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Pierrot Lunaire / Voices from the Killing Jar

Produced in partnership with Long Beach Opera

Sat / Aug 14, 2021 - 8:00PM

Women reframe their own operatic portrayals in this pairing of the most radical solo opera of the last century with one by an exciting new voice of our time.

No Longer Available

About this Performance

Why are women in opera so often depicted as prostitutes, sacrificial victims, or both? This double bill featuring solo operas written a century apart allows women to take control of their own narratives. In 1912, Arnold Schoenberg changed music forever with his atonal setting of 21 Symbolist poems for five instrumentalists and a female vocalist who is asked to perform something between speech and singing. A hundred years later, Kate Soper uses similar forces to bring to life eight famous women from world literature—from Don Giovanni to The Great Gatsby, from Shakespeare to Haruki Murakami—to unravel men’s depictions of women. Each work is a tour de force for vocalists who think far outside operatic conventions.

Produced in partnership with Long Beach Opera: Founded in 1979, the Long Beach Opera is the oldest operatic producing company in the metropolitan Los Angeles/Orange County region; its mission is to engage people through provocative meaningful experiences that challenge, connect, and inspire.

Programs, artists, dates, prices, and availability subject to change.