Gunfire and Fog on Grand Avenue, LA Opera Opens Its Season With a Spanish Gothic Carmen
Domingo Hindoyan conducts his first season opener as music director Saturday, October 17, at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion downtown.
There will be gunfire in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion on Saturday night, and theatrical fog. Both come with LA Opera’s new Carmen, a staging the company says is “drenched in Spanish Gothic splendor.” The production opens the season on Saturday, October 17, at 6 p.m. and runs through November 7.
The Cast and the Podium
Rihab Chaieb sings the title role, with Joshua Guerrero as Don José, Kathleen O’Mara as Micaëla and Liam James Karai as Escamillo, according to the company’s production page. Thaddeus Strassberger directs and designs the sets, Mattie Ullrich designs the costumes and Antonio Najarro choreographs. The new production is shared with Houston Grand Opera and Detroit Opera.
Domingo Hindoyan, who became music director on July 1, conducts. ArtsBeat LA called this “Maestro Domingo Hindoyan’s first season as Music Director,” which makes Saturday his first opening night in the job. The company’s 40th anniversary gala, the Opera Ball, follows the performance.
A Woman on Her Own Terms
LA Opera’s introduction to the work recalls that Bizet’s opera was first performed in Paris in 1875 and is set in Seville. It describes Carmen as a fiercely independent woman who refuses to live by anyone else’s rules, and says plainly that “you don’t need to know anything about opera to follow Carmen.” Its melodies have surfaced on Sesame Street, in Pixar’s Up and at the 2024 Paris Olympic opening ceremony.
The first thing the opening night crowd will see is new too. Enrique Martínez Celaya’s hand-painted curtain now hangs where the old starburst did, and it rises on this Carmen.
Practical Details
After the opener, performances are Sunday, October 25 at 2 p.m., Tuesday, October 27 at 7:30 p.m., Thursday, October 29 at 7:30 p.m., Sunday, November 1 at 2 p.m., Wednesday, November 4 at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday, November 7 at 7:30 p.m. The opera is sung in French with English subtitles and runs more than three hours with one intermission. Audio description is offered November 1. Tickets are sold through laopera.org and the box office at 213.972.8001.
