About L.A. Opera
In just two decades of existence, LA Opera has become, under the leadership of Eli and Edythe Broad General Director Plácido Domingo, the United States' fourth largest opera company and now"...stands out as a newly important force in American Opera." (Mark Swed, Los Angeles Times). The 2008/09 Season features a total of 64 performances of nine productions. These include a new production of Puccini's Il Trittico, a trilogy of one-act operas directed by William Friedkin (Il Tabarro, Suor Angelica) and by Woody Allen (Gianni Schicchi) in his operatic debut; the U.S. premiere of Howard Shore's The Fly, commissioned by LA Opera, with libretto by David Henry Hwang, directed by David Cronenberg; a revival of Puccini's Madama Butterfly directed and designed by Robert Wilson; a revival of Bizet's Carmen; a revival of Die Zauberflöte; the first two installments of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen, with new productions of Das Rheingold and Die Walküre directed and designed by Achim Freyer; the U.S. premiere of Walter Braunfels' The Birds (Die Vögel) as part of the Company's Recovered Voices project; and a revival of Verdi's La Traviata. Music Director James Conlon will conduct six of the nine productions, and the other conductors for the season are Plácido Domingo, Emmanuel Villaume and Grant Gershon (the Company's Associate Conductor / Chorus Master).