The Los Angeles Opera is an opera company in Los Angeles, California. The company's home base is the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, part of the Los Angeles Music Center. Its current general director is Plácido Domingo; its music director conductor Kent Nagano .
The Los Angeles Opera company, which made its debut in 1986 with a production of Verdi's Otello starring Domingo, traces its roots back to the Los Angeles Civic Grand Opera, which was formed in 1948. It presented staged productions through the 1950s. Shortly after its third production at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, the company abandoned its own production projects and recreated itself as the Music Center Opera Association and brought opera from other cities to the Music Center, notably the New York City Opera, which brought productions to Los Angles every fall from 1966 to 1982.
In 1984, the Music Center Opera Association hired Peter Hemmings and gave him the task of creating a local opera company which would once again present its own productions, and this led to the forming of the Los Angeles Opera. Hemmings stepped down as Los Angeles Opera's General Director in 2000, with Domingo assuming leadership of the company following season.
The Los Angeles Opera gives one hundred performances a year. It offers productions in the standard operatic repertory as well as new and rarely-staged operas. During the 2003-2004 season, the company performed the world premiere of Nicholas and Alexandra, with music composed by Deborah Drattell and a text by Nicholas von Hoffman. The company has also turned to theater and cinema world for directors of its productions. During the 2001-2002 season, it mounted a production of Lohengrin, directed by Austrian actor Maximilian Schell and Duke Bluebeard's Castle/Gianni Schicchi , directed by filmmaker William Friedkin.
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Last updated: 10-23-2005 18:04:43
