Banner for the new OP season (courtesy of OP)
This coming season will mark the fifteenth anniversary of Opera Parallèle (OP) and its reputation for presenting adventurous and groundbreaking contemporary operas. As in the past, there will be three productions, each taking place at a different venue. Furthermore, the venue for the first of those operas will involve a significant departure from the usual. As of this writing, few details have been released. Nevertheless, it seems important to let readers know what the operas are, as well as where and when they will be performed.
The first offering will push the “significant departure” concept to new extremes. The title of the production is Everest: Opera in the Planetarium. It is a major reconception of Everest: An Immersive Experience, which was performed this past February in Z Space. That “experience” will be transformed into an immersive film experience, which will exploit the full 360-degree environment of the Morrison Planetarium at the California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park. In other words the usual concept of a “live” performance will be abandoned in favor of the expressiveness of a broader environment. Performances will take place between November 8 and November 17.
The second program will be the world premiere of The Pigeon Keeper. This was composed by David Hanlon, with a libretto by Stephanie Fleischmann, on an OP commission shared with Opera Omaha, Opera on the Avalon, and the Opera for All Voices Initiative of the Santa Fe Opera. The narrative involves a refugee boy traumatized by circumstances that have left him unable to speak. The title character becomes the agent enabling the child to recover his voice. Performances will take place over the weekend of March 7 to 9 at the Cowell Theatre, which is part of the Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture at 2 Marina Boulevard.
Some readers may recall when the San Francisco Opera gave its first performances of Stewart Wallace’s Harvey Milk with a libretto by Michael Korie in 1996. This will be given a completely new production with new music, a tighter cast, and a libretto of two, rather than three, acts. OP had been scheduled to debut this revision, but plans had to be postponed due to the pandemic. As a result, the new version was given its first performance in St. Louis in 2022. Performances will take place at the Blue Shield of California Theater in the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts over the course of a week beginning on May 31 and concluding on June 7.
OP has created a season summary Web page. Single tickets will be available through that page. However, as of this writing, they are only on sale for the Everest production. The other two operas have “REGISTER YOUR INTEREST” hyperlinks. Nevertheless, there is also a Premium Subscription Web page, which will be available through City Box Office until October 15.
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