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LONG BEACH OPERA presents THE FEAST
A GLORIOUS, DECADENT, IMMERSIVE EXPERIENCE
presented in partnership with
Elizabeth Segerstrom and the Henry T. & Elizabeth Segerstrom Foundation
James Darrah, Co-creator & Director
Janet Eilber, Co-creator & Choreographer
Andrew McIntosh, Musical Director
Noguchi Garden (“California Scenario”)
and the
Samueli Theater at Segerstrom Center for the Arts
in Costa Mesa, CA
Two Performances Only
Saturday, May 20 at 7:30 PM
Sunday, May 21 at 7:30 PM
Information and tickets at www.longbeachopera.org
Costa Mesa, CA | May 4, 2023 — THE FEAST is a world premiere reinvention of a baroque banquet inspired by G. F. Handel’s opera Alessandro, featuring wide-ranging operatic and orchestral works from Handel’s repertoire in an evening-length experience that merges opera, dance, theater, and cuisine.
THE FEAST celebrates the Southern California staged operatic and professional dance company debut of acclaimed Polish countertenor Jakub Jósef Orliński and launches the three-year collaboration between Martha Graham Dance Company and Long Beach Opera, the first of its kind between Martha Graham Dance Company and an American opera company.
Staged as an immersive, genre-defying experience between two locations, THE FEAST brings together seven of Greek mythology’s most storied and volatile characters for a hedonistic banquet that reimagines some of antiquity’s most enduring stories. As the master of ceremonies, King Agamemnon will bring together Alexander the Great with Clytemnestra, Cassandra of Troy, Theseus, the sorceress Medea, and Cleopatra as guests — all with very personal agendas.
These larger-than-life mythic figures will be brought to life by a cast of contemporary titans: superstar countertenor Jakub Józef Orliński will make his LBO debut alongside acclaimed soprano Anna Schubert (The Romance of the Rose, Giustino, and Les enfants terribles). Together they will lead the night’s festivities alongside an ensemble of Martha Graham Dance Company members and actor Carlis Shane Clark (desert in). As the drama unfolds, audience members will be treated to a figurative and literal feast for the senses across two locations: a series of outdoor dance rituals performed at the Noguchi-designed sculpture garden “California Scenario,” followed by an over-the-top banquet inside the acoustically celebrated Samueli Theater across the street on the campus of the Segerstrom Center for the Arts.
Director James Darrah and LBO, in collaboration with the Martha Graham Dance Company’s artistic director Janet Eilber, has partnered with The Henry T. & Elizabeth Segerstrom Foundation to craft a performance that weaves together both new choreography and existing fragments from Graham’s celebrated repertoire. Excerpts from Graham’s archive, selections from the baroque works of G. F. Handel, and texts from Aeschylus’ The Oresteia combine to form a completely new operatic production that draws a provocative, century-spanning parallel between the creative work of Handel, Noguchi, Graham, Eilber, and Darrah.
The performances are also the first collaboration between Long Beach Opera and James Darrah with Elizabeth Segerstrom, marking LBO’s return to Orange County as part of the first season under new artistic director Darrah and music director Christopher Rountree. Andrew McIntosh, part of Rountree’s LA orchestral ensemble Wild Up, leads the baroque orchestral ensemble Tesserae in his LBO debut as both music director and concertmaster.
The evening’s time-bending examination of its mythic characters sheds light on the human elements that bind them, forcing us to reexamine our own notions of power, the patriarchy, and the enduring specter of fate. Themes of feminine power are conjured through dance, music, theater, and cuisine as the complexities of human desire, betrayal, and jealousy serve as a catalyst for darker consequences.
Handel wrote several operas in the 18th century that examined Cleopatra, Alexander the Great, Medea, and Theseus. Hundreds of years later, Noguchi and Graham collaborated on many works that explored the more human and feminine side of these exact same characters as well as Clytemnestra, Cassandra, and Agamemnon. For THE FEAST, Graham dancers will activate Noguchi’s spectacular outdoor garden in Costa Mesa, paying homage to both Graham’s collaboration with Noguchi as well as Henry T. Segerstrom’s enduring friendship and collaboration with the architect. The dancers will then lead the audience in a choreographed processional to the Segerstrom Center for the Arts’ intimate and acoustically sensational Samueli Theater, where food, wine, and sumptuous music will set the stage for an evening of bold, immersive artistry.
