inclusiveness landed at the right time?

Yes it did. I have many opinions of color-blind casting and what should and shouldn’t be happening. But that’s a by-product of this production and not the impetus for it. 

[It should be noted that Madama Butterfly has all Japanese-American singers for all the Japanese roles and for the chorus as well.]

If the creators of Madama Butterfly  saw your production, what do you think they would say?

We’ve done all these updated Mozart comedies and I always say Mozart would love it. He was trying to speak to the people at the time and we’re doing the same. I’m not so sure about Puccini. He might say, “My masterpiece. What have you done to it?” I don’t care. The music is still the same. People have been changing librettos to their native tongue since they were written. I hope they would say, “Thank you for keeping this alive and going into the future.”

Main Photo: Janet Todd in Madama Butterfly. (Photo by Mike Tomasulo)

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