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The Arts Blog ~ News and notes on Orange County's world of arts, from Tim Mangan (classical music), Laura Bleiberg (dance), Paul Hodgins (theater) and Richard Chang (visual art).
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Long Beach Opera 2009 season

November 11th, 2008, 10:57 am · 3 Comments · posted by Timothy Mangan, music critic

Long Beach Opera, which celebrates its 30th anniversary season in 2009, is also, of course, an interesting alternative to Opera Pacific, now defunct. Long story short: the company is responsible for some of my most memorable opera experiences, both good and bad. You never know quite what you’re going to get with this daring troupe, which has given us Handel in Texas, Offenbach in Latin America and Anne Frank in a parking garage. Anyway, the upcoming season looks promising. The company generally presents operas in English and casting has now been announced. Take note of the various venues (including the hull of the Queen Mary). The company is offering a 50% discount to new subscribers. Here’s the schedule.

Jan. 17 and 25: “The Cunning Little Vixen” (Janacek)

March 28 and April 5: “Montezuma” (Vivaldi)

May 8 and 17: “The Emperor of Atlantis” (Ullmann) and “The Clever One” (Orff)

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 3 Comments

  • Bill Keiser says:
    November 12, 2008 at 9:23 pm

    Among its many strong creative attributes, there also seems to be a bit of a sadistic tradition with LBO that its audiences should, at some point, be required to suffer for their art. The idea of trying to concentrate on two challenging and expressive operas in the the dank, atmospherically and acoustically challenged and uncomfortable crawling spaces of the QM Hull is, at least for me, quite off-putting. But let’s look on the bright side. The Cunning Little Vixen will appear on the stage of the Long Beach Center Theater, an ideal venue for the work and the company. So let’s start with that and go from there. If you saw the James Conlon Kaiser out on Wilshire a few years ago, you may be willing to brave the yukky venue to hear it again. I haven’t decided yet. Guess I’ll wait for your review!

  • Henry Holland says:
    November 13, 2008 at 3:25 pm

    Mr. Keiser, how right you are about where they choose to perform stuff being “off-putting”. I love the Center Theater, though I know the lack of a pit is a problem. At least LBO is doing opera again, not the nonsense like that thing in the swimming pool last year. I got cold-called about a subscription once and I told the man “When you do opera’s, not the rubbish you’re doing now, and you do them in proper theaters, I might consider it”. He was non-plussed by lack of enthusiasm about going to a parking garage to hear music.

  • Bill Keiser says:
    November 14, 2008 at 12:04 am

    Henry Holland gives me hope that I am not alone on my belief in the importance of a decent venue for the performance of opera. And it is not soley for want of physical comfort. His citation of Orfeo is a perfect example of LBO taking a hauntingly beautiful and fragile work exploring the vision of lost love by an exceptionally talented contemporary composer and, by adding chlorine gas, the worst imagineable acoustics, amplification to kill any tenderness whatsoever, crude overorchestration (I hope they at least paid the composer generously for that outrage!) and an Esther Williams patina which, had the discomfort not been so acute, could have been quite laughable.

    Thanks to Henry Holland for for noticing this and other noteable examples, the great parking garage caper being not the least egregious of the list.

    But let’s hope for a new day in the current Season, at least for Opening Night.