THE FEAST DETAILS:
LOCATION & TICKETS
Noguchi Garden (“California Scenario”)
611 Anton Blvd, Costa Mesa, CA 92626
Samueli Theater at Segerstrom Center for the Arts
615 Town Center Dr, Costa Mesa, CA 92626
Tickets are currently sold out. To be added to the waiting list or for more information visit longbeachopera.org.
CAST
Alexander the Great: Jakub Józef Orliński
Agamemnon: Carlis Shane Clark
Clytemnestra: Xin Ying
Cleopatra: Anna Schubert
Medea: Lloyd Knight
Theseus: Leslie Andrea Williams
Cassandra of Troy: Anne Souder
CREATIVE TEAM
Co-Creator & Director: James Darrah
Co-Creator & Choreographer: Janet Eilber
Music Director: Andrew McIntosh
Costume Designer: Molly Irelan
Lighting Designer: Pablo Santiago
Producer: Chris Minev
Associate Director: McCall Cadenas
Instrumental Ensemble: Tesserae Baroque
Artistic Partner: Martha Graham Dance Company
Musical Selections include pieces from Handel’s Alessandro, Agrippina, Teseo, Giulio Cesare, Tolomeo, and more.
BIOGRAPHIES:
Jakub Józef Orliński
Polish countertenor Jakub Józef Orliński has quickly emerged as one of the most vibrant performers on the international classical music scene, triumphing on stage, in concert, and on recording. An exclusive artist on the Warner/Erato label, his first recording Anima Sacra has garnered critical accolades and earned him the prestigious Opus Klassik award for Solo Vocal Recording. His sold-out concerts and recitals throughout Europe and the United States have attracted new followers to the art form, and his live performance of Vivaldi’s “Vedrò con mio diletto”, filmed at the Aix-en-Provence Festival in 2017, has amassed more than four million online views. Television appearances, including the “Concert de Paris” at the Eiffel Tower and “Rebâtir Notre Dame de Paris”, both with the Orchestre National de France and Les Victoires de la Musique Classique awards concert accompanied by the Orchestre de l’Opéra National de Lyon, have been broadcast to millions worldwide. Last year he was the subject of a major profile in The New Yorker and featured in Polish Vogue. His second album release – entitled Facce d’amore featuring Baroque operatic arias written for romantic male characters – was released in November 2019 and toured throughout Europe with Il Pomo d’Oro. He is also featured on Warner recordings of Agrippina opposite Joyce di Donato and on a disc of selections with L’Arpeggiata with Christina Pluhar. “Orlinski is the real countertenor deal, one of the best I’ve heard on the operatic (or any other) stage: an exceptional legato, no loss of power in the lower reaches, attentive diction, superb histrionic flair. He has, in short, raised the bar decisively for what we can expect of this voice type in this repertory.” —Roger Parker. Learn more about Jakub at www.jakubjozeforlinski.com.
Anna Schubert
Described as “luminously expressive” with a “silvery voice” that “moves from innocence to devastation with an actor’s ease,” Anna is passionate about bringing new voices, stories, and musical ideas to life. She enjoys an eclectic career that takes her all over the world – premiering new works by living composers, performing old favorites by dead ones, and recording a wide variety of sounds for film and television.
Anna made her debut on the new music scene with the LA-based company The Industry, singing the ethereal soprano role of L in scenes from Anne LeBaron’s LSD: The Opera. Since then, she has performed in a stunning array of new productions and premieres, including the role of the Controller in Opera Omaha’s production of Jonathan Dove’s Flight, Bernstein’s Mass with the LA Phil, and creating the role of Bibi in the world premiere of Ellen Reid’s Pulitzer Prize-winning opera p r i s m with LA Opera and Beth Morrison Projects. Her performance in p r i s m was described as “revelatory” (Catherine Womack, I Care If You Listen), and subsequently led to a successful run at Theatro Municipal de São Paulo.
