From the Queen Mary to the Cemetery: Operas In Unconventional Spaces

Trumpeter Jonah Levy and soprano Delaram Kamareh were cast members of Hopscotch, a mobile opera staged in 2015 by The Industry. | Photo: Dana Ross.

Artbound episode Hopscotch: An Opera for the 21st Century explores visionary director Yuval Sharons groundbreaking opera Hopscotch, which unfolded in cars zigzagging throughout Los Angeles, telling a single story of a disappearance across time. Watch the shows debut Tuesday, June 7 at 9 p.m., or check for rebroadcasts here.

Opera, the 17th century art form that has often been considered an elite entertainment, has, in the late 20th and early 21st century, been coming out of the closet, so to speak, and taking to the streets -- or at least surfacing in unconventional spaces in and around the City of Angels.

One of the leading proponents of off-site performances -- or offbeat venues -- has been Long Beach Opera, the little company that could. Founded in 1979 by Michael Milenski and under the artistic and musical direction of Andreas Mitisek since 2003, the troupe's mission has always been to not only present unconventional works, but to perform said works in a variety of local theaters and alternative spaces. Some of the operas include the 2007 production of Grigori Frids The Diary of Anne Frank, which was staged in two parking garages, and about which the Los Angeles Times' Mark Swed said in a recent phone conversation, The atmosphere was unpleasant enough to suit the material.

Long Beach Operas 2008 Orpheus & Euridice, directed by Ricky Ian Gordon, was staged at the Belmont Plaza Olympic Pool in Long Beach. | Photo: Keith Ian Polakoff/Long Beach Opera.

LBO's 2008 performances of Ricky Ian Gordon's Orpheus & Euridice was performed around -- and in -- the Belmont Plaza Olympic Pool, with Swed recalling that avant-garde composer John Cage had made use of a swimming pool at UCLA in the mid-1930s. Writing in the Times in 2012, Swed pointed out: For an aquatic ballet, Cage came up with the idea of dipping a gong into the pool so the swimmers could hear it underwater.

And that was a decade before Esther Williams began splashing around in a number of chlorine-soaked MGM extravaganzas. While Cage's work may not have been operatic, it was decidedly an early site-based work. Also marine in scope: LBO's 2009 staging of Viktor Ullmann's The Emperor of Atlantis and Carl Orff's The Clever One, which took place in the hull of the Queen Mary.

Last year David Schweizer directed the 1990 Allen Ginsburg/Philip Glass opera, Hydrogen Jukebox in a 6,600-square-foot warehouse at the Port of Los Angeles in San Pedro. Also an LBO offering, the work had the audience of some 360 semi-immersed in the production. Schweizer, speaking by phone from Philadelphia, where he is workshopping a new, Sweeny Todd -type opera, is no stranger to working in quirky sites.

Long Beach Operas 2009 production of The Emperor of Atlantis, by Viktor Ullmannopera, was staged aboard the Queen Mary. | Photo: Keith Ian Polakoff/Long Beach Opera.

Frankly, I'm offered this kind of thing a lot because of my background, my level of experience, combined with my willingness to do new things, otherwise you aren't able to cope very well with all the obstacles coming up, said Schweizer, who also directed LBO's 2012 production, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, which was performed in a warehouse/slash showroom for wholesale furniture.

Sometimes there are problems with power, with lights. That's part of the game and you have to be willing to go along with that, the director noted. You come up with solutions to the physical obstacles of not performing in an equipped theater that are often very magical in themselves.

With Hydrogen Jukebox, it gained a wonderful kind of spirit lift from being in that space. I was gratified by that and proud of that.

Long Beach Operas 2015 production of Hydrogen Jukebox was staged at Crafted in the Port of Los Angeles. | Photo: Keith Ian Polakoff/Long Beach Opera.

Because of the enormity of the venue, the singers had their own set of challenges. Soprano Jamie Chamberlin, who was seen in the 2014 U.S. premiere of Gavin Bryars Marilyn Forever with LBO, as well as singing Cunegonde in the company's 2016 production of Candide, performed in last year's Jukebox.

The sheer size of the warehouse adds a completely different dimension, explained Chamberlin. You [face] cardiovascular requirements as a singer. You're running from one side of the warehouse to the other, and singing is such a cardiovascular event anyway. The feeling was that the show was getting us in better shape.

In keeping with its idiosyncratic tradition, Long Beach Opera presented the world premiere of Tobin Stokes' Fallujah, that was performed in a National Guard armory in March, and in just last month the company staged Francis Poulenc's La Voix Humaine in what was once a bank vault and is now the Federal Bars Underground Club.

Long Beach Operas 2015 production of Hydrogen Jukebox, was staged at Crafted in the Port of Los Angeles. | Photo: Doris C. Koplik/Long Beach Opera.

Another troupe presenting opera in unusual spaces is Pacific Opera Project (POP). A recent arrival on the scene, the company was co-founded in 2011 by Josh Shaw, its artistic director. To date they have done 18 productions, several in far-flung places, including a 2014 staging of Tosca, set in three different locations of St. James United Methodist Church in Pasadena, and a 2015 mounting of Falstaff atop Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale, with Act III performed under an enormous tree.

The latter was POP's first fully staged outdoor performance, complete with an orchestra and a chorus of fairy adults and children. Explained Shaw: The challenges are unlimited. You never know what your problems are going to be an

LINK:	https://www.kcet.org/shows/artbound/nontraditional-operas-the-industry...
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