Pacific Opera Project has never shied away from an adaptation. Whether it’s a new libretto, a new production, or a new venue, the Los Angeles-area opera company is always making things work by doing them differently. Last fall, POP put on COVID fan tutte as a drive-in production in Camarillo. In April, it was Trouble in Tahiti at the Heritage Square Museum.
This month, the company announced its 2021–2022 season, and some of that same ingenuity is at work again. Four productions take the adaptive spirit even further, going beyond POP’s clever treatment to the music and stories themselves.
First up, the company stages La Cenerentola — Rossini’s operatic take on the Cinderella story — at The Ford for a one-night-only performance Aug. 27, in partnership with the LA Phil. A fair-sized orchestra is set: 25 players, conducted by Kristin Roach. Stephanie Doche sings the title role, and Arnold Livingston Geis plays the prince.
It’s more fairy tales the rest of the season. November calls for a family favorite, Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel, outdoors at Forest Lawn Glendale. POP does the production in English, and Erin Alford and Emily Rosenberg star as the siblings, in four performances Nov. 13, 14, 20, and 21.
The company returns to the Aratani Theatre in L.A.’s Little Tokyo neighborhood in 2022. (They were last there for a bilingual production of Madame Butterfly in 2019.) POP is again branching out language-wise, tackling its first Russian opera, Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta. Coincidentally, it’ll also be the staged premiere of that opera in L.A. — three performances March 20, 26, and 27, 2022.
The season ends with every fairy tale POP couldn’t get to — Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods. The company is looking to May 2022 for that production, with details to be announced.
For more information and tickets, visit Pacific Opera Project’s website.