Anna also performs roles from the standard operatic canon and concert repertoire. Highlights include Orff’s Carmina Burana, and myriad Baroque and Classical works such as Handel’s Messiah and Dixit Dominus; Mozart’s Exsultate, Jubilate, Requiem, Vesperae solennes de confessore, and Mass in C Minor; Bach’s St. Matthew Passion and Mein Herze schwimmt im Blut; and Haydn’s Die Schöpfung. Recently, she premiered a staged and reimagined version of Orlando di Lasso’s Lagrime di San Pietro with 20 other singers from the LA Master Chorale, which launched a worldwide tour through the Ravinia Festival, the Salzburg Festival, and in Australia, Mexico, England, France, Germany, and several U.S. states.
Outside the world of classical vocals, Anna enjoys a stimulating and versatile career as a session singer. Her voice appears in various film and TV soundtracks, including “The Lion King” (2019), “Mulan” (2020), “Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker,” “Creed,” “Minions,” as well as in Danny Elfman’s latest album, Big Mess. Her solo soprano vocals can be heard dramatically soaring over orchestra and choir in the films “Birds of Prey” (2020) and “Keanu” (2016), as well as the Netflix series “Midnight Mass.”
Carlis Shane Clark
Carlis Shane Clark is so excited to work again with the Long Beach Opera family and James Darrah on this beautiful work. Carlis was born and raised in Augusta, Georgia, and began acting at the young age of 9 while attending Davidson Fine Arts Magnet School. He then went on to obtain a BFA from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, where he studied theatre performance. Carlis has performed on stages in NYC, across the pond at the International Fringe Festival, and Los Angeles, where he was honored at the LA Drama Critics Circle Awards, Stage Raw, and Ovation Awards. Carlis most recently performed with the Boston Lyric Opera and Long Beach Opera’s episodic series, desert in; other recent television credits include Dear White People (Netflix), Jean-Claude Van Johnson (Amazon Original). Film: Clemency (2019 Sundance Grand Jury Prize), and Dutch. Thank you to James, NOVA TALENT GROUP, BQ, and family.
Xin Ying
Xin Yang joined the Martha Graham Dance Company in 2011 and performs lead roles in Cave of the Heart, Chronicle, Diversion of Angels, Clytemnestra, Woodland and I used to love you, among others. In 2008 she received the China Dance Lotus Award. She was the director of the Dance Department at Sichuan College of Arts & Culture and a guest teacher at the Graham School, the Beijing Dance Academy and Nanjing University of Arts. She was awarded a full scholarship to the Graham School, and was a member of Graham 2.
Lloyd Knight
Lloyd Knight joined the Martha Graham Dance Company in 2005 and performs the major male roles of the Graham repertory including in Appalachian Spring, Embattled Garden, Night Journey, and many others. Dance Magazine named him one of the “Top 25 Dancers to Watch” in 2010 and one of the best performers of 2015. Mr. Knight has starred with ballet greats Wendy Whelan and Misty Copeland in signature Graham duets and has had roles created for him by such renowned artists as Nacho Duato and Pam Tanowitz. He is currently a principal guest artist for The Royal Ballet of Flanders directed by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui. Born in England and raised in Miami, he trained at Miami Conservatory of Ballet and New World School of the Arts.
Leslie Andrea Williams
Leslie Andrea Williams, from Raleigh, North Carolina, joined the Martha Graham Dance Company in 2015 and performs featured roles in Appalachian Spring, Diversion of Angels, Embattled Garden, and the lead in Chronicle – the first Black dancer to do so. Her performance was mentioned in The New York Times’ “Best Dance of 2019” list. Ms. Williams’s work has been described as “hypnotic” and “larger than life.” Her artistic strength lies in her innate ability to tap into character roles and “effortlessly control the gaze of the audience.” Ms. Williams has been featured in Dance Magazine as a dancer “On The Rise” and in Teen Vogue as a “Rising Star Personifying Black Excellence.” Leslie received her BFA from The Juilliard School.
