In just less than three 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 "...stands out as a newly important force in American Opera." (Mark Swed, Los Angeles Times).
LA Opera created a sensation with its inaugural production of Verdi's Otello starring Plácido Domingo in 1986. Under founding general director Peter Hemmings and subsequently under Plácido Domingo, who became the company's general director in 2003, LA Opera has grown to become a company of international stature.
LA Opera began producing opera at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion of the Music Center of Los Angeles County in 1986. The Company currently performs six to eight operas a year, as well as several operas for students which tour Los Angeles area schools. About 120 people work at the Company year-round, planning new operas, raising money to produce the operas, selling tickets, working on lighting, costumes and scenic designs, managing the finances, and creating programs for the community. More people are added when an opera is being produced. People are hired to sing and play in the orchestra, make the costumes, work backstage, and direct the operas. Some of the famous artists who have worked at LA Opera include Eli and Edythe Broad General Director Plácido Domingo and Richard Seaver Music Director James Conlon; singers Sondra Radvanovsky, Eric Owens, Juan Diego Flórez, Bryn Terfel, Vittorio Grigolo, Nino Machaidze, Anna Netrebko and Patricia Racette; directors Woody Allen, Peter Hall, Franco Zeffirelli, William Friedkin and Robert Wilson; and designers David Hockney, Ian Falconer, Gerald Scarfe, Maurice Sendak, and Gottfried Helnwein. For more information about LA Opera’s extensive Education and Community Engagement programs which reach approximately 140,000 people per year, please visit our website: www.LAOpera.org, call 213.972.3157, or email educom@laopera.org.
OPERA FOR EDUCATORS
LA Opera's award-winning 6-part Opera for Educators series explores opera from interdisciplinary points of view. The series focuses on artistic perception (applying learned vocabulary to analysis of opera), criticism (making judgments about artwork and supporting them), and aesthetics (exploring the philosophy of art) while examining historical and cultural context of the works to support the core curriculum and district wide emphasis on literacy. Teachers begin each day with a four-hour survey of the day’s theme from experts in their academic fields, making interdisciplinary connections to opera while examining historical and cultural context of the works, with an emphasis on vocabulary and aesthetics and career connections. The workshop concludes with an opera recital and time for questions on integration to adapt and develop material and techniques for taking art into the classroom. The goal is for teachers to develop and construct original lessons intended for classroom use based on the material examined during the content sessions. There are six, five-hour sessions for 30 hours of total class time. Available for LAUSD salary points and UCLA Extension credit.
DISCOVER OPERA
Discover Opera is an introduction to the art form, opera production, and LA Opera with LA Opera artists, designers, and administrators. Teachers hear recitals, watch an orchestra tech rehearsal and take a back stage tour. Moreover, we give teachers the tools to take opera back into the classroom through hands-on arts-integration seminars addressing California Common Core Standards. There are four, five-hour sessions for 20 hours of total class time. Available for LAUSD salary points and UCLA Extension credit.