Long Beach Opera (LBO) held an afternoon salon in March hosted in a Brentwood home a week after a wonderful opera performance of “The Breasts of Tiresias†. The purpose of the salon was to entertain, share information about upcoming LBO operas, and to thank the many benefactors from the Westside for their generous support.
There was an abundance of wine, hors d’oeuvres, and conversation followed by a musical interlude with Andreas Mitesek, the Artistic/General Director, & guest artist, Suzan Hanson.
Performances of each opera are on weekends, one on a Sunday afternoon and the second on Saturday evening. The traffic situation is very acceptable especially Sunday afternoons taking only 45 minutes from Brentwood Hills to Long Beach.
LBO’s most recent opera, in March, for the 2012 season was based on a play by Apollinaire (1917), “The Breasts of Tiresias†, credited with coining the word “surrealism†. Because of his efforts to create an effect of surprise by means of unusual verbal associations and word patterns, he is often considered the herald of Surrealism and writing one of the earliest works described as surrealistic. However, Poulenc (1944) actually wrote the opera, Les Mamelles (Breasts) de Tiresias, which is a risqué, surrealist farce.
There are two more operas scheduled for this season: “Ainadamar†(Fountain of Tears) by Golijov, the life story of the Spanish poet, Lorca, murdered in 1936 by Fascists. And finally, “The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat†by Nyman is based on a case study of a musician who is losing his ability to recognize everyday objects. This curious journey into one man’s mind celebrates the power of music to move, to heal, and to haunt us.
In the Fall of each year, LBO hosts an annual dinner show for benefactors. In addition to dinner and entertainment, the evening includes an auction. One of the items auctioned was a walk-on-part which I had the great pleasure of winning.
For more information: www.longbeachopera.org