Anne Souder
Anne Souder joined the Martha Graham Dance Company in 2015 and performs Martha Graham’s own roles in Dark Meadow Suite, Chronicle, Ekstasis and Deep Song as well as featured roles in Herodiade and Secular Games to name a few. She has also been featured in works commissioned for the Company by Marie Chouinard, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Maxine Doyle and Bobbi Jene Smith. Ms. Souder began her training in Maryville, Tennessee and earned her degree in the Ailey/Fordham BFA program, graduating with a double major in Dance and Theology. There she performed works by Alvin Ailey, Ron K. Brown, Dwight Rhoden, and more. Upon graduation, she joined Graham 2 and was awarded a Dizzy Feet Foundation scholarship.
James Darrah
James Darrah’s visually arresting work at the intersection of theater, opera and film has become known for a singular cinematic elegance that is “experimenting and forging a new art form” (The Wall Street Journal). His “filmic conception puts a fresh — even revelatory — gloss” (The New York Times) on both new works and pieces from within the operatic repertoire, pushing opera into new interdisciplinary territory and forging new dramatic frontiers.
His recent work as a director, screenwriter, and GRAMMY award-nominated producer includes projects that continue to explore the merging of film, and television formats, and a re-definition of opera. He is the new Artistic Director and Chief Creative Officer of Long Beach Opera, is in collaboration with Martha Graham Dance Company for a three-year exploration of dance and opera, and was recently the Creative Director for Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra’s digital content in 2020/21. Darrah was also Artistic Director of Opera Omaha’s ONE Festival from 2016-2021 where he was praised for “expanding the boundaries of the operatic form” (The Wall Street Journal) by establishing a first-of-its-kind residency for artists both within and adjacent to the operatic genre. He is a native of San Antonio, Texas and lives in Los Angeles, California. Learn more about LBO Artistic Director & Chief Creative Officer, James Darrah, at www.longbeachopera.org/james-darrah.
Janet Eilber
Janet Eilber has been the Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance’s artistic director since 2005. Her direction has focused on creating new forms of audience access to the Graham masterworks. These initiatives include designing contextual programming, educational and community partnerships, use of new media, commissions and creative events such as the Lamentation Variations and Prelude and Revolt. She has also remixed Graham choreography and created new staging in the Graham style for theater/dance productions of The Bacchae and Prometheus Bound. Earlier in her career, as a principal dancer with the Martha Graham Dance Company, Ms. Eilber worked closely with Martha Graham. She danced many of Graham’s greatest roles, had roles created for her by Graham, and was directed by Graham in most of the major roles of the repertoire. She soloed at the White House, was partnered by Rudolf Nureyev, starred in three segments of Dance in America, and has since taught, lectured, and directed Graham ballets internationally. Apart from her work with Graham, Eilber has performed in films, on television and on Broadway directed by such greats as Agnes deMille and Bob Fosse and has received four Lester Horton Awards for her reconstruction and performance of seminal American modern dance. She has served as Director of Arts Education for the Dana Foundation, guiding the Foundation’s support for Teaching Artist training and contributing regularly to its arts education publications. Eilber is a Trustee Emeritus of the Interlochen Center for the Arts. She is married to screenwriter/director John Warren, with whom she has two daughters, Madeline and Eva.
Andrew McIntosh
Andrew McIntosh is a GRAMMY-nominated violinist, violist, composer, and baroque violinist who teaches at the California Institute of the Arts, with a wide swath of musical interests ranging from historical performance practice of the Baroque era to improvisation, microtonal tuning systems, and the 20th-century avant-garde. He holds degrees in violin performance, composition, and early music performance from the University of Nevada, Reno, California Institute of the Arts, and the University of Southern California.
As a baroque performer McIntosh is a member of Tesserae, Bach Collegium San Diego, and Musica Angelica, has served as guest concertmaster for baroque operas with LA Opera and Opera UCLA, and has performed with the Washington National Cathedral Baroque Orchestra, Musica Pacifica, and the American Bach Soloists. He is also a frequent recitalist, performing with historical keyboardist Ian Pritchard and fortepianist Steven Vanhauwaert, and also appeared at the San Francisco Symphony’s SoundBox series in 2016 performing solo Bach on baroque violin.
As a solo artist he has performed at Miller Theatre in New York, REDCAT, and festivals and concert series across Europe and the US. He also was the viola soloist in the US premiere of Gèrard Grisey’s Les Espaces Acoustiques, for which performance the LA Times said he “played with commanding beauty.” As a chamber musician he is a member of the Formalist Quartet, Wild Up, and Wadada Leo Smith’s Red Koral Quartet, and has worked personally with a wide range of composers including Christian Wolff, Sofia Gubaidulina, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Helmut Lachenmann, Tom Johnson, and Jürg Frey.
As a composer he often works with forms and ideas found in nature or in other artistic disciplines, working in instrumental, vocal, and fixed media forms, and was described by Alex Ross in The New Yorker as “a composer preternaturally attuned to the landscapes and soundscapes of the West.” His compositions have been featured at venues including Walt Disney Concert Hall, Ojai Festival, Big Ears Festival, the Gaudeamus Festival, Time:Spans Festival, Hamburger Klangwerktage, Moments Musicaux Aarau, Bludenzer Tage Zeitgemasse Muzik, Miller Theatre, National Sawdust, Issue Project Room, Monday Evening Concerts, and Tectonics Festival Glasgow. The individual musical personalities of performers he writes for are a central consideration in his work, and he has worked particularly closely with the musicians of Wild Up, the Formalist Quartet, Yarn/Wire, and soprano Estelí Gomez. Recent commissions include works for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, The Industry opera company, Yarn/Wire, the Calder Quartet, and violinists Ilya Gringolts, Movses Pogossian, Lorenz Gamma, and Marco Fusi.
Originally from rural Northern Nevada, McIntosh is currently based in the Los Angeles area.
Molly Irelan
Molly Irelan is a Los Angeles-based Costume Designer. She prides herself on a holistic approach to her work and is trained in the history and construction of garments as well as design. Molly holds a Bachelor’s degree in Costume History and Design from the University of Redlands (2010), an Associate degree in Fashion Design from the Art Institute of Portland (2012), and an MFA in Costume Design from UCLA (2016).
Molly has designed costumes for film, television, commercials, music videos, and over a dozen operas around the United States and internationally. She has been the Assistant Costume Designer for Oscar-nominated designers on films produced by Ridley Scott, Roland Emmerich, and Francis Ford Coppola, among others, including “Phoenix Forgotten” (2017), “Survivors” (2018), “The Lunch” (2021), “Bad Therapy” (2020), and “Pepcy and Kim” (2021), starring Jennifer Hudson.
She’s been a costumer for many films and TV series including Catherine Hardwicke’s series “Don’t Look Deeper” (2020), HBO’s “The Little Things” (2021), Olivia Wilde’s “Don’t Worry Darling” (2022), “The 4400” (2021), HBO’s “Minx” (2022), and “Best Foot Forward” (2022) for Apple +.
Molly has also been a frequent close collaborator of director James Darrah. Having designed operas L’elisir d’amore (2017), Le Nozze di Figaro (2018), and Cold Mountain (2019) at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, Amadigi (2016), Orphée (2020) at UCLA, Rev 23 (2020) at The Prototype Festival, and the Pulitzer Prize-winning p r i s m (2018) in Los Angeles, New York, São Paulo Brazil, and the Kennedy Center. For screen Molly designed the opera miniseries desert in (2021) and mini-feature MirrorFlores (2021). In 2022 she designed an acclaimed La Clemenza di Tito at The San Francisco Conservatory of Music, The Tragedy of Carmen at Velaa in the Maldives, Eugene Onegin at Music Academy of the West, and a sold-out new Le Nozze di Figaro with Raphäel Pichon and James Darrah at The Handel and Haydn Society in Boston.
