LA Opera has commissioned some of today’s most in-demand artists to create a series of short musical films.
Superstar composers team up with talented visual artists including animators, experimental filmmakers and choreographers to bring you a number of new pieces throughout the fall and early winter.
Featured composers include (left to right): Du Yun, Gabriela Lena Frank, Missy Mazzoli, Tamar-kali, David Lang, Tyshawn Sorey, Matthew Aucoin
Check out some more early details for all of our upcoming projects below, but be sure to check back here as we share more.
Composer: Gabriela Lena Frank
Project: commissioned revision of The Five Moons of Lorca (Las cinco lunas de Lorca), text by Nilo Cruz
Filmmaker: Matthew Diamond
Choreographer / Solo Dancer: Irene Rodríguez
Musicians: countertenor Jacob Ingbar, pianist Nicholas Roehler, and members of the LA Opera Chorus
Premiere: December 11, 2020.
Watch here
Composer: Missy Mazzoli
Project: "The West is a Land of Infinite Beginnings" (librettist: Royce Vavrek)
Director: James Darrah
Musical performers: bass Andrew Harris, conductor Christopher Rountree, the International Contemporary Ensemble
Premiere: January 15, 2021
Watch here
Composer: ELLEN REID
Project: Lumee's Dream, based on an excerpt from the opera "p r i s m" (librettist: Roxie Perkins)
Mezzo-soprano soloist: Rebecca Jo Loeb
Viola soloist: Nadia Sirota
Co-director and director of photography: James Darrah
Co-director and editor: Adam Larsen
Premiere: January 29, 2021
Composer: Tyshawn Sorey
Project: Death, a setting of the poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar
Film director: Nadia Hallgren
Performers: mezzo-soprano Amanda Lynn Bottoms, pianist Howard Watkins
Premiere: February 19, 2021
Composer: AYANNA WITTER-JOHNSON
Original Poetry: Henry Dumas
Project: Brown Sounds
Executive Producer / Conceptual Creator: Raehann Bryce-Davis
Filmmaker: Jérémy Adonis
Costume Designer / Stylist: Allan Virgo
Performers: mezzo-soprano Raehann Bryce-Davis, dancer Lateef Williams, pianist Jeanne-Minette Cilliers
Premiere: March 26, 2021
Composer/librettist: David Lang
Project: let me come in
Producer/filmmaker: Bill Morrison
Performers: soprano Angel Blue; violist David Creswell; cellist Anja Wood; percussionist Miles Salerni; conductor Bryan Wagorn
Premiere: April 30, 2021
Composer: Matthew Aucoin
Project: Gallup, settings of poetry by Jake Skeets
Filmmaker: Blackhorse Lowe
Performers: baritone Davóne Tines, countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo, AMOC (American Modern Opera Company)
Premiere: May 28, 2021
Composer/LIBRETTIST: Du Yun
Project: The Zolle Suite
Producer: Ron Diamond, Acme Filmworks
Animators: Steven Woloshen, Benjamin Swiczinsky, Kristian Pedersen, Oliver Harrison
Performers: narrator Du Yun, conductor Julian Wachner, mezzo-soprano Hai-Ting Chinn, International Contemporary Ensemble
Premiere: July 9, 2021
Watch here
Composer: CARLOS SIMON
Librettist: Sandra Seaton
Project: The First Bluebird in the Morning
Filmmaker/choreographer: Jamar Roberts
Dancer: Lloyd Knight
Musical performers: tenor Joshua Blue; cellist Anja Wood; pianist Howard Watkins
Premiere: September 24, 2021
Composer: TAMAR-KALI
Project: We Hold These Truths
Filmmaker: dream hampton
Poetry by: Paul Laurence Dunbar ("We Wear the Mask"), Langston Hughes ("I, Too"), Claude McKay ("If We Must Die"), Tamar-Kali ("Requiem for Elijah McClain")
Performers: conductor Anthony Parnther, tenor Ashley Faatoalia, baritone Cedric Berry, Selah Gospel Choir, spoken word artist Samuel Getachew and members of the LA Opera Orchestra.
Composer: Anna Clyne
Project: Between the Rooms, setting of a collection of Emily Dickinson's "envelope poems" for soprano and string quintet
Director, choreographer, editor: Kim Brandstrup
Dancers: Alina Cojocaru, Matthew Ball
Musical performers: soprano Joelle Harvey, The Knights (Eric Jacobsen, conductor; Colin Jacobsen, Kristi Helberg, violin; Mario Gotoh, viola; Caitlin Sullivan; Logan Coale, bass)
Premiere: TBA