Pablo Santiago
Pablo Santiago is a Mexican-American Lighting Designer and the winner of the Richard Sherwood Award and Stage Raw Award and multiple Ovation Award nominee. Pablo is proud to have long-standing collaborations with many great artists such as James Darrah, Jose Luis Valenzuela, Ellen Reid, Missy Mazzoli, Karen Zacarias, Bill Rouch, Patricia Mcgregor, Ted Hearne, Christopher Rountree, Francois-Pierre Couture, Adam Rigg, Adam Larsen and Yuval Sharon. Pablo has designed for companies such as Santa Fe Opera, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Los Angeles Opera, San Francisco Symphony, Los Angeles Symphony, Boston Lyric Opera, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Opera Omaha, Center Theater Group, Music Academy of The West, Broad Museum and Beth Morrison Projects. Some of the amazing venues he has worked at include Teatro Municipal Sao Paulo, The Goodman Theater, Disney Hall, Davies Hall, Mark Taper Forum, Kennedy Center and Arena Stage in DC, La MaMa in NYC, Skirball Center, Paramount Theater, Huntington Theater and Majestic Theater in Boston, and BAM- Harvey Theater. Recent highlights include The Lord of Cries (Santa Fe Opera), The Fall of The House of Usher and desert in (digital feature films for Boston Lyric Opera); the Anonymous Lover (Digital Content- LA Opera); Pulitzer Winner p r i s m (Sao Paulo, LAO, Prototype Festival), Macbeth and Mother Road (Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Arena Stage); Place (BAM-LA PHIL-Beth Morrison Projects), Proving Up (ONE Festival/Opera Omaha and Miller Theater); Valley of The Heart and Zoot Suit (Mark Taper Forum); Threepenny Opera, Norma (Boston Lyric Opera); Destiny of Desire (Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Goodman Theatre, Arena Stage); War of the Worlds (Los Angeles Philharmonic and The Industry); Breaking the Waves (OperaPhila and Prototype Festival); Pelleas et Melisande (Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra); Flight, Pagliacci and Madame Butterfly (Opera Omaha); On The Town (San Francisco Symphony); Skeleton Crew and The Cake (Geffen Playhouse).
McCall Cadenas
McCall Cadenas is a visual storyteller born and raised in East Los Angeles. Her narratives center around the female perspective and issues of identity with the intention of encapsulating the preservation of her culture. As a director, McCall likes to challenge the status quo and she remains at the forefront collaborating with artists in various mediums and creating new work in a variety of fields including the science, fashion, and culinary arts. Cadenas is also the founder of the nonprofit East Los Angeles Creative: founded with the goal of uplifting emerging artists and amplifying underrepresented voices in the greater East Los Angeles area. Her vision is to provide a platform for these artists to showcase their work, deliver the resources to bring their visions to life and establish a support system to further strengthen the community of artists in both East LA and the greater Los Angeles region. Cadenas’ opera directorial debut was with Long Beach Opera for the 2023 world premiere of The Romance of the Rose.
Tesserae Baroque
Described as “mighty yet nimble” (San Diego Story), Tesserae Baroque is quickly emerging as one of the most exciting and versatile period instrument ensembles in the US, receiving invitations to perform across the US. Past highlights include Tesserae’s performance of Handel and Rameau under the direction of Christophe Rousset, performances of Palestrina with Folger Consort and Stile Antico at the National Cathedral, a performance of the Monteverdi Vespers under the direction of Stephen Stubbs, and a 27-person performance of works by Giovanni Gabrieli, featuring Bruce Dickey. Most recently, Tesserae joined forces with Colburn Baroque to perform music by Hasse, Zelenka and Pisendel under the direction of Rachael Podger. Tesserae has performed for San Francisco Early Music Society, Arizona Early Music Festival, and the Corona del Mar Baroque Festival. Tesserae is the resident ensemble for Cal Poly Bach Week.
Martha Graham Dance Company
Martha Graham and her Company have expanded contemporary dance’s vocabulary of movement and forever altered the scope of the art form by rooting works in contemporary social, political, psychological, and sexual contexts, deepening their impact and resonance.
Always a fertile ground for experimentation, Martha Graham Dance Company has been an unparalleled resource in nurturing many of the leading choreographers and dancers of the 20th and 21st centuries, including Merce Cunningham, Anna Sokolow, Erick Hawkins, Pearl Lang, Sir Robert Cohan, Donald McKayle, Elisa Monte, Jacquelyn Buglisi, Paul Taylor and many others.
Graham’s repertoire of 181 works has also engaged noted performers such as Mikhail Baryshnikov, Claire Bloom, Margot Fonteyn, Liza Minnelli, Rudolf Nureyev, Maya Plisetskaya, and Kathleen Turner. Her groundbreaking techniques and unmistakable style have earned the Company acclaim from audiences in more than 50 countries throughout North and South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.
Today, the Company continues to foster Graham’s spirit of ingenuity. It is embracing a new programming vision that showcases masterpieces by Graham alongside newly commissioned works by contemporary artists inspired by Graham’s legacy. With programs that unite the work of choreographers across time within a rich historical and thematic narrative, the Company is actively working to create new platforms for contemporary dance and multiple points of access for audiences.
Martha Graham Dance Company’s 2022-23 repertory includes new works by Hofesh Shechter and Sonya Tayeh with Alleyne Dance, Sir Robert Cohan, Jenn Freeman, Juliano Nunes, Micaela Taylor, and Yin Yue alongside iconic Graham masterpieces Appalachian Spring, Lamentation, and Chronicle. The Company continues to expand its mission to present the work of its founder and her contemporaries, and remains a leader by catalyzing new works with commissions that bring fresh perspectives to dance classics.
The Martha Graham Dance Company has performed at the Metropolitan Opera, Carnegie Hall, the Paris Opera House, Covent Garden, and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, as well as at the base of the Great Pyramids in Egypt and in the ancient Odeon of Herodes Atticus theatre on the Acropolis in Athens.
ABOUT LONG BEACH OPERA
Established in 1979, Long Beach Opera (LBO) stands as the longest-running opera organization in the greater Los Angeles region. Having presented well over 100 productions in that time, LBO has carved out its space as a leader in constantly embracing the wide breadth of opera’s history while innovating boldly and daringly toward its future. With repertoire ranging from the early Baroque to the commissioning of new contemporary works and world premieres, the company embraces the idea that no experience of opera should be standard or traditional. This commitment to the future of opera has earned critical acclaim, both locally and nationally, and also secured funding from institutions such as the National Endowment for the Arts, the California Arts Council, the County of Los Angeles, the City of Long Beach, the Mellon Foundation, the Ralph M. Parsons Foundation, the Knight Foundation, and countless others. LBO’s history demonstrates that its purpose is the advancement of opera and operatic repertoire as new experiences, embodied by stating that it creates “opera for a new era.”
LBOs highlights include a long list of premieres, monumental works, and a roster of both creative legends and up-and-coming talent which has resulted in accolades; including the 2019 commission and world premiere of Anthony Davis’ The Central Park Five, which consequently won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize. Other world premieres have included Stewart Copeland’s The Invention of Morel, Tobin Stokes’ Fallujah, and Stewart Wallace’s Hopper’s Wife. Also of note are many American premieres including works by Glass, Vivaldi, Mozart, Handel, Cherubini, Piazzolla, Szymanowski, and more. The company’s fierce commitment to collaborations with composers, vocalists, instrumentalists, dancers, filmmakers, curators, conductors, designers, and community partners—as well as its commitment to the evolution of opera as an art form to be more equitable and accessible for all—has created a rich legacy at the company and provided a clear opportunity for growth in a new era of making work. The work of LBO continues as it enters a period with new artistic and musical leadership, with rising star composers like Shelley Washington as Artist in Residence and a multi-year creative partnership with the legendary Martha Graham Dance Company. LBO continues to evolve into a home for the boldest artistic innovators in production, directorial work, and music with a bright future that is abundant with potent and unprecedented creative possibilities.
FUNDING
Supported in part by funding from the City of Long Beach and the Port of Long Beach. Long Beach Opera events are supported, in part, by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Arts Commission. Long Beach Opera receives support from the National Endowment for the Arts and Opera America. This event is supported in part by funding from the Colburn Foundation and the Henry T. & Elizabeth Segerstrom Foundation.
ABOUT SOUTH COAST PLAZA
Renowned as a leading international shopping destination, South Coast Plaza is home to more than 280 prominent boutiques and critically acclaimed restaurants, and is the center of culture and commerce that includes the adjacent Segerstrom Center for the Arts and the new Orange County Museum of Art. Celebrating 55 years of quality, South Coast Plaza is the West Coast’s premier shopping experience, with an unparalleled collection of top retailers. South Coast Plaza is located in Orange County, California, in the city of Costa Mesa.
Contact Kedric Francis, South Coast Plaza Director of Public Relations and Communications. FrancisK@southcoastplaza.